I always seem to have more expenses than money.

The other day I was working from home and my wife came to get me in a little bit of a panic. There was a considerable amount of standing water in our back yard and right at the edge of our house. Definitely, not a good sign. She was sure we had a leak and I started to hyperventilate. If you're a homeowner, you know that problems seem to come in roughly $5000 increments and from the size of the puddle in the yard, this was looking like about a $15,000 problem, at least. Like I said, definitely, not a good sign. Luckily, after calming down and checking the neighbor's yard, it turned out that they'd just left their hose on over night and the water had run from their driveway to yard. It was gone by the end of the day.
But, that really got me thinking about money. I know that most Americans can't handle a $400 emergency, much less a $15000 emergency. No one really ever taught me to manage money. I've had to learn on my own, which is why I carried so much debt for so long. The irony is that along the way, I started keeping track of everything with Quicken. I used to be able to connect to all my various accounts and reconcile everything easily. They've made that a paid service now, and I'm not quite willing to pay for that.
I did see Thursday, that you can now "Track Your Spending with Microsoft's New 'Money' Template for Excel", which sounds great, until you realize that you have to pay a monthly premium for that, too. And, it's only good if you have a personal or family subscription to Office 365. My corporate license won't give me access to the template. The good news is there's a free alternative that does everything but directly link your bank accounts. You can download it from Vertex 42, The Guide to Excel in Everything, at Free Money Management Template. You'll have to manually enter and reconcile your accounts, but, for most of us, that's not that many accounts. And, this is free. No monthly fees. They even have a version for LibreOffice, if you scroll down a bit. In fact, they have quite a collection of free templates.

And, when you get a handle on all your money, if you have any left over, you might consider donating to causes that support a United States of America that is truly free and equal for all of her citizens, like the ACLU or the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or some other civil rights cause that scratches your political itch. Not everyone may be willing to risk their life or incarceration to protest injustice, but a monetary donation can help support those people who are fighting that fight.
Or, if you still can't afford a straight donation, we can support more minority businesses. There's a great list of resources for Black freelancers at Freelancers Union that include lists of Black businesses we can support.

And, of course, we can continue to educate ourselves, because it is OUR responsibility to educate ourselves as to the condition of our fellow citizens, not theirs. If you're not sure where to start, this list from the Chicago Public Library can help. We can read books from lists like that and continue to educate ourselves because this is an issue that we can't ignore any more, no matter who you are or what you do for a living.

Yes, I've posted that last bit a couple times already. With everything going on lately, I thought it bore repeating. Next month, I may highlight some other minority causes. I'd say I'd take suggestions, but I'm afraid of some of the suggestions I might get. The internet isn't the friendly place it was when I started my blogs!

This post originally appeared on Use Your Words!