Category: References

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Easy Budgets by Michelle Singletary

This column by Michelle Singletary really gets at the meat of how to make a simple budget. (It’s basically what I do.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/01/10/easy-budget-no-app/

  1. Write down all the money that’s coming in.
  2. Write down all the money that’s going out.
  3. Set limits on your spending.
  4. Do the math. (I use Excel/Google spreadsheets for this.)

This format might not work for everyone – I have friends who swear by You Need A Budget (YNAB), for example – but it works pretty well for me.

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I understood that reference!

It’s been a running gag, in almost every friend group I’ve had, that I have trouble with pop culture references. I didn’t have cable television growing up, and I was also pretty relentlessly counter-cultural as a child. As a result, I’m missing big gaps of pop culture references.

A common refrain at social gatherings (in person or online) is “oh, I haven’t seen that movie.” (We actually have a whole spreadsheet of “Movies Emily needs to watch.”) The same usually goes for pop music, many works of classic literature, etc.

Tonight, at board games, one person started humming a tune, and I recognized it and sang the whole chorus and one verse of the song (We Like To Party by the Vengaboys). My friend was a little bit taken aback by it, and I was like “Oh, yeah! The Vengaboys!” and he was like “Do you mean the theme from the Six Flags commercial?” and I said “What Six Flags commercial?”

So. Like I said. Weirdly gappy knowledge. 😁