on money matters

Wednesday, April 08, 2009 – 6:03 PM
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A bunch of the goals in my 101 in 365 are about money. It’s not because I’m necessarily bad with money – in fact I’d say I’m pretty good with it. They’re there because I think I could be much better about it.

In the next few months I’m going to go from tuition-paying student to college grad traveling Europe on a budget to full time employee who now gets to pay off student loans in addition to rent, car insurance, food, taxes, cable, electric, internet, health insurance, 401K and all of that fun stuff. Sure, I’ll have income rather than outgo for the first time ever, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to be sitting pretty just yet.

With this whole new set of bills and lifestyle on the horizon, I’ve recently realized that I need to get my financial act together. I’ve been reading “be better about your money” type blogs for good while now, but since most of them are geared toward people in the real world, I haven’t really been practicing what I read. That is until I read The Money Diaries on I will teach you to be rich. These people are pretty much my age and they have -terrible- spending habits. I don’t want to be like that. I know I have a few leaks in my budget and seeing how just $5 here and $6 there can really add up or how an extra $5 can make my Europe budget all the better, I’ve decided to try to do my own little money diaries. This week I’ve just tried to cut back – not eating out as much and staying off of ebay – but if I find that I can’t stick to it for more than 2 weeks I’m going to do a legitimate diary, tracking each and every purchase and finding where my problems are. I already have mint set up, but I think seeing your transactions in a giant list versus in the context of a given day or week has a very different effect on how you interpret them.

The best part about it so far is that I’ve been cooking dinner more so that I don’t let food go bad as often. It’s teaching me to be a better cook because I’m using what’s around rather than going to out buy meal-specific things from a recipe all the time. Last night’s chicken was quite tasty and it’ll be for leftovers tonight too!

I’ve also begun to love half.com for my reading habits. I used to go to barnes and noble or Amazon.com all the time and just order a bunch of books because I had the reading bug. Then I realized that based on the quality of books that I’ve been selling on half.com, it’s probably true that other people are selling books that are in great shape too and it would be stupid of me to pay $20 for a brand new book that I could probably get on half.com for $15 or even cheaper AND…yes AND… it’s giving money to someone like me – someone who’s trying to offload the excesses to make a few bucks rather than paying into the Amazon piggybank. I love Amazon, but I’m going to love sleeping in a bed instead of a train station every night this summer a whole lot more.

That’s not to say that I’m never going to splurge on anything fun ever again. That wouldn’t be a very good way to live, but especially for these next 2 months, the more I can save now means the more I can enjoy when it really counts. It’s all about mind over matter. At least that’s what I keep telling myself…

Enter Mild Panic Mode

Monday, March 30, 2009 – 12:18 AM
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There are 55 days, 1 prelim, 2 finals, and 4 pretty huge projects standing between me and graduation. That’s it.

I’ve been trying to put up a brave face these last few weeks, but truth is, despite all of my counting down and desperate squinting to find the light at the end of the tunnel, as that light grows brighter, I’m getting more and more freaked out about leaving here!

It’s not that I’m scared of going into the “real world” or anything like that. It’s more that I’m scared that I won’t have accomplished everything that I wanted to do in college or that I’ll have found something I really enjoyed or would be interested in when it’s too late. All of a sudden four years just doesn’t seem like long enough. I still have so much to learn and there are still so many things that I want to try, so many classes I want to take, so many people I’m not ready to leave.

On the one hand, I can’t wait to get back out to the West Coast – to reunite with some friends who are already out there, to get myself an apartment, and get this next chapter of my life started already. But, on the other hand, I don’t know that I’m completely ready to let go what very little is left of my “childhood.” Or, I guess it’s probably “pre-real-adult-hood.”

Every once in a while it just sort of smacks me in the face – I’m almost done with college. It feels like yesterday that I was sitting in my high school graduation rehearsal. These four years have gone by in a snap. It’s like I took a quick nap sometime during freshman year and when I woke up here I am smack dab in the middle of my last semester of college. Where the heck did the time go?

I think that most people my age count life in years that go from September – August instead of January – December, and “chapters” are counted in four-year blocks. I can’t think of a time where things weren’t divided into four-year (or even fewer) segments. High school, college, even the way my grammar school years ended up being divided – everything had a definite beginning and ending. I think the thing that’s freaking me out the most about what happens 56 days from now. It’s that there is no clear end. There’s no clear finish line. There’s nothing to countdown to. It’s just the rest of my life. It’s really no small order.

It has me thinking of what I actually want to do with my life. What do I want to be? What do I want to do? Where do I want to go? I’m not a huge fan of jumping out into the abyss with no idea of what’s ahead. I’m a planner. I like to at least have some sort of “big picture” goal in mind, even if it’s not all that defined. I’d rather go in to a situation with a purpose, with a finish line. I feel like I don’t have one right now and that’s really throwing me for a loop.

So now all of a sudden the “only 55 days” has turned into “just 55 days.” Hopefully these 55 days will give me some time to get my act together, to figure some things out and to either develop some sort of plan or come to terms with the unknown. Let’s hope that 1 prelim, 2 finals, and 4 projects don’t get in the way.

Indulging My Inner Hermit

Friday, March 20, 2009 – 10:22 AM
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This week is Spring Break and to many people’s surprise, I decided to stay here in Ithaca. I think I’ve mentioned before that I absolutely loathe the drive back to Ithaca after breaks – not only is it really long and boring, but the thought of driving 5+ hours to return to a life of sleep deprivation and general craziness makes it even more miserable. For the past few breaks I’ve even put off returning for days – I’ve packed up, gotten in the car, and even started my drive on occasion, only to turn around and go back home. I really, really don’t like that drive.

So I decided to stay here. Unless I was going somewhere fun (read: SXSW or SF, or really anywhere besides the tri-state area), it wasn’t worth making the drive home. I could be a lazy bum here.

My mom came to visit last weekend instead. We did the Ithaca thing – gorges, food, etc. and then when she left I began to take advantage of the Netflix Instant View / XBox setup on my 48″ TV. I’ve slept, cooked, taken some photos, watched movies, TV, documentaries, and generally lazed about. It’s been wonderful. I haven’t even been on my computer! -gasp-! I like to think that I’ve learned a lot over break via the documentaries and things I’ve watched. Right now I’m watching a documentary on Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Not to worry, though. I have gone outside. A few times. Margot and I had a girl’s night on Sunday – Chili’s, a movie, popcorn, and all that good stuff, and we also went out with a bunch of people for St. Paddy’s Day. I also went food shopping for the necessaries to make the guacamole that I’ve been craving. It was my first time making it and I have to say it came out pretty spectacularly. I might make some more later.

All in all I’d say this has been a pretty perfect break. Sure, I didn’t go to some tropical locale or London or Europe like a lot of other people, but I think being a complete bum is exactly what I needed. Time to regroup and recharge for this final push. My last bit of college. 65 more days. Holy heck.