fbpx

Jen A. Miller Consulting

Category: Living

  • Thanksgiving Decor Roundup

    Thanksgiving Decor Roundup

    Your Go-to Guide to Get Your Home Thanksgiving Ready

    We’re very excited to host our very first Single Diaries Friendsgiving this weekend. Not only will we celebrate Thanksgiving but we will also be commemorating The Single Diaries three-month anniversary. (Yay!) We couldn’t imagine a better way to honor the milestone than to bring together and thank many of the friends who have helped the site get off the ground.

    The festive soiree will be hosted at my new apartment, a two-story townhouse with a large open living room area perfect for gathering a crowd. The only thing needed to turn the space into a haven of hospitality is a few decorative touches.

    In hunt of some festive flare, I dug around to find my favorite Thanksgiving decorations and easy DIY crafts that I can easily pull together this week. If you’re hosting your own Friendsgiving event or simply looking to add some Autumn accessories to your space, you’ll find some good use for this Thanksgiving decor roundup!

    (more…)

  • What I Love About My City | Chicago

    Jacqueline Howard tells us how she made the Windy City her home
    660044d8f0334e948f94c69ad9ea3b41
    PHOTO: BOBBY SAMAT PHOTOGRAPHY.

    Welcome back to What I Love About My City—a series in which our favorite single girls dish on everything from the best places for a single girls weekend to the secret spots only the locals know about. If you’re thinking about moving or just planning your next trip, we’ll fill you in with all the essential details on the cities our crew knows best.

    Jacqueline Howard is an editor at Huffington Post and a host of Talk Nerdy to Me who holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Southern California. Originally from Cincinnati, Jacqueline attended the University of Michigan, studied abroad in Melbourne, Australia, and lived in Los Angeles for a few years before heading back to the Midwest. It was as fellow interns at C Magazine that I got to know Jacqueline as one of the smartest and most insightful peers I’ve ever met. We became fast friends when I realized I could talk to her about anything (career choices, reality TV, boys, women’s issues in the media) and get sound advice or an interesting conversation. I still miss her in L.A., but I can’t wait to visit her in her new home.
    (more…)

  • Apartment Decorating on a Real-Life Budget

    Apartment Decorating on a Real-Life Budget

    Sara Bodle Takes our Homes From Drab to Fab on a Single Girl Budget

    Apartment Decorating on a Budget

    Last week I moved into yet another new apartment—a painful process, yes, but also a great way to get a fresh start. Moving is the the opportune time to clean out the old and redefine your space with new home decor.

    For help turning my new apartment into a place I can truly call home, I reached out to Sara Bodle—one of my best college girlfriends—for a few tips. Here she clues TSD in on her apartment decorating advice for making our homes fabulous on budgets we can actually afford.

    Read on to get her advice for transforming your own place from drab to fab!

    (more…)

  • Lessons in Traveling Alone

    Lessons in Traveling Alone

    What I Learned from Taking My First Trip Alone

    At this time last year I was counting down the days until I packed my bags and headed to Thailand. I booked an 11-day excursion abroad and decided to do it on my own. My trip would take me first to Bangkok, then around the western coast of Thailand, and make a final stop in Tokyo. I was excited and terrified to go.
    Traveling to Thailand had been on my mind for a few years. I wanted to touch every continent (Antarctica excluded) before I was 25, and Asia was the only one missing from my list. Several friends in college had gone as part of study abroad. They raved about its beautiful beaches, cheap massages, and amazing street food. Their reviews convinced me that I needed to experience this land for myself.
    I shared the idea with an equally adventurous best friend of mine; she was immediately hooked. We both had jobs lined up on the west coast and decided Thailand was the post-graduation adventure we needed before we both started our new corporate jobs. That was November 2010.
    Over the next few months as we started planning our trip, life got in the way. The pressures of graduation, the looming cost of moving across the country, and family priorities all took precedence over the grand trip we had imagined. I was disappointed but decided to put Thailand on the back burner for another time.
    Throughout the following year I brought the idea up to different friends trying to find a travel partner to make the trip with me. Most would express interest but ultimately the complexity and cost of the trip would deter them from commitment. I soon began to realize that if I really wanted to go, I would need to find the courage to do it alone.
    I had traveled a lot growing up and through college with family, study abroad, service trips, and an internship with Delta Airlines. Never though had I traveled by myself and certainly not to somewhere as far away as Thailand.  The idea was intriguing particularly at that point in my life. It was my first year living away from home, my family, and my college girlfriends. I was newly independent, learning to take on new responsibilities, and growing comfortable being out of my comfort zone. Taking this trip alone seemed like the perfect test to see just how far I could push myself.
    There were a couple options to consider. One was the obvious—buy a flight, pack a bag, and go it totally alone. That seemed like a bigger push than I was ready for. The alternate option was to find a tour group I could hitch onto. It wouldn’t be traveling with my best friends but it would be traveling with new ones; that felt like a good compromise.
    After some research, I decided on a Thailand tour with Contiki, a travel tour group for 18- to 35-year-olds. For a fixed price Contiki took care of all of the accommodations, local transportation, and excursions. The only thing I had to worry about was my booking my round trip ticket there.
    Needless to say, that trip to Thailand was one I will never forget. The tour turned out to be a great option because it brought together similarly aged travelers from around the world, many traveling alone, to share the adventure together. While I did have to navigate the journey to and from Thailand on my own, for the bulk of my trip I had new friends with whom to share the experience.
    I know it can be scary to think about taking a big trip like that on your own but I would encourage every Single Girl to give it a shot. You learn that you can be independent, that being alone sometimes is actually nice, and that new friends can be made anywhere. If you are considering a solo trip, read on for a few lessons I learned that you might find helpful.

    (more…)

  • Single Girl Budget Building 101

    Single Girl Budget Building 101

    How to Build and Track Your Personal Budget

    budget building 101

    Budgeting: we all know it’s important but most of us dread having to do it. Let’s face it, spending money is much easier without having to think about where it’s going or having to acknowledge that we spend that much on happy hours with the girls.

    At the same time, spending money without direction can leave us feeling a bit anxious. Have you ever found yourself wondering if you’ll be able to pay the next credit card bill or nervous that the last check you wrote is going to bounce?

    Not knowing where out money is going can leave us feeling out of control. When approached with the right attitude, keeping track of your budget can actually be a liberating exercise. When you know you’ve got your expenses covered and have dedicated specific amounts of money to clothes, dinners out, etc., you lose the guilt of spending the money. You’ll even find that your money starts to stretch further because you’re in control of where it’s going.

    When I graduated from college my parents gifted me with a financial planning course—a set of books on tape and a workbook to teach me how to spend my new paycheck wisely.  Though not as glamorous as a new car or exotic trip, it was one of the best gifts I received. Taking the self-guided course taught me the fundamentals of creating and tracking a budget. Using the basic principles the course taught, I established a system that worked best for me.

    Being able to manage your personal budget is a skill I strongly believe every Single Girl should be equipped with. For that reason, I’m sharing with you my personal budgeting process and budgeting template. If you haven’t already found a system that works for you, give this a try!

      (more…)