Ten things teens have done to save money at college- Part one

Ten things that other teens have done to add to the dollars needed to survive away from home:

 1)      Since my senior year in high school, I have asked everyone in my family for gift cards ONLY ( no gifts or trinkets) to help with living expenses. What a bounty– I got cards to Target, coffee shops, restaurants.I felt like I was getting the stuff for free every time I used them.  TIP: Make a copy of the back of the card–then if you lose it, the company will refund it if you know the code on the back. Jannine

2)      I made a list of the stuff I wanted in my dorm and asked if anyone had those things that they wanted to donate to my college cause. It paid off, my cousin gave me a mini-fridge and my sister gave me a microwave from her dorm room, and I got a lamp from a friend. -Katy

3)      I looked up the college chat boards and asked all the questions I wanted to know about where to get books at the cheapest rate and where to buy groceries and I was a pro right from the first day. -Marcia

4)      I had friends and we opted to live OFF campus and rent a house with 6 people. We were all good friends and we all planned to cook and we made a BIG game plan before we even left our homes. It took us a year of planning but it made our food and housing budget go down to about $400 a month.  -Kristi

5)      Buy a small food plan at college, you will never use the full time food plan. –LaSonja

College Ready in 12th Grade

This is part five of a five part series on tips to get kids in the right direction toward education. It is time to start the teen- training of how to be a responsible adult. Going away to school means they will have a lot more than just book work to do.

12^th  Grade-

1)      Gather your team- Ask for formal letters of recommendation from all community service roles, past jobs, and create a formal resume.  Build a college resume- find out all you can about the college, the services, transportation, and the world surrounding the college. Where can you get dinner for $3.00 and how can you explore this new world?

2)      FAFSA- Parents need to file taxes right away to avoid delays in the Federal Application Financial Student Aid because it must be completed in January.

What Does the Word Vacation Mean to You?

Does vacation mean getting away at any cost, and slamming down the plastic to charge tickets, hotel and other costs? Or does vacation mean–no way I can afford one. Maybe it’s time to rethink what vacation possibilities are available without running up credit card debt or staying at home. See a Rich Chick story below, and get ready for change! Rich Chicks

How to Have a Truly Freeing Vacation

by Patsy Keech

As spring break and summer nears your thoughts may turn to vacation.  If you were going to write a list of words that describes VACATION what would you include?

For most of my adult life some of those words would have been: shouldn’t be doing this, guilt, can’t afford it.  And then as the departure date would arrive, I would work myself into such a state of frenzy that I always left home with a heavy heart.  I never felt that carefree, light-hearted joyfulness that I saw everyone else had when taking vacations.  I thought for a long while that I was just one of those people who didn’t like vacations.  Sure I would have fun while I was there – but a sense of guilt loomed over the trip as I knew we would be paying for everything for months– with interest.

A few years ago my sister and parents decided to go to Ireland.   Even though I knew going to Ireland with my Irish father to meet up with his relatives was the trip of a lifetime, I just knew I couldn’t afford to go, so I didn’t plan on it.

Six months before they were going I remember telling my husband that I knew not making this trip with my family would be something I would regret my entire life. I had to find a way to go!  This wasn’t just a trip, this was now a mission.  As I looked at the calendar I realized that one of the months included an extra payday – that would pay for one plane ticket. My husband received some retro pay from his contract settling – that paid for another ticket. Now we just needed to save for lodging, food and a rental car. We did some research on prices, places to stay, and came up with a trip budget. Then when we had saved enough money to pay for that budget item we would it cross off the list.  It was so fun, and freeing.  By the time we left the states – everything on our trip was paid for.  For the first time in my life, I felt immense joy and pride around this vacation.  I discovered that planning ahead and setting goals prior to the journey was an exciting part of the trip.  It allowed me to be truly free – I EARNED the vacation.

That was just the beginning – we have taken two other family trips since, both of which were completely paid for before we left town.
I challenge you to write your own list of words that come to mind when you think of the word vacation.  For me – if freedom is not on my list, then I will just wait and save until I can add it before I take off again.