Month: June 2007

Save Money On Clothes By Not Buying Any

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So far this year I haven’t spent any money on clothing. The only clothing expenses I anticipate having are socks and underwear. Unless I’m required to buy a specific item of clothing for work I’m not going to buy any other clothing this year. (I’m going to buy some running shoes but I consider that more of a hobby expense than clothing expense.) Even though I rarely buy clothes and the ones I do buy are cheap I still have managed to amass more clothing than I need. Yesterday I donated some of the clothes I never wear and I should donate some more. Even without buying clothes they still seem to accumulate from birthdays,Christmas, race shirts and other free clothing coming my way.

It is somewhat easier for me to not buy clothing since I’m a guy and don’t need to worry about my appearance that much. For a woman’s story of not buying clothing check out  Alex Martin’s Brown Dress Project,  where she wore the same brown dress for an entire year.  I’m not quite at that level yet but I like the idea of having just one outfit. Although it would probably be more practical to have one outfit per season. I doubt many people will be as extreme as Alex Martin but it does show how less money can be spent on clothing.

Redbox: I’m Loving It

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You probably already know this but Redbox is an automated DVD rental machine that allows you to rent DVDs for $1 a night. The Mcdonald’s near me got a Redbox a couple weeks ago. I’d read about Redbox before but until now there hadn’t been a Redbox close enough to me to make using it practical. Now it is providing me with very cheap entertainment. The rental is already cheap at $1 a night but after renting just two DVDs they sent me a promo code for a free rental. Doing a Google search for “Redbox promo codes” revealed even more free rental codes. Since the codes are good once per credit card by switching cards I should have free movies for the rest of the summer. The only drawback is I keep buying food at McDonald’s. Once I stop doing that this will really be a good deal.

Kicked Out of Law School

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I’ve been depressed lately and this is the major reason why. I was officially kicked out of law school yesterday for academic deficiency. Since my grades were lower than I expected this semester I knew this was coming. I have a hearing on the 20th to apply for readmission. I’ve already been told this is a long shot. If the hearing doesn’t go my way than two years and almost $60,000 have been wasted. I’m not sure what I’ll do if I don’t get readmitted. I could go to a different law school and start all over again but I really do not want to start at the beginning again. For now I’m focusing on getting readmitted and I’ll make other plans if I have to.

May Income

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Here is my income for May.

Online Income

$23.32

Ebay/Half.com

$35.29

Mystery Shopping

$11

Survey

$5

Jobs

$1570.58

Medical Study

$175

Interest

$21.03

CashDuck

$21.50

Total

$1862.72

Although my earnings increased quite a bit they didn’t keep up with my spending. I was rather surprised by how much more I spent than I earned. I didn’t go in debt I just spent down the money I had in my bank accounts. I have no cushion now but my next move is to build an emergency fund.

Progress Is So Slow

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It doesn’t seem like I am making any progress on paying off my debt or building up my emergency fund. Last month I only paid $100 on my debt and contributed just $25 towards my emergency fund. There were a lot of extraordinary one-time expenses last month but I know there will always be unusual expenses. I guess I just need to be patient and stick to my plan. I know I will do significantly better on paying down my debt and building up my emergency fund this  month.