Since
then, many new “C” words have come to mind that really have little to do with
living within our means and strategies for saving money. I hope you’ll indulge me as I talk about some
other things that are of particular importance.
COSTCO
Yes,
it’s a place to shop and it’s great for bargains and buying in bulk. I think I talked about COSTCO last week. But, it’s also a place of employment and
indeed my husband has returned to work at COSTCO.
So,
I can no longer say that we’re a family of four living on ½ of a salary. Needless to say, even with him returning to
work (in a part-time status), we’re still (and I’m afraid will always be)
living on that Golden Shoestring and still adhering to our two major
principles:
We
Don’t Spend More Than We Earn and
We
Don’t Live In Debt.
It
sure is nice to have more income, especially as we enter the summer months and a new
chapter.
CULMINATION,
CHANGE, CAREER, CONGRATULATIONS
HUGE
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
CELEBRATIONS
With
the culmination of a school year come celebrations. On Wednesday we celebrated our youngest
daughter’s completion of another year of school. On Thursday we began celebrating the
completion of our oldest daughter’s high school career. On Saturday there was a wonderful graduation
ceremony. From the graduation ceremony,
the celebrations began. The celebrations
will being going on for quite some time!
COLLEGE
Yes,
college is on the horizon for our daughter and for many of her friends. With the anticipation of college comes a host
of new and exciting adventures. Possibly
moving away from home, settling into a housing situation, registering for
classes, finding the classes, buying the insanely expensive college text books
and pursuing a career.
I
want to take a moment to talk about college costs. I’m going to go off on a small rant here; I
hope nobody minds. As a parent of a soon-to-be
college student, and as a working member of society, I loathe that we burden
our young people….any college student…with so much debt. I think it’s both morally wrong and financially
a disaster to have a new college graduate burdened with excessive debt.
I’m
not saying that all debt is bad; nor am I saying that borrowing SOME money for college is necessarily a
bad thing. But finishing college and
starting a career with multiple tens of thousands of dollars of debt is, in my
opinion, downright foolish and insanely stressful.
I will do everything in my power to minimize
the debt burden my daughter(s) have through their college career; furthermore, I
will urge them to do everything they can to minimize their debt burden.
It
means finding money that is not tied to loans or earning money. We’re trying to do both. We’re on a bunch of different scholarship
websites; unfortunately many of them involve signing up for wacky contents. And we’re urging our daughter to get a summer
job and if possible to find a job while she’s at college.
I’m
reminded of what my parents used to tell me when I was little: “Shari, money doesn’t grow on trees.” to which I would like to add the following:
“College debt is
not an outright necessity nor is an obligation.”
“Think before
you borrow.”
“Find the “free”
money”first (grants, scholarships, etc.)
“Work, work, work…”
Okay,
I think I’m done ranting for awhile. But others aren't. Here's a video about the student debt crisis. It runs close to 30-minutes.
I
think I’ll pick up where I left off last week, in the next blog entry. I do want to talk about some of the topics I
mentioned, such as: cost cutting measures, coupons, carpooling/commute options,
CouchSurfing and creativity.
Oh
– one last bit of news. Our Airbnb
business cards arrived. Next step is to
get them out into the public spaces.
It's time for a
disclaimer:
I’m not a financial
planner, nor am I a business guru. What I am is a very practical person with
(as my mother always said) “a good head on her shoulders”. I have good common
sense and am old enough to trust my inner core and follow my instincts.
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