Anyone else living paycheck to paycheck?

[Jimmy Snyder]

When you get financing on a car or a house, interest is usually compounded on a monthly or biweekly basis. Credit cards are compounded daily.

Interest has to be stated in terms of APR which allows you to make comparisons between different kinds of loans.

When you pay more than the minimum on a mortgage or car payment, the extra you throw in goes towards paying the principle amount of the loan, which lowers the amount of interest charged in the next compounding period. Credit cards are the opposite, that extra money goes towards paying the interest, and the principle is not paid at all until the entire amount of interest is paid first.

Actually, credit cards, car loads and mortgages all work the same in this regard. For a credit card, the minimum payment covers interest and a little of the principal. Any amount you pay above the minimum goes directly to principal and lowers the interest in the next payment period.

In fact a mortgage can be the worse deal because sometimes there is a penalty for early payoff. That clause in some mortgages is one of the problems feeding the current subprime crisis.

 

[momentum_waves]

that is a bi weekly pay check. $1160 is a biweekly check after tax, 401 k contribution, health, and dental.
Mid month is
-$420 for car payments
-$250 student loans
-$ whatever balance I put on my credit card at the beginning of the month to help me last until mid month's pay check.

Chinese advice:
Earn 5, save 2 immediately, spend sparingly, try to save a further 1.

Basically, your way forward:
1. Cut up your credit card - it is expensive money.
2. Hand back the car - it is too expensive.
3. Get a cheaper form of transport until you have saved enough to buy a 2nd-hand vehicle - cash.
4. See if you can reduce the Student Loan payments, or spread things out a little - these are usually 'cheaper money' than credit-cards. Go & talk to your bankers - nicely.

Principle:
Get out of debt & work on cash. Live within your means.

 

[ShawnD]

Interest has to be stated in terms of APR which allows you to make comparisons between different kinds of loans.

How is APR stated? I see lots of things that will say "5% compounded monthly" or when you buy dividend stocks it could be "4% quarterly dividend", while my Visa Green card is 20%, and when I called them, they said it was compounded daily. It's incredibly dishonest when they're allowed to compound daily and still claim it's 20%. Go into Excel and type "=(1 + (0.2/365))^365" and it will give you something like 1.221335858, which means 22.13% interest. That's over 10% more interest than what they're claiming. That shouldn't even be legal.

Actually, credit cards, car loads and mortgages all work the same in this regard. For a credit card, the minimum payment covers interest and a little of the principal. Any amount you pay above the minimum goes directly to principal and lowers the interest in the next payment period.

Sorry, but I should have stated that my last post was based on word of mouth from a friend who worked for a seedy credit company. Apparently there is some kind of law that prevents a company from charging compound interest, but there's a way around that. Rather than charging interest on interest, the balance on a credit card is split into two separate accounts. One account is the interest, and one is the principle. The company sets the minimum payment to be slightly lower than the interest, which is generally about 30%/year for people who have bad credit, compounded daily. With a potentially never-ending loan in place, the company simulates compound interest by adding user fees. If you pay late, there's a feed. If you pay less than the minimum, there is a fee. Rather than sticking the fees in the interest account, which cannot be charged interest, those fees are thrown into the principle account, which does have interest. You start with $100 principle and you pay interest on that $100. Then you get a $10 service fee to make a $110 principle, and you pay interest on $110.

Basically it's a scam.

In fact a mortgage can be the worse deal because sometimes there is a penalty for early payoff. That clause in some mortgages is one of the problems feeding the current subprime crisis.

Very true.

edit: I think the minimum payment for credit cards varies quite a bit between companies, and even different cards from the same company. My last credit card bill for a Visa Green card at 19.75% interest and a limit of $2,000 was for $1,544 and the minimum required payment on the statement is $47, which is roughly 3%. I've seen statements for my mom's Visa Gold card, and her required minimums are incredibly high. For a statement of about $600, the minimum payment was around $100, which is about 17%. Her credit limit and credit score are much better than mine, so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[ice109]

meh my rent is 250$ a month. if i was hard pressed for money i would just stay in this college town.

 

[Gokul43201]

That leaves around $500 a month for food. If I spent all that on food that would be about $15 per day/$5 per meal.

You need to consider the possibility of not eating EVERY meal out. Groceries are a useful concept.

 

[Gib Z]

My sister is in her second year of University now, and she has things extremely easy, and that's in comparison to most other people, not just you (sorry if that sounded harsh =[ ).

She still lives with the rest of my family, who pay for her phone bill, food, internet, student fees etc etc She borrows their car's, doesn't pay for the gas, and doesn't even need the cars to go to Uni because the public transport here is pretty cheap and fast, almost no matter where you live. She works at a clothing store where she gets twenty-four dollars, which is a crazy amount for someone her age. Basically, my parents pay for all her entertainment expenses as well, ie going out to dinners and lunches with friends. The only thing she actually uses the money she works on are larger entertainment expenses, like Concert tickets. The rest goes straight into her savings.

The fact that someone is living paycheck to paycheck while someone close to me has it so easy gives me the most guilty feeling of disgusting unfairness.

P.S My parents have already said they won't be able to completely fund a school like Harvard for my post-grad, so I'm going to be living as tight as you are in a few years :(

 

[animalcroc]

Assuming youre single, I am surprised you live paycheck to paycheck with that income.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

How is APR stated? I see lots of things that will say "5% compounded monthly" or when you buy dividend stocks it could be "4% quarterly dividend", while my Visa Green card is 20%, and when I called them, they said it was compounded daily. It's incredibly dishonest when they're allowed to compound daily and still claim it's 20%. Go into Excel and type "=(1 + (0.2/365))^365" and it will give you something like 1.221335858, which means 22.13% interest. That's over 10% more interest than what they're claiming. That shouldn't even be legal.

APR is the annual interest rate with no compounding. This way you can easily compare rates. Two loans may be stated at different rates depending on how often compounding is done, but if the APR is the same, then it doesn't matter. Lenders must state what the APR is and this is the figure you should use for comparisons.

Sorry, but I should have stated that my last post was based on word of mouth from a friend who worked for a seedy credit company. Apparently there is some kind of law that prevents a company from charging compound interest, but there's a way around that. Rather than charging interest on interest, the balance on a credit card is split into two separate accounts. One account is the interest, and one is the principle. The company sets the minimum payment to be slightly lower than the interest, which is generally about 30%/year for people who have bad credit, compounded daily. With a potentially never-ending loan in place, the company simulates compound interest by adding user fees. If you pay late, there's a feed. If you pay less than the minimum, there is a fee. Rather than sticking the fees in the interest account, which cannot be charged interest, those fees are thrown into the principle account, which does have interest. You start with $100 principle and you pay interest on that $100. Then you get a $10 service fee to make a $110 principle, and you pay interest on $110.

Sounds fantastic to me. Credit card companies normally do charge interest on interest, they don't keep separate accounts. If you pay less than the interest accrued in a given month, the unpaid interest becomes principal for the next month.

 

[gravenewworld]

With $5, you can buy one of the following:
-3lbs of ground beef, the regular fatty kind
-5L (~quarts) of milk (milk is very expensive where I live)
-1.5lbs of butter
-10kg of rice
-8 boxes of kraft dinner (5 if you get brand name Kraft Dinner)
-5 Junior Cheeseburger Deluxe from Wendys
-2kg of Doritos

3lbs of hamburger, at 75 calories per ounce (give or take), is 3600 calories.
5L of 2% milk, at 130 calories per 250mL, is 2600 calories
1.5lbs (~675g) of butter, at 740 calories per 100g, is 4995 calories
10kg of white rice, at 170 calories per cup (let's just assume it has a bulk density of 1), is 6800 calories.
8 boxes of KD, at 720 calories per box (dry mix only, no milk/butter), is 5760 calories
5 cheeseburgers from wendys, at 300 calories each, is 1500 calories
2kg of Doritos, at 250 calories per 50g, is 10000 calories

So as you can see, $5 alone is more than enough to exceed the daily recommended caloric intake of ~2000 calories by up to 5x. The other lesson is that Doritos are a fantastic source of not-dying when you're strapped for cash. Keep that in mind, any college students who may be reading this

Whew! If I had a diet like that I'm sure my doc would want to slap me. When it comes to food, I absolutely refuse to be cheap. I don't mine shelling out extra $$ for fresh fruit and vegetables, more lean meats, and higher quality fish.


In reality, I probably spend about $300 a month on buying groceries. That leaves me with $200 for 4 weeks=$50 a week which I spend on going to the movies or hanging out with my friends and drinking beers at the bar.

 

[ice109]

Whew! If I had a diet like that I'm sure my doc would want to slap me. When it comes to food, I absolutely refuse to be cheap. I don't mine shelling out extra $$ for fresh fruit and vegetables, more lean meats, and higher quality fish.


In reality, I probably spend about $300 a month on buying groceries. That leaves me with $200 for 4 weeks=$50 a week which I spend on going to the movies or hanging out with my friends and drinking beers at the bar.

stop eating fish. it's a waste of money. i refuse to skimp on lean meat too but fish is just plain stupid. so is the beer and the movies considering bittorrent.

 

[Gib Z]

Seriously guys, we're talking about this guy on a tight budget and a lot of this would be relieved if he moved back in with his parents, which he doesn't want to because everyone knows that's kinda fruity.

But I would rather be the one living with my parents then the one who eats bad, can't go to the movies, and can't have a drink at the bar.

 

[ice109]

Seriously guys, we're talking about this guy on a tight budget and a lot of this would be relieved if he moved back in with his parents, which he doesn't want to because everyone knows that's kinda fruity.

But I would rather be the one living with my parents then the one who eats bad, can't go to the movies, and can't have a drink at the bar.

he's far from impoverished.

 

[JasonRox]

he's far from impoverished.

Yeah.

It seems more like bad management of finances.

 

[momentum_waves]

Try the Chinese method I proposed - it works... :)

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

You should contact this woman and find out how she does it.http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/SurvivingAndThrivingOn12000AYear.aspx"

 

[cristo]

Yeah.

It seems more like bad management of finances.

I agree. I earn around £16k which is at least less then half the OP earns, and I manage to get by-- of course I don't have a car, since it's just a drain on money. Plus I live in London where having a car is pretty useless.

 

[JasonRox]

You should contact this woman and find out how she does it.http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/SurvivingAndThrivingOn12000AYear.aspx"

Awesome!

I find eating pasta really cheap too though.

Yeah, it's definitely doable. I spent a lot of money this year (help from father). Generally, I'm either cheap or I work even more hours for what I want. I spent years going through college and paying my way through ($5000 tuition). Bought my books, bought my car, paid my own insanely high insurance (started at $2600 a year), paid my own gas, paid for my own clothes and so on for 4 years. After the 4 years, I owed only $9000! That's a deal.

This year my dad started helping me (he always did, I just didn't see any money... long story) so basically I was able to finally buy clothes I want and go out fairly frequently.

I could of probably chose to become debt free instead but if all goes well I'll end up owing like $6000 when I'm done while owning a car and scooter (real one). I plan on hold onto my car for as long as I can and also my car insurance is at $1000 a year now (that's a real dream for me...I have no claims, tickets or accidents!).

 

[ShawnD]

Whew! If I had a diet like that I'm sure my doc would want to slap me. When it comes to food, I absolutely refuse to be cheap. I don't mine shelling out extra $$ for fresh fruit and vegetables, more lean meats, and higher quality fish.


In reality, I probably spend about $300 a month on buying groceries. That leaves me with $200 for 4 weeks=$50 a week which I spend on going to the movies or hanging out with my friends and drinking beers at the bar.

You might want to cut back on fresh fish and get canned fish. The price of fish varies a lot depending on location, and in my area fish is easily $15/pound.

It might be a good idea to stop drinking at bars too. I'm usually the designated driver under the condition that people buy me food and soft drinks at the bar, so I get away with paying next to nothing

 

[ice109]

You might want to cut back on fresh fish and get canned fish. The price of fish varies a lot depending on location, and in my area fish is easily $15/pound.

It might be a good idea to stop drinking at bars too. I'm usually the designated driver under the condition that people buy me food and soft drinks at the bar, so I get away with paying next to nothing

great idea. i don't like to drink and now i can profit from it

 

[chroot]

Moving back in with the parents is a difficult, but financially wise decision. Even if you only live with them for a year, you'll be in an incredibly different position at the end of it.

Everything everyone has said about credit cards is absolutely true: they are essentially corporate evil. Thankfully, they are powerless so long as you never carry a balance. (Assuming you didn't get suckered into one that has annual fees.) The #1 priority in almost any personal financial situation is to eliminate credit card debt. Nothing is costlier than credit card debt.

I'd also have to say that choosing to skimp on good food is a terrible decision, compared to skimping on other things like cars. We have a tremendous health problem in this country, partially because crap like Doritos and Wendy's burgers cost so little, and green veggies and fruit cost so much. Skipping vegetables and fish because they're expensive is a terrible idea. Instead, try to find farmer's markets and so on with cheaper (and better) produce.

- Warren

 

[ice109]

eating fish is equivalent to nutritional indulgence.

 

[chroot]

eating fish is equivalent to nutritional indulgence.

Because it's expensive? Because fisheries are not currently all that sustainable worldwide? Or because you think the rather unique nutrients you get from fish are completely unnecessary for good health?

- Warren

 

[ice109]

Because it's expensive? Because fisheries are not currently all that sustainable worldwide? Or because you think the rather unique nutrients you get from fish are completely unnecessary for good health?

- Warren

because the "unique" nutrients in fish can be found other places for much cheaper.

 

[chroot]

From a bottle of pills, which are made from fish?

- Warren

 

[ice109]

From a bottle of pills, which are made from fish?

- Warren

from flax which is much richer in omega 3s than fish

 

[turbo]

Fish is wonderful, as is fresh meat, fruits, and vegetables, but they can be pricy. When I got my own apartment in college, I slashed my food costs by concentrating on rice, pasta, dried legumes, and cheaper staple vegetables like potatoes and onions. I would budget for celery (good in lentil soup), green peppers (essential in spaghetti sauce), meats and cheeses, and yes, some fish from time to time. I brown-bagged every day, usually with a sandwich made from my home-baked whole wheat bread and an apple or a banana. There is no need to spend a lot of money on food if you can find the time to cook. I made soups, baked beans, casseroles, etc every week, and if I had managed to sell a pricey guitar or scored a 2-gig weekend playing guitar in my band, I might splurge and add a little pepperoni to my spaghetti sauce, along with some cheap hamburg. Meatless spaghetti was the norm, though, just for the sake of saving some money. Poor money management is the source of many (if not most) busted budgets. If you can't afford it, don't buy it. If you can cook for yourself and have lots of left-overs for other meals, it's a whole lot cheaper than eating out or buying "convenience foods" at the supermarket. I'd much rather take control of my own finances and live within my means than move back home with mom and dad, but I've got to admit that for the OP, returning to the nest would let him start paying down loans promptly without making the choices necessary to design and observe a budget. Easier, not necessarily "better" though, since living within your means is perhaps the most valuable skill-set one can acquire.

 

[gravenewworld]

from flax which is much richer in omega 3s than fish

You know some of us (like me for instance) might actually LIKE the way fish tastes. It is all about personal preference. Fish is probably one of my favorite meals. I will not be cheap when it comes to food. Almost everything I eat never comes from a can or a box. And you can buy cheap fish like flounder or catfish. Not all fish is expensive like Halibut.

Poor money management is the source of many (if not most) busted budgets. If you can't afford it, don't buy it. If you can cook for yourself and have lots of left-overs for other meals, it's a whole lot cheaper than eating out or buying "convenience foods" at the supermarket. I'd much rather take control of my own finances and live within my means than move back home with mom and dad, but I've got to admit that for the OP, returning to the nest would let him start paying down loans promptly without making the choices necessary to design and observe a budget. Easier, not necessarily "better" though, since living within your means is perhaps the most valuable skill-set one can acquire.

Money management? LOL that is something they don't teach you until you get into the real world. Do you really think I would have went to a private school if someone easily explained to a 17 year old me that I would have student loans that wouldn't be paid off until 2042?

Personal finance 101 should be required at EVERY university by the state in order to receive a diploma.

 

[ice109]

You know some of us (like me for instance) might actually LIKE the way fish tastes. It is all about personal preference. Fish is probably one of my favorite meals. I will not be cheap when it comes to food. Almost everything I eat never comes from a can or a box. And you can buy cheap fish like flounder or catfish. Not all fish is expensive like Halibut.

then don't complain about being broke.

you:"zomg I am broke and i don't know why"
everyone else: "it's cause you're spending all of your money"
you: "but i like to live in the lap of luxury and i still don't understand why I'm broke"
everyone else: "refer to line two"

 

[gravenewworld]

then don't complain about being broke.
everyone else: "it's cause you're spending all of your money"

Yeah on STUDENT LOANS.

I'll come out and say what everyone is afraid to say right now--- higher education can be a RIP OFF.

 

[ice109]

Yeah on STUDENT LOANS.

135$ of 1015$ is most of your money you sound like you need to someone to complain to. maybe it's good that you're moving back into your parent's house.

 

[gravenewworld]

135$ of 1015$ is most of your money you sound like you need to someone to complain to. maybe it's good that you're moving back into your parent's house.

$135+$250You know how much actually went to the principal last month? Only about $100 At a rate like that I won't have my student loans paid off until 2040+Higher education loans=SCAM.
Sounds like you don't know what it is like to carry a lot of undergrad debt. Come from a privileged family?

 

[ice109]

$135+$250


You know how much actually went to the principal last month? Only about $100 At a rate like that I won't have my student loans paid off until 2040+


Higher education loans=SCAM.



Sounds like you don't know what it is like to carry a lot of undergrad debt. Come from a privileged family?

 

[gravenewworld]

:zzz:

 

[Evo]

Lety's not argue over this, I think Gravenewworld has a good grasp of where his money goes, unlike my youngest daughter.

 

[ShawnD]

From a bottle of pills, which are made from fish?

- Warren

There's nothing wrong with supplements, but people go about it the wrong way. Humans have survived for thousands of years without supplements, so the starting point should be eating good food. When you can't get "good" food (living on rice to save money), supplement whatever is missing. Stupid people have a nasty habit of going the other way around; they start with supplements then work their diet around supplements.

 

[Holocene]

Its scandalous that you have to pay anything for access to Education...

You don't. People don't understand that you can educate yourself without any college at all. But, you won't be recognized for it. You have to spend 10's of thousands for that piece of paper.

 

[gravenewworld]

There's nothing wrong with supplements, but people go about it the wrong way. Humans have survived for thousands of years without supplements, so the starting point should be eating good food. When you can't get "good" food (living on rice to save money), supplement whatever is missing. Stupid people have a nasty habit of going the other way around; they start with supplements then work their diet around supplements.

There is increasing evidence that supplements aren't nearly as effective as obtaining your nutrients from food. Do you think those supplements are just made entirely out of the vitamin it is supposed to be? No, you are also consuming all sorts of other formulation chemicals that hold the pill together. Also there are many many other compounds in food that no one has any idea how they interact in the body and contribute to nutrition. Beta carotene in the pill form has been found to be void of the cancer preventing effects that are seen when vegetables that are high in beta carotene are consumed.

 

[turbo]

Money management? LOL that is something they don't teach you until you get into the real world. Do you really think I would have went to a private school if someone easily explained to a 17 year old me that I would have student loans that wouldn't be paid off until 2042?

Personal finance 101 should be required at EVERY university by the state in order to receive a diploma.

Budgeting and home finances were taught (mostly to girls) in my HS in the 60's. I didn't need that course. I had been working full-time every summer from age 14 on, and part-time during the springs and falls, maintaining the town's cemetery. I didn't spend a bit of that money. It was understood that I WOULD attend college and that my parents COULD NOT help me much. I worked all through college, buying and selling guitars, amps, etc, and repairing and adjusting guitars for other musicians, as well as playing frat parties. When I applied for financial aid before attending college, I was told that I didn't qualify because I had worked and saved too much money for college. That's all right, I went on my own dime, with some help from my folks when I hit a rough patch or two. To save money, I went in on a house-rental with some band-mates in my junior year. I soon found out that my budget was getting busted, and had to lay down the law. Just because there was food in the refrigerator, it was NOT fair game. If they didn't buy it, and they didn't cook it, they couldn't eat it without permission. A couple of the guys were really used to sponging off their parents and they got a little offended by the notion that they ought to pay their own way, but they eventually saw the light when I showed them my budget and their impact on it. They even offered to pay for ingredients when they wanted to have spaghetti, chili, baked beans and biscuits, etc, and we smoothed it out. I didn't mind baking extra bread or making extra casserole dishes when I didn't have to bear the full burden of the cost and the time, and I could plan my meals for the week without getting "surprises" when my house-mates got the munchies and raided my food.

 

[gravenewworld]

Budgeting and home finances were taught (mostly to girls) in my HS in the 60's. I didn't need that course. I had been working full-time every summer from age 14 on, and part-time during the springs and falls, maintaining the town's cemetery. I didn't spend a bit of that money. It was understood that I WOULD attend college and that my parents COULD NOT help me much. I worked all through college, buying and selling guitars, amps, etc, and repairing and adjusting guitars for other musicians, as well as playing frat parties. When I applied for financial aid before attending college, I was told that I didn't qualify because I had worked and saved too much money for college. That's all right, I went on my own dime, with some help from my folks when I hit a rough patch or two. To save money, I went in on a house-rental with some band-mates in my junior year. I soon found out that my budget was getting busted, and had to lay down the law. Just because there was food in the refrigerator, it was NOT fair game. If they didn't buy it, and they didn't cook it, they couldn't eat it without permission. A couple of the guys were really used to sponging off their parents and they got a little offended by the notion that they ought to pay their own way, but they eventually saw the light when I showed them my budget and their impact on it. They even offered to pay for ingredients when they wanted to have spaghetti, chili, baked beans and biscuits, etc, and we smoothed it out. I didn't mind baking extra bread or making extra casserole dishes when I didn't have to bear the full burden of the cost and the time, and I could plan my meals for the week without getting "surprises" when my house-mates got the munchies and raided my food.

I worked full time too all during high school as a bike messenger. I saved a few grand and opened up an IRA. I worked all through college, at one point I had 3 part time jobs. That was only enough though to cover the costs of textbooks, utilities, food, and gas. These days it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to find a student who can pay an entire college tuition on their own, even if they do work all during school without having to take out a loan because of the fact that tuition rates easily out pace inflation every year. College tuition costs are reaching outrageous levels even at instate schools for a lot of families and are becoming more and more of a burden on the future finances of new graduates. I recently read in the paper that the majority of new graduates with loans don't even expect to own a new home until they are well into their 30s because of how long it will take to pay off student loans. This day in age, the average student leaves school with almost 20 grand in debt. This also comes at a time when the Bush Administration has cut back on the amount of federal funding available for college student loans as well as raised the interest rate for federal student loans to 6.8%. What does that mean? Even more students then ever will be taking out even more higher interest private loans.

 

[ShawnD]

you are also consuming all sorts of other formulation chemicals that hold the pill together

Cheap pills like caffeine pills are generally held together with corn starch or calcium carbonate. Amino acid supplements (5-htp, phenylalanine) are gel caps filled with powder. Prescription drugs are more likely to contain "chemicals" as you call them in order to have a time release effect, which doesn't really apply to supplements.

You're right about needing other things.

 

[drankin]

No that would just be simply shifting one expense in the form of car payments and transferring it into another form of expenses--higher rent. But that is just logic talking.

That's if the rent is even that high closer to work. Your logic requires maintaining debt and paying unncessary fuel expenses as well as being at the mercy of unpredictable gas prices. Not to mention wasted time that could be applied to overtime, a second income, or something else productive. That's bad logic. Nice try though.

 

[gravenewworld]

That's if the rent is even that high closer to work. Your logic requires maintaining debt and paying unncessary fuel expenses as well as being at the mercy of unpredictable gas prices. Not to mention wasted time that could be applied to overtime, a second income, or something else productive. That's bad logic. Nice try though.

LOL this coming from someone who has no idea what the cost of rent is in places like West Chester, PA or Exton, PA which are the areas close to my work. LOL glad you assume I get paid hourly. Overtime doesn't exist for me genius. This post was a terrible waste of my time. Thanks.

 

[turbo]

Back in my HS days, full-time minimum-wage work paid $1.25/hour. Luckily, school at the state college was running $1200/year plus housing, food, etc, and engineering school books (although VERY expensive) were still within my reach.

Based on my mathematics SAT scores, I was offered comprehensive scholarships in Michigan and Arizona and was encouraged to apply for student aid at MIT. I never followed those up, because I wanted to live in Maine and earn a comfortable income, and at that time, pulp and paper was the dominant industry here and the U of M had a killer Chem E program sponsored in part by the P&P industry. I might have gotten a free ride at another school, but the freedom to hitch-hike home for a weekend to visit friends and family looked a whole lot better than buying plane tickets to come home once or twice a year.

You've got to make choices. I chose to live simply and school locally, so that I could maintain my connections with my friends and family. It may have been a better choice to spend the time exploring MIT or perhaps accepting full-boat scholarships at other schools, but that's not my way. I have always lived within 50 miles of where I was born, and my wife and I are rooted here. I have jumped jobs fearlessly as opportunities have come up, but I'll always live here.

BTW, hitch-hiking with long hair and a knapsack wasn't all that safe here in 1970. I've dodged beer-bottles on the road and have hit the woods trying to avoid car-fulls of rednecks. Luckily, I ran cross-country all through HS, and could outrun practically anybody intent on making an example of me. One night at the Madison Legion hall, I was surrounded by most of that town's football team after the quarterback's girlfriend and I hit it off. I chose the most likely target, stomped on his instep, and ran over him. The last pursuer gave up at about a quarter-mile, and I only had to walk home about 20 miles. She was REALLY cute!

 

[Gib Z]

That might be one of the best stories I've ever heard on these forums =] Risking a good beating by the entire football team, but of course it's worth it when the girl's really cute =D

 

[drankin]

LOL this coming from someone who has no idea what the cost of rent is in places like West Chester, PA or Exton, PA which are the areas close to my work. LOL glad you assume I get paid hourly. Overtime doesn't exist for me genius. This post was a terrible waste of my time. Thanks.

Welp, you can't give someone good advice if they already no everything. But it isn't hard to find an apartment online. Oh, look, here's one:

Goshen Meadows
1323 West Chester Pike
West Chester, PA 19382

1 1 $840 - $890
2 1 $1000 - $1050

Fitness room, washer/dryer in unit. You don't have to be a genius...

 

[turbo]

That might be one of the best stories I've ever heard on these forums =] Risking a good beating by the entire football team, but of course it's worth it when the girl's really cute =D

I didn't know that she was the quarterback's ex-girlfriend until the team surrounded me in the parking lot. She was awfully cute and curvy, but I didn't expect to get assaulted, especially since my winter "hugger" was equally cute and curvy and we were ski-patrol partners at a serious ski resort.

 

[gravenewworld]

Welp, you can't give someone good advice if they already no everything. But it isn't hard to find an apartment online. Oh, look, here's one:

Goshen Meadows
1323 West Chester Pike
West Chester, PA 19382

1 1 $840 - $890
2 1 $1000 - $1050

Fitness room, washer/dryer in unit. You don't have to be a genius...

EXACTLY. DOUBLE THE RENT. WHAT A GENIUS YOU ARE. Houses in Exton and West Chester routinely go anywhere from $400,000-$1 million so why do you think rent is so expensive in those areas? But I'm sure you knew all this already. Even if I lived closer to work in those areas I would still make the same thread because rather than spending a ton of money on gas I would be spending a ton of money on rent instead. Ironic, because if I did that then people would be telling me to move out.

 

[hypatia]

I know so many people who live pay check to pay check. Don't worry, things will get better. I also would spend the extra money on good healthy foods, and I would also spend money on things I do for fun.
Bad diet and stress, will do you far more harm in the long run. Your young, you have the rest of your life to improve on paychecks, don't fret.

 

[user101]

Tutor - you can make good money.

Reduce the cable to dial-up (if you already have a landline). So you won't get blazing fast speeds, but you'll save a crapload on the internet.

Try being a bike messenger on the weekends? That might throw in very little money, but it's money nonetheless for easy work.

Learn programming and sign up on rentacoder.com.

Do you have any old and used things?

How about going on welfare?

 

[ShawnD]

Reduce the cable to dial-up (if you already have a landline). So you won't get blazing fast speeds, but you'll save a crapload on the internet.
How about going on welfare?

Dialup is the same price as dsl. $10 for the connection + $20 for an extra phone line = $30. DSL and cable cost about $30 if you get a basic plan.

You cannot claim welfare if you are employed, especially when your income is higher than the national median income.