05.28.08 | Domino’s, tanning and shopping: OH MY!
Freshman year of college was a completely new and foreign experience. Aside from having the ability to do virtually whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, I actually had responsibilities. No one made sure I did my homework, or even went to class for that matter. And laundry certainly didn’t wash itself. At first I had so much free time I didn’t know what to do with myself. But soon enough I felt like I had zero time. Not even enough to sleep. All of those things just took some getting used to, well, maybe a lot of getting used to. But eventually I learned to get by, and take care of myself and all of my responsibilities- or at least most of them.
I am not quite sure where it started: whether it was the online shopping, the countless nights of ordering Domino’s, the tanning packages or the infamous trips to BK and Panera Bread, I do not know. But before I knew it, I had a negative balance in my account after the first half of the semester. I had received a scholarship to pay for my books, so this debt did not even include my expensive schoolbooks! Now you are probably thinking, what was the initial balance? Well friends, I went into first semester of freshman year with $2,000.
The first thing you must understand, especially if you have not experienced freshman year of college yet, is the amount of money you spend depends on two things: your school, and how well (or how awful) you are at managing your finances. The bad part is, my school has a suburban campus, and we never really go into a city or to the bars. Everything you need is pretty much on campus, except for a few fraternity houses. Anyways, the depletion of my funds was entirely due to my obliviousness. I put no thought into how many times we ordered Domino’s, how much I was spending on online clothes stores, or how much those monthly tanning packages really were. Sure, there is no harm in spending money, it’s a lot of fun and you can get some great stuff! The harm comes from carelessly spending money. The little things add up. For me, they added up to $2,000 in 5 weeks.
So if you are in charge of your own money in college, a word from the wise: Keep track of your balance. Don’t make the same mistake I did. It was stressful for me because I did not have online banking, and had to physically go home (stressful for my parents) to rejuvenate my account. What’s worse was that I had to take out the money I saved for second semester and use it for the second half of my first semester. This meant I had to be EXTRA careful during second semester, and I didn’t have as much money to spend on things I actually needed, like books! So, do yourself and your parents a favor by being smart with your money, and always keeping track of your finances. Thanks for reading! You deserve a code. Here it is: “MODINERO”
Yours truly,
Sally Scholar
You can download a free college student budget here: http://www.studentplatinum.com/budget-template/index.php
This is an altered version of the very same budget Point Guard uses to make sure he is saving enough money to have Professor Plastic kidnapped someday.
Also here is the Urban Dictionary definition of TANOREXIA:
A mental disorder wherein the afflicted person believes that one can never be too tanned. this manifests itself in the form of excessive sunning, use of sunbeds and solariums, and, in particularly unfortunate cases, extreme use of fake tan.
victims of tanorexia can be identified from a leathery skin texture and/or a brown or orange complexion.
as it stands there is no known cure for this terrible disease.
Example: Posh Spice, all those orange girls you see appearing in early summer and old people who look like brown leather sofas are quite possible sufferers of tanorexia. tragic.
May 29th, 2008 | #
hey Sally, did the money you spent on Domino’s ever have any connection to kidneys???
June 5th, 2008 | #