September 12th 2007
Living on a tight budget means cutting back on a lot of things and food is high up on the list. It’s hard to be creative when trying to eat on a few dollars per meal. Ramen noodles get tiring. I’m by no means a great cook, but I do all right. For me and my boyfriend, we have a budget of $300 for food each month, which averages out to about $5 a day for each of us. And because we eat really cheap food (Ramen noodles, that cup of soup stuff, etc.) for lunch, it helps average out when we want nicer meals. Our local H-E-B Plus grocery store is very helpful with coupons. It seems as if there’s a coupon on half the items you see, including what they call meal deals, where if you buy the main thing, usually the meat, you get all the extras free (ketchup, buns, pickles, etc. if it was for hot dogs) and those are great.
One of my suggestions is to always use coupons. Also, make a list before you go to the store of necessary items for the week and stick to it. This is our biggest problem. I have a list, but we definitely don’t stick to it. I’m also starting to make a list of meals for the week. We really only plan a meal for dinner because lunch is usually Ramen or a PB&J.
Cheap Dinner Ideas
- hot dogs/chili dogs
- spaghetti
- baked fish (we live by the coast so seafood is way cheap)
- frozen pizza
- store brand TV dinners
- frozen stir-fry
- nachos
- hamburgers
- jambalaya or dirty rice (ground meat is cheap, we get sausage on sale)
- tacos (ground beef or chicken are cheaper than steak)
- grilled cheese
- quesadillas
- if you find porkchops on sale, add mushroom soup
- macaroni and hot dog wieners
- frito pie
- Spaghetti-o’s or other Chef Boy-R-D canned foods
- homemade stroganoff (I will post my recipe at some point, but you can find them online)
I’m trying to come up with more ideas, but being creative on a budget is tough. I’ve been searching for other websites that have helpful tips, but I haven’t come across very many good ones. I’m currently working on some inexpensive recipes to better food than frito pie and hot dogs.
Before getting life insurance, it is best to read the insurance quotes. An insurance quote helps one in understanding his predisposition as well as beware him of any kinds of loan deals, let alone becoming mortgage leads. Likewise before submitting a credit card application it is best to review the entire manual.
Posted in Money with 12 comments
September 12th 2007
I personally don’t use Microsoft Office for two reasons. One, I hate it. Two, there’s other options. My mom was able to get me an educational version for $15 last year from her university’s bookstore. The Office for Mac is the same formatting Nazi that it is for Windows. Because of that, I decided to try out NeoOffice, an open-source office suite for Mac (its Windows base is OpenOffice.) It doesn’t have the weird automatic formatting, but it’s able to do everything MS Office can do.
There are also no-download-required options to replace Microsoft Office.
I’ve only tried Google Docs and found it to be very nice. I still prefer to have actual software on my computer for some reason. But it is nice if you’re on a computer you can’t install software on (or don’t want to).
No Download Required: 30+ Apps That Are Killing Microsoft goes into detail about more web apps that aren’t only office suites, but simple replacements of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. Mashable has very nice articles, although I find they’re hard to locate.
P.S. When reading Study Hacks, I came across a link to an article, Living with Microsoft Word: Tips for Survival. So if you do like/want to/have to use MS Office, that article will give you some tips.
Posted in Academic, Software with 1 comment
September 11th 2007
I’m currently on a mission to find an organization program that I like. I’ve been looking through online apps and actual software. I want something that lets me organize my bills, schedule, tasks and school assignments. It needs to integrate well with the student part of me and the citizen part of me.
First, I tried mySchoolog. I like the way the schedule works. It’s pretty and uses Ajax so it’s nice. The one thing I don’t like about it is that sometimes it’s slow to save and load things. I think it’s overwhelmed. It has a way to integrate your grades and tasks. Another downside is it doesn’t really have a nice way to incorporate my bills.
Next I tried Vitalist. It’s just a GTD website. It’s very color-coded, which is really nice. But it doesn’t have a specific way to include my school work or schedule. It’s simply a task manager.
Does anyone have any programs or online web applications they use and recommend or know of but haven’t had a chance to try? I’m really looking to try anything, whether it’s software (Windows or Mac) or a website.
Posted in Productivity with 3 comments
September 7th 2007
I was just browsing through Digg and came across an article called Ungoogle Yourself. Because social networking sites are increasing in popularity, reputations and behavior on the internet is no longer anonymous. A lot of students get into the problem of posting pictures of themselves on their Facebook or Myspace that they wouldn’t want anyone but their friends to see. Such pictures would include them partying, holding a beer, smoking a pipe, sucking a dick, you get the picture. But with the power of Google, your new boss can find you, or worse, your mom can find you.
Teachers are getting to where they lecture their students, particularly college students, about what they post on their Myspace or Facebook accounts. Now, there’s not as much of a problem for people who are like me and have been designing websites for years. We know how to keep our online and offline lives separated because we’ve been dreading our “IRL” friends from finding our blogs and finding out about the real us.
Make an alias. It can be the Japanese word for spring or it can be an actual name you’ve always wanted to have.
If you decide you don’t want to use an alias, don’t use your last name.
If you really want to use your last name, don’t post embarrassing photos or stories because they will be found.
When posting photos, don’t post anything where you’re doing something illegal or something you wouldn’t want to show your boss, mother, daughter, etc.
Avoid drama. Can’t stress this enough. Don’t get in a flame war with some idiot and have nasty comments back and forth on each other’s websites. That’s just more search results linking to your stupidity.
Add a privacy feature. This isn’t full proof, especially for websites you don’t own, but it helps. If it is your blog, password protect any posts you might not want everyone to see. Safeguard the password and give it to people you trust.
Always safeguard any credit card information. Don’t submit anything on an insecure website that you don’t know.
Free programs to help
Mac OS X and Vista both have nice firewall software built into their operating systems. Vista’s is a little over the top, but once you disable the user account feature (where it asks permission to do anything), the firewall is quite nice. Apple’s firewall is just fine, no necessary changes.
Posted in Computers, Software with 6 comments
September 6th 2007
Some schools give their students some space on their servers to store files, which is great because then when your professor loses your paper, you can just print it out again, no sweat. Unfortunately, most schools don’t give students any web space. My school didn’t even give student emails until this year, but that was only because they needed an easier way to get in touch with students in an emergency.
Personally, I use my gmail account. There are programs, such as GSpace or Gmail drive, but I just email myself files. I don’t need access to my music or photo collection, so this works out better for me. Also, there are rumors that gmail accounts have been frozen for turning it into storage.
Websites that provide free online storage
Posted in Computers with 2 comments
September 3rd 2007
One of the greatest things about college is the free money people will throw at you. Yes, that’s right, scholarships and grants. Unfortunately, your income has to be pretty low to qualify for most grants, I’m talking low enough that it’s hard to even live on. So, scholarships are your best friend.
The essay
Most scholarship applications include an essay. And it may not seem like a big deal, unless you’re applying for multiple scholarships, in which case it’s an extremely big deal because that means multiple essays. Not true. Usually, the scholarship essays are pretty generic and you can use the same essay over an over again. A good idea is to write one about your life and any obstacles you’ve overcome that made you a better person. Those are killer. But a better one is something that will tell the reader about you and what you really care about (your dog, Thumper or how you live to play baseball.) Did you really volunteer with the elderly because you live to help people or to put it on your college application? If you’re a funny person, let them know that. If you are a bleeding heart, bleed all over that paper. An essay is about selling yourself and if you really have to embellish, then go ahead. You have bigger problems anyway.
Where to find them
Your school advisers have the best collection of local scholarships, which give you a better chance. Also, most colleges have their own scholarships, which I think are just discounts since they’re the ones giving it to you. Either way, it’s money you don’t have to pay back. Most undergraduates with decent grades and a half decent essay can get something out of their school if they apply. After you’ve tapped those resources, online is the next step. Here’s three websites that were crucial for me.
Be careful though, when giving out personal information. Make sure it’s a legitimate scholarship before you give too much info. Stay away if they want some of your money.
Posted in Financial Aid with 4 comments
September 3rd 2007
I just finished my first real homework assignment for the semester. Guess which class? English. I wrote a two page paper that’s the start of my autobiography. When I get assigned an essay or even a fictional piece of writing, I always groan. Two pages, four pages, eight pages. It’s not just the length I’m afraid of, it’s the topic. I do like to write, but I don’t like to be told how to write or what to write about. Since this is going to be an autobiography, it’s all about me. Well, that’s pretty easy to write about. To make things better, my teacher told us to, in essence, throw up on the paper. Just write. Now that, I can do.
But what happens when you don’t just get to barf your essay and there’s a topic you have to write about. Inspiration is what you need. A mind block can come at any time, whether you’re trying to write a paper, a song or even design a website. To overcome it, you can do many things. Listen to music, take a break, take a walk. All great things to do to get you relaxed.
Purdue’s online writing lab (OWL) has some great tips to overcome writer’s block. World of Inspiration has quotes, some meaningful, some famous, some stupid, that can help. Writer’s Block is a great resource with a lot of articles, essays and letters.
My strategy is to go play a few addicting games and then try again.
Posted in Academic with 3 comments
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