Andy Hough

A Fun Free Night

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I had the night off from one of my jobs last night so I decided to get some food and watch a movie. First I went to Buca di Beppo which I had a free $10 gift card for that they had sent in the mail last month. I actually had 3 gift cards because I dug a couple others out of the junk mail trash basket. I sold the other 2 on eBay and kept this one for myself. I ordered a small spaghetti marinara for $8.99. With the local sales tax of over 10% the total came to $9.91 coming pretty close to using all of the card without any money coming out of my pocket.

While they were preparing my order I walked over to McDonald’s and rented a movie from Redbox. Since I had a free promo code the rental was free. Since promo codes are good once per credit card by using a different card every time I have plenty of free rentals coming to me. I then went back to Bucca and picked up my order. Their small spaghetti is enormous. I’ll be eating spaghetti for days. Then I walked back home and watched my movie while eating some spaghetti. It was an enjoyable evening at home and it was completely free.

Law School Limbo

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I had my hearing before the readmissions committee yesterday. Being an introvert it really wasn’t something I was looking forward to but the committee was surprisingly sympathetic. I received their decision today which was sooner than I expected it. The decision of the committee is to defer their decision. I have to attend counseling and when/if they are satisfied with the progress I’m making there I’ll be readmitted. It sounds right now that they are leaning towards not readmitting me until the winter semester. I’m not thrilled with that idea because that means I’ll be 41 when I graduate and I feel like I’m losing valuable time. I don’t have as many working years ahead of me as the younger students. Of course this option is much better than not being readmitted at all so I need to remember this is a positive thing.

Lifestyle Inflation

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Since I’ve started working my expenses have increased greatly. Most of these expenses I think are necessary. Since I was living very meagerly before it was almost impossible for me to not experience some lifestyle inflation. I don’t really consider this to be a bad thing though. For instance I spent almost $900 last month for oral surgery. This was something I had put off for a long time but definitely needed to be done. Also I am now paying for health insurance. Having health insurance is an increase of lifestyle over not having health insurance but one that I consider reasonable.

Other expenses are less clear. I signed up for the SERO plan from Sprint.  This will mean a monthly phone bill of $30 plus tax. This is considerably more than the roughly $10 a month phone bill I had before. I think it is worth it since I can now talk to my family and friends as long as I like without worrying about per-minute charges. It isn’t a necessary expense though and I need to be careful about adding too many similar expenses to my budget. I’m satisfied that my expenses are still reasonable for my income now but I know I need to monitor them to make sure they don’t get unreasonable. For more about lifestyle inflation here are a couple of posts I found informative.

“Lifestyle Inflation-When Does It Become a Problem“  from Money,Matter, and More Musings.

“How to Protect Yourself from Lifestyle Inflation” from Get Rich Slowly.

Alternative Income: Sell Stuff Online

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An easy way to make some extra money is to sell your extra stuff online. The best know place to do this is eBay. I’ve also had good luck selling books at Half.com.  I buy all of my textbooks there that I can and then sell them at the end of the semester. I’ve occasionally had them sell for more than I originally paid. On the flip side sometimes I’m not able to sell them at all. You can also sell stuff through Craigslist but I’ve never tried that myself.

If you look around your house there is probably plenty of stuff that you are not using that you could sell. If you don’t have anything around the house you can still find stuff to sell. I’ve sold several items this year that I received free in the mail or retrieved from the trash. I didn’t make a lot of money off of them but given my meager income I considered it worth my time.

You can also buy stuff for the specific purpose of selling it online. You can find items at garage sales or even your local department stores. If you do this then you are basically running a business and you’ll need to report your income. That is more involved than I want to get but it might work for you. Next time you need some extra money just look around and see what you could sell.

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.