5 Money-Saving Tips for (Already!) Broke College Students

hello, call me sassafrass readers! my names victoria, i live in the suburbs of los angeles and i have a little blog called poverty luxe, where i talk a lot about crafts, clothes, cooking, and learning to love living the broke life. im really, really happy that allie invited me over to guest post, because ive got some goodies that i dont think you want to miss out on. 

spring is just around the corner, which means time for college acceptance letters and time to start freaking out about how expensive EVERYTHING even remotely college related is. well lucky for you, i have LOTS of experience in being a broke college student (actually, I'm going back to school next month), and while i dont have any advice on how to make the college itself any cheaper,  i  do have a few (five, to be exact) tips to make all those little expenses a LOT more manageable. 

lets get started, shall we?

1. skip the school bookstore at the beginning of the semester. 

basically, your school bookstore is THE MOST EXPENSIVE PLACE ON EARTH to buy textbooks and you should avoid it at all costs. as SOON as you get your syllabi (yes, thats the proper plural of syllabus), head over to addall.com, and search the isbn numbers of the books you need to find the best price (actually, you may need to make a stop at the bookstore to get those numbers). the great thing about addall.com is that it not only gives you price comparisons on the book youre looking for, but it ALSO FIGURES IN SALES TAX AND SHIPPING so that you know that youre getting the absolute best price on all of the internet. 

2. talk to your professors about what books/supplies youre actually going to use. 

i know professors are sometimes scary (especially if youre at a new school), but if you really want to save yourself from buying a $100 textbook that wasnt even necessary (which, im pretty sure you do), ask them about the booklist. sometimes the book isnt very important and theres a reserve copy in the library, sometimes an old (and therefore MUCH cheaper) edition is ok, sometimes the book is on the syllabus but its not even really part of the class. any one of these things could end up saving you some money (and all of these have happened multiple times in my college career), but youll never know if you have other options book-wise unless you ask. 

3. bring your own lunch/snacks/water. 

i really shouldn't have to tell you that fast food/convenience food is way expensive (and way unhealthy) and that buying bottled water (or soda) every day adds up to a LOT of money. this gets even worse when you get onto a college campus. fun fact: i briefly attended usc (one of the most expensive colleges in america) and you know how much a bean burrito and small soda at the campus food court cost? $9. simple things like packing yourself a sandwich or an apple and investing in a reusable water bottle can save you TONS of money over the course of a semester, with the added bonus of helping you to eat healthier and avoid the dreaded freshman 15. 

4. actually, skip the school bookstore at the end of the semester, too. 

so, you know how at the end of the semester you can sell your books back to the school for about .5 percent of what you paid for them and it makes you want to cry? well, selling your books yourself on half.com (selling used books on amazon requires a merchant account, half.com doesnt) will get you a LOT more money (actually, there were times that i made a profit flipping my used textbooks). pro tip: look at the current selling price of your book and price yours one cent lower, chances are your book will be the first to sell. 

5. buy your supplies at office stores. 

at back-to-school time, the big office stores have ALL the basic supplies (pens, pencils, notebooks, index cards, etc) on sale for SO CHEAP (sometimes even just pennies). it may not be the cutest stuff, but hey, why spend $5 on a notebook when you could get one for 50 cents? 

i hope that youve found these tips useful, they helped me immensely while i was in school, so i can personally attest to their effectiveness (and i plan on using every. single. one. this time around). 

do you have any tips for saving money at school? 

p.s. if youve enjoyed hanging out with me today, please stop by the blog and say hi! and dont forget to follow along on bloglovin, Facebook, and twitter, hope to see you soon!

Weekly Wishes #23

Oh man, I hate to say it but I am not looking forward to today. After a long Christmas break, it's back to classes. I have to say, I really don't like starting off a day on a bad note or without anything to look forward to, but to be honest, I'm not looking forward to anything about today before I go to bed. Oh well.

But anyways, it's, of course, Monday, so I'm sharing my weekly wishes! Before that, let me recap last week's wishes. I made two wishes: give H a random compliment everyday and dance with him at the wedding we were going to last weekend. 

H and I liked to be silly-sweet with each other so giving random compliments wasn't hard, I just had to be intentional about it. But the other one, dancing at the wedding, was going to be super hard for me. Luckily for me though, there actually wasn't even any dancing at the wedding at all, so I didn't achieve my goal but I didn't exactly fail. I will admit, I'm just a teensy bit disappointed since I had really gotten myself mentally ready for looking like an idiot, but I think I can deal. 

This week, like I mentioned, school starts back up. And while I usually love most of my classes, I'm just not feeling it this week. So #1 I want to make a smooth transition into classes. I'll be working hard to stay away from procrastination so that I can get things done without stress or enormous amounts of gummy bears (which I sometimes adopt as my coping mechanism of choice). 

My #2 goal for the week is to stick with my new checklist system. I made this big checklist just yesterday to help me keep track of various good habits in my life, from flossing to exercising to sleeping early. So my goal for this week is to not worry about checking off every box, but mostly just remember to keep the checklist accurate and updated. If the system works for me, I'll be sharing it with you in the next few weeks! Sorry if this project sounds super vague so but just know that I'm super excited to see how it'll work!

What are your wishes for the week?

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weekly wishes + being efficient + volcanic lightning

Hello friends! Happy Monday! Unfortunately, today's not too happy of a Monday for me. I've got a big week with papers + tests + prepping for midterms next week. So the blogging may be a little sparse for the next two weeks but I'm here, I promise!

So how did I do on my weekly wishes this past week?

Goal #1: Unpack (on Monday). Okay, that definitely did not happen on Monday, but I did unpack Wednesday night, which is so much faster than I've ever unpacked after a vacation before. So I'm counting that as a success.

Goal #2: Catch up on design. Did I succeed? Sort of! I've finished Kelly's moodboard/plans and am working with Hannah. I definitely will work to be efficient this week to get it all done though!

Goal #3: Update my list of post ideas. Done, done and done! I can't wait for you all to see what I have up my sleeve for the new year! :)

For this next week, I'm making one overarching goal: be efficient. I have more to get done than Martha Stewart does at Christmas (not really) and in order to do it all, I need to be organized and focused! Expect a post about organization later this week ;)

That's really it for this week! Short and sweet.

Science Bit of the Day

Can I just say that it makes me really happy to know that this is actually a thing? Volcanic lightning (aka "dirty thunderstorms") is basically what happens when you mix a volcanic eruption with a lightning storm. And because eruptions are kinda sporadic these days (duh), they're also really difficult to study. Read a cool article about volcanic lightning for more information. And enjoy this photo for a minute please (from the link).

That's all for today, loves! Tell me--what were your weekly wishes this week? How can I be more efficient?

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get stuff done: tips + tricks + sanity

Hi pumpkins! How was your week? It's Satturrrdaaayyyyyy!! Yesterday was an especially exciting day for me, not just because it was Friday but also because it was H's birthday! Which meant dinner and presents and happy things. But really, I was so glad his birthday falls on a Friday so I don't have to worry about classwork and everything tonight.

But speaking of classwork and just work in general, I want to share some tips today on how I get through crazy amounts of work. I've found a couple different tools and tips that help me get exponentially more things done.

1. The Pomodoro Method. This one's nothing new, I know, but it's good because it works. This method is best for when you have one task to work on for a long period of time. So this is great for using when working if you're self-employed or a freelancer or really whatever else you're doing. The basic premise of the method is that you work for 25 minutes, then take a break for 5 minutes or use that time to transition to another task. After 3-4 "Pomodoros", you take a 15 minute break. Read more about how it works here.

There are lots of tools online to help you with using this method. I especially like the "Simple Pomodoro Timer" app and MarinaraTimer.com. The Pomodoro Method is really helpful because it keeps you from being distracted by email pings or other little distractions. It's much easier to let them wait if you know you have a five minute slot to deal with them in less than 25 minutes. I've found I'm much more focused and productive using this method.

2. LiltUp. This is an online "to-do" list of sorts but with a timer built in. Basically, you put it everything you have to do along with how long you think it'll take. LiltUp tells you what time you'll be done and then starts the timer for you. I like this tool because when I get home from classes or work, I'll put in literally everything I have for the night (even dinner/shower), and then if I have extra time before bed, I'll put different fun activities and schedule them in between my tasks.

This uber-scheduling might not work for some but it is so helpful for me. The only thing I don't like about LiltUp is that there isn't an app, so I have to be at my computer. If I'm doing work that's offline, that's frustrating because I get distracted by my computer easily.

3. StayFocusd. This is a web extension specifically for Google Chrome but I'm sure there are equivalent tools for other browsers if you look around. In essence, SF has a couple different settings to keep your from wasting time on pointless websites. In one option, you can set a daily max of time on sites like twitter or facebook or whatever your weakness is. After that time, it just won't let you access them. You can also set SF to block certain websites say for a certain time, like an hour, or a certain slot of time. And my favorite SF option is called Nuclear. In Nuclear, SF will block everything on the internet for however long you choose.

One of my favorite things about SF is that you can't go back and change settings (i.e. give yourself more time in the first option) easily. To change the time allowances, you have to copy a paragraph (about procrastination) word for word with no mistakes. It's way harder than you think. Oftentimes, my lazy side will just give up and I'll get back to work.

How do you stay focused + productive?

finding rest in the crazy.

Lately, life has just been hitting me hard. I hate to say that because I know there are so many people who are being hit even harder by life, but the daily grind has been a bit much for me. Lately it feels like there's always a paper to write, someone to call, an application to turn in and a miles-long to do list.

And that busyness is just part of life and the stage that I'm in. It's okay that I'm busy. But I'm struggling to maintain my level of positivity when I get only a few hours of sleep a night and don't have even a spare hour to do something just for fun.

This week, I'm making just one goal. I need to rest. I've been driving myself to do everything that my sleep and mental rest is basically nonexistent. I'm not sure how exactly I'm going to make rest happen, but I'm going to make it a conscious goal to rest my mind whenever possible, even if that's just for a few minutes here and there. I'm going to look into some meditative breathing and things like that to deal with stress. If any of you have advice on that, please comment below!

Oh and one happy thing...I got to hang out with this little piglet this weekend. :)



Thanks to everyone who has left comments on my last few posts. You are nice and you are important. I like you.

How do you rest your mind when life is busy?

 

Weekly Wishes #14: positivity + giraffes + sisters

Today, I’m linking up with The Nectar Collective for Weekly Wishes.  The Weekly Wishes is where we all can share our posts about goals, challenges, and wishes for the week! 


Last week, I wished to work on exercising more and make good progress on my big project with Aukele. Kele and I hit a setback on our project but we're still trucking and I'm so excited to share it with you all very soon! Get excited!! However...exercising...I have had the weirdest/most annoying bout of the flu since Monday night (still have it!) and that kind of puts exercise in its place. But I'm putting it back on the list again for this week!

I'm buried under makeup work but I've got a new week ahead of me! Here are my weekly wishes for this coming week:

Exercise! Just...yes. This needs to happen.

Do my makeup work, promptly. I’ve got soo much makeup work to do because I missed all of my classes last week. I really need to carve out time to get back on track!

Schedule blog posts for next week! Exciting thing--I'm going to the mountains next Sunday through Wednesday. But don't worry, I totally will have fun things ready for you! Side note, if you're interested in guest posting, shoot me an email or tweet at me!

Choose positivity. Whoa Allie, four goals?! You're crazy. Anyways, this is a new one for me. I'm a bit of a pessimist to be honest, but I just want to take time in the midst of the stress this week to be happy. Any tips?!

__________________________________________________

One way to choose positivity--linking up with Erika for Grad-itude again! Grad-itude is a link up about being grateful! I loved looking through everyone else’s happy thoughts last week so I’m in it again. Here are three things I’m grateful for right now.

My health. I'm still under the weather right now but it first off makes me thankful that I'm not sick all the time! Like, I never appreciate being able to keep food down or breathe through my nose until I can't anymore. Secondly, my flu is so not a big deal compared to how sick some others are. I got a good life.

My sister! This weekend I visited my sister at school and we hung out all weekend. My sister and I are polar opposites, but I'm appreciating that more as an okay thing the older we get. Love my sis!

Good music. So in the middle of all my crazy makeup work and travels and busyness, I listened to some really great music this weekend. I had my Pandora set between Jim Croce, Avett Bros and Barcelona and it was just awesome. No thumbs down over here!

Now head on over to The Nectar Collective & Chimerikal and join the link-ups.

What do you wish for this week? What are you grateful for?

Weekly Wishes #13: gelato + exercise + antarctica

Is this picture not the most gorgeous thing ever? It's from a NatGeo Expedition to Antarctica. Have you ever seen so many shades of blue? It makes me a bit weak at the knees; I want to see it in person so badly.

Anyways, today, I’m linking up with The Nectar Collective for Weekly Wishes. Yada yada, I do this every week. The Weekly Wishes is where we all can share our posts about goals, challenges, and wishes for the week! 


Last week, I wished for a few things and was fairly. Here’s a recap in order of how successful I was: Basically my goals were to stay on top of my school work and life. I more or less did pretty well! I didn't turn in anything late and even got some decent sleep. I was born to ace this whole school thing.

So it was a pretty good week! I'm not dead yet! Here are my weekly wishes for this coming week:

Exercise! I have gotten really bad about this lately. I'm working on getting my gym membership back up but until then I've been doing Blogilates. That lady is craaaazy! I did Playa del Plank (along with others) and literally had to stop it half way through because my abs were crying. It's sad but it's motivating me to work harder!

Work on my big project with Aukele! I've got something big coming up soon with Aukele and I'm really excited about it! We haven't set a launch date but it'll be up within a few weeks hopefully! We've got some big steps to take this week and I can't wait to see where they'll take us.


I’m just sticking to two goals this week but I think that will be challenging enough!

__________________________________________________

I’m also linking up with Erika for Grad-itude again, a link up about being grateful! I loved looking through everyone else's happy thoughts last week so I'm in it again. Here are three things I’m grateful for right now.

Again, H. Saturday night, I was all alone and had a terrible migraine and the sweet boy drove to three different grocery stores to find me my favorite pistachio gelato (which is also way expensive) just to surprise me and make me feel better! How nice is he?! I told him it deserved a shout-out on the blog--I think he was excited about that.

The day off! I know this is a bit overdone because it seems to be the thing people are most happy about around here, but still! And I have fun plans for today. H is out hunting so I'm hanging out with my mom to sew a little and then my dad and I are hopefully going to choose my senior trip destination and do a little planning. Woohoo! This girl's excited.

Umm well there's a lot of good food in my house...I'm slightly ashamed about this one, but it's making me quite happy right now. We have good tea, good ice cream (thanks H!), good popcorn and good fruit! Happy Allie.

Now head on over to The Nectar Collective & Chimerikal and join the link-ups.

What do you wish for this week? What are you grateful for?

Weekly Wishes #11: cacti + baby steps + design

Hey all. It's Monday, you know what that means! Today, I'm linking up with The Nectar Collective for Weekly Wishes. The Weekly Wishes is where we all can share our posts about goals, challenges, and wishes for the week! Is this the prettiest picture ever or what? I love bright things.

Last week, I wished for a few things and was pretty successful! I worked pretty hard to get my body on a good sleep schedule. My lights weren't always out by 10:30 but I slowly but surely moved from falling asleep at 3 am to 11:30 pm. Baby steps. I also did lots of cleaning and unpacked everything from the summer! Yayz! I also sort of randomly got a futon from my sister so I cleaned a lot to make room for that. I scheduled out this whole week to help me get through the craziness but still have time for this little lovely munchkin of a blog. I've got some exciting posts coming up--especially a guest post from Stacey over at Grace Believer.

This week, I did a lot of design work which was really exciting for me! Most recently, I did a big design for Caitlyn at ChemGradBoom. It was really fun for me to make a really cute, but chemistry-themed design--check it out! I'm really loving that I can do something that satisfies me while making a little money! If you're in the market for some new digs for your blog, noodle on over to my design page.

But despite all that fun, school starts tomorrow. Cue the conflicting emotions. I'm excited to see friends and learn stuff and all but I'm not excited to get up early and die slowly under the mountain of work.

But anyways, here are my wishes:

• Not die. This should be easy, but I'm seriously skeptical. 


• Exercise! Now that I'm home and settled in, it's time to start working out again. Anyone have any great home workouts they like to do?


• Contact teachers about recommending me as a tutor. Simple enough. I'm a tutor who needs a job, they need tutors.

Now head on over to The Nectar Collective and join the Weekly Wish link up.

What are you wishing for this week? Any recommended workouts for me this week? I'm thinking Blogilates maybe...

Weekly Wishes #9

Hey all. Today, I'm linking up with The Nectar Collective for Weekly Wishes. The Weekly Wishes is where we all can share our posts about goals, challenges, and wishes for the week! Last week, I had quite a few goals! Here's how I did.

• Get through my Bloglovin' feed? Ah no. But I did make significant progress! I'm just barely under two hundred!


• Get a new sponsor?? Nope, not this week. I do have a super awesome guest post coming up from Crystal at The Happy Type and I'm so excited to share! If you ever want to guest post/sponsor CMS, check out the sponsor page.


• Brainstorm topics for the first week of school posts? Yessirree sure did! Get excited!


• Make progress on school reading and college apps? Yep! I started my apps and am just waiting to hear back from my counselor before I finish!

I'm finding that my goals are just too vague so it's hard to really make progress. So I'm making a goal to make my goals more concrete (yes, my goals involve goal-making).

Now, for this week's wishes:

• Keep on truckin' through my Bloglovin' feed! I'd like in <100 ideally. Work on it a little bit everyday!


• Try to comment more on blogs! Make at least one thoughtful comment everyday--more is great!


• Plan two posts and write out one for the first week of school.


• Go home!! By this time next week, I'll be home in Charlotte! I get to see the boy eeeeeeeeee.

Now head on over to The Nectar Collective and join the Weekly Wish link up.

What were your wishes this week? If you have a blog, tweet me, or comment to motivate me and help me reach my wishes!

Weekly Wishes #8

(Isn't this gorgeoussss? It's in Norway, somewhere.)

Hey all. Today, I'm linking up with The Nectar Collective for Weekly Wishes. The Weekly Wishes is where we all can share our posts about goals, challenges, and wishes for the week! Last week, my goals were to run once, get through my Bloglovin' feed, connect with bloggers, keep my bedroom clean and learn something new.

• Ran once? Sure did! Five miles.


• Get through my Bloglovin' feed? Oh man, no. I'm closer to 300-350 now. I'm so sorry for commenting on everyone's posts from two weeks ago. I'm working on it.


• Connect with bloggers? A little bit but not as much as I would have liked. You're a blogger? Tweet @CallMeSassBlog or comment or comment on my Facebook! (See buttons above)


• Keep my room clean? Did pretty well! Not perfectly, but it was a good try!


• Learn something new? I learned about the colors you see when you shut your eyes!

Now, for this week's wishes:

• Go through my whole Bloglovin' feed (take two)! This is getting pathetic. Share your blog with me below!


• Get a new sponsor! Want to help me out? Check out my sponsor page! Starts at only five bucks!


• Spend some quality time brainstorming posts for my first week of school--it's gonna be crazy busy!


• Make progress on my school reading and start college applications!

Now head on over to The Nectar Collective and join the Weekly Wish link up.

What were your wishes this week? If you have a blog, tweet me, comment or sponsor to help me reach my wishes!