Five Tips for Cheap Gifts!

The holiday season is right around the corner and midterms are now over (at least I hope for some of you). I'm getting ready to start holiday shopping, in fact, I already have, so I won't be so stressed out after finals are over, with little cash. Here's some tips for gift buying:

-Don't wait until the last minute to shop for someone. Do you ever go to a store, and see something on sale and think, I don't like that, but so and so would love that. I went shopping to find some more shirts for myself (since my ones are collecting mothballs) and I saw this great gift for my boyfriend on sale: It was a college sweatshirt for only $20. Normally these things are $50

-Always save the bag! I hate having to buy new gift bags that are $3. I try to save any kind of bag that I could possibly give a gift in. You can use handle bags from stores, or recycle what someone else has given you. If you don't have enough, then go to Ross and you can buy a few bags for the price of one!

-Clean out your own closet. I'm in the process of decluttering my apartment, and I found this great make up bag I got from Victoria's Secret which retails for $24. I'm definitely going to use this for one of my friends.

-Make your own gifts. Some of the best gifts I've gotten are ones with the most thought...not the most money spent. I really liked the gifts my friends made me of photos, and inside jokes we had.

-Make your own cards. Cards are expensive! Now that finals are coming up, make cards to take a study break. It relieves stress and it's productive!

What are your cheap gift tips?

What are your tips for frugal gift giving?

The Basics: Budgeting Part II

Budgeting is necessary for life. We're all extremely busy, and who has time to be careful with your expenses? I know I don't carry around my budget everywhere I go even though I spend it all pretty quickly. Here's some great things you can do to help manage your money even when you are too busy.

1. Make Time for your budget. This is so important and helps set the whole system up. If you can't dedicate the time to it, then you will never be able to have the chance to make small and set goals. Try doing this Friday afternoons, since you probably aren't doing your homework, and it's before the weekend so you can be careful before you go shopping or out.

2. Use online banking. My life got so much easier when I started using banks that uses online banking. I use Bank of America and they are very tech savy. They have online banking and even mobile banking.

3. Use Mint.com. This is one of the best things you can do for yourself. I have multiple bank accounts and I hate having to go back and forth to figure out where my money. Mint.com is completely safe, works with online banking, and sends you text messages with alerts about your spending. I can go to one website to review my expenses and check how it is matching up with my budget.

4. If you have a smartphone, use a checkbook application. I have a palm centro, and I found this great freeware called checkbook (http://www.freewarepalm.com/financial/mycheckbook.shtml) where I can input the data into my phone.

Attitude is everything: Change your mind and you can change your results

Today let me say, was an awful day hands down. Why? I suffer with ADHD and anxiety. They are triggered easily for me, and almost everyday is a war between my mind, body, and my goals. Today was a day, that I let everything get the best of me. I stayed up until 4am Sunday night forcing myself to focus and read for my marketing class. I was so exhuasted Monday night tha tI fell asleep early on Monday night, slept though my PE class and then realizing I had a quiz in finance that afternoon, I had a panic attack. Because I had a panic attack, I had a hard time calming myself down and missed my Bengali class because as much as I wanted and needed to be there, I have broken down in public many times before, but I don't want to bring it into the academic setting. I was almost late for my finance class and took my quiz. I physically could not keep my shaking hands steady to write out the numbers of my quiz and keep my mind focused on my quiz. I did all right and luckily, my professor drops one. I have already made A's on my others, but I'm not worried. The problem is my experience of going through this is not infrequent. It happens a few times a week. I want to give up most of the time, and today is one of those days, I just want to quit college, but I won't because I am better than a college drop out.

I ran across a great post today to give me some guidelines to help my motivation from the blog "Change your thoughts."

There is this saying that “We all have issues that we need to deal with.” No matter how much of a well-rounded person you think you are, you should admit to the fact that nobody is perfect and there is a particular part of your personality which probably looks weird or is annoying for others.

However, these little quirks, annoying habits and personal rituals that you just cannot seem to get rid of what is makes each person unique and interesting.
What is a Better Way to Look at Your Character Flaws?

The first thing that you need to do when dealing with your character flaws is to accept it is a part of who you are. Again, remember that these characteristics are the things that make each individual unique, so you might as well accept it.

To have a deeper understanding of what character flaws are all about, here is a brief look into its two main types.

First, there is the minor character flaw. This includes a little quirk like habitual lateness that you just cannot seem to shrug off. Or being easily irritable, especially in the mornings.
How about having a boiling temper, when you easily get all hot and bothered over the little things?
Second, there are major character flaws – serious problems such as gambling, addiction or alcoholism.
Major character flaws are highly ‘treatable’ – there are professionals who can help get you out of your addiction or alcoholism. But what about the minor character flaws which is not readily obvious from an outsider’s point of view? Read on to find out how exactly you can deal with this.
Tips on Dealing with Your Character Flaws

Basically, dealing with minor character flaws can either be a short-term ‘treatment’ – or a lifelong process.

For example, if you are a habitual procrastinator – learning about time management can easily ‘cure’ you of this minor character flaw.

But what about being easily irritable? For this, you may want to analyze yourself and learn how this character flaw is affecting others.

When you’ve had a bad day at work and you come home to your family – do you often snap at your family members because of your annoyance over what happened in the workplace?
Put yourself in your family’s shoes and imagine how you will react if you get a ’snappish’ response over an otherwise innocent question. Naturally, you will get hurt, especially if you do not know the reason behind such behavior.

Second, if you feel that your minor character flaw can easily be adjusted for a newer, better you – go out of your way and try to change it. This is especially true if your personality quirks are negatively affecting your colleagues or your loved ones.

All in all, character flaws are a natural part of one’s personality. Depending on how it affects others – you can consciously take the necessary steps to change or accept it as part of who you are. No matter which of these two options you choose, the important thing is for you to learn how to deal with your character flaws and accept them as part of who you really are as a person.


Here's a direct link to his blog: http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/2008/10/12/accepting-and-dealing-with-your-character-flaws/

Getting Things Done: An Introduction

College is a unique experience for us all. I never have been so challenged before in my life with taking care of myself, my school work, and trying to live a somewhat balanced life. But let me be honest here:I don't live a balanced life. Sometimes I end up staying up for no reason, and then in the morning I'm so tired, I'm barely staying awake in class. You can probably guess that I'm that girl in your classes who runs in barely on time with wet hair. This past month, I have paid a lot more for convenience for things because I was in a hurry and too disorganized to even worry about my budget. Procrastination kills me in school, and now in my finances. For example, I was about to be late on paying my eletric bill and I paid online with a $5 charge, rather than my $1 processing fee I normally paid.

Frustrated by all of these problems, I have searched for ways that I could make some changes to my life, and I found the "Getting Things Done" system. This is an action plan that involves a workflow process to help us record our own tasks externally, so we can focus on our actions rather than the task itself. This system is amazing! It has some really great fanatics around. Through my procrastination on the computer, I have slowly become a fanatic as well!

I admit, I haven't read the book, I've been trying to understand the system without the book by reading blogs about the GTD system. Being the frugal person I am, I already found it at my university library and put in a request for it.

I'm Back!

I'm here living the broke life still and surviving college. And I am basically surviving college, meaning that I haven't been paying attention to my budget, but I'm getting back on track with my personal finance blog.

Budget Month #1

So here's a review of my first budget.

I didn't keep track of my budget by the end of the month. Keeping track of it by myself, is a REALLY big task! But I did find something amazing: www.mint.com

I linked up all my online checking accounts and it automatically tells me where all my money went. I was a bit surprised:

I spent $212 on Eating out last month. I need to get this down for my own health reasons and money.

I also spent $340 on shopping. I didn't even realize how much I spent on shopping!

For August, I'm going to focus my spending on one goal: Food consumption. My goals is to spend $75 on fast food this month ( I know that's still a lot, but I'm trying to reduce!) and about $30 in restaurants.


Wish me luck!

The Good News and the Bad News for my Budget

The good news
I started using cash to take care of all my discretionary spending. This is my first month of tracking my expenses and I realize that I am not to be trusted with a debit card!
So I took out $40 and told myself that this will be what I have to spend on fast food and friends for the rest of the month.

The bad news:
I spent all but $4 in two days. I ate waaay too much fast food. I spent the weekend in my home town and I drove back to college since I still have one more session of summer school left. I had McDonald's for Breakfast, Burger King for lunch, and I ordered a pizza for dinner because I was waaaaaay too tired to make anything for myself.

I felt worse do to the fact that I spent $150 for books. One of my professors did not put in her requests for books until the very last minute, so I couldn't have ordered from amazon.com or half.com because I needed the book the very next day and the library was out of the books. I could have helped one book though. I ordered all my government books but one, and I thought I would do it later, when I got to it...well I never got to it, and ended up paying $25 extra for it.

Also, I didn't account for a huge amount of spending I didn't plan for. I went to the dermatologist for a skin problem I had, and I had to spend $53 for an eye cream I didn't plan on buying and the $150 extra for books also messed me up. Though, I had a lot of room in my budget, I thought that I wouldn't need the extra money, so I spent it on things that I wanted such as a wallet.

My Silver Lining:
I felt discouraged about all of this, but I'm still learning and I know I am making mistakes, but I will be sure to change my eating habits. I have been trying for years to make myself stop eating fast food, now that I don't have the financial means to, so I will stop this.

As for the books...I will never procrastinate ordering books when I can help it.

Splurge or save?

I am the kind of person who values the quality of products. In the long run I feel it can be cheaper by buying a good quality item rather than replacing it multiple times later. Here's my list of my priorities of what I will pay for:

I never pay full price for:

-Cds: Why buy a new CD, when you can buy it used for a third of the price old? The music quality is still the same. Now that itunes exists, I also don't buy songs I don't like. Saving me a few dollars. 

-Book: Same argument as the CDs. You can find almost any book cheaper than the full price. 

 

Applications: I love using computer and palm software to make my life more productive, but I don't pay for it. I use opensource or freeware application that are as good or better than the ones you have to pay for. 

I am willing to spend more money on: 

Laptop: This is such a crucial thing for college. My whole life is on my computer. I have a macbook, and it was a great investment on my side. Many of my peers have scolded me for getting such an expensive computer, but I have avoided a lot of problems by buying a higher quality computer. The cost of replacing a crappy computer with another crappy computer equals or exceeds the price of a good quality computer. 

Wire Headset for my cellphone: I use this often, and it goes everywhere with me. It was $60, but it was well worth the splurge. I drive safer.

A good quality backpack: I spent $45 on a back pack my freshman year of high school and I use the same backpack today as a college junior. It has protected my computer from the rain, while big enough to carry all my books. 

Items that I don't compromise quality for, but I get cheap. 

Clothes: Generally, I don't like to spend more than $20 on one item, but I don't like to shop at clothes stores that sell junior's clothes for $5. The quality is usually terrible, and it ends up in the garbage or give away pile a few days later.  I always go to the sale racks of pricer stores. I have found great stuff at Urban Outfitters and Macy's. 

Cell Phones: I value a high quality phone, but with all the offers and deals out there, it would be silly to pay full price for one. I have a smartphone costing $99. 

Dishes, Pots, Pans: These things are important to be good quality, but you can find great deals at Department Stores. Through my use of coupons and searching for sale items, I got a $100 12 piece pots and pans set for $28. By waiting for a sale I got cook ware that will last me many years. 

The Basics: Investing

This is a more complicated topic. I'm not going to tell you what the "Hot Stocks" are, but I will tell you that you shouldn't try to beat the market. As college students, we are just trying survive, and maybe hope we get into a decent grad school. Here are some tips that I have found:

• Read, read, read, read! I cannot emphasize how much you should read about the content of investing. You don't have to dedicate yourself to buying a ton of books on investing. Use these helpful sources to inform you about Investing: Investopedia and Bankrate.
• Start now! You lose thousands of dollars each year you are not investing in your future. Though this is college time and there isn't a lot of money, but if you find a way to save $500 a year with a rate of return of 10%, by waiting 4 years you could lose $30,422. I used this calculator to help me figure this out.
  

Though I know maybe saving $500 a year might seem like a lot, but it can be easier to get the extra money if you just evaluate what you buy.

• Get your parents to help you invest if they have some knowledge. I asked my dad, and I was shocked to find that my dad actually had been investing for me for years. He used a mutual fund for me, which I think is a good start.
  

III. The Basics: An Emergency Fund

In my last post, I briefly mentioned you should set aside a certain amount into savings. Here I will expand on where savings should go. 

One important saving priority is building an Emergency Fund.  This is a fund that is easily accessible made up of 3-6 months worth of your living expenses. Though you may barely have enough money to live on for the month, having 3-6 months of money may seem impossible, but you can slowly reach that with consistent saving. Which introduces the principle of paying yourself first, by saving your money before you spend it anywhere you will forget you have that money, and won't come up short at the end of the month to save. 

Try an automatic savings plan in a high yield interest bank. I use an ING Direct Account to place my Emergency Fund. The interest rates are high, I can divide my savings accounts up into several categories, and I get a high interest rate. I don't have an automatic savings plan yet since I don't have a real income and I get all my money from my parents, so I have to deal with the pain of taking out a portion of my money I can't use. 

II. The Basics: Budget Part I

Do you ever wonder where all your money goes each month and how it gets spent? My parents give me a debit card, and there are times when I have spent $100 in 5 days and I didn't even realize it until I looked at my balance. Budgeting puts the power back in your hands.


It doesn't matter how you create your budget, you can do it anyway you want it: on the computer, paper and pencil, etc. The key is keeping up with it, but you have to find what works for you.


Here's how to start:


Track your expenses


Write down everything you spend your money on for a few days and look over how you spend your money monthly on your bank statements. Make sure you always include the purchases that you consider to be small, like a a cup of coffee from Starbucks because those add up quickly.


Determine how you want to spend your money


Based on your expenses decide how you are going to spend your money. Remember to spend less than you earn. Though it sounds simple, many people do not follow this. Don't take your credit card out to buy something you don't have money for. You may have to pay interest later, which is a waste of money. MSN Money suggests using the 60% rule for your budget. This means that 60% of your budget should go towards your basic living expenses, such as utilities, groceries, and rent. Though this rule may not be practical for a college student since the necessary expenses may take up more than 60%.


General categories and guidelines
Determine your spending by categorizing


Living Expenses: This is an inevitable cost you can't avoid, but you can do somethings to decrease the cost, such as, having a roommate, taking an RA position, or living farther away from campus. Though don't be so determined to cut costs that you live miserably with 6 people in one tiny room.


Transportation: Parking is expensive on or around campus. Consider not having one at all. Here you will save gas money, insurance, and oil changes. Most college towns provide public transportation cheaper than the cost of having a car.


Food: This is one place where many people can go wrong. Groceries should not be more than $150 a month (I spend $50-150). However, there is the problem of eating out all the time. In my town, eating out is the common thing to do when you have nothing else to do. Some places are open 24 hours a day, so people go there when there is nothing else to do. Additionally, fast food purchases add up quickly.


Utilities: This is a partly unavoidable cost. You have to have water, and electricity, but use it when you need to.


Internet: This is also an unavoidable cost, make sure you find the cheapest rate in your city. By shopping around, my internet bill is $15 cheaper.


Other personal expenses: This is a another place where people spend a lot of their money. Such as clothes shopping or impulse buys.


Savings: This is a category that is probably little or non-existent in your money management. This is one of the most important things you can do, so you can reach financial freedom. Be consistent each month by paying yourself first. This means, when you first get your paycheck, automatically put a set amount or percentage into your savings account.


Debt: Many college kids have loans and these need to pay. Make sure you pay the minimum amount so you won't face later penalties.


Final Words


I've tried and failed over and over, but now I have started regularly writing down where I spend my money. There are a lot of freeware personal finance softwares you can use. I suggest you try out a few. There were some great reviews of software, I found myself hating it. I use Buddi to create a budget on my computer. I also use a freeware checkbook program on my phone on a palm freeware application I downloaded from the internet.





Sources:
About.com
MSN Money

I. The Basics: Setting Goals

What are your goals? Not just financial goals, but life goals? Do you want to have a big house, live in an expensive neighborhood? Retire young? Where do you want to work and how much do you want to make?

You can't go anywhere unless you have a map. This step is very important because it determine how much you want to save, invest, etc. I suggest you take some time to figure out what you want. Don't leave the computer now, I'm not suggesting you have to know everything you want to do with your life, but making a road map is key.

I'm taking Millionaire Mommy Next Door's advice by creating a roadmap to my own personal happiness.

I don't have my life completely figured out, but this is what I know what I want from my life. In the next five years I expect to:

• Finish my undergraduate school ( I'm in my third year of college, but I plan to stay for a fifth year to get a BA in government with my business degree).
  
• Get a job working for the government making a modest income for starting salary (I would guess anywhere between $28,000 to $50,000).

In the next ten years:

• My parents will most likely be retired and I want to be close to them and take care of them
• I hope to be married and having one child before I'm 30.
• I hope to get my master's degree in public policy.
• Own a house.

In the next 15 years:

• I want to have adopted a disabled child from a third world country.
• Provide my children with a good life while spending time with them.
• Still taking care of my parents, and not putting them in a nursing home.

Though this probably will not be what will happen in the next 15 years, but it gives me a place to start to figure out my goals. I know what priorities I have set in my life at least where I can build a foundation and make changes as I go along. Based on my own roadmap, I know I want to have a job in which I spend more time with my kids in the future, meaning I probably shouldn't get a time consuming job like investment banking and I won't plan my income on an investment banker's income.

-

A Series on the Basics

My next couple of articles will be the basics of personal finance for the college age crowd. As I have been reading about personal finance from authors, I realized that a lot of things don't apply to me yet. I don't know what a mortgage is, or even know how to save one, but there are steps I can take now to help myself, and do certain things to inform myself of so I can prepare for the future. 

Eat Fruit over drinking Fruit Drinks for health and Cutting Your Grocery Bill

I've never been too much into fruit drinks, but I wanted to look into it the benefits of fruit because it would be easier for me to get my vegetable nutrients. What I found is that it's actually better to eat a piece of fruit rather than a fruit drink?

Why? I will compare an orange to the an 8 oz Tropicana Orange Juice Carton (Which is one of the better for you brands of orange juice).

Health Benefits:
A 4.6 oz orange (I would say this is a medium sized orange) is:

• 62 Calories
• 3.1 grams of Fiber
• 0.2 grams of Fat

Tropicana's Pure Premium Original Orange Juice 6 Pack of 8 Floz Containers 48 Floz (1 Carton):

• 110 Calories
• 0 grams of Fiber
• 0 grams of Fat

The one thing that really separates the piece of fruit from the drink is the fiber in the fruit. Fiber is important to our diets because it does a lot of great thinks such as prevent diabetes, colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, etc.

There is also an increased sugar in fruit drinks. This same orange has 12.2 grams of sugar while the tropicana orange juice has 22 grams of sugar. After a week of drinking orange juice for breakfast rather than simply eating an orange, you are consuming 70 more grams of sugar, which is almost equivalent to 2 cans of cokes (86 grams of sugar for 2).

The sugar also hurts your teeth, causing cavities, which as a broke college student, I want to decrease my cost as much as possible by not having to go in for healthcare problems that I can prevent.

If you follow weight watchers like I do, an orange is considered 0 points while this same tropicana orange juice is 2 points.

Lastly, I feel more fulfilled when I eat a piece of fruit rather than drinking a fruit drink. I don't feel as hungry after I eat the orange rather than when I drink the orange juice.

Though it may be easier to grab the pack of juice, I know while I'm peeling my orange that I doing something better for my health.

Cost:

It's cheaper to buy fruit than cartons of drinks.

*This six pack is 4.99 (about .83 per carton) while one orange can be as low as .30, which comes to 1.80 for six. In a year that could save you about $150.

*Note: I know it may be cheaper to buy a big carton of orange juice, but I have noticed most college kids use the cartons of juice for their purchases of fruit drinks.

Three Great Shopping Tips for Holiday Weekends

It's the forth of the July weekend, and that means lots and lots of sales, but be careful about what you are buying.

Remember What You in your Purchases: While I walked through the mall today, I noticed that many stores have signs with 60%, 70% off, but when I actually walked in there were maybe 2-3 things that I actually liked. There was a store that had the entire store on sale, but I had to really pull myself away from buying anything that was cheap. I almost bought pants today that did not reflect who I was fashion wise and I probably would have hated the way I looked in them later.

Make sure that you check your labels: I found a pair of bermuda shorts that I LOVED, but I had to put them down even though they were only $20. They are dry clean only. Just because the pants are cheap now does not mean they will be cheap later. Dry Clean only is a bad sign for clothes because it costs so much to get clothes cleaned for $8 a pop. Also, I went to buy a DVD player that I had researched online, I didn't quite understand what one word meant on the labe, but when I went to the store I spent about 30 minutes reading through the boxes to find out what everything was and low and behold I found out the word that I didn't know had a feature that I wanted in my dvd player missing. I ended up paying $60-$70 more, but I saved myself the trouble of coming back another time to replace my DVD player.

Check Online First: I wanted to buy a wireless mouse and I was going to shell out thirty bucks for a good quality brand name one, but by researching the deals at slickdeals.com, I found a wireless mouse with the same great brand name I wanted for $10.

Happy Shopping!

A thought on Renting Movies

Yesterday I wrote about how you can get rentals free, in truth I never rent at all. I just buy the DVD. I never go and see the movie, but I usually buy the DVD on half.com or amazon.com. I don't see the point of going to see a movie for $10 and then buying the DVD, or renting the movie for $4, when you can pay $4 more dollars and own the movie.

Is this a correct thought?

Four Days into my budget...

Well my budget is going...okay


I've spent a lot of money on food in the last three days. I have eaten out once on Tuesday and Wednesday and I ate out twice on Thursday.

Here's what my eating has been like this week:
Monday: Ate at home
Tuesday: 5.51-Lunch
Wednesday: 6.48-Weekly Pizza
Thursday: Lunch with friend, 3.50 Dinner, on the way home, 5.62

I used to think these little purchases were not a big deal, but I didn't realize how three days casual eating turned into over $20 of purchases.

Lesson: I need to spend less on fast food.

Not having Cable...Not so bad?

I've recently decided to not go with having cable in my apartment to save some extra money. Right now I am struggling to get used to this adjustment because I have been watching cable all my life, especially the Disney Channel. I don't even have a DVD player yet.

But I have had some great perks from not having cable.

-I spent a one time sunk cost of $10 for an antenna rather than the $60 a month to pay for cable.
-Time I got back: I've spent more time reading since I stopped having cable
-I still get to watch the shows I love. I only keep up with two: Gossip Girl and Grey's Anatomy, I have the CW and ABC, so I get what I need.
-I spend more time watching the news and keeping myself informed of the world happenings, something I didn't think I had time for before.

Try to challenge yourself with not having cable, you will have a fatter wallet and more time for yourself.

DVD Rentals FOR FREE!

I just discovered at my school library we have a great selection of movies!
At my University, I found these movies:

Devil Wears Prada
Enchanted
The Illusionist
I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry

And there were thousands more in the collection.

Don't expect your school to have the most updated selection, but it's a great source for keeping yourself entertained. My school has an option where you can suggest titles for them to buy and they actually put your input into consideration and buy it! This is especially great for people like me who do not have cable in order to cut costs. There are older movies that I would never have watched before if I didn't have the opportunity to see them.

So take a chance and check out your school library!

Bank of America Checking Account

I just recently switch from my local bank to a well establish national Bank, Bank of America. I got the student account and I think it's pretty fabulous. Some of the perks I enjoy:

Mobile Banking
Instant Online Banking
Keep the Change Fund
The Drive in Banking


My biggest love of this account is the Keep the Change Fund. Bank of America rounds up to the nearest dollar the amount you spend and puts it in your savings account. For the first three months Bank of America will give you 100% of your money and then yearly you will get 5% back. Many people think this idea is stupid, but I think it is great; it's a way for me to get money without having to lift a finger more than I have to. I plan on waiting a year after I get the 5% back and then putting the savings into my ING account since Bank of America only gives a 2% interest rate on savings while I get a much higher yield from ING.

So all in all, I am satisfied by this bank.

Confused about Investing, but no money to buy books?

One great resource I have just stumbled upon is Investipedia. http://www.investopedia.com

Last week I sat down and went through their step by step explanation of investing and how the stock market works. I feel I actually understand a world that seems so foreign to me. It's a great introduction into the world of stocks for me.

Try it and see what you can learn!

July: My first budgeting Month

This is the first full month I will be living in my apartment. I have talked out my finances with my dad and I will begin my budget. It will take me about $1200 to live. I added an extra $100 as a cushion because I would rather have a little more and save rather than go hungry.

Here's the Breakdown:

$715 Rent
$100 (max) utilities
$65-130 Groceries
$30 Internet Usage
$30 Cell Phone


One area where I can improve on is the grocery area, but as a bad fast food addict, right now, my goal is to eat at home and learn how to cook.

Craigslist: A College Girl's Furniture Jackpot

Craigslist is a wonderful place to find classified ads for anything and everything. I browsed the free section and I found some furniture that wasn't so great, but I got an awesome couch FOR FREE! Not only were the couple I got it from willing for me to take it off their hands, they also helped me get it to my apartment since it did not fit in my car.

But the best part is, the couple saw my empty apartment and decided to instill the goodness of their hearts upon me again and gave me two beside tables and a dresser for free! These are good quality items and save a bundle not having to buy these things myself.

So always try craigslist's free list, but here are some of my own guidelines:

-When going to a person's house, never go alone! It's a safety issue. I went with my boyfriend and the couple was nice. I showed up to some pretty scary looking neighborhoods and I drove right away. It's nice to have free stuff, but I'd rather have my life first.

-Sort through the free stuff list. Just because it is free doesn't mean you should take it. You don't want to pile up junk into your house/apartment.

-When you find something you really like, don't hesitate to call because many people always jump on the opportunity to get the item. I know I have missed a few things before by calling within two hours after it has been posted.

If you do have something you like, craigslist now has RSS feeds to help you find what you want.


Hope these guidelines are helpful! Happy Hunting!

Tips: Cheap Cell Phone Plan

Do you know a Sprint employee?

There is this plan called the SERO plan, the Sprint Employee Referral Offer. I have it, I got:

5oo minutes/month
Unlimited text
Unlimited Data (You an Surf the Internet for free)
PCS to PCS
Free nights and weekends after 7pm


I know this saved me a lot of money because my 300 minutes plan was just not working at all since I am a college student with a social life, and I don't have a regular telephone line.

Welcome!

I am a 19 (soon to be 20) year old college student who wants financial freedom. I have spent weeks reading through money blogs and I have decided to start my own to show others how they can help themselves reach a future that I hope to accomplish where I will be debt free with a great amount of money in the bank.