The Sunday Review – Top Posts of the Week

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Sunday came around fast!!

This weekend was actually pretty relaxed from my end. We did a lot of eating and a lot of chillin’. The temperature down in London has dropped to near freezing (1 degree Celsius all day) and Mrs Scot and I have watched a few films this weekend to celebrate the arrival of winter. I also decided to treat her by making of Scotland’s finest homemade tablet…. but I HATE waiting for things to set!

Last night we watched the latest installment from 007 – Skyfall. A fantastic action-packed storyline with a predictable ending. I loved it! It never fails to amaze me how a movie theater can be packed out at 1:20am…. Did somebody say recession? The product placement has reached a slightly ridiculous level.. I couldn’t work out if we paused for a Heineken advert half way in!

We spent today watching ‘The Sitter’ (Jonah Hill) – which was pretty terrible – and Snow White and the Huntsman (awesome) while drinking the world’s best cider in front of the fire:

 

Summary of Stats at SavvyScot

• Average number of hits per day – 270. Down from 324 last week, but still high overall. Thanks for coming back!
• Alexa Rank – Target was <120k and I am almost there.. currently checking in at about 121K. Can SavvyScot break the 110K mark by next week?
• Sterling Effort UK Blog Rank – 10th Ash re-programmed the listing and I am delighted with this placing. Finally the UK has a decent ranking system for blogs!
• Facebook Likes – up 15 from last week to 650. SS Facebook Friend page – 349 friends.
• Twitter Followers – 26.3k – up around 200 followers from last week. Thanks to everyone for all the interactions and retweets. Twitter is really starting to grow on me 🙂
• Subscribers – unchanged at 38. The only explanation for this low number is that people love commenting and visiting the site so much that they don’t want to bother subscribing via email – am I right folks?

The statistics are great. I have been tracking the income of SavvyScot quite closely this month and have noticed some great increases. The site is starting to become a great stream of passive income! When I finally get round to writing the next post in the ‘Start a Blog’ series, I will disclose the money side of things. The interest in sponsored postings remains high, however I have recently become a lot stricter with my guidelines. After a lot of research and consulting with various blogger friends, I have decided that I am going to insist on personally writing almost all sponsored posts from now on. Often advertisers will subcontract post-writing out so cheaply that the article is actually pretty rubbish. I just need to look at the comments received on my own work compared to the ‘others’ to see the proof. The last thing that I want is for SavvyScot to become boring and I want to keep my own style in the writing. I want to make posts a bit silly, funny and full of funny photographs, forget reading a variation of the same post from 5 other blogs. Good Plan?

Top Posts This Week

How I saved at least $50,000 by buying new furniture – Club Thrifty
Holly discusses the predicament she had on whether to buy a new house or not. In the end she upgraded the furniture and saved a small fortune! I think this is a great example of thinking outside the box. Too often people think that they need a new car, or a new computer etc. when giving it a clean, getting some new software, a new stereo etc. often makes it seem ‘new’ and refreshed.

Using online calculators.. – Modest Money
Jeremy hosted a post which discusses the advantages of using online calculators. As geeky as it may sound, I love using online calculators to work out after-tax salary, mortgage payments, mortgage amortization payments etc. I would highly recomment other check these out!

Grieving the fairytale – L Bee and the Money Tree
L Bee discusses the reality of ‘Happily Ever After’. Lauren has fast become one of my favourite bloggers. She is actually hilarious! Her posts are never dull, yet she always makes a great point! 😀

My first VLOG – Being yourself – Budget and the Beach
It takes serious guts to do a vlog and I think this is a great attempt for a first post! Looking forward to following this series.

Being poor in North America – The Outlier Model
CF looks at what it really means to be poor.This article completely emphasises the importance of an emergency fund and savings. None of us know what is around the corner and we need to have a consistency plan. We all think it won’t happen to us….

Top 15 things I can’t wait to cross off my bucket list – A Backpacker’s Tale
I like to change up this review a little each week by adding something that is non personal finance related. Stephen over at backpackers tale has an exciting tale indeed. As some of you know, I have a bucket list in the making and love to read what’s on others. I have done a few on this list, but it has certainly given me some inspiration for some new additions!

Boys becoming men: It doesn’t happen on accident – Work Save Live
Fantastic post… Are you a man or still a child?Hmmm

Things I could have bought with $30,000 lost to credit card debt – Eyes on the Dollar
Kim talks about 5 things she could have bought with the interest paid on credit cards.Trust me, when you read this you realise just how much money you are throwing away by paying interest. You should ask yourself if the short-term satisfaction is worth what you would miss out on long-term. Thanks for sharing Kim and helping other to learn from your mistake!

2012 Global entrepreneur survey: where are the optimists? –  Untemplater
Sydney posts a fascinating infographic which details the 2012 outlook of entrepreneurs. Some of these statistics really surprise me!

Three things I wish my parents had taught me about money – The Frugal Path
Justin reveals three things that he wished that he had learned about money in childhood. I completely agree with the last point – how they allocated money. As parents/future parents, we have a responsibility to teach our kids about money. Involving them in your own finances would go a long way to making them Savvy.

 

Stay tuned for details about a new $100 giveaway coming soon to SavvyScot. Get up to anything more exciting than watching James Bond this weekend?

This post was featured on the Outlier Model, thank you!