Networking: LinkedIn!

I was reluctant to set up a LinkedIn profile, for a lot of reasons. It’s another site to join, another thing to keep up with. I didn’t really know what benefit it would be or how many people would be on it.

But this week I set up a profile, and then I used my e-mail address book to locate contacts. The next day, an old professor contacted me about speaking to his undergrad writing class. My alma mater will pay an honorarium of $175.

LinkedIn is already working!

What about you? Do you use LinkedIn?

FOUR LUNCH-MAKING TIPS

Last week’s lunch planning worked really well, and it inspired me to aim for more creativity in the weeks to come. Do you have any brown-bagging advice? Share!

Here are some of my favorite tips so far:

1. SOUP
I was really reluctant to get a thermos, and now I have no idea why. It worked wonders. I heated some Campbell’s Wednesday morning while I ate breakfast, then I poured it into the thermos and clamped it shut. More than five hours later, the soup was still warm enough to be delicious.

2. CLEMENTINES
Can I tell you a secret? I’m almost totally convinced that clementines are the reason I haven’t gotten a cold this season. Everyone I work with has gotten sick, but so far I’ve been well. Two clementines a day, apparently, is just what the doctor ordered! Extra bonus: easy to peel and very tasty!

3. BATCHES
I like making something that can be used for a couple lunches: roast beef or brownies or homemade macaroons, for example.

4. WORK STORAGE
When in doubt, I always know I have some stuff in my desk. I keep a bag of chocolate pretzels, some M&Ms, crackers, granola bars… I don’t plan to use that stuff in my daily lunch, but if I’m ever in a pinch, it’s nice to have a backup.

More to come, I hope!

Redbook, Win Me Over.

Very mysteriously, I’m still getting my unordered, unpaid-for Redbook magazines.

In fact, after I originally posted, wondering where they were coming from and why they were bothering me, they didn’t disappear; they procreated. Now, I’m also receiving US Weekly, which, truth be told, I still throw in the recycling bin as soon as I receive it. I just can’t get in to all that celebrity gossip.

Redbook was a quick toss, too, for a while. Then, last month I think, I noticed Giada Di Laurentiis was the cover story and thought: AH! Now they’ve got me.

In that perusal, I noticed the mostly trashy Redbook also features financial articles, go figure. There was the one about the overspenders, the one about financial tips, the one with a write-up about the Budget Fashionista.

I don’t know. Maybe this was their plan all along.

How Much Do You Internet?

I’ve been a loyal Comcast user for several years now, but as of tonight I’m starting to change my mind. Our high-speed is like (well, has been like) lightning, and combined with wireless, well: let’s just say my Internet addiction makes sense.

How much do you use the Internet on a given day? It may be more than you think, at least if you’re anything like me. I usually only realize it when I’m away for a while (i.e., when I’m forced into not using it, like now).

Usual daily routine: Get up, get ready, turn computer on for iTunes in background. #1 check e-mail. Go to work, where I sit at a computer all day. On lunch break: #2 check e-mail. Just before I leave for the end of the day, if I have a sec, #3 check e-mail. Come home and eat dinner. #4 Check e-mail. Do other things–it varies–then, before bed, #5 check e-mail.

Tonight, instead of going to the local senatorial debate I had planned on attending, I spent almost two hours on the phone with Comcast because our Internet is down.

The customer service rep tells me the soonest a tech can come is Friday. Friday, people. What in the world am I going to do until then?

Forgive the blogging absence until then, will you? And when you surf in quick-speeded luxury, think of me.

DSL, here we come.

Here’s my Plan for This Week.

FOOD PLAN: I did some research this weekend on new lunch ideas and am eager to try a few interesting recipes. I have all the supplies I need for the entire week, and I’m armed with ideas of what to do so I don’t face the whole ah-maybe-I-should-just-buy-lunch crisis again. Just to help myself stick with the can-do attitude, I’ll be posting this week’s lunches in this entry, throughout the week.

MONDAY: roast beef sandwich, chips, two clementines, homemade macaroons.
TUESDAY: leftover orange chicken/rice (thanks, Mom!), cheese & crackers, two clementines, homemade macaroons.
WEDNESDAY: chicken corn chowder soup–in my new thermos, chips, a clementine, homemade macaroons, green grapes.
THURSDAY: roast beef sandwich, chips, two clementines, lemon wafers.
FRIDAY: second half of Potbelly meatball sandwich (from dinner Thursday, before my new class), chips, two clementines.

CLOTHES PLAN: I took a 3 X 5 card and wrote the days of the week on it. Then I went through my closet and systematically figured out what to wear each day. This morning, I was ready 15 minutes faster and had time to enjoy my breakfast. As an added bonus, I won’t have to wonder “Did I wear this last week?” when prepping next week!

Financial Surprises I Hate, and Don’t Hate

There will be no Frugal Foodie Thursday post today, I’m sad to say. Instead, all I have to offer is a series of random, money-related thoughts from lately:

1) I have a glorified HMO insurance policy. SURPRISE! Or, at least it was a big surprise to me, today, when I spent 20 minutes calling my doctor, then the insurance carrier, then my benefits administrator. I have a POS, the most expensive insurance policy offered through my company. I pay $170ish per month and have a $50 copay for prescriptions.

The similarity to PPOs (read: the reason I got confused) is that you can go to out-of-network doctors. However, these doctors (here comes the surprise part again) may or may not be covered. You must ask for a list of in-network physicians.

End Result: An extra $65 to pay my doctor, for an ankle checkup in October. Fun times.

2) Tomorrow is Food Friday! No lunch-making! This, if I’m honest, is why there’s no frugal foodie post today. I’m tired, friends. Tired and lazy and barely getting food to my mouth some days, much less making something delicious. I. resolve. to. change.

End result for tomorrow: A plan to share Takeout Taxi with two coworkers. We order from cool restaurants and have it delivered for a surcharge of $5, which we will split. So I’ll spend around $12 tomorrow; it’s in the budget, so I’ll allow it.

3) Failure to plan is planning to fail. Cheesy!? It’s true, though, in a lot of life: Picking out outfits in the morning can waste an extra 10-15 minutes of time.  Finding something—anything—to eat for breakfast wastes another 10-15. When I don’t think ahead, I always end up regretting it. Must. change. this. too.

End result: This week, I would not let myself buy coffee, even though I left my only travel mug at work two days in a row and couldn’t bring home-brewed with me. I have wasted at least an hour in total in my morning routine.

Looking forward to the weekend: to rest, to regroup, to plan. More later.

Inside the Mind of a Spammer

I really want to know: how do spammers make money?

When someone leaves a comment on my blog like “What a Tuesday!” or “skdfjsldk 123231 go to,” what is the payoff? When hundreds of junk e-mails crowd random inboxes, what is the benefit to the mail senders? I understand the ones with website links; they’re trying to drive up their linkage rating or draw people to their advertising. But what about the other ones?

If you have some secret window into the spammer’s world, please let me in. I can’t for the life of me figure it out!

Once a student…

Because I apparently cannot stay away from education, I’ve taken $155 out of my “services” envelope and purchased myself seven weeks of junior-college classes, starting next week.

I’ll be learning how to use my SLR, a Nikon D70 I eBayed last year. It’s a fantastic camera, but I have no idea how to use most of its features. Usually, I’ll fiddle around with it just long enough to return to my trusty point-and-shoot. Well, no longer.

Let’s Get Something Straight: Is It Just Money?

My 47-year-old coworker K tells me her husband is the cheapest man alive. He’s the one making her work part-time and he’s the one worried about their income. He’s in sales, she hasn’t said in what industry, and commands a high salary. So when she’s angry with him, she tells me, she spends his money.

“The kids had a great Christmas this year because I was mad at my husband,” she says. “They got all sorts of stuff.”

The rest of us laugh like crazy when she shares these stories. She’s a wonderfully sweet woman who loves her children, you can tell, and she is easy to work with, easy to laugh with. We split our sides at the thought of her, crazy with a credit card, packaging purchases to make a point. We laugh too, I think, because we are shocked and surprised and maybe a little jealous that she can be so open about her financial habits. Who admits, out loud and without embarrassment, that she spends in frustration? Who admits she does something a little unwise with her money?

I, for example, don’t tell my coworkers that for a first date I almost always want a new outfit. I don’t say that I could probably shop every weekend without getting bored or that right about now I’m itching to take a trip somewhere. My other coworker T avoided for weeks telling us that she used to eat on $3 a day, back when she was starting out, that she has been living under a drug-dealer in order to keep her $425/month rent, that her parents practically threw her out the door at 18.

It’s hard to talk about money.

I submit that one of the big reasons we don’t talk about money is the same reason I love to PF-blog. It’s very, very personal. And because it’s personal, there’s big opportunity for approval, intimacy, judgment and, largely, rejection. I love the anonymity of my site (which I’ve questioned sometimes and truthfully still catch myself worrying about and then censoring my words) because I can, in theory, say anything without being judged. Or, if someone does judge, he or she doesn’t really know me anyway.

Money is hard for people to discuss because it affects so much of life: where you live, how you live, potentially how you feel about yourself and your friends.

I’d like to change this, sometimes. I’d like to out-with-it and tell the world my financial status. I’d like to start a trend of it’s-just-money thoughts among my friends. But I fear that’s not possible. I fear what would really happen is I would bare all and regret it.

I guess, bottom line, is there’s a part of me that fears what it would do to my relationships and how it would hurt them. Because while it is just money, and money’s not life, my friendships are valuable and delicate and worth preserving.

The Secret to Getting Your Money’s Worth in Grad School

I loved grad school. I mean, I loved grad school.

I made friends, learned specialized skills and was propelled into a career I enjoy and make good money doing. It was one of my best life decisions ever, and I do not regret it one bit.

In fact, that very principle is sort of what this site is built around. Yes, it’s about spending/budgeting/finances, but it’s also about those things in relation to a girl with a master’s degree. When I first started writing here, I wrote about the top 10 reasons I think you should consider grad school, whoever you are and whatever your career goals. And I still think that those points are valid.

But, confession time: I have to admit I may have been more than a little biased about the experience. While my education was fantastic, I’ve encountered more than my fair share of nay-sayers; maybe you have, too. So what’s the difference? Why did I love school and get more than my money’s worth, but others regret their decision and debt?

I think I know the answers, the “secrets,” if you will to getting all you can from the grad-school experience. If you’re a student, if you’re thinking of becoming a student or if you just want to hear the other side of the great debate, consider these:

Secret #1. DESIRE
First things first: I never thought I’d go to grad school. I was shocked to get in and had sort of a shifting-eyes-back-and-forth mentality the first few weeks, thinking someone would tell me I shouldn’t really be there, and yes, there had been a mistake, thank you very much.

Why? It’s a long story, but primarily I’d gone to a small, not regionally accredited undergrad. I’d majored in education, not writing like I later realized I wanted to pursue. I had little experience in the field, and I felt so unqualified, so unskilled, so behind the pack.

When I found out I got into a school that would make me able to pursue my dreams, I could’ve cried.

Secret #2: TEACHABILITY
I went to every class I could, even to lectures I wasn’t required to attend. I took notes even when the material wouldn’t be on the test. I read every book we were assigned, studied hard for every test, pushed myself with every paper. I was there for real, with all my chips on the table.

Secret #3: ENTHUSIASM
At The Writer’s Coin recently, there was a discussion of the value of a library card versus the value of a college degree. Great points made, I think. Mostly though, what he’s saying about the value of a library card is what I’m saying about grad school: use it for all it’s worth. Even as a commuting grad student, I used computer labs, libraries, city parking. I knew the campus facilities and spent time learning about my professors. When I was job-hunting, I contacted every teacher I’d had at school, asking for contacts, references, advice. I met with someone in the career department. To me, this is using the resources in front of you.

So, there you have it, the secret to a valuable grad-school experience: college is what you make of it. The choice is up to you.