Money In My Pocket

Let’s Go To The Movies

Now that I am home for the holidays, I have the opportunity to do things that I don’t get to do while at school.  Beyond really looking forward to spending time with my family and eating all the delicious holiday food, I am excited about getting to see a few movies over the break.  I have not seen any this entire semester and there are a couple out now that I want to go see and a few more will come out while I am at home.  I have resolved to go to the matinee as much as possible because I can see the same movie for a whole lot cheaper than if I went in the evening, and going during the day means that I can spend time with my family when we are all together—off of work, done with errands, etc.  I also want to rent several movies I missed seeing over the past couple of years (I know- college has really limited my movie watching time), but I am hoping that we can do this as a family event in the evenings and get my mom or dad to pay for it.  We’ll see how much of this I can get done and how much I will have to foot the bill for. 

Pick Em

 

This is the first year that I have paid much to the fantasy leagues that many of my male friends are intrigued by. If you are not familiar with fantasy leagues like me before this year, they are typically managed online. A league usually consists of a couple buddies, a few coworkers, or other friends. You have the opportunity to draft your favorite players from various teams in order to create your fantasy team for a specific sport. After each week, your players are judged and given points depending on their performance. It is essentially a steroid induced bracket for sports enthusiasts. I could have been a part of a league this year but missed the deadline, because I did not check my e-mail in time. Even though I was not in competition with my friends in their league, I still enjoyed many interesting conversations about the stats about the most up and coming players.

I was flabbergasted that one of my friends won a national contest and received free gifts and a cash reward. Some fantasy leaguers will place a side pot on the competition like a basketball bracket in March. Even though I do not gamble, I decided to pitch in five dollars for a college football pick em on one of the fantasy league sites with a group of my friends. I do not see much betting in my future, I will probably join a free fantasy league with friends next season.

Christmas Cards

Since coming to college, I have sent Christmas cards to people I don’t see too often to let them know I am thinking about them during this holiday season.  My list has grown through my years at college to include friends who have graduated or transferred, and is now rather large for someone so young I would think.  I usually go to the store and pick out some cute cards and get enough boxes to cover everyone on my list.  I usually try to never spend more than about $15-$20, and this is pretty easy since they come in packs of about 20 for around $7.  Then I buy stamps, and every year, this is the cost that really makes me think.  For a couple of books it is almost $20—as much as my cards themselves for a small piece of sticker.  I understand the huge process of sending a letter, and that hardly anyone does anymore, it’s just tough to fork out that much, especially considering the way they look.  Of course this year I could have easily gone with the Botticelli painting, but for some reason I think my friends would think I was really pretentious doing that.  So I had to opt for the nutcrackers, which look like something from a child’s nightmare.  Maybe next year they will make it easier for me to buy stamps by making them cuter so they can really dress up my envelopes instead of scaring the dog chasing the mail man.

Police Officer

Kind of relating to my previous post, just before I left home for the end of the semester, we had a police officer come to speak to an organization I am in about holiday safety.  He touched on personal safety and keeping our homes, dorms, or apartments safe while we are gone for the holiday break, but he also talked about safety with money.  He told women to wear purses that go across the body so would-be thieves would not be tempted to just grab a purse off your shoulder and run.  He told guys to consider keeping their wallet in their front pocket instead of back where it can easily be taken.  When loading packages into the car from a shopping cart, he said always keep an eye on the cart as well as what you are doing in your car.  It might just be the difference between some misarranged packages in the back and a cart full of packages gone.  Of course he had tons more tips like check your car tires, oil, etc. before setting off for a trip, but I thought these were especially important to holding on to your money this holiday season.

Christmas Shopping

 

I do not know if I missed the annual Christmas shopping expo on campus or not. Maybe we had one or maybe we did not. Nonetheless, I missed the opportunity to buy inexpensive Christmas presents. So I find myself needing to find Christmas presents for my family. I have two ideas that will get me by this season.

My first idea is to actually use those stacks of gift cards in my wallet. For some reason, I forgot about the pieces of plastic that other people gave me as gifts. I will complete the cycle of gifts but actually put some thought into the return gift.

My second idea to save some cash is to shop online with discounts and specials. Not to mention I will skip the long lines, crowded parking lots, and other mall havoc. My father introduced me to the idea of shopping through proxy discount sites that send a kickback check at the end of the month.

               

News

I saw on the news the other day about how the holiday and economy are contributing to increased credit and debit card stealing.  It can happen anywhere from the grocery store to online when you are buying gifts or essentials.  The advice they gave is to be sure to use your credit card instead of your debit card this season.  If someone takes your debit card or card number, they will just use all of the money on your card and that will be it.  Many debit cards do not allow you to dispute charges and might not even offer protection, but credit cards on the other hand allow you to dispute fraudulent charges to your account so you don’t have to pay when your card or number is stolen.  It is always important to keep your card numbers covered as much as possible when shopping in person, and make sure the site you are using is secure when shopping online.  One thing to be wary of, though, is when using your credit card, don’t be tempted to spend more than you have.  Just some advice from the news that I hadn’t really thought about before.

My New Haircut

Now that the semester is over and I have ventured back home, I can go get my haircut at my favorite barber shop. I know a couple of times during different semesters, I was short on cash and needed a trim before an important interview or something of that sort. So, I resolved to a couple female friends who said they had hair cutting “experience.”  That did not turn out too well both times. True, there are other barbers at school that know how to cut hair also, but I prefer the barber that I have been going to for the last five years. He knows everything about my crazy, curly hair. I was kind of shocked that he went up on his prices for this last visit. It was only a couple extra dollars. Just another sign of a wild economy. If times get too pressed, I will have my mother cut my hair like when I was a wee little child.

Finishing the Christmas Shopping

I have gotten most of my Christmas shopping done, but there are a few things I had to pick up before leaving town for the break.  I like to get things here for gifts because it is something that I cannot get from home, making my gifts unique.  It is fun going to all the little shops in town picking out the perfect gift or fulfilling an item on someone’s wish list (dad specifically told me one thing he would like to see in a package under the tree), but with all these shops come a larger price sticker than if I bought things at more prevalent chain stores.  I like having a unique gift and with the economy down, I feel like I am helping small businesses by purchasing a few items at these stores this holiday season.  It is worth spending the extra dollars to help the local economy and get the gift everyone will be talking about at home.

Student Work

One of my buddies told me about the coolest job that he has on campus. He has the opportunity to grade weekly homework for one of our professors. I have admired every angle that I have observed about this job. He gets paid, reviews old class material, develops relationships with professors, and did I mention he gets paid more than he should.  I was fascinated by the fact that he is always paid for ten hours per week even though he only averages about four or five hours of work. He can also work on his clock as long as the homework is graded by Friday.

As nerdy as it sounds, we actually need to remember and use the knowledge we have learned in our courses. If he doesn’t remember everything, he is given the solution manual to compare answers. I am slightly jealous of being paid for reviewing the material that we will be tested on for our exit exams. Obviously our professors are the experts in our field of study and anytime we can pick their brains it is to our advantage. My buddy has the extra opportunities to talk to the professors with these extra interactions. I will probably look into these job openings for next semester.

Computer Part Two

As I mentioned in my last post, my computer and I are not on the best terms right now.  I have been thinking about what to do and want to fix it myself, hoping that I can make it last until I find out if I will really need a new one next year.  Who knows?  Maybe I can even make it last a couple more years once I really get to working on it.  Well, I called my dad and explained the situation, which he was already aware of because of my rants over Thanksgiving, and he agreed that I needed to do something before I lose all the valuable information I keep on my computer.  After discussions of what I was going to do to temporarily fix my computer, he agreed that these assignments I am working on senior year are just too valuable to lose.  I regularly back up my files, and because my dad is a big proponent of doing so, he agreed to get me an external hard drive for Christmas.  He even said that we could go and pick one out when I get home and I can begin using it immediately so I won’t have to wait for the craziness of the holidays to begin my massive work.  Thanks dad!