Original post by mustang and many thanks to them and their entry and picture of their BMX Bike

Introduction
Learning to budget your money is one of those things where some people have no problem, yet others cannot do it for the life of them. Those of us who find budgeting easy and satisfying don’t really understand those people who can never manage their money properly.

1. Mr Macawber in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, purports the concept of budgeting. “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound nought and six, result misery.” Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1849 English novelist (1812 – 1870)

Spend a penny more than you get and you will always be in debt, as I found to my cost when first setting up my website development business, specialising in a web content management system, But spend a penny less than you get and you will always feel rich which we have now achieved. This may seem very obvious, but how often do we find we are spending more than we can afford? There are tempting offers within our grasp every day and it’s difficult to resist when they try to make us believe we might never get such an opportunity again.

• Hands up if you are someone who has difficulty controlling your money?
• Hands up if you do not know how to control your finances?
• Hands up if you find it difficult to resist tempting offers?
• Hands up if you are over your head in debt?
• Hands up if you don’t know how you are going to make ends meet for the next week?

If you have all your hands in the air (and your feet!) it’s time to do something about it. (In other words take yourself in hand!!) Sorry about the pun.

2. The first thing you need to understand is that people who are providing things for us to buy are in business to make money and they want their businesses to grow. To do this they have to increase sales, so they have to make things irresistible to the customers like you and me.

So remember, the next time you are owing money and struggling to pay the bills, there is some big guy out there raking in the profits. They are taking your hard earned cash and leaving you broke.

Change of Mindset
People who do not budget and find it difficult to manage their money seem to have a particular mindset. For instance, there may be an idea from childhood that being careful with money indicates to the world that a person is mean. Being reckless then equates with generosity and not being largess. If you are loaded then spending money freely is not a problem, but if you are on a limited income or just never seem to have enough, then keeping accounts looks like a good idea.

3. One of the ways to change your thinking is to ask yourself, ‘who is the best person to benefit from your hard earned money’? Is it the big companies who are making loads of profit already(Fat cats) paying their executives million pound bonuses, or you!

Anxiety about your ability to manage your money and fear of figures may cause you to bury your head in the sand. I had a friend who admitted this to me and when I said I enjoyed the online banking system and being in charge of moving my money around and how easy I found it; she immediately changed her mind set and decided she could handle the online banking system and researched the best way to invest her money to make more of what she had.

Give yourself permission to think that being in control of your money is a practical way to remove the stress you experience around cash. That will give you more energy to enjoy life more and make even more money.

Guidelines to Liquidity
The most difficult thing to do is to face the reality. When someone is on a spending spree they are out of control and out of touch with reality. The fantasy ignores the cost and the consequences of overspending (ie. How it’s going to get repaid).

So the first thing you need to do is keep documentation of everything you spend your money on. At this stage do not try to change what you normally do. Have a cash note book and write down all the things you can think of that you buy. This includes household bills and food, mobile phone, TV. Put a figure in the corresponding column. If you have actual amounts put them in, if not make a stab at it. Leave space for the things you don’t remember or even consider expenses. Beer, cinema, clothes even the coins you toss to street entertainers. Categorise it as fun money or entertainment funds.

Every time you take money out of your pocket/wallet/credit card/bank, write down what you use it for. Do this over one month, and by then you will have a fairly comprehensive list of your expenses. Make a total at the bottom of the page and on the opposite page write down all your income. When I first did this I found that one of my largest expenses was shop bought sandwiches every day!

Compare the totals. Have you spent more or less than you receive? Is your life going towards happy or miserable? It is at this point you really need to make a shift in your thought process.

Start by being mean to people who want to sell you things. Look around for the best deals and always ask to renegotiate deals. I went on a negotiating course some years ago and the following week I put into practise what we had learnt. I reduced my spending by $350, just by asking!

Carry only a minimum amount of money on you so that you are not tempted to fritter away $20 on some impulse purchase you don’t need. Those dollars add up fast and before you know a hundred dollars in your pocket is gone.

Cut up your credit card unless this is the most convenient way to pay regular items and you clear the balance at the end of each month. Use only one credit card, and find one that gives points for purchases. These mount up and you can claim vouchers to spend in your favourite shops. Also find a credit card that will take the full amount by direct debit every month so you don’t miss payments, accrue interest charges and generate a large fine.

Make a list when you go shopping and only buy what is on that list. OK, some things you may have forgotten to put down but make sure you avoid the impulse purchases. Keep a list in the kitchen and only put things on it when you have run out. Use up products in the icebox and freezer to reduce waste and keep spending to a minimum.

Become a thrifty shopper and consumer. Try and use up coupons, saving a few saved cents per purchase can really add up. Searching through clearance sections in stores is another way to save money. You may be pleasantly surprised to see how much you can reduce your bill on your usual grocery haul.

Conclusion
Budgeting is not for the fainthearted. It means fighting the urge to buy what is not needed. I run a web design company and if you are like me the temptation is strong to buy all the latest gadgets. But if you can think yourself into a new mind set you will find it much easier to change the habits of a lifetime. Be sure that all expenses are accounted for when you take stock of your situation. Once you have your finances under control, there will be enough surplus to save and allow to grow for the special events you may want to treat yourself to in life.

If you still have difficulty curbing your shopping habit, take a friend or relative with you on outings. Someone you can trust to steer you away from temptation. Once you conquer your shopping demons, you will be proud of yourself for doing so and feel a great sense of accomplishment. So don’t be overwhelmed, grab that pen and paper and get on track to a debt free existence.

Happy Budgeting

Predator Survivor

Original post by 1979 Diamondback and many thanks to them and their entry and picture of their BMX Bike

Search Enigne Optimization, or “SEO”, is the art and scince of the methods used by professional to help boost a web site in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

SEO pros use many different methods and techniques to earn the higher rankings that most website owners are seeking. Some of these methods include:

1. Making sure the website’s content abides by the W3C standards.

2. Doing on-page SEO (keywords in title tags, H tags, etc.)

3. Building multiple in-bound links on other relevant websites.

4. Submitting articles and press releases.

5. Posting on forums and blogs to build links and become an authority in their niche.

When implemented properly, SEO can be a huge benefit to webmasters and business owners alike. The power of advertising on the Internet has quickly grown in popularity. And it only makes sense that you would like to see your website rank first for the keywords that your intended visitors will be search for.

There are many SEO service providers out there. One such SEO expert is the Branson Pro. He provides quality Branson SEO services to many clients in the Branson, Missouri area.

Many of the cients he has helped already inlcude Branson Condos and Branson Cabins – both of which specialize in nightly rentals, targeted for the Branson, Missouri area. Both of these saw major gains for the keywords targeted.

Finding quality SEO services can be difficult. Remember to choose wisely. And make sure you SEO service provider has plenty of experience. In the end, you will be happy you did!

Issues For Discussion

Here is my new 86 Sport. I had to put a set of group 1 cranks on this built. I know they came on the Master. This bike took me 3 years to complete. By the time I had all the parts my tires became dry.

Original post by teamharo and many thanks to them and their entry and picture of their BMX Bike

Twitter, the social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length, has no-doubt become quite a phenomenon. It is widely rumored that Twitter turned down an acquisition offer from Facebook for $500 Million. A recent TechCrunch report stated that Twitter’s valuation has reached in excess of $250 Million. There are reports that state that the reach of Twitter has exceeded that of Digg in a very short span of time.  With an excess of 5 Million users and over 50 Million monthly visits, everyone’s tweeting!

Needless to say, what’s made Twitter a revolution is its ease of use.  From signup to search, from following others to getting followed by others, to tweet or to retweet, to use the web or the phone, Twitter is just plain simple.  Add to this the power of Twitter APIs, there are hundreds of tools, utilities and apps that continue to spring from nowhere.  Today, there is a twitter tool just about to do anything you want on twitter.

Some use twitter for chit-chat.  Ranging from “I just got up, and am off to a shower” to “Please get out and vote for me”, much is being said in 140 characters or less.  Folks are asking questions and people in hundreds respond.  Advertisers market their products, Affilaites promote products, News sources announce breaking news and Bloggers post their blogs as tweets – whether for personal or for business, Twitter is seen everywhere and used by everyone.

It has never been easier to build a network of followers.  Never before has it been so easy to build a network of a 1,000 followers who follow what you have to say and are ready to receive a message from you.  And best of all, it costs nothing to do it!  Just think about what you would have to do to get a following of a 1,000 people – whether it is cold calling, or mail advertisement, or opt-in email marketing or a paid squeeze page lead capture – it takes a lot of time, money and effort.

The benefits being obvious, everyone is looking to build a wide follower base.  There is a widely prevalent phenomenon on Twitter that is increasing in popularity – “Follow Me and I will Follow You Back“.  This simply means that if you follow me on twitter, I will follow you right back.  There are two schools of thought on this.

The first school of thought is that it is not appropriate to follow everyone that follows you.  The second school of thought obviously thinks not.  The idea of not following everyone that follow you has some logic to it.  You could think of some parallels to this – “Buy my product, I will buy your product back” or “Subscribe to my newsletter, I will subscribe to your newsletter back”.  One could also argue that if you follow 1,000’s of people, you really can’t do justice, as multiple tweets from each one (assuming each one is active) would just be information overload and you simply can’t follow any tweet, giving it justice.  Both of these arguments could be argued as having some merit.  But, also not.

Think for a moment why people use Twitter.  True, one of the primary objectives is for you say what you are doing now and for others to tune in (or “follow”), but Twitter can be used for reasons well beyond that.  Twitter is a wonderful networking tool, where you can build relationships with others and communicate not just now, but for months and years to come.  You can sure tweet for the moment, but you can just as well message the other person in private.  And if it is true that Twitter is a social networking tool, and if others have something of value to offer to you in return, there is nothing unusual about you tuning into their message as well.  After all, you only stand to benefit!

The school of thought that says “Follow Me and I will Follow You Back” does has merit.  Just because two parties follow each other, there is no commitment or obligation.  Either party can ignore tweets, or can search through tweets by name, by RSS feeds or utilizing one of the infinite tools available, if the ongoing tweets are missed.  Either party can message each other, and either party can choose to review or ignore such messages.  And if one does not wants to be bothered, that could be done as well.  Worst case, one could unfollow and/or block others as well. Just as anything else in life, if you use the tool effectively, you will only stand to benefit.

Twitter is real.  Twitter works.  Twitter is the tool of the century – probably bigger and better than any other Social Networking or Web 2.0 tool.  Embrace it!

And if “Follow” bothers you, because you simply can’t follow 1,000’s of people (which I agree with and in that context, Twitter allowing one to follow 2,000 people may not make sense either, unless most are not active, in which case they should not be on Twitter in the first place!), then follow others on Twitter (and be followed) so you can use it to “Send and Receive Messages“.   Again, there is no better tool, whether online or offline, that allows you to be able to send and receive messages to such a wide audience that has mutually agreed to receive and send messages to each other.

If you agree with this thought process, maybe we should rephrase the theme to “Receive Me and I will Receive You Back“.    And, maybe we are not just talking Twitter, but rather an enhanced Twitter, one that is naturally Two-way, maybe we are talking Twowitter

Solve Your IRS Tax Problems With Solutions And More From Payroll Tax Site

Bought in USA and now in South West of France…

Original post by branckou and many thanks to them and their entry and picture of their BMX Bike

Original post by KBGOOSE and many thanks to them and their entry and picture of their BMX Bike

Another project!! Couldn’t pass it up for the price.

Original post by OG4130 and many thanks to them and their entry and picture of their BMX Bike

Original post by MalvernSTARSIK and many thanks to them and their entry and picture of their BMX Bike