I have sad news. If you get a great job after you graduate college, you’re still going to be poor. Ok, cue the sad trombone noise. I can’t believe I’m being this depressing on hump day!

But, I’m being serious and honest. Even if you get a entry level job out of college, money is low, low, low, low (and you won’t be buying boots wit dah fur, if you catch my drift). A few months after graduation, I got a fabulous job — the one I had dreamed about all throughout college. And it was the real thing! I had a salary, benefits, Monday-Friday gig and a huge smile plastered on my face. My paychecks were strong and lovely and I could officially afford my own apartment.

Get ready for another sad trombone noise.

Unfortunately, making enough money to make a small living after college was an incognito reality check for me. After spending my life living on an hourly wage or no wage at all, making that much money made me greedy and unrealistic. I started spending my paychecks freely. I shopped a lot (and not in the clearance rack) and when I started having to pay loans, I hardly had any money at all. I’d cringe whenever I filled up my gas tank, curse when I signed my rent check and had a bad mood if I ever had to pay extra for utilities on my apartment.

Basically, if you get that big girl job after college and start making real money, you don’t have any money at all. In fact, I should have had the mindset that I was more poor than before. Because I finally had the means to pay off the four years I spent sleeping and taking pop quizzes.

With all of the spending I was doing, while paying loans, while paying rent, while paying for my cell phone/groceries — saving money wasn’t even an option. At least it didn’t seem like it was. I could never catch up. I could never have more money in my bank account than I had the month before. Nothing was working. I couldn’t even swear off the mall and save some dough. Having money seemed impossible! What is this real world business? I can’t even go to Pottery Barn and buy fun stainless steel utensils for my kitchen!

Stop the sad trombone noises and see the glimmer of hope. I have some advice. As a warning though, you may need to swallow some pride. Because not having any money is a huge ego check and a sign you need to make some sacrifices to save the ching ching.

My first bit of advice? Move home for a year. YES, it seems embarrassing and awful. It seems like you would never have a social life again. But you will. And I’ve heard from many different people that not moving home at a young age was the worst decision of their life. Their life! Think about it. After college, all you need to do is catch up with your bills and how is one suppose to do that when they are writing a $700 rent check every month? Besides, it’s better to move home now than in your 30′s when you’re hundreds of dollars deep in credit card bills? Just sayin’.

My second bit of advice? Put aside envelopes for saving money. Label the envelopes: Coach purse, Spring Break, Car Insurance. Every paycheck, take out some cash and put $10 into each envelope. Then, instead of spending freely, you will know the means of money that are available to you for each perk. Credit card payments, no more!

Finally, live within your means and be realistic. The first three years of our careers are the hardest ever for money. Just because we have real jobs, doesn’t mean we can live like we’ve had real jobs for ten years. It’s all part of growing up.

Heather and Bailey star in WE TV newest series, Downsized, about a Brady Bunch-esque blended family of nine trying to get by after their father’s business went under. Having gone from a family income of $1.5 million a year to something way, way less than that, these girls have had to majorly curb their spending and are learning that there is, in fact, life after Saks.

So what have these ladies learned from the unfortunate demise of their no-budget lifestyle? Here are their top 10 tips for saving money, without skimping on style:

1. Shop at stores like the Goodwill, Plato’s Closet or Buffalo Exchange. Get the whole stigma of wearing someone else’s hand-me-downs out of your brain. These stores sell gently used name brand clothing at very affordable prices. If you’re patient and open-minded, you can find really great and unique things for your ever expanding wardrobe.

2. Only buy sale items!! You’d be shocked to see how fast most items make their way to the sale rack. At the end of the day you will be happy you waited it out a bit when you get that sweater at 50% off.

3. Map out your shopping trip in advance! Every girl loves a day of shopping just for fun, but this often leads to unnecessary and impulse purchases. Knowing what you need (which is different than want or even “oh my god, I want that SO BADLY!”) before you hit the mall is a great way to curb a wandering eye!

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This week I was perusing USA Today (trying to find the crossword puzzle) and stumbled upon an article that struck me as, frankly, a bit terrifying. The article screamed HUGE DEBT, NO SAVINGS in my face, warning all of us in “Gen-Y” (that group of seventeen – twenty-somethings) that we’re the only generation unlikely to out-succeed our parents financially. Harrowing stuff, especially since we seem to be in a generation of “buy now, pay later.” And when we do buy,  we want the newest and shiniest and don’t settle for less than designer brands…. Not exactly recession-friendly behavior.

The article had me thinking about my own spending habits and the habits of my peers. I certainly have gotten my act together over the past year but still struggle with the little things. I write checks and forget about them until they hit my account. I have days where I spend ten dollars on Starbucks. And then other days when I spend $20. I went through a period where I didn’t pay off my credit card balance every month (never. again.). We all struggle with the economy and our own personal finances. Here are the top 10 ways to be a savvy spender and super recessionista. Read More »

Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. This month we’re following Kelly as she proves to her mom, and her wallet, that she can go one month sans shopping.

I GOT MY TAX RETURN! WOO! Thank goodness I have until May to figure out what I want to do with it.

This week has been 127 times better than last, shopping wise. I’ve been so busy that there hasn’t been much time to dig through F21′s new daily arrivals. Not shopping wise though, stress has been killing me. Exams, term papers, projects… I don’t even see my boyfriend anymore. And I live with him!

Not to mention that for the next five nights I’ll only be reachable at my place of employment, filling patrons with fajitas and margaritas on our newly opened outdoor patio. While I plan on making $$$ (and not spending any of it until next Monday), I can’t help but sighhh when I deliver sangria after sangria, and queso dip after queso dip, to groups of girls in the middle of the afternoon. That should be me! What this means is that when this challenge is over, I’ll need a big reward in the form of new sandals. Read More »

Only 5 of the 24 scarves I own.

Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. This month we’re following Kelly as she proves to her mom, and her wallet, that she can go one month sans shopping.

So because of a recent underwear purge (I estimate I have about 60 pairs), I found myself needing some nude n0-show undies for an ivory dress my mom bought me over Spring Break. What started as an innocent visit to VS.com for one $10 thong turned into a $250 shopping bag that won’t stop staring at me. There was a sale on swim suits, please don’t judge!

Besides being begged by my wish lists to type in my credit card number, I haven’t bought anything. But it has not been that easy. You don’t want to know how much will power it took to not by a t-shirt from the Alexander McQueen sale on Gilt yesterday ($99 instead of $300 to own some McQ? I die.)

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That's not me. I wouldn't be caught dead in those shoes.

Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. Last month we followed Norah from Drake University successfully get her swell on. This month we’re following Kelly as she proves to her mom, and her wallet, that she can go one month sans shopping.

Hello. My name is Kelly, and I’m a shopaholic.

I get more delight out of buying a new pack of Hanes v-necks than eating a Marco’s grilled cheese after bar close. Vogue is my porn of choice. Updating wish lists on all of my favorite online stores would be my favorite hobby. The feeling I get when someone compliments an outfit is complete ecstasy, and when I click “Confirm Purchase” after a successful skirt hunt, I reach the purest levels of happiness.

In that moment, life is perfect.

And my bank account officially hates me. I haven’t been able to put any money into my savings account for months because everything left over after food+bills+booze=clothes. I currently owe $142 to American Eagle, $86 to Victoria Secret, and my credit card is at its limit. I hide bags in the trunk of my car and tell my boyfriend I spend only $50 when I spent $150. Money leaves my pocket faster than ugly waitresses claim they had an affair with Tiger Woods and Jesse James and I’m sick of it. Read More »

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Naomi Campbell is beating more people up.

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10 things guys could like to turn girls on.

Woo! $1.00 off when you buy 12 cans of expired tuna!

Being an adult means making a lot of sacrifices. It’s about saying no to a dinner party because you can’t afford to bring more than stale bread ends. It’s about turning down movie offers because it costs 5 billion dollars to buy a ticket in NYC (and god forbid you want to see IMAX…bye bye, life savings!). And most unfortunately, it’s about buying store brands because you can’t justify shelling out for brand name mustard.

When I was younger (I’m referring to just a year ago) I would throw an absolute hissy fit in the grocery store if my mother even thought about buying non-organic eggs or frozen vegetables. The horror! I logically compared her buying non-free-range chicken to her murdering me in my sleep. But now I’m the one cruising the supermarket with a fistful of coupons and determination not to spend more than necessary. And if that means buying pre-opened food, cans with puncture holes, and expired meats on a discount, so be it. Like I said, it’s all about sacrifices. Like staying in on Saturday night because you have food poisoning from eating year-old salmon.

Penny pinching is one of my least favorite activities. It falls right between having to Google pregnancy symptoms and watching previews for Cougar Town. Yet the longer I’m out of school and the longer I go without finding out I inherited a fortune from a distant relative, the stingier I get. I practically fight over pennies on the street with homeless people. And that’s a new low.

Even for me. Read More »

Yeah, that's my life savings right there.

Because I’m making six pennies a year in my job after taxes, I follow a very strict budget that allows me to afford a moderate amount of food and a moderate amount of fun. There is no room for a savings plan in my budget so I just figured if I was extra careful nothing would ever go wrong.

Then last week everything went wrong.

I spilled sangria (or water according to the troubleshooting report I made to Apple) on my laptop, I dropped my straightener one time too many and it broke, and I found out my parent’s insurance company is onto me no longer being a student and has dropped me. For those of you non-accounting majors out there, that’s about 5 billion dollars worth of problems.

I had a minor panic attack. And by minor I mean I opened my window, stood on the ledge for a few moments, and thought about who I would haunt if I came back as a ghost. Then logic hit me and I realized that because I’m only one floor up I would just break a bunch of bones, sending me to the hospital and making my lack of insurance problem even worse.

So instead of jumping I thought of my other options. Luckily my grandparents who live in the city had a laptop I could borrow until I figured you out what to do about my laptop-turned-coaster. Unluckily it was designed for the partially blind. I’ve seen desktop computers more portable than this laptop. Hell, I’ve seen elephants smaller than this thing. The screen was about a football field long and the font was visible from space. This proved to be more than an inconvenience when I was blogging at WiFi cafes.  I was writing about STDs for one blog and let’s just say the employees at the cafe did not enjoy being able to read about gonorrhea while serving coffee. So not only did I have to blog from home all week, but I’m pretty sure I’m on a sex offender list now. Read More »

"I love....how much money we're saving by doing this."

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman, so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like lingerie!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Even though I keep hearing the recession’s over, those of us on a student budget are still tightening our belts (and not because it makes us look thinner). A lot of innnovative ways to save have popped up in the last few years, but one of the most life-changing is the idea of moving in with the significant other to save on rent.

There are some good reasons girls are doing this, no question. First and foremost – money! Splitting your payments with a roommate makes the payments easier on all, but more over, by splitting with the BF your money (and his) is actually going to the place you’re both spending time. Most couples tend to spend most of their time at one person’s place (usually the one without the creepy or obnoxious roommate/that weird cabbage smell) so it makes sense to pool the money into that place’s rent instead of splitting it up between two different apartments when one barely gets used.  And the money crunch can be a good excuse for moving in – like, say, if your parents are a little less than thrilled about your relationship turning all grown up – if it was something you had planned on doing anyway. Read More »