For reasons that are still unbeknownst to me not all of my tuition was automatically paid out of my financial aid. This created an inconvenience for me since I now had to pay the remaining balance by cash or check. Since I have several checking accounts but no checks this left me with the option of paying by cash.
I decided to get a little cash back for my inconvenience. I ordered $500 in dollar coins from the U.S. Mint. These coins sell at face value with free shipping. I used my credit card to pay for them earning myself $15 cash back.
The university cashier didn’t seem real pleased to be paid with dollar coins but he accepted them without complaint. The few minutes I spent ordering the coins were well worth the $15 return to me. I’m not sure how long the U.S. Mint is going to be offering this free shipping deal but I’ll probably take advantage of it again.
Back in January I posted my sample $1000 a month budget. I don’t stay strictly on this budget but it is a fairly accurate representation of my monthly expenses. Frugal Freedom lives on even less and posted her $700 a month budget. Below is her monthly budget. I combined some expenses into categories to make it easier to compare to my monthly budget.
The main difference in our budgets is that she doesn’t have a rent or mortgage payment in her budget because she lives in an RV. She does have a house with a mortgage but I’m guessing she doesn’t include it here because her renters cover the mortgage payments(?). Other than that our budgets are pretty similar. One difference is that she doesn’t have any money budgeted for entertainment or health insurance. She also spends money on life insurance which I don’t have because I have no need for it.
This does show that you can live on very little money if you plan for it. If anyone else has a low monthly budget they’d like to share I’d like to see it.
I got some good new this week. When I took the MPRE last month I thought I hadn’t passed it. I got my score report this week though and I received a scaled score of 91 and I only needed an 80 to pass. I must have been doing really good at guessing that day. I know the 80 and 91 numbers don’t represent percentages but I’m not sure what they represent exactly. It doesn’t really matter because the only thing I need to know is that I passed.
I already received my approval letter for my Rule 13 application. This means I can practice law under a supervising attorney. I needed this for the Child & Family services clinic I’m taking at school. I assumed I’d be approved for it but it is still nice to receive. It makes it seem like I’m getting a little closer to actually being an attorney.
You can get some serious discount by buying gift cards online. There are several sites where you can buy gift cards at discounts around 15-20% off. They will also buy gift cards from you for about 70% of the face value. It is a much better deal for you as a buyer than a seller. Some of the most popular sites include PlasticJungle.com, GiftCardsAgain.com, SwapaGift.com and CardAvenue.com. You can also find gift cards on eBay and Craigslist.
One example of the deals available is a $100 AMC gift card for $85. This is nice 15% discount which would lower my usual ticket price from $5 to $4.25. I recently saw them being offered for 25% off at $75 but didn’t buy one quick enough and I can’t find them at that price anymore. Even a 15% discount is a good deal since this is for purchases I’ll make anyway.
When using gift cards you do have to be aware that many gift cards have expiration dates or dormancy fees. Some states restrict the fees gift card issuers charge but it is best to use a gift card promptly. I only buy gift cards that I know I’ll use upon receipt. Despite these drawbacks using discounted gift cards is well worth the effort. With a little shopping around you should be able to save 15-20% on your purchases by using discounted gift cards.
Judging from the response I got to my post “How Much Should You Save for Retirement?“, people are really interested in the subject of my retirement. In that post I mentioned my desire to retire at 50 and that I had some ideas on how to do that. I do need to make a plan in order to reach this goal.
When I was in my early 20’s I read a book titled How to Retire at 35. I decided that would be a good goal. I didn’t make much money then so my plan was to start saving big money as soon as I had a good-paying job. Of course, once I had a good-paying job I forgot all about my idea of retiring at 35 and spent money like crazy. When I turned 30 I made a goal of retiring at 40. That goal obviously didn’t happen either. The problem was I didn’t really have a plan and I kept getting sidetracked and putting other things ahead of saving for retirement. Whenever I saved a little money I’d go off on some adventure and then be broke again. I did have fun on my adventures but if I had just been disciplined I could be having adventures all the time now.
This time I’m going to do things differently. I’m already better off than before because I’ve already gotten in the habit of saving for retirement. This time I’m going to keep retirement as a priority. My goal is to have $1000 a month to live on at age 50. If I retired today I’d only have $34.87 a month to live on. That is a very large gap but it isn’t as bad as it looks. That is based on just living off the interest from my savings. Based on just living on the interest, at 6% I would need to have $200,000 saved. Since I have about $6000 saved now I’d need to save about $1200 a month to meet that goal if my savings had an 8% return. That seems like a large amount considering I don’t make that much total right now. After I finish school though that should be a reasonable amount and in the meantime I’m saving all I can afford.
My goal of living on $1000 a month might seem far-fetched to some but I’m confident that it is reasonable. I’ve lived long enough to see the effects of inflation but unless we have really high inflation the next nine years I don’t think it will be much of a factor. I live on about a $1000 a month now and I could live on considerably less. One way I could cut my cost of living would be to live in a van. I’ve already posted about that and I believe it is a feasible option and one that I would enjoy. Another way to cut my living expenses would be to live in a foreign country. I lived in Guatemala for 3 months on $450 and had a great time. The cost would be a little more now but it would still be dirt cheap. A third option would be to spend half the year hiking a long trail such as the Appalachian Trail. I’ve hiked about half the AT and I think with some planning I could hike the trail on a budget of $200-$300 a month. Those are just the ways I came up with off the top of my head on how to drastically cut my living expenses, I’m sure there are many more.
That is my plan for now. It might undergo some changes before I turn 50 but I’m going to keep my focus on the goal.
