Article: Once you are fully aware of your debt situation, get a clear picture of your finances by creating a budget. This will inform you exactly what your revenues and expenses are and will help you create more savings to reduce debt. List all your sources of income and add them up. Move on to list your necessities. These include essential needs that are due regularly like rent, utilities, car payments, food, communication, and debt repayments. Keep in mind that just because these are essential or fixed expenses does not mean that they cannot be greatly reduced to find savings. List your discretionary expenses. Discretionary expenses are costs that you can change or avoid altogether such as buying new clothing or eating dinner out. The best way to get an idea of these expenses is to look at your bank or credit card statements for a month, and add up all the expenses that are not in your fixed expenses category. If you want better accuracy, take an average over several months and use this figure. Subtract your total expenses from your revenue. This is how much you have left over, or alternatively, how much extra you can afford to pay down to your credit cards. . Try to figure out how to decrease your expenses each month so that you can use more funds to pay down your credit cards. Target primarily variable expenses listed in your budget to find ways to save money. Make meals at home instead of eating out. Make coffee at home instead of buying expensive coffee drinks. Delay expenses that can wait for later, like new clothes. Borrow books, music, and movies from the public library instead of buying them. Do not forget to look into your fixed expenses category as well. Can you move into more affordable housing? Find a roommate? Walk more to spend less on gas? Use a less extravagant plan for your cell phone (perhaps only 1GB of data a month instead of 3GB)? Once you have lowered spending using the above tips, you should be able to free additional money each month. Apply some of that additional income to your credit cards and save some for an emergency. For example, upon creation of your budget you may observe you make $1500 per month, and have $1400 a month in expenses. After implementing the savings tips (for example, you drop down to a cheaper phone plan, stop eating out, and start walking to do basic errands), you manage to find $300 in savings. You now have $400 in additional cash. Perhaps $300 can go to your credit card debt and $100 can go into emergency savings. Don't forget to look at your income too. Are there ways to boost your income? Perhaps you can work more hours, look for a better job, or get a part-time job for ten extra hours a week. Make a list of your balances, interest, and fees every month. Check for unanticipated fees and to make sure your payments have been received and credited to your account.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Create a monthly budget. Reduce your expenses Increase your credit card payments. Reassess your debt monthly.
Article: The character can be based on a real person or well-known literary or mythological character, or created along common character tropes. Common character ideas include: robots, astronauts, literal statues (e.g. "The Thinker"), and mimes. For ideas or inspiration, look through pictures of living statues online, or go to an area of a nearby city in which living statues frequently perform. Start by visiting costume stores or novelty shops to find the necessary wigs and clothing for your costume. If you'd like to custom make your own costume, you can visit a fabric store to purchase an appropriate color and style of fabric, and then sew your own costume. If you have the option, choose a cotton fabric for your costume. Cotton holds its color well, even if you're performing in rain or snow. To flesh out your appearance as a human statue, you can accessorize with objects to wear and hold. Look for objects that match your overall theme: if you're a robot, hold an imitation computer; if you're a statue, hold a book to "read"; if you're a pirate, hold a plastic sword and hook. Sometimes just going shopping will be enough to inspire the costume, character, and actions you choose to perform. Yard sales, thrift shops and antique shops are best. You're bound to find something odd that will spark your inspiration. Other helpful places for props are home improvement stores (if you're looking for mechanical items) and fabric and craft stores. Items found at these types of stores may spark your creativity and give you ideas of how to accessorize your statue character. Many living statues cover themselves completely in makeup, to give them the appearance of being a statue, robot, or other non-human character. Depending on your natural skin tone, white makeup works best; copper and silver are other popular face-paint colors. You should be able to find costume makeup at a costume or hobby store, or through most online retailers. If using a white or non-metallic color, use water based cake-makeup as opposed to oil based. If you use oil, dust it with a finishing powder so it doesn't smudge. In order to draw attention to your eyes, you may want to line them in brown or black with regular eyeliner. Adding extra makeup (like lipstick or blush) on top of your solid base may be necessary, but keep it minimal unless the makeup is an essential part of your costume.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Develop a character. Make a costume. Accessorize your character. Apply makeup to flesh out your character.
Article: Some tournaments are run using basic checkers rules, referred to as Go As You Please, GAYP, or freestyle. Others follow the 3-move rules, which limit players' options at the start of the game to a set of three move sequences. (The 3-move rules greatly reduce the possibility of a draw between skilled players.) More recent books will contain up-to-date strategic advances, but this is less important if you're a beginner. Browsing the checkers shelf at a library or bookstore can help you find a book that is helpful and fun to read. Playing against more experienced players who are willing to share their knowledge is a great way to improve your game. Whether that means entering tournaments or finding your local amateur expert, the better your opponents are, the more you'll learn.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Decide which rules of checkers to follow. Study a checkers strategy guide that matches your rules system and skill level. Play against the best opponents you can find.