I was first introduced to currency in kindergarten. Every time one of us little youngsters successfully completed a task, our teacher would give us a penny. At the end of the week, our teacher would set out a table with loads of goodies and we could use our pennies to “shop." Some kindergartens spent their pennies on small things like tootsie rolls or little parachute figures, some saved their pennies for a somewhat larger trinket, and me, I'm pretty sure I ate my pennies. So clearly, this was a sign from the get go that I would struggle with money.
As a kid growing up, just $1 was a big deal. If I lost a tooth I would get $1, if I cleaned my room I got $1, If I scrubbed my mom's feet I got $1, and so on. A few years would go by and $1 would turn into $2, and $2 into $5, and $5 into $10. I'm not sure whether it's the fact that younger children get more amusement out of simpler things like a penny or a $1, or if 2 decades have just whizzed by and the value of a dollar has completely changed for the current generation. As a kid, I would put on lemonade stands and my mom forced me to sell each cup for 10 cents, even then, I thought that was a small amount. And today, when I circle my neighborhood in the summer I see kids selling lemonade for $1 a cup. That's ten times what I was selling it for 10 years ago. It's baffling. What else is baffling, is that I will without a blink spend $5 at Starbucks on a 16 ounce iced (so more like 10 ounce with ice cubes) drink.
My point here is that as a child, we are taught the value of the dollar and it stays with us all through school and while you live under the roof of your parents. Most kids learn to save their own money and can eventually manage their bank accounts on their own. I, however, have yet to learn the definition of “savings" and will admit to being a compulsive spender. I spend money on at least one café beverage a every other day, probably at least one fast food/restaurant item every other day (more on the weekends), and one plastic bottle of water every other day, which adds up to about $60 a week on that stuff alone. Then there's my monthly charges which consist of tanning, music streaming, my Cosmo subscription, my Old Navy credit card (I'm an idiot for getting this), and then there's all the fun stuff like rent, sorority dues, the utilities bill, the laundry, and oh yeah, tuition. Thinking about all the money I'm spending a month is insane, and if I added that up myself, I would have a stroke.
Analyzing my spending habits, I have created some goals for myself to achieve and I thought it wise to share with my peers. As for food and coffee, I limited my Starbucks/Dutch Bros purchase to two beverages per week, and I will supplement my caffeine intake with my Keurig system at home. I've calculated that I can buy 12 pods for the price of 2 Starbucks beverages, thus saving $15 a week right there. As for food, I will only allow myself to purchase fast food on the weekends, so two days instead of usually 4, cutting that bill in half.
Other ideas I had to share about food is that if you have a freezer, buy in bulk. I buy chicken breasts, Ego waffles, Hot Pockets, and even bananas in bulk because I can eat this stuff every day. So I might as well purchase a lot of it at a lower price, rather than purchase a small amount at a marked up price. You also save about $3-7 every time you buy the 36-48 pack of toilet paper rolls compared to the 12-24 packs, and the same goes for the paper towels and Kleenex. I also recently discovered the value of coupons. Most Pullman residents get Safeway ads in the mail; these are actually very useful. Upon checkout, I find out that by actual taking the time to clip these babies I save about $5, which can add up. Another trick is to actually use the coupon books they hand out at the beginning of each semester. Those books have “$5 off $25" coupons for both Dissmores and The Co-op in Moscow. Those books also contain coupons for Dutch Bros and the Bookie Starbucks.
When it comes to those that purchase alcohol, I have hypothesized a few ideas. It is common knowledge that if you can make the trip to Moscow, you should buy booze there. The tax is virtually nothing, making a half gallon that costs $35 in Pullman only cost $20 in Idaho. Also, by purchasing a half gallon rather than a fifth, you can save about $3-5 depending on what you buy. If you are intending on purchasing a fifth for yourself, maybe rethink that and find someone to share a half gallon. As for that bars…. I don't actually go there yet, so I'll leave that alone.
As for online shopping, something I seriously have a problem with, try Amazon Prime. If you didn't already know, students get Prime for free for 6 months. All you need is a “.edu" email address. You can test out the shopping with 2-day shipping, as well as the online movies and shows and e-books, among other features. Though my 6-month trial ended long ago, I decided to pay for Student Prime which costs $50 for one year. I've discovered that you can order from brands like American Apparel, Nike, Steve Madden, and many others for way cheaper prices and amazing shipping. If I were to order something from the Nike store online, it would cost around $7 for standard-ground shipping, which would take at minimum a week for my item to arrive. But with Prime, I get the item for less and it ships to me within 2 days. This method is well worth the money, especially if you are a shopaholic like me.
My roommate also introduced me to a money tracking excel sheet which her dad made for her to track her expenses. This is a good idea to start with just so you can see how much you are spending on what. These trackers can be made through Microsoft Excel, as well as found online, or even in the App store. Like in kindergarten when I ate my pennies, I'm hoping to stop chomping through my money (frappucinos and crunch wraps) and start putting it to better use (still have to figure out what that will be).
