Handy Women and Wowmen

From time to time I will post a Scavenger Hunt Challenge on Modern B*a*g Ladies' Facebook Page. 

Go to your actual BAG and find something that is weighing down your B*a*g. It needs to be tagged (acknowledged). It needs to be recycled from baggage to bag (believe act go).

I revealed that the loose receipts in my bag represents how I put off tracking expenses.  I was off to find a tool that could possibly help me, but before I go all "handy woman" on you, let's really acknowledge the baggage.  I believe it is rooted in my scarcity mentality.  Why?  Well that's a much longer post for a later date.  Suffice to say, "I need to keep digging." 

Megan replied,  "You just gave me a task for today. WOOHOO! I'm off to tackle the mini-mountain on my desk."   I asked her to report back on how it went and she replied, "Ah! I'm finished!!! I feel like I can breathe... Thank you so much for the reminder to get that desk DONE."  I told her I would find a tool to help with mine.

Handy Woman

I realize I had already identified a great tool to track my expenses, but wasn't using it and we know why.  So, as soon as I can really come to terms with the root of the baggage I have the tool, which is an Excel Spreadsheet and Evernote.

Evernote (free product with premium for pay packages) is a web/mobile application that is a virtual filing cabinet.  You can store text, audio and image files.  You organize the content with your assigned tags.  I can simply take a picture of the receipt, come up with appropriate tagging with amount, date and expense category.  This allows me to have a back up filing system.  I love Evernote as a tool. It's no wonder Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, is an adviser and investor as providing virtual tools allows you to have rich "lifestyle' as Tim would say.

I need to become more disciplined with logging my expenses on a very nice spreadsheet I built 2 years ago.  Advantages are two fold:  #1 - I am ready for tax season in a timely fashion, void of more procastination and scarcity anxiety and #2 - I am more accountable to what I am spending.   It's right there in front of my face with each entry.

Handy Wowmen

Megan's willingness to share and participate in the scavenger hunt challenge motivated me to go a step further with my filing of information.  I made category lists of the "clowns"  I follow in my @discoveryourbag twitter account (wrote about this on my last post). One group is Wowmen.  Although Modern B*a*g Ladies targets a woman audience, we are not islands and there are plenty of men out their offering information on great tools and some fuel as well.  Check out this list.  I'm sure you will agree.

Before We Strap on the Tool Belt....

The best handy women and wowmen know this.  Fixing a leaky pipe without identifying the root problem will guarantee ongoing repairs.  Identify the root problem, then seek out the right tool for the job.  You can't repair everything at once and tools used for prevention are golden.