Archive for September, 2011

Your Daily Commute’s Impact on Your Wallet

By: MD | Date posted: September 08, 2011 (6:00 am)

Your Daily Commute's Impact on Your Wallet

How much money do you spend on your daily commute? How much money do you need to spend before you even arrive at school or work? The answer is likely far more conservative than we want to admit.

As we continue writing about little savings I wanted to get into the topic of your daily commute.

What’s the point of saving money on your daily commute?

If you actually sit down to calculate how much money you spend on your daily travel you’ll be shocked to find out how much it really is. Driving to work/school can get pretty expensive. Since this series is about small savings I wanted to look at how we can save money on our daily travel. Another benefit is that we simply spend so much time on our travels, we might as well try to save a few bucks along the way.

What are the best ways to save money on your daily commute?

Carpool with friends.

This is by far the best way to save money on your daily commute. It’s also the most obvious solution for most of us as well. Why is carpooling such a good idea?

  • Less wear and tear on your car.
  • You can sleep a little longer.
  • Save money together.
  • You can see which co-workers are super cranky in the morning.
  • It beats the bus.
  • Have you ever tried to organize a carpool at work?

Take the bus.

Alright I know that this is an easy answer. I also know that taking the bus isn’t always feasible. Don’t yell at me yet. I’m just suggesting that you try taking the bus once in a while. It could work out for you. You might realize that it’s the best way to travel. You might end up hating it. I personally got fed up with it on a daily basis. Give it a try once in a while.

Ride your bike.

Once in a while I’ll ride my bike to work. I find that it provides me with some excellent exercise while saving some money. You might not always have time to ride your bike on your daily commute, but it’s worth trying at least once a week. My recommendation to you guys is that you pick one day next week where you’ll ride your bike to work or school. Let me know how it goes.

 What’s my experience with saving money on the daily commute?

I spent many years taking the bus to college. It was a $6 round trip and I got pretty much all of my studying/home work done in the one hour ride each way. I found that it make perfect sense to take the bus since I would travel during peak hours and I usually crammed for my exams.

My last semester of college I ended up working full-time and I really couldn’t find a way to save as much money on my commute. The reason for this was that I had to travel a decent distance from class to work in a short period of time. The other problem was that my last year schedule wasn’t as flexible as it was the first few years. So long story short I was stuck spending more money on my daily commute.

Ask the readers– how do you save money on your daily commute? Does it even matter? Is it worth it?

Check out the rest of the Little Savings Series:

Holding a Yard Sale For Extra Cash.

(photo credit: kecko)

Would You Date a Cheap Person?

By: Green Panda | Date posted: September 07, 2011 (5:00 am)

I will start off by saying I have went out with a cheap person once and that was enough for me. Besides being a tightwad, he was arrogant, so that ended it before it began.

However, I have dated some frugal guys and enjoyed picking up new tips. In fact, my husband is a frugal guy, but our dates were interesting and time flew by.

My husband and I met when we were in college. Dating while in college meant we had to be creative with our budget.

Do You Have Money Problems or Relationship Problems? frugal dates in college

Odd question, but I found that sometimes you have to take a step back and figure out what exactly is your problem with the other person. Your date could be embarrassingly cheap and you just know it won’t work out in the long term. Do they complain out loud how expensive the food is? Do they give the waiter or waitress a cheap tip (or no tip) even though they got great service?

Or could it be that you’re not used to living a frugal lifestyle and are a bit uncomfortable with it?  For me having a guy cook at home is a plus – he’s frugal and he has a useful talent. However, only having ramen at his home for our meals together is a bit too cheap for me.

Everyone has their own definition of frugality versus cheapness. You have to be honest with yourself if you find a potential date cheap or just frugal.

Love, Money, and More?

It is possible to date a frugal person and have some fun. For us, we knew that living like broke college students was a temporary move. Once we started our professional careers we’d have a bit more money to work with.

It turned out to be a benefit for when we decided to get married.We also knew from our dates that we didn’t need a ton of money to have fun. That meant we could go a few more pricey trips, but still stay within a budget as a couple.

You too can benefit from dating a frugal person. As your income increases, you can still keep your creatively frugal habits and save the money for some of your financial goals.

Thoughts on Love and Money

Have you ever dated a cheap person? What annoyed you the most about them? Have you ever dated a frugal person? What was the most interesting frugal habit they had?

Photo Credit:  tibchris

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Should You Work Full Time or Part Time in College?

By: Kristina | Date posted: September 06, 2011 (7:30 am)

Good Morning Green Panda Friends.  I hope that the first day of the fall semester won’t be too harsh on our college friends, and the first day back to work won’t be too harsh on our young professional readers.  Today marks the beginning of the Fall season and it’s also the first post in our new series called Ultimate Success Tips for College Students.  If you have made some mistakes during your college career, or if you are looking to start off college on the right path then this series is for you.

 

Working in College

Since college students are known for being broke, one of the first major decisions we have to make in our college career is whether we want to work or not work while studying in college.  College life is the first time in our lives that we really have to start making our own decisions, and we hope that the choices we make are smart moves.

I definitely don’t regret working in college because I wouldn’t have a successful career today if I didn’t.  Although sometimes I was jealous of the other students in my classes who drove to school in their parent’s car, paid their tuition with parent’s credit card, and didn’t have to pay rent because they still lived at home with Mommy and Daddy.

My life during college would have been a lot easier if I stayed at home to live with my parents because I wouldn’t have had to work so much in college.  However, I wouldn’t give back the experiences that I gained from living life on my own for all the money in the world.   I would hate to be 30 years old and still living in my hometown with the same group of friends that I had in elementary school.  Working in college is a good idea because it allows us to meet new people while still earning some money on the side.

 

Money for College

If you decide not to work in college, how will you get money to pay for college?  Maybe you are lucky enough to have the financial assistance of your parents.  Maybe you decided to apply for financial aid directly from your school, or maybe you applied for a student line of credit from your financial institution.

If working full time during college is not a financial necessity, then maybe working part time is your personal financial goal.  Working part time gives us work experience which looks good on our resume, and it also gives us a little social break from always being stuck in the books. I always loved working in retail or in the food services industry during college.  The pay is not super great, but the discounts and perks on clothing and food can definitely save us a lot of money.

Maybe working full time for an employer is not your thing, so why don’t you work full or part time for yourself.  Being self employed is a great option for students to get money for college because it allows us flexibility to manage our own schedule.  College life is a lot easier when we can efficiently manage both our work and school schedules.

College students can start their own tutoring business and share their wealth of knowledge with other college students or with high school students.  Students often need assistance with subjects outside of their field of study.  If you play a musical instrument, tutoring and teaching hobbies is another great way to earn money for college.

 

Photo by My Life Story

Can Changing Majors Hurt Your College Career?

By: Kristina | Date posted: September 05, 2011 (7:30 am)

Good Morning Green Panda Friends and Happy Labour Day. I hope that you are all enjoying this lovely long weekend, I know that I am.  I actually also took Friday off work so I am going to have a lovely 3 day work week.  OK enough about me and let’s get back to blogging.  This is the last post in our Going Back to College Savings series, and we will start another series very shortly.  Hopefully everyone made it to college ok and by now everyone is settled in and ready to start the fall semester of the 2011-2012 academic year.

If you are entering your first year of college I ask you, have you already picked your major? If you are a seasoned college veteran I ask you, is your current major the same as it was in your first year of college, or have you changed your major?

 

Changing College Paths

I personally changed my major during college.  I was originally accepted to college in Urban Planning, and I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics.  There were two reasons why I changed my college path; the first reason is that I started working at the bank and I really started to really like finance, the second reason is because I was really good in Economics and I really sucked at Urban Planning.

I changed my college path from Urban Planning to Economics mid way through my second year of college.  Although the decision to change my major was mostly for personal reasons, I did also consider the academic consequences.  My decision to change my major did not hurt my college transcript and it did not add any additional time onto my college career.  I used my completed Urban Planning courses as my elective courses on my college transcript.  Unfortunately this left me with no other option except to enroll in only compulsory courses for my final two and a half years of college.

Changing my college path and using my original courses as elective credits turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  It is very well received by potential employers and academic bodies to show concentration in one subject area.  Getting a good job after graduation will help us repay our student loans.

 

Finding a New Career

The choice to change my college path was a good decision for me because it allowed me to find a job directly out of college; actually it helped me find a job even before graduation.  The financial services industry definitely offers more job opportunities than the field of Urban Planning.

The key to graduating college is not to expect to find a new career overnight.  I suggest that we actually start looking for a job the summer before we start our final year in college.  Juggling a school schedule with a work schedule shows potential employers dedication and time management skills.

Finding a new career after our college career ends may prove to be very difficult for some recent college graduates.  The important thing about entering the workforce after college is to remember that no one starts at the top in their new career.

 

I hope that you have enjoyed this savings series. Here are all of the posts in our Going Back to College Savings series:

My College To Do List

My College Check List

Can You Afford To Go To College

The Opportunity Cost of a College Education

Find Free Money For College

College Students Saving Money

Make Smart Money Moves

 

Photo by Kevin Dooley

What’s Cool Around The Web

By: MD | Date posted: September 02, 2011 (6:00 am)

Let’s see what articles were interesting as the summer break comes to a close…

1. 3 Hidden Truths about Market Crashes – Why They Crash When They Are Handled By Professionals @ TDGB.

2. Side Hustle Series: I’m a Worm Counter @ Budgets Are Sexy.

3. More Reasons Why People Fail At Making Money Online @ TFB.

4. The debt slave revolution will not be televised @ ERE.

5. Why Do You Want To Be A Billionaire? @ IS.

6. Reasons To Not Invest @ The College Investor.

7. Is Your House Covered? @ MJTM.

8. Are You Going to be Working This Semester? @ Studenomics.

9. How Brand Loyal Are You? @ Canadian Finance Blog.

10. Is Working 40 Hours a Week Enough? @ PIN.

11. Murphy’s Law When Starting a Business @ Experiglot.

12. September Love Drop: Meet Melanie @ 20 and Engaged.

13. Free Transportation for Life! @ Krant Cents.

14. Are There Really People Who Only Work 40 Hours A Week Or Less? @ Financial Samurai.

15. August 2011 Blog Statistics and Income Update @ BITFS.

Time For Some Little Savings For Big Results

By: MD | Date posted: September 01, 2011 (6:00 am)

Time For Some Little Savings For Big Results

After a multiple week run it’s time to retire the Saving Tons of Money Series and it’s now officially time to begin the Saving Little Bits of Money Series. The last series ended off with a post on planning for the major stuff. We learned various tips and strategies for how we can save tons of cash in our 20s.

Now it’s time for us to tackle the minor issues that can creep up on us. For our next series we’re going to look at some minor savings that can lead to serious results.

What’s the first way that we can save a little bit of cash? By throwing a yard sale.

What’s the proper way to host a yard sale? How can you make some money in the near future with a sale of your own? Let’s jump into some practical tips that I recently picked up by throwing my first sale of this type…

Get the word out in advance.

I once heard an excellent line on the idea of marketing. The author mentioned that it doesn’t who’s coming where or what’s going on when because if people don’t know about it they won’t come. Simply put, you always need to promote every event. When it comes to a yard sale you really need to get the word out since there’s a whole group of people out there that go yard sale hunting every Saturday morning.

How can you promote a yard sale? Here are a few practical tips:

  • Put up huge signs around your community.
  • Advertise at the local community centre.
  • Look into free newspaper classified ads.
  • Tell your neighbors.
  • Try to turn it into a street sale.

Any of these tips can guide you towards a successful yard sale. This will get onlookers to at least check out what you have to offer. You now need to find a way to make some money.

Setup early in the morning.

You don’t want to miss anything with your sale. You also don’t want to miss the early birds that start off at 6am looking for deals and hot items. This is why I suggest that you get up bright and early with a cup of coffee and start getting things ready. This will allow you to put your things out while you start to slowly sell stuff.

Offer a diversity of products.

What I noticed with a yard sale is that you get a diverse group of customers. You have the old ladies just looking for a bargain. You got the house wives looking for specifics. You also get the drifters that just happen to stop by. This is why you to offer a diversity of products with your yard sale. We had everything from clothes to electronics to tools. We got to get a rid of a bunch of stuff that we didn’t really need or care for all that much.

Don’t be afraid to let go of your crap.

You’ll find that a lot of garage sale shoppers are looking to low-ball you. Don’t get offended by this. They’re looking for a deal and you’re looking to get rid of stuff. I figured that if I didn’t sell this stuff, I would just throw it out. As a result I didn’t get offended when offered a low price. I was much happier with low prices than holding on to crap that I don’t need any longer.

Make it fun.

My little brother and I ended up lots of fun with the early morning yard sale. We each invited a few friends, played some music, and enjoyed what could be the last warm weekend of the summer. It ended up being a fun way to spend a Saturday morning. I recommend that you all give it a try sometime.

Sure you won’t make a fortune with a garage sale. You can have an interesting morning where you free up clutter from your home and pocket some money. We could all use some extra beer money (or money for books).

Have you guys every held your own garage sale? Did you make any money? Do you have any tips for us?

(photo credit: jon_a_ross)

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