November 11, 2009 at 3:05 pm (Personal Finances, Writing Series)
Tags: College Students, Yahoo Shine
Every now and then I go through Yahoo’s Shine page, they usually have great post by users and other professionals that I like to read through. Like for instance the other day they had an article entitled 8 Ways to Stretch Money as a College Student. In all the tips were general tips:
- Take advantage of campus activities
- Use student discounts
- Buy used
- Host group events
- Look for other alternatives
- Watch sales
- Walk, bike, carpool or ride the bus
- Cut back on utilities
They may be general but they are relatively good tips. For my situation I’m not sure. Campus activities? Well I would have to be on campus in order for that to be worth my time going to campus. However, even when I live on campus I didn’t go to a lot of activities mainly because they didn’t have many activities and then the ones they did I wasn’t always interested in them and sometimes those suckers cost the same as going to the a matinee movie. I’m not the type to go clubbing so that never entered the scene. Student discounts are awesome things, just saving a dollar or two at a movie theatre is worth it. Back home the Harris Teeter gave a 10% discount for those with student i.d.s, I haven’t been able to find any Harris Teeter here in Greensboro that does the same thing. Which makes me sad, I’ve asked two and they all have said they are some that do it but we don’t. How sucky is that?
Depending on what you are buying, buying used is a great tip. Things like textbooks, previously viewed movies, previously played games, and sometimes furniture. Now you are never going to see me say buy used clothes, mainly cause my germ phobic self would never ever do something like that. Granted I’ll take a shirt or something from my mom or sister, because their DNA is just like mine. Never buy a used mattress; in fact I’ll go as far as to say go to a reputable mattress store to buy your mattress. A good mattress can last you five or so years. As well as pay for itself with the hours of good solid sleep you’ll get on it. I spent $600 on my mattress; it’s a semi firm pillow-top. I love this sucker, it’s one that doesn’t have to be flipped like older mattress, and I have turned it once. But I sleep like the dead on this thing. My mom loves it, my brother loves it, and even my sister who I bought an $800 mattress loves it. The only other thing I would say buy new if you can is electronics. There are a lot of people who would think the opposite but now a day you can electronics for cheap if you know when to buy. Plus with new electronics you get the added bonus of the store warranty and then the company’s warranty. Electronics are fickle things and I would rather be safe with a warranty and a place I can take it back if it doesn’t work, then waste money and to pay for another item.
Look for other alternatives; they were talking about off name brand things, like Harris Teeter brand cereal versus General Mills. Another good tip that you need to be wary of. Some times the items are the same, they taste the same, they look the same, and the chances of them being made by the same company is great. However that’s not always the case, for example I went on a Trix binge early this semester. I couldn’t get enough of them. But one day I was in Wal-Mart noticed their brand Trix-like cereal, it was cheaper and in a bigger box. Took it home and was sad for a week. It didn’t taste the same at all. It was way too sweet and there was an off putting taste in general to it. However Target’s brand Cinnamon Toasties is the same as the original Cinnamon Toast Crunch but cheaper, the only problem is that the cinnamon doesn’t stay on the cereal once you put milk on it. But I can deal with that. I must point on sometimes with a good coupon and sale one can get a national name brand for cheaper than a knock off. Watch those sales and clip the coupons. Take an hour or so on Sunday to clip and look through the flyers. There are several websites that do that for you. I’ll put up some links of the ones I like. They look through the flyers on Sundays and Tuesday (when the grocery store flyers come out) and do coupon match ups. Letting you know what’s a good sale.
I think number 7 is a no brainer, same as with number 8. Those tips have been nearly beaten to death and most college students know of them.
Like I said in general great tips but I think the greatest tip would be: knowing where your money is going. Think about saving more than spending and you should always have money to fall back on. But don’t be afraid to have a good time, every now and then one should go out and celebrate, treat your self to something, or splurge. I never was one who liked those people who wouldn’t do anything because they were to busy saving money. And then complain about not being able to do something. Saving and budgeting doesn’t mean the end of life. College is the time of experiences and that’s what is really important just don’t go over board on anything.
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November 5, 2009 at 6:56 pm (Life in General, Money)
Tags: Grocery Shopping, Harris Teeter Triple, Target
My shopping trip from Harris Teeter Triples…
All right, here we go, I must state that I did not go into the store with any preplanned list. I had no concrete idea of what I was going to get. I know I said I was going to do a list but I gave up I just didn’t want to go through all that sitting up there on those hard chairs. I figured since my coupons were all nicely organized I could just thumb through them in store and if something was on sale that I wanted/needed I could decided if I wanted to buy it.
For those of you who don’t know Harris Teeter triples all coupons up to .99, so if something is .75 (I’ve never seen one for .99- if it’s a $1 or more it doesn’t triple or double) it will triple to $2.25. That’s a good thing. However there is a limit to 20 coupons used in one transaction, and if I’m not mistaken in one day…it’s linked to your VIC card…if don’t have one go get one now!
Okay so first thing first my receipt was over a foot long. I got some things for free, a lot of things for under $1 and the rest on some good sales. I only had a few rules, only get things that was on sale and I had a coupon for and if it wasn’t on sale I had to have a coupon that made it close to free as possible if not free at all. For instance Bird’s Eye frozen vegetables were not on sale, it was $2.69 and I got for .44. I got it because it’s the Asian Medley…that would be perfect for when I try the fried rice again.
Here’s are some things that I’m really excited about:
- Airwick’s compact I-motion starter kit, originally for $10.99 on sale for $7.99 I had a $4 off coupon, got it for $3.99. I’ve been wanting to try this for a while, since I don’t like air freshener sprays.
- Bounce Dryer Bar (2 months) originally for $4.99, on sale for 3.99. I had a .50 off coupon, tripled for $1.50, got it for $2.49. (Not an awesome deal but it made it worth my while to try a new product.)
- Scrubbing Bubbles Foam Shower Cleaner, originally $3.49, on sale for $2.50. I had a .75 off, tripled to $2.25. Got it for .25.
- I got two Oral B toothbrushes for free ^_^
- Prilosec OTC 14 day originally $11.49 on sale for $9.99, I had a $3 off coupon, got it for $7.99. Again not an awesome deal, but my mom just got prescribed to take these by her doctor. But since they are over the counter, her insurance doesn’t cover them, they way to expensive…$12 for a 14 day supply…really? I’m glad I was able to grab these for her. That’s $12 she can save. And I’m out $8.
In total I spent $31.94 and save a whopping $49.01. Just under $50. I paid just over $30 for $80 worth of food. That’s super awesome in my eyes.
Then I had to go to Target to get some Clorox Toilet Bowel Cleaner Wand Pads Refills, I was down to my last one after cleaning my bathroom today. Harris Teeter had them for sale $3.99 for a 6pk. Well I didn’t have a coupon and my friend said I would be able to get them cheaper at Target. So went there and guess what they weren’t cheaper. Well not really, the thing was their 6pk and their 10pk for some odd reason were the same price $4.10. Of course I got the 10pk, in theory it’s a better price to get the extra 4 pads for just .11 more.
So that was this week’s shopping, for dinner I cooked “Chicken” and Broccoli Alfredo. It turned out all right but the noodles could have been cooked just a bit longer and the fake chicken just tastes funny no matter what I stick it in. *Sigh* Now I’m going to bed.
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November 5, 2009 at 2:56 pm (Family, Fiction Writing, Life in General, Money, Personal Finances, School)
Tags: Ren Faire, NaNoWriMo 2009, School Project, Grocery Shopping, MorningStar Farms, Internets
I don’t think I’ll ever be one of those people who can write in a blog/journal every single day. I just don’t think my life is ever going to be that interesting. So anyway, I did start the NaNo story and promptly fell behind. But that’s okay I’m going to catch up one day…like soon. I promise. It’s just so many things distracting me. And I didn’t plan and so now I’m winging it and that’s not an excuse it’s just facts. I haven’t written in so long that I’m out of practice. So I’m not focusing on getting to 50,000 or even 25,000, I’m just focusing on writing a story. I think the basis of my story is awesome. Granted because I’ve been so wrapped up in Halloween the past month that it’s going to have a tinged of dark side in there. But it’s going to be an awesome story even if it kills me…which it probably will because as of now the plot stinks like no body’s business.
In other news I’m breaking down and going to pay for internet. I know shocking, but since last weekend my hacked connection has been very weak. And I don’t like that, not at all. I live off the internet.
I got an A on my fun project…she was really impressed with my knowledge of cartoons and creating websites. Go me. I’ve got some serious papers due this month, another reason why I need the internet, it’s not convenient to come up to the wireless cafe (these seats hurt my bottom) or ride up to campus. I don’t want to be there all day and then I don’t want to ride the with my friend back…her car is still not cleaned out. Plus her husband always wants to ride there and he doesn’t understand the fact that I’m not there to keep him company. It still wouldn’t be worth having a car over either.
So my mom and brother did come last weekend but we didn’t make it to the Faire, I felt like crap the next morning and then it was rainy and muggy and just plain gross. So we opted not to go. Instead we went out to Cracker Barrell, I hadn’t been there in years, in fact I’ve only been there once and I didn’t like it. But they love it so we went and it was a lot better this time. Still can’t eat a full serving of pancakes anymore but the syrup was so good. We then we shopping, so I could find a winter/fall coat…then I realize I don’t wear coats. So I got a hoodie from the man’s department in Target. It’s so comfy.
I tried one of those new recipes I found on MorningStar Farms site, and it was pretty good. I’m going grocery shopping again today because Harris Teeter is have triple coupon. I hope my friend’s husband has to work…I don’t like going shopping with him. He’s like a spoiled five year old who keeps asking are we done and throws a fit if he can’t get something special. I’m still trying to see what she saw in him other than a chance to have a kid without birthing the sucker. Oh well. Laters!
B.J.
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October 31, 2009 at 2:38 pm (Life in General, Money)
Tags: Grocery Shopping
I forgot to write a post about my grocery-shopping trip last week. So I’m going to write and post this as if I had written it last week.
Before I went to the store I stopped and got $40 dollars out of the bank. I had hoped only to spend that much at the store total. I originally only planned on going to Harris Teeter. The on down the street from my house, so you do know neither one of those things happened right?
Okay so we did go to the Harris Teeter, and the problem was that there just weren’t a lot of things on sale in general. Nothing that I needed rather was on sale. I still have a problem of compulsive spending, i.e. two 12pack soda. Granted I spent $2.50 on each. There were too many things I bought that weren’t on sale, but I tried to get things that I had coupons for. In total I spent $35.52, and I saved $17.81.
Why go to the other store? Well, I didn’t get any of my staples, because in general Harris Teeter’s staple prices are very expensive, compared to Lowe’s Food. So we went to Lowe’s Food. I spent way more here, not that many things I had coupons for. For instance like the Pamprin that I needed to get or else I would die from pain. However there were a number of things that were on sale. For instance the Morning Star Farms items were 3 for $9.99 like I said. Although Harris Teeter did have some of the items on sale and for .33 cheaper, but not all of those were the ones I wanted to get. In total I spent $62.80, yeah I know I so didn’t want to spend that much but I needed a lot of things since I was almost out. I saved $20.07 most of that was rewards savings. I hate that they’ve changed their rewards system. Although I never actually cashed in any green points, I wanted to save them for a rainy day. Now I have to wait till I get $5 in rewards before I get a $5 print out. I’m at $1.22. I’m still not sure how the system works; to me it doesn’t seem worth it.
In total I spent $98.32 and saved $32.88. But I now have way too much soda in my fridge, the two 12pks and a 6pk (it was on sale at Lowe’s for $1.35- it was on sale and then there was a coupon on the item itself.)
B.J.
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October 30, 2009 at 2:19 pm (Life in General, Personal Finances)
Tags: Dietician, Printer, vegetarianism
Has anyone seen that movie being played this year on tv? I haven’t, and I’ve been waiting for it. I had to go the clubhouse and check it out cause I wanted to watch it so badly.
Okay so I ended up getting the new printer, I asked enough people who believed it was time to recycle that printer and the price for the new one was a good price. It took a while to get it to set up properly.
At any rate as you know I went vegetarian back in the summer. Well I kind of didn’t do it right, well right in the way that most doctors think you should do it. By slowly eliminating meat from your diet over a period of months. I just stop eating meat altogether in one day. But I have to confess I was craving meat for weeks now. And I hadn’t been feeling so good since then, headache and lethargic and a little dizzy every now and then. It felt like when I’m low on iron.Which I probably was because I hadn’t been taking any supplements. Well yesterday I had to give in. At first I tried to fight it cause I was sure people would say see I knew you couldn’t handle it. But then I was like well I don’t care, and no one was really like that. Very supportive. I ended up going to Wendy’s and getting a small cheeseburger. I had no adverse affects and to tell you the truth my soul was happy afterwards.
I’m not giving up on the vegetarian deal, I just don’t know what to do now. I mean maybe I’m one of those weird people who need to have some kind of meat every now and then. I really need to go and talk to a dietician, maybe I’ll do it some time in November. I did email the one on campus today to see if I can set up an appointment. But I would have to pay the health fee and I think its like $120. That’s a lot of money, if I can make it till January hopefully I’ll get a refund. Well I need to figure out what I’m going to buy for groceries this week. Laters!
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October 29, 2009 at 3:51 pm (Life in General, Money)
Tags: Camera, Printer
I hate when I have to replace things.
For instance I have that awesome all in one printer I got a couple of years ago at the university dorm sale thing, you know where everything left in the dorm rooms is put into this huge room and they sale for .50 cents. At first it didn’t work completely with my IBM, then I got shiba-chan and it worked perfectly. But then Shiba left, so I had a printer but no computer. Well I’ve got Mac Kegor, guess what the scanner no longer works with Snow Leopard. There’s no drivers for it and doesn’t seem like there will be one created. They aren’t even selling that model anymore, or even the model line. In theory I could just suck it up and not have a scanner, but that’s part of getting an all in one to begin with. But that’s not the only problem, the ink for this model is pricey. For the combo pack, it’s $60. For the individual color it’s $25-$40 (various one’s work in the printer) the black on is $25. So I’m looking at $50 to $80 on just ink. And the ink doesn’t last long…last than 200 pages.
I’m thinking I could get another printer for that much. In fact Target has a all in one HP printer for $40 this week. For what I’ve been able to find say’s it’s compatible with Mac. No one has said otherwise. The inks are cheaper, the combo is $35, color-$20, black is $15. But the same problem could happen, what if the scanner doesn’t work with snow leopard. It is a new model so a driver might be developed.
So what do I do? I can’t see me affording $60 on ink, I would have to start a separate savings plan just for ink. But should I chuck the old printer and get a new one? GAH! I need a printer, I don’t want to down grade. I do use the scanner and copier functions a lot.
I asked Jen, she was like well could you use the printer without the scanner and just a black ink printer at that? My sister says if I can budget to get the printer than go for it. S.B. says to get the new printer. What do you guys say?
Same thing for my camera, the replacement charger is $40-50…would it be better to get a new camera? The one I got…it was free.
Replacing sucks why can’t things last for ever?
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October 28, 2009 at 10:06 pm (Life in General, Personal Finances)
Tags: Target, Piggy Bank, Impulse buying
Okay so yeah I know I did this whole post about how I was going to basically tighten my purse strings and what do I do…go and spend money. I know I know…so what I spend?
Well, I didn’t want to cook tonight and I had said once I get some money the first thing I’m going to go do was go to the vegetarian restaurant I so love. And I did, my meal was about 10.50, but I also paid for my friends. It ended up being $20 with tip. Okay that’s not bad…right? Wait there’s more.
Afterwards my friend needed to go and get her allergy shot. Well there’s this Target that I love out there, it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere and not many people go out there. It’s always clean and usually has more things and in stock better than the other Target near the Walmart. Anyways I went in there to hang out while my friend when and got her shot. I wasn’t looking to buy anything. Really, I wasn’t. Walking around and I see the piggy bank I’ve been lusting after still sitting on the shelf.
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October 28, 2009 at 2:33 pm (Income, Money)
Tags: Budgeting, Cooking, Coupons, Grocery Shopping
Oh yeah, I just checked my account and I just got paid! I was down to my very last $6. Let me tell you how happy I am to have some money up in there. Woot! I applied for another savings account to be added on to my other account that way I can keep my money separate from my savings. I went ahead and moved $100 into my savings account for November.
I’m going to wait until Friday to actually go grocery shopping so I have time to make a list and give me time to finish eating the stuff I have in the freezer. Plus I’m gonna try to create a meal plan. A lot of days I eat late or don’t eat all cause I don’t know what to cook. I think my eating out is going to have to be switched from once a week to twice a month. I’ll just have to make sure I cook enough on Sunday nights so that I can eat the rest on Monday. I’m also going to have to stop feeding my friend. Every time she comes over I feel like I have to feed her…and well I can’t afford to do that. It’s not like she doesn’t have a job or anything, she makes more than I do…but she also has to pay for a lot cause her husband sucks and wont go get a job that pays him more.
I want to cut down on my grocery shopping. Why? Well I would still like more money to do stuff with. You know like buy make-up, or other luxury items. I’m a girl after all. I don’t want to deprive myself of things or else I won’t want to keep to this budget living. I looked on the USDA website, according to them the average amount spent on food for a female my age in a household of 1 in a thrifty budget is $147.70, low cost budget is $185.80, and a moderate cost budget is $229.40 a month. That breaks down to about $36, $46, and $57 (respectively) a week. I’m currently average at $40. I think if I try really hard I can get down to $36. This means actually cooking, not buying a lot of frozen pre-made food. My baked spaghetti I’ve been creating from scratch is better than the stouffer’s lasagna, and a lot cheaper.
The Stouffer’s lasagna the larger individual size one (come on the smaller ones are like a snack not a meal) are on sale for $2.50, regular they cost $3.32 at Lowe’s, that’s .23/oz. I buy some spaghetti sauce at $2.19 (.08/oz), some noodles at $1.51 (.09/oz), and a bag of shredded 6 Italian Cheeses at $2.54 (.32/oz) costs me $6.24 (.39/oz). Yeah it looks like the pre-made is cheaper but all that gives me six servings, that’s about three dinners and lunches at $1.04 each. The family size lasagna (if I can ever find one that’s vegetarian and not the vegetable one) cost $8.10, that’s $1.35 a meal. That’s not even accounting coupons I might have for these things, usually the coupons for the Stouffer’s involves buying three or more.
Ughhh…I started this post earlier and had to abandon it for several hours I have no idea where I was going with this so I’m going to go ahead and end it. I’ve got another post to write right after this one.
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October 27, 2009 at 10:52 am (Income, Personal Finances, School)
Tags: Cooking, Financial Aid, LIS 600
Yeah that’s right I said…for some random reason I had a $15 balance on my account that caused it to take that money out of my stipend money. $15 dollars might not seem a lot but when you are on a tight budget that’s a lot of money to be throwing away. Of course I call the financial aid people because I want to know where this $15 came from and why no one bothered to let me know about this. Well the lady talks to me like I’m three so I’m not liking her already. Turns out because of the stipend money being added to my account I was over my cost attendance by $15 so they had to send that money back.
Back? Back where and to who? Don’t I get a say in this? Why wasn’t that accounted for at the beginning of the semester. I would have rather done without the $15 then, not now. I don’t understand…they knew how much the stipend in total would be so why act surprise now? Gah those people irritate me on the deepest level. They always say fin. aid is there to make things easier but you have to do business with the devil it seems like to get anything done. I was talking to some of the other scholars, and I told them everything that deals with fin. aid is in theory because they flip flop and do shady things all the time. You never really know what’s going on even when you think you do.
So now I’m out $15 dollars…which only breaks down to $5 less for the next three months. But you know I could have done something with those $5, that could have been a meal out. I haven’t eaten out in a couple of weeks. I miss the vegetarian fried rice…I tried to make it at home…yeah it turned out tasting like beef stew…I’m not sure how that happened. It was tasty beef stew but not fried rice. I’ve already planned it the day I get paid I’m going to Boba House. Home cooking for one is no fun.
In other news I’ve figured what I’m going to do for that major research project I’ve got due in November. I’m going to look at reluctant readers, in specific males aged 13-16. I plan on doing some covert observations for a week then actual covert interviews…and yes there will be some disguises and spy music happening. I told my friend I was going to recruit the many extra groundhogs that have shown up in Greensboro this year to wear mini cams and run around the library. It’s gonna be great XD.
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October 17, 2009 at 10:53 pm (Money, Personal Finances)
Tags: Apartment, Banking, Christmas 2009, Money Management
So I ‘ve been wondering how I could have mismanaged my money so badly. I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to handle being on my own. And then I got an email from the lady in charged of the sub-commitee of the scholarship I got. Well it turns out I never got paid for October. See what happened was I got a big school return in August, plus my first stipend payment for August. And then for some reason they paid us for September early. Since I moved in mid August my rent was prorated and due when I moved in. I paid that with my return money. I decided to go ahead pay my September and October rent with my stipend money. And that’s what got me off in my calculations. For some odd unknown reason I put in my head that I had been payed for October. So I managed to live off of two months worth of stipend money for nearly three months (Most of the return went to moving in expenses and setting up my apartment…furniture is expensive and the rest went to help with my dad’s funeral). And I still haven’t had to officially ask for any money.
So I’m not that bad at managing money. The real test will be coming up though, you see the email was to say that they would be paying us our stipend money for October, November, and December at the end of the month. Why? I don’t know I guess our financial aid people didn’t want to be bothered with it every month. So what I plan on doing is first paying my November rent. It’s due the first of every month and considered late on the 6th. I’m also going to prepay for December and January. Even though technically I could just not prepay for January since I will be getting another check for January, I don’t know when I would be getting that check. I would rather be safe then sorry.
I’m then going to place the money that is left over from the extra two months into my savings and leave the money for November in my checking and move the money for the following months into my checking at the first of the month (and not a day before). Following the spending plan I crafted I can see if I have any holes. I’m going to be pinching pennies as much as possible so I can get some good Christmas gifts, last year I wasn’t able to get anyone anything. That makes me sad. I’m also thinking about opening up another savings account. I have like three already.
One at the bank my sister works at, but that’s the problem she’s always checking my account. If she needs money, she’ll check mines and know when to ask for money. I don’t keep much in there any more. Originally I was going to keep my savings in there but yeah that’s a bad idea. I have an online savings but I’m still worry about online banking, I don’t keep much in there either. I have a main account at the state employee’s union, checking and savings. Maybe I can link another savings to that one. Well see. I don’t like having so many accounts. I need to look into my options.
Well it’s been a long day…I spent most of it cleaning. I’m heading to bed. Laters!
B.J.
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