I love going on cheap dates. Don’t get me wrong – I can get all glammed up and go out for an expensive night on the town as well. But I tend to think that inexpensive dates are a lot more fun. You’re more relaxed on them. And you usually end up doing things that are more creative than you do when you spend a lot of money on traditional dates.

I happen to think that summer is the ideal time for romantic cheap dates. Part of that has to do with the great weather that most places have during the summer (something that’s not necessarily true where I live in San Francisco but can be found nearby). And it also has to do with the fact that there are so many great cheap events in summer that don’t necessarily happen the rest of the year.

Last weekend I got to enjoy a series of activities that made for great cheap dates. I actually went with the guy I’m dating as well as with some friends so it wasn’t uber-romantic but the activities we enjoyed were perfect examples of great cheap dates. Those activities were:

• A short inexpensive road trip. We piled into a car and listened to the radio and laughed about crazy sights in small towns along the road.
• Lunch in Old Town. We stopped in Old Town Sacramento and got a cheap lunch then just did some windowshopping and photo-taking.
• Antique browsing. I admit it – I love looking at old junk in cheap antique stores. I ended up buying a great colorful pitcher and glasses set for $15 but I would’ve been happy just looking too.
• Art gallery reception. We ended up in the small town of Marysville. There was an art and literary opening reception there. It was themed around the 1970′s and seeing the dressed-up people was great. Plus there was free wine and food.
• Farmers’ Market. There was a Farmer’s Market going on so we got some great inexpensive fruit and walked around people-watching.
• Carnival. It doesn’t cost much to play a game of throwing the darts at the balloons but it sure was fun.
• Spent the day at a river. The main purpose of the trip was to spend a day at the river up there. We floated down natural rock water slides, ate a picnic lunch, swam in too-cold water and had a really great time.

All of these things are cheap and there were fun and I’m looking forward to the rest of the summer’s adventures!

Tags: cheap dates, dating, frugal dates, kathryn vercillo, Personal Finance, Relationships, romance

Almost all businesses have websites. Businesses that want their websites to get noticed already know that they need to make sure that they use SEO / SEM practices to get the attention of online traffic as well as web search engines. It’s just a “must” in today’s business world.

Most businesses hire someone to handle their SEO for them. That is a really smart move since there are a lot of things involved in SEO. It’s really a full-time job to make sure that you’re staying on top of all of the content writing and social promotion that goes into promoting a website so that it stays active on the web.

However, businesses shouldn’t give the whole process over to someone else to handle for them. At least, not without knowing what the SEO situation is all about. A smart business person wants to be capable of doing the SEO work of (s)he has to even if (s)he plans on hiring someone full time to take care of the work.

For that reason, businesses should think about investing in SEO training. This is where an SEO company comes in and teaches you all about how to do proper SEO. This would empower the business to do some or all of its own SEO work if the company so desired. Empowerment is always good!

Tags: busines, internet, kathryn vercillo, sem, seo, seo training, Technology

I like to use a lot of different colors to bring life and energy into the places where I live. I hang up art and postcards. I spread colored fabrics across tabletops and hang them from the walls. I choose drapes and pictures frames and furniture that are all colorful. And I love to use bold paint to make a statement in a room.

I’m not picky about the colors that I use when decorating a home. I’ll try almost any color once to see how it makes me feel to live in a room that’s decorated with that particular shade. This experimentation has taught me a lot about how colors can alter your moods. And it’s taught me a lot about the colors that I like to live with.

One of the things that I noticed recently is that I’ve used the color yellow in every single place that I have ever lived. Yellow isn’t among my favorite colors but it offers a really great feeling for home design. It’s bright and optimistic and inspiring.

My first attempt at yellow actually wasn’t so great at all. I repainted my parents’ bathroom yellow when I still lived at home. Then I sponge painted over it with orange. The effect was garish. Believe me, looking into your reflection in a mirror that’s in a yellow room is not actually all that pleasant of an effect.

My other experiences with yellow in rooms has gone much better. My favorite was a small bedroom that I had added on to my old house. The walls were a great shade of bright yellow. The ceiling was painted to look like the sky. I always felt happy and peaceful in that sunny room even though it didn’t get a lot of natural sunlight.

Right now I’m using yellow to create bright patches in my bedroom. There’s a yellow and green piece of fabric over my desk. There are a few yellow fabric art pieces on the wall. There’s a yellow blanket slung over a small couch. And there is some yellow artwork on the French doors that separate my bedroom from my living room. It makes me feel like waking up. I think I’ll always have yellow somewhere in my homes.

Tags: color, decor, decorating, design, home, houzz, kathryn vercillo, paint, yellow

I used to have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. Over time, that has changed. I lean a lot more towards the love side now. I suppose that’s because I’ve learned how to use Twitter in ways that make it fun for me. I meet people and share information there.

I actually do a lot of my research through Twitter, using it as a starting point to find news and articles about the topics that interest me. For example, I stay on top of the latest information and thoughts about mobile phones by following people on Twitter who write about these things.

There are so many people writing about this topic that it would be impossible to follow them all. I’ve found about 20 mobile phone Twitterers that really interest me a lot. These are what I would suggest as a starting place for people interested in researching that topic on Twitter.

Of course, you can make a list like this for any interest that you may have. I also follow people on Twitter who are interested in personal finance, simple living and creativity since those are topics that also interest me a lot. I think it’s worthwhile to take the time to find the people who are networking on these topics and to follow their activities online.

My Twitter account is at http://twitter.com/KathrynVercillo.

Tags: kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, research, Social Networking, twitter, Wireless

I have been trying to earn money for as long as I can remember. Even as a child, I was always trying to start my own business or to find a job that I could do even though I was young. I remember one time when I got together with some friends and made homemade friendships bracelets and then took them around the neighborhood to try to sell them.

I wasn’t the only one in my family who earned money with my own business. My kid brother learned early on that he could purchase candy in bulk and then sell it individually to kids at school to make a profit. He and my sister also used to scout the ground at every parking lot we ever entered because they knew that they could find loads of dropped change there which would add up.

We weren’t particularly unique kids as far as this goes. In fact, I think that most kids are pretty creative and I would say that most of them want to do something that allows them to earn spending money of their own. The problem is that it’s really frustrating for kids to figure out how to earn money when they aren’t old enough to work yet.

There are definitely options for kids with all different types of skills, though. Take a look at my article on 30 ways kids can earn money to get some ideas!

Tags: businesses for kids, earn money, home business, how kids earn money, kathryn vercillo, kids, kids business, Personal Finance, work

Just another quick note to let you know that one of my productivity blog posts was included in the Struggling Bubmling Newbies blog carnival recently.

My post was on the topic of dealing efficiently with email. So many people waste time by mishandling their email. That can be easily avoided if you implement an email routine. I hope that my tips helped with that.

This blog carnival is filled with all different types of tips that could be helpful to both individuals and businesses. There are thoughts on everything from internet marketing to cash back credit cards. It’s worth a gander if you’re looking for some new blog reading for today.

Tags: blog carnival, blogs, email, kathryn vercillo, productivity

I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about coupons. I think that coupons are a great way for people to save money on the items that they buy regularly. I also think that that there is some interesting social history around coupons. (Does anyone get nostalgic thinking about clipping coupons with Mom when you were a kid?!) But what I’m thinking more and more about coupons is that the in-store, printable, clipped-out coupons that most people think of when they think of couponing are really totally inefficient and unproductive in today’s society.

There have been a lot of problems reported with printable coupons recently. There are huge problems with coupon fraud which exist primarily because criminals are able to easily manipulate printable coupons to get more money back than the manufacturer wants to allot. There are also problems with too many people trying to print out coupons and then creating in-store problems when they all flood into the store at the same time.

So what’s the solution? Technology seems to be changing in a way that will allow us to avoid use of in-store coupons in the future but to still save money with coupon deals. We already see this happening in the form of online promo codes which let you enter the code into your online shopping sites to get savings. There is a lot less trouble with coupon fraud using these types of coupons and of course you avoid the issue of shopping in overcrowded stores that run out of the products they’ve issued coupons for.

But what about when you do want to shop in stores? I think that coupons may be popular but society is leaning in favor of just offering good overall deals instead of coupon deals. For example, many people have found that they can save just as much money by buying generic store brands of items as they can from buying name brands with coupons. They skip the coupons and still get the savings.

What do you think? Do in-store coupons still make sense or are they going to become a thing of the past?

Tags: coupon codes, coupons, kathryn vercillo, Personal Finance, save money, society, Technology

Just a quick note to point out that a couple of the answers that I provided to questions on Yahoo Answers were chosen as the ‘best answer’ for their question.

The two most recent ones were:

• A question about the benefits of employee monitoring. There are pros and cons to monitoring your employees as a manager or business owner. When done correctly, there can be a lot of benefits. I discussed those in this answer and hopefully answered that question thoroughly.
• A question about the technology of productivity. There are so many different tools that you can use to be productive in your office or home office. Having the right technology really helps you out with productivity. However, you also have to be self-motivated enough to stay on task to be productive. That was the gist of my answer to this question.

Has anyone else answered questions on Yahoo lately?

Tags: answer questions, kathryn vercillo, productivity, questions, Yahoo, Yahoo Answers

Managers have a complicated role in the office place. They have to accept the rules that are handed down to them from their bosses. They have to then enforce those rules among the people who work beneath them in the chain of command. It can be really stressful. It can also be really rewarding if it’s a position that you enjoy.

Managers may find the following three tips helpful when working with their employees:

1. Keep an eye on employees’ activities but involve them in decisions. It’s important to engage in employee monitoring to make sure that employees are following the rules and staying on task. However, this can lead to employee resentment. That resentment is countered when you include employees in the decision-making process at work. Do this and you’ll find yourself working in a happier office place.
2. Push for the right technology. An office needs up-to-date and correct technology to run efficiently. If you notice that your office needs something important that it’s missing (such as an online backup system) then you should discuss this with company heads to make sure that you get the things that you need.
3. Learn little tricks to avoid wasted time. The less time that you waste, the less stressed out you’re going to be. This will make your work as a manger easier. Learn little tricks to waste less time. For example, use services like doctors that are close to the office instead of far away to reduce commute times.

What else should an office manager know to run the office efficiently without getting stressed out?

Tags: business, kathryn vercillo, management, office, productivity, work

I’m happy to see that a favorite post of mine from this blog was included in the We’re Not Kids Anymore blog carnival. The blog carnival is about health, diet, fitness and nutrition. The post is about the need for patients to advocate for themselves. I really think that this is important so I’m glad that the thought is being spread around through the carnival.

The post is in good company with a lot of other great articles on health topics. Some of those topics were:

• Tips for working out at work
• Pregnancy nutrition tips
• Neuroplatsicity
• Foods for weight loss
• Being vegetarian
• Solutions for panic attacks
• Side effects of fish oil
• Various psych tests
• Issues around control
• Exercise for kids
• The costs of exercise and health care
• General weight loss tips
• Interesting and easy exercise tips

And for even more happy reading, you can check out the links on the posts about 50 top weight loss blogs and the top 50 surgeon bloggers. If you’re moer of a visual person, check out the movie trailer for Food Inc.

Tags: blog carnival, diary of a smart chick, health, patient safety