Weekly Round-Up, Labor Day Weekend
As you enjoy this extended weekend, here are some great posts from the College Money Network that are worth checking out!
- from Broke-Ass Student: Paying Down Debt—What an Amazing Feeling
- Here’s a healthy and green idea worth thinking about: Everywhere is Walking Distance if You Have Time, brought to you by Spilling Buckets
- Stephanie at Poorer Than You wants some advice: Replace the Car?
- Broke Grad Student gives us the best checking/savings accounts for students
- At Green Panda Treehouse: Students can start saving, too!
working next to them
The day after my birthday, my friend, whom I also happen to work with, treated me to my choice of takeout, and we settled on a very nice steakhouse nearby, I with the burger and she with the turkey burger.
As we were eating, surfing the Internet and oohing and ahhing over our meals, a colleague came by.
“This department must be doing well, if you can afford that,” he joked. My friend made some comment about its being my birthday, and the man asked how old, and he made some other joke and left.
It’s funny, isn’t it, how even in joking, there’s a bit of truth? And how even in lunch choices, we are setting up some sort of persona for which others to judge?
In my time at my job, I have observed: There’s another department that eats out everyday, always from fast-food places—one day, McDonald’s; another, Wendy’s. They never go fancy, and they never brown-bag.
There are people who drive expensive cars—our parking lot is no stranger to the BMW, the Lexus, all manner of SUVs, even in these tougher times. There are people who also drive the beaters and the uglies.
And the colleague—the one who joked about our money when he saw what we were eating—makes a six-figure salary, much more than we do.
I’m just saying, part of me thinks it obnoxious that people are watching, and judging, others’ financial decisions, even when they don’t really know them. The other part of me thinks it eye-opening to find, so easily, that I do that same thing, every day.
Filed under 9-5, budgeting, money stories | Comments (2)monetization
To those of you who make money from your blogs: Would you offer your advice on whether or not this would be a good deal—$3 per 1000 page impressions?
I’ve been thinking about monetizing this blog for a long while now, trying PayPerPost and some PepperJam ads and not really finding a good fit yet. The above question doesn’t directly relate to THIS site, but it is a question that leads me to others:
If you have found a good advertising company that will allow you to post banners/text links/whatever for a reasonable fee, would you tell me about it? And what, since we’re talking, is a reasonable fee?
Filed under Cool Sites | Comments (2)happy birthday to me!
It’s my birthday. And, as a true sign of things—my age? my personality? my lifestyle?, I didn’t buy myself clothes or dinner or a trip somewhere fun. I just bought, via Macy’s on Amazon, a new Silpat mat for baking cookings.
Little luxuries, friends.
*Edited: You really are my friends, aren’t you? No one—not one of you—made the obvious joke, as I now see it, that I’m aging, indeed, when I can’t even spell “cookies” correctly.
Filed under food, shopping | Comments (9)A New Way to Learn about Your Credit Score
You may remember that a few months ago, I went through this whole should-I-buy-a-credit-card faze. I used a couple sites for information, comparing and contrasting different cards to see which would be most beneficial. Would you believe I still haven’t gotten a credit card?
I know, I know. I’m so stuck in the habit of my debit/credit card, and I just don’t know how important it is. However, when I am ready to get one, an important factor I’ll want to consider is my credit score. In fact, figuring out my credit score would be important for a lot of things—getting an apartment, any kind of loan, sometimes even new jobs.
Do you know what your score is? Do you know where you can get it for free?
I recently came across a great site/resource, CreditReportingOnline.com, which links you to three places that provide free credit reports, along with providing oodles of helpful information. Knowing your score is important, especially to make sure there aren’t errors.
Basically anything you want to know about credit scores is there; plus, the site can help match you with cards based on your credit score. Very helpful! Go check it out!
Filed under credit cards | Comments (5)Saturday Round-Up
Check out these great posts from the College Money Network this past week!
- Broke Grad Student does such great round-ups. Check out this one: 25 Tips, Ideas, Resources on Having Fun as a College Student
- Prompted by a heated discussion at another blog, Green Treehouse Panda asks you why you read blogs and how much personal information is too much: “Conversations in Personal Finance”
- At Broke-Ass Student, you really have to check out the photo (WOW with the hail!) at this post, Lightning & Hail Strangle Western New York
- Spilling Buckets offers a thought-provoking post on 4 Things That We Can Do to Fix our National Debt”
- I love ideas for free fun. At Poorer Than You, Stephanie gives a bunch of hot tips for her area, Rochester. No matter where you’re from though, she gives great food for thought. Check it out: “Things to Do in Rochester”
Why Gardening & Money Are the Same
There are a million gardening cliches, as there are financial ones. And the elements that go into producing a good crop aren’t that different from the principles of prosperity or success:
Think about it: Consistency, wise choices and, honestly, some things that just aren’t in your control.
I can water my tomatoes (consistency), I can plant them in a good place (wise choices) but if the summer is especially hot or we get a crazy drought or rabbits get at them, who knows?
Just like with money. I can budget my spending, I can find a good-paying job and diversify my income but if the stock market plummets, if the economy goes nuts, if I get laid off, there are set backs.
Maybe that’s why, at least to me, picking large baskets of fresh, juicy, red tomatoes gives me such a feeling of satisfaction. Sure, it’s part what we did, tending the garden; but, mostly, it’s a gift.
How to Drink Starbucks for Free
I’m something of an unusual coffee snob—I don’t even like Starbucks that much, to be honest. Give me a good cup of Dunkin Donuts, and I’m a happy girl. However, everything tastes better when it’s free!
And this last week, I drank at Starbucks for free THREE TIMES, never for the same reason. Here’s the breakdown:
1. I used my latest MyPoints $10 rewards card to try a new choco-banana Vivanno blend. (Wanna know how this MyPoints thing works? E-mail me!)
2. My co-worker brought me a skinny latte Tuesday morning (love her!).
3. The grocery store gives you a free drink coupon if you spend $50. My mom gave me hers, and I enjoyed a passion tea, free, on Wednesday evening.
What about you? What’s your secret?
Image: Rudolf Schuba
Filed under thrifty tips | Comments (2)On Managing Time or, Not Managing It
Do you know what everyone in this room has the exact same amount of?
Time. 24 hours in a day, 7 days a week.
That was the beginning pitch for a speech I didn’t get to hear the rest of at a conference last week. I, instead, went to a fantastic, inspiring, completely great talk about relationships, and I’m glad I did. However, the time thing is still on my mind. I have got to get better at my time management, and I’ve got to do it fast.
Here’s what I know:
My total time: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (168 hours total in a week)
Sleeping: 8 hours a night for a total of 56 hours (non-negotiable, if at all possible)
Daily routine/getting ready: 7 hours morning, 2.5 hours night
Working: 42.5 hours a week
Church: 2.5 hours a week
Transportation: Between 6 and 11 hours each week (traffic, how it varies)
Rounding up, that’s 120.5 hours already accounted for, leaving me with 47.5.
What other responsibilities do I have?
*Working for the family company
*Blogging for this site, at least 3x weekly
*Eating/cooking/planning meals
*Logistics: e-mailing/bill-paying/budgeting/phone calls
*Cleaning/organizing
What else takes up time?
*Socializing: with family, friends
*Being outside: in the garden, with the dog, going for a walk
*Relaxing: watching TV, Facebooking, reading magazines, vegging out
Wow, I really thought this budgeting-my-time idea would make me feel better, but instead it’s making me feel more stressed out. I only have 47.5 hours to get all my stuff done!!??
There are things I can cut out (relaxing/socializing), but what kind of life doesn’t have relaxing/socializing built into it? There are things I can double-up (organizing my bills/cleaning while also talking on the phone or getting something else done), but only some things will work like that.
What’s happening right now is that I’m cutting out downtime, getting less sleep, almost nodding off at work on slow days. I’m also online way too much, at work and at home, and my eyes are sick of it.
Any suggestions? I am going to be thinking about this, while doing everything else, obviously. I’m open to any tips and tricks you’ve found to help you manage your time. But just off the top of my head, I’m thinking this blog is going to suffer.
Photo: Mike9Alive
Filed under questions, the everyday | Comments (3)The Truth about the Month of August
When I was in junior high, old enough to value sleeping in but young enough to have nowhere to go all summer, I remember some smart-alecky type kid, upon hearing when my birthday fell, tell me, What a great birthday present! Just in time for back to school!
It wasn’t always this way. I remember, or am I imagining?, a time when Labor Day marked the true end of summer, when all of August, including the birthdays that fell therein, was ours to enjoy. But as years went on, the school year slowly, methodically began edging out this once only-summer month. In today’s schools, some college kids begin heading back in mid-August, some even earlier. My friend, a fourth grade teacher, had her orientation last night, and classes start Monday. It’s a tragedy, in my opinion, especially for us late-Augusters, for what’s a birthday to look forward to when you have school to start?
The silver lining, for me at least, is that school is over, so August means little by way of bad reminder. (Rather than returning to school, I *got* to work all summer long, never returning because of never leaving!) But I, ahem, am getting off track.
The subject is school. Returning to it.
The College Money Network I keep telling you about, the one with the great contributors and helpful information and big, HUGE, GREAT giveaway, is consistently churning out great advice for the back-to-school crew. Here’s a round-up of what’s been written so far, including those I highlighted last week:
6 Ways to Track Your Expenses Online
Maximizing Financial Aid
5 Things Every College Freshman Should Know
Buying Textbooks Online: a Primer
How to Make This the Year for Scholarships!
Get an Internship and Make It Count
Broke Student’s Guide to Free Software
Off-Campus Fun on the Cheap
Beginner’s Guide to Staying on Top of Student Loans
There are more coming this weekend, so stay tuned. BTW: Let us know what you’re thinking of the round-up, and hey–have you subscribed to our sites yet?
Feel free to start with This Writer’s Wallet! 
Image: House of Sims
Filed under College Money Network | Comments (3)
