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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February 4, 2008 at 8:04 pm (Income, Job Search, Personal Finances)
Tags: Goals
Well as promise here are my February goals. Since it’s a short month, I have to be very selective of what I want to accomplish.
1. Look for more places to apply: This month I want to apply for at least one job a week. I don’t want to over do it and have too many resumes out there. There’s four weeks in this month so that’s another four places I have to find to apply.
2. Gain full time employment: I still haven’t heard from my mom’s boss. I’m not relying on getting that position, since they can be so iffy. However I would like to have a job before March 1st.
3. Find more ways to bring in non-salary income:I’ve place ads on my pf blog from Adsense and the Amazon Associates, but until that blog starts gaining more views I don’t plan on seeing any revenue from them in who know’s when. I have applied for an online tutoring job, which I need to finish the subject test for. I’ve also signed up with Linkworth, another advertising deal. And the other day I created an account with CashCrate.com. I’m going to look into survey sites, any suggestions?
4. Post more articles on Helium: This kinda goes with #3 and I’m dedicating a separate post for this one with more details about what Helium is.
5. Add another 25 goals to the 101/1001 list: Like I said before I have about 25 goals already I want to double that this month.
6. Step up posting: I’m setting a goal of posting at two days a week for this blog. I have things to say it’s just get in the mood to write. Which has been a problem in many different arenas of my life. I’ve got three other blogs that I maintain, plus my fiction writing and Helium. A lot of writing I do, which is funny since I use to say I hate the act of writing, go fig.
Along with my pf goals and writings goals, these are my February goals. Not much but enough to at least keep me busy. Anyone else have February goals?
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January 4, 2008 at 9:18 pm (Income, Job Search)
Tags: Amazon, Google Adsense, Income, Job Search
Just so you know I am currently unemployed. Which is a major bummer. After having a solid job for fours years straight I got use to having one. It’s weird I always thought I would prefer not to have to have a job but now that I don’t I want one. It sucks not having money. Not because I want to buy stuff, cause I don’t. I’ve had plenty of chances to spend the little bit of money I have on frivolous things but just haven’t been in the mood to be a consumer.
But I have been proactive, as much as I can be without a car to go searching for work. I have actively applied for four different positions in the last three days. All at local colleges and one at a bank for a financial advisor (on the job training). I have a phone call coming in for the bank to talk about a interview set up so let’s keep our fingers crossed. I would like to have some sort of employment before the first of February.
In the mean time I have been looking around for other ways I can make some cash while I wait. I’ve signed up for Google Adsense and Amazon Associates for my pf blog, and I’m thinking about put this blog and my website on the account. I have a website for my fictional writing and I get a pretty steady stream of business on there. I have some diehard readers that come by on the regular. Speaking of writing I’ve been looking for competitions to enter to gain some revenue plus get my name out there. Anything and everything (that’s legal of course) I’m looking into.
I have a massive paperback collection. About five or so boxes worth of books in my parents storage. They have been in there over a year now. I figured since I haven’t really missed them I can start selling them on Amazon, they are all in excellent order. I was taught how to maintain a paperback collection and how to repair said paperbacks for commercial resale. So my paperbacks are practically like new. At least they were before going into storage, there is no telling how they are now. But I have some books that I kept out of storage that I can start with.
I’ll keep you all posted about how this all works out.
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Bianco Jade