saturday reading

Happy Saturday! My plans for toda include going out for breakfast, a $3 movie and an afternoon cooking. I *love* weekends. Hope yours is relaxing and enjoyable, too.

Here’s a round-up of posts from the past week:

• 10 Stupid Ways College Students Waste Money
• I Can’t Pay All my Bills!
• Banks Vs. Credit Unions
• Clothing, Accessories, Shoes Hiatus at Well-heeled

Image: maury willey.

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!

Image: mccun934

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”

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

Saturday Round-Up

Happy Saturday!

In the spirit of our back-to-school giveaway, the College Money Network has been bringing you great tips that relate to the return to classes. Here are some great articles to check out from the past week, college student or not… more are coming!

Broke Grad Student: 6 Cool Ways to Track Your Expenses Online

Green Panda Treehouse: Maximizing Your Financial Aid

Spilling Buckets: How to Save a Bunch of Money Buying Textbooks Online

Poorer Than You: {Three cheers!! Big hoorahs!!! Be inspired!!!} she’s paid off her credit card!!

MFA or Bust: {I’m a sucker for recipes, so} Healthy, cheapish summer drinks

Broke-Ass Student: {I really loved this biographical post that tells us a little of Jennifer Lynn’s story. Don’t you love seeing where people have come from and learning about their journey to financial independence?} By Taking Control of my Finances, I Took Back Control of my Life

5 Things Every College Freshman Needs to Know

(or, What I Wish I’d Known)

As old as this makes me sound, I was headed off for my first year of college eight years ago. And though it’s been almost a decade since I applied, was accepted and packed up for my freshman year, I remember it well. For most of us, it’s an exciting time, a scary time, a time when the future is filled with possibilities.

I’ve been thinking about it, knowing what I know now, six years of college and two years of full-time work experience later, and here’s what I think college freshmen need to know. Other veterans, tell me if you agree:

1. It’s OK to be nervous.

Everyone who’s honest, or at least 99% of everyone, feels nervous when they go off to college for the first time. No matter what your background or where you’re from or where you’ve been living, if you’ve never left home or if you’ve moved every year since kindergarten, it’s still scary to start fresh. As exciting as college freedom is, it’s still new and unknown. Tell yourself now: it’s OK to be nervous. Everyone feels this way, and the people who seem old pros (those upperclassmen) were where you were practically yesterday.

2. Less is more.

I’ve been seeing the advertisements for weeks (months?) now: buy a fancy rug! a new lamp! these crazy cool storage systems! And they all need to be color-coordinated, of course, since that’s what will ensure a good year. OK, between us, this whole buy-stuff-for-college thing is just about the retail industry. You don’t need half the stuff. Bring less than you think you need. If you forget something or need something later, you can get it at Wal-Mart. There is no point in maxing out your spending on dorm supplies. You won’t spend all your time in your dorm anyway, right?

3. Have fun, but study!

My dad was the best for advice when I called about some relationship drama or perceived crisis. “You’re there to get an education,” he’d say, dismissing whatever issue and asking me about my classes. While I didn’t always agree at the time, he was right, by and large. Your main objective is to get the degree. The other stuff is bonus–still important, still valuable, but not the primary reason you go to college.

4. College is expensive.

You know this already. So if there’s anything–anything!–you can do to reduce your tuition costs, your room & board, your other fees, do it. From part-time jobs to scholarships to internships to roommates to whatever you can think of. Less cost now means less to pay off later.

5. Enjoy the ride.

I don’t care if this seems to contradict another point(s). College, for all its stress and pressure and hype, will be over before you know it, sending you into the work world that you’re trying to excel in. So enjoy it. Use it to learn–not just book-wise, but skills and connections and experiences. Pursue your interests, find out what they are, realize this is a temporary period of your life.

The good news is, at the end of four (or five or six or whatever) years, you’ll walk on a stage, diploma in hand, family crying in bleachers watching, and you’ll see the fruit of your hard work, by way of an updated resume and an expanded knowledge base and skill set. Education is a privilege. Make the most of it.

image: Avolore

CMN Gets Even Better: a Big, Big Giveaway!

OK, readers, big announcement: The College Money Network (already established as being a great resource for us PFers) is celebrating the start of another school year by throwing its first giveaway! To sweeten the deal, we will be posting a series of articles over the next two weeks with money-saving tips that revolve around a back-to-school theme.

Here are the rules, the prizes and all the other important details:

Prizes

• 4GB iPod nano
• $50 cash
• $20 cash
• 1 year subscription to Young Money
• Copy of The 4-Hour Workweek
• $10 eBay gift certificate

How to Enter

There are multiple ways to earn entries into the Back-To-School Giveaway. Complete as many as you can to increase your chances of winning a prize!

If you are a current college student: Share your financial goal for the upcoming semester, quarter, or school year and how you will achieve it. Make the goal specific and explain the actions you will take to achieve it. This is to ensure that students are making a conscious effort to create a real financial goal, not writing something just to enter the giveaway. Here’s an example of a good entry:

If you are not a college student: Share some tips and ideas for managing your finances as a student. If you’ve already been there and done that, what is the most important financial advice you would give to college students? If you’re still in high school, share some of your current money tips.

• Leave a comment on this post with your response. (1 entry)
• Write a post on your own blog with your “Financial Advice for College Students” or “High School Money Tips” and email us to let us know. (3 entries)

Everyone may also:

• Subscribe to the College Money Network group feed. (2 entries)
• Mention the CMN network and include a link to this post on one of your favorite sites (e.g. comment on a blog, post in a forum, etc.). Email us with a link to where you mentioned it, so we can record the entry. (3 entries)

Bonus opportunities:

• Subscribe to This Writer’s Wallet via your reader or via e-mail. When you do, you’ll see the secret word. Just shoot me an e-mail to let me know what that word was!
• Visit the sites of other CMN members to learn of other opportunities.

How To Win

You may enter each way once. All valid entries will be assigned a unique number. We will use a random number generator to select the winning numbers. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.

All entries must be received by August 31, 2008 at 11:59 PM PST.

Winners will be notified the following week. After all the prizes have been claimed, we will release an official announcement listing the winners.

Rules and Restrictions

• All winners must be 18 years of age or older and live in the United States.
• No purchase is necessary to participate in this giveaway.
• We will choose the winners from the qualified participants. We are the sole judges of adding entries to the list. Plagiarized content, trackback from splogs, spams, non-goal oriented comments, and comments containing abusive or inappropriate languages will not be considered.
• To award the prizes, we must be able to contact you. Please leave a valid email address with your comment, or make sure we can contact you through your web site. Your contact information will not be shared with anyone else.
• For certain prizes, winners will be required to submit a physical address to ship the prize. Again, your contact information will never be shared with anyone.
• Prizes are provided as-is, and substitutions may be made at our discretion.
• Winners must reply within 1 week from the time we notify them to claim their prize. Otherwise, they forfeit their prize, and it will be awarded to an alternate.

So, really, what are you waiting for?

My Apologies

It’s not that I don’t have things to write about, friends. I do, and I will, soon I hope.

For now, I’m giving you something even better than a blog post. Here’s this week’s round-up of fantastic CMN articles:

• Go congratulate MFA or Bust. She just got more money for school, all because she asked for it. Awesome!
• And if that doesn’t inspire you, you really need to check out 50+ Tips, Ideas & Resources on Saving Money over at Broke Grad Student. Wow is all I have to say.
• Poorer Than You explains how her “Know Where the Money Goes” Challenge will work. The payoff is a new iShuffle!
• Green Panda Treehouse offers tips on How to Control Unconscious Spending.
• Looking for a new credit card? Check out “Credit Card Shopping Made Easy” at Broke-Ass Student
• Spilling Buckets posted their net-worth update for July. Good news is, theirs went up, unlike mine with the plunging market.

End-of-the-Week Updates & Round-Up

More news:

1. Friday night turned out to be the summer’s first officially free event for me: a movie in the park. Unlike the big Chicago Film Festival, which shows classics on Tuesday nights (big bummer for this get-up-early girl), this showing was conveniently at 9 PM Friday. The movie of choice? E.T.

Verdict: I still spent $6 on bakery ahead of time, which isn’t that bad really. The showing itself could’ve been better, though. Because of our seats, we couldn’t hear well, and the screaming toddler nearby didn’t help. So all in all, learning experience #2: go early if you’re going to a free event. There will be lots of other money-savers who scope out better seats.

2. I got the raise. Sort of. Basically, my boss worked out a way for me to get a bonus-based increase each month that should (fingers crossed) mean a 10% boost, at least if our workload stays the same or increases (likely). So all my worrying for was nothing.

________________

On to the round-up. This week’s CMN bloggers are even better than before, armed with a new member! Help us welcome Spilling Buckets to the crew!

Here are some highlights of the past week:

• Broke Grad Student gives us a little background into when/how he started his site and how it’s allowing him to pay off his student loans. He also interviewed me, so THAT’s definitely a must-read.

• Want to win an iPod Shuffle? Head over to Poorer Than You for your chance!

• No matter what your financial situation, Broke-Ass Student says you have the greatest asset already, and it doesn’t cost anything. Take a look at her post, which, I’ll be honest, made me smile.

• Green Panda Treehouse was recently featured on MSN! She celebrated with a post giving us an overview of what she’s all about. Definitely worth visiting.

• What do YOU do when the cashier makes a mistake in your favor? Is it worth correcting, or is it a frugal blessing? MFA or Bust initiated a great discussion on this; go see!

• Last, but not least, our new friends Spilling Buckets (love their blog! have been reading for a while!) make an interesting observation about Real Simple. True confession: I think this mag is beautiful, even if not so helpful/simple/frugal. Used to subscribe but now I only flip through it at the store every once in a while.

How College Money Network Is Good for You

Just in case you missed my first announcement about the new, fantastic, exciting College Money Network, here’s another plug: are you in college? did you recently graduate? are you a 20-something, or are you the parent/friend/sibling of a 20-something?

Well, CMN is the PF site you can’t miss. All of the authors (Including yours truly, ahem) are either students or recent grads, with opinions and philosophies and tips and tricks that directly relate to how to manage money as a student.

To give you a sampling, here are some of my favorite posts among the CMN crew from this last week:

MFA or Bust gives some advice on how to ask for more, when it comes to college funding. Let’s cross our fingers that her savvy negotiating makes school more affordable for her! And why not use her advice to improve your own assistance package?

Broke Grad Student discusses a question almost every student asks, when considering grad school: Should you take a break between undergrad and grad school, or no? Have an opinion on that? Go weigh in!

Whether you’re a student or not, you’re probably feeling the sting of gas prices. Stephanie at Poorer Than You tells how she’s fighting the effects. Check out her post, Saving Money on Driving, One Way or Another.

College is often the time when kids first become independent, learning to do things, even manage money, on their own. Broke-Ass Student brings up an interesting question: Is Your Money Safe in the Bank?. What do you think?

A genuine highlight of my week’s reading was Laura’s post, The Best Job Hunt Post: Top 40 Links from the Web at Green Panda Treehouse. We all have to look for a job sometime; it’s just the way of things. And with today’s extremely competitive marketplace, it pays to do your homework.