I Got A Summer Legal Job!

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Today I was offered an internship working for the Missouri State Public Defender’s office which I accepted. I’m looking forward to putting some of the knowledge I’ve acquired in 5 semesters of law school to practical use. Since I’m Missouri Rule 13 eligible I should get the opportunity to appear in court. I’ll be working in the town where my mother lives which is considered a rural jurisdiction. Since the state has a hard time placing attorneys in rural jurisdictions they have a program where they hire 3L students 3-4 months before the bar if the student wants to work in a rural office. After I finish working this summer I’ll know whether I want to continue to work in this field. If so then I plan on taking advantage of this program.

There are some drawbacks to the position though. The main one is that it is unpaid. I’ll have to find another job in the evening to make some money. I’ll be staying with my mom for the summer and my niece and nephew usually spend the summer with her as well. That will probably be a little too much family time for me since I’m used to living alone. My lease here doesn’t runs through the end of October though and I can’t justify paying rent on two apartments even if I could afford it. I’m sure it will work out okay and I’m looking forward to getting started.

Alternative Income:Ads On Your Incoming Calls

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It has been a while since I’ve posted about any alternative income streams. There is a new service called Brring! that allows you to get paid when your friends call. You play them a 10 second ad before the call forwards to you. Basically you set up a phone number with Brring! that forwards to your actual phone number but first plays the ad. You get paid $0.05 per call but right now they are paying $1.00 each for the first ten calls.

I’ve just signed up for the service so I can’t vouch for how well it works yet. Even though I’m a Tight Fisted Miser I consider it a little tacky to try to make money off my friends calling me. I plan to use this number for anybody other than friends and work. It will be nice to make some money off the telemarketers for a change. They are also paying $1.00 for each referral you invite. I’m going to give this service a try and if it doesn’t work than I’ll just stop using the number. If you’d like to try it you can sign up by clicking on the banner below.

Bloggers Who Disclose Their Income

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I disclose my income and expenses each month on this blog. There are many bloggers who disclose their online income,alternative income or passive income but there aren’t many that dispose their total income. LuLuGal at HowISaveMoney.net is disclosing her income and finances for this month at least but I don’t know of any bloggers besides myself that regularly disclose their income. There are also quite a few bloggers who disclose their net worth monthly. Disclosing your income is apparently more taboo than disclosing your net worth. I’m sure there have to be a few bloggers that disclose their income. If you know of any please leave a comment and let me know.

Frugality Got My Bike Stolen

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Sometimes my frugal nature costs me. I’ve been needing to get a lock for my bike for a couple of months. Whenever I was in a store that sold bike locks I’d check the prices but I always thought I could get a better price. I figured my bike was safe enough where it was and I’d get a lock when I started riding my bike more often in the spring. That proved to be false because yesterday my bike was stolen. I was keeping it by my back door which is a storage area for the apartments in my building. This area is locked and can only be accessed by residents of my apartment building so I didn’t think I had to worry about my bike being stolen from there. I suspect it was probably my neighbor or one of their visitors that took my bike but I have no way of knowing. Sometimes people leave the outside door unlocked so it could have been anybody. The bike was free and not worth much. It was an old, junky, 10 speed and I didn’t think anybody would want to steal it which was another reason I delayed getting a lock. Although the bike was free it will cost me money to replace it if I decide to do so. Trying to save a couple bucks on a bike lock cost me a bike.

Do Reward Cards Actually Reward You?

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There are many different reward cards and most pay between 1% to 5% back. These cards could still be costing you money though. This is because people generally spend more when paying with credit cards than paying with cash. The most often quoted percentages I see are from 12-18% but I couldn’t find the actual study these figures are based on. It does make sense to me though that people in general probably spend more when using credit cards and the percentage is probably higher than what they would receive back from a reward card.

That being said just because it is true for people in general doesn’t mean it is true for you. When using your reward card you just need to be sure that you aren’t spending more than you would otherwise. I occasionally spend money with my credit card that I know I wouldn’t have spent otherwise because I didn’t have any cash with me. This doesn’t mean I’m spending more money overall though because otherwise I probably would have just made the purchase later and if I didn’t have a credit card I would be carrying more cash with me to spend. I keep my spending quite low overall and don’t feel that using credit cards increases my spending. If I make an excessive purchase using my credit card it will probably be offset by reduced spending somewhere else. I’m confident that my reward cards actually reward me. If you’re using reward cards you should make sure the same is true for you.