Picture Perfect Folders

I live in four main places. 

     1. My Apartment

     2. My Job

     3. The commons at school 

     4. My phone

Yes, it's a little silly to think you live in a phone, but in reality, I always have it with me and I manage to spend a good chunk of my time there as well, so theoretically, yes, I live in the little plastic box next to me. 

I will be the first to admit I haven't moved into the iPhone world yet. I'm not sure that I ever will. However, even though I don't have an iPhone, I still want to keep my Android Galaxy S III pretty organized, so I can find things on the go. 

The one area of my phone that I could never figure out how to de-clutter a little bit was my photo library. It was a cluttered mess of downloads, images I had taken, photos from my previous phones and my Instagram photos. I always cringed a little when I had to go in and search for a specific picture. 

That is until one day I found Android updated their software and included this nifty little tool in photo library that allows you to create folders and move pictures to whichever folder you would like. 

AMAZING!

Here's how you do it. 

1. Go to your photo gallery
2. Tap a folder where the picture you would like to move is located 
3. Hold your finger on the specific picture you would like to move. A small green check mark will show up in the right hand corner
4. Hold down on the same picture again until the picture shrinks. You now have the ability to move it to whichever folder you would like! 

To create a folder:

The create-a-folder button is on the first page of photo gallery. in the upper right hand corner there is an icon of a folder with a little plus sign in the left hand corner of the folder, this allows you to create and name a new folder. 

How easy was that?! Way to go Android!

Where's All My Money Going?

For a college student, I make fairly decent money. Well, at least that is what my pay stubs say every two weeks when I pick them up from my employer. Sometimes I just stare at the number wondering where in the world all that money could have gone. Did I really go out to eat that much? How many tanks of gas did I need to put in my car? Should I have extreme couponed a little bit more? 

Needless to say, I realized I needed to take a little bit better look at where I was spending money the most. If I wanted to be in control of my life, I needed to be in control of my finances a little bit better than what I was doing. 

What's an easy way to do that, though? How can I find out where all my money is going?

A weekly task I had already been taking part in was a weekly food diary to document what I was eating and where I was eating the most. 

For more information about the Food Diary, check out the blog post on the Food Diary. It'll be helpful for the rest of this blog post!

In the same section where you write down the foods you are eating each day, leave a little section to tally up a dollar amount for what you spent money on. It can be incredibly eye opening to see what items you spend the most money on. 

After two weeks of writing down what I was spending money on, I came to some conclusions. 

1. I put roughly $40 of gas in my car every two weeks. Maybe I should cut back on driving when I can!

2. I go out to eat at least 3 times a week at fast food restaurants. The same amount of money (roughly $30) could be spent on fresh, healthy foods from a grocery store and would last twice as long.

3. I spend an average of $15 on Twix every week. Can you say addicted? Because I can. I spend a lot of money on Twix candy bars. Roughly $60 a month actually. That's more than a whole tank of gas! My new goal is to cut back to a Twix candy bar every few weeks, rather than once or twice every day. 

After looking at what I was spending my money on, I figured out areas I could cut back on and set a weekly budget of $30 total for gas, groceries and extras. It's hard starting out, but thinking of all the money I might have left over is a very motivating influence. 

I suggest you try it out too! See where your money is going! Learning things about yourself can be insightful and kind of fun!