Can you make this a reality for me? Kthanksbye.

College. Sigh. It’s unlike any other time in your life. It has its own set of rules, its own unique circumstances. And it’s not always easy to navigate. Everyone needs a little guidance now and then (or always) so we’ve pulled together a variety of perspectives (the does-it-all girl, the party girl and Ms. Study Lounge) to weigh in on your life conundrums and give you the best advice we can.

Every week they’ll be tackling your questions about college. From classes to keggers to keggers before classes, they’ll do their best to respond and be your Pez dispenser of collegiate wisdom. Got questions? Unsure of a decision? Not sure about that LDR? Just wanna chat it up with some really awesome chics?

Hit them up in the comments or shoot them an email with the subject “College Q&A”!

Question:
One of my resolutions for this year was to save money, but it seems almost impossible to do in college. Do you have any ideas where to start or what I can do to save a few bucks? I need money badly because I’m interning (with no pay!) in NYC this summer, but as much as I try I just can’t save anything. Help?

GPA Girl:
This sucks! I think all internships should offer pay, or at least complimentary lodging and meals, but hopefully your internship will give you the experience to earn the big bucks later! My advice for saving and earning right now is to look at your talents and skills and see if you can transform them into opportunities. Do you know how to play guitar? Put up flyers offering lessons to kids. Know another language? Tutor for an hourly rate. Got web design or Flash skills? Put them to work online by advertising on freelance sites and landing paid gigs. Then set up a savings account with the highest interest rate you can find. Once you have the cashola from your “side” gigs, stash it in that account and DO NOT look back. Pretend that account doesn’t exist. Put at least half of what you make from your side jobs in there every time you get paid and don’t let yourself withdraw anything. You may have to go without a few lattes and new outfits from time to time, but as you see that money add up, you’ll realize it’s worth it! 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 »

Let’s be honest for a moment here: as college females, we aren’t so good at managing our money. Sure, we’d like to be…until we walk past Anthropologie and have to have every dress in the window and those adorable throw pillows for our bedrooms.

The truth is, money management and financial mumbo jumbo is boring and spending all that hard earned money is fun! Who wants boring when we can have this?

But it doesn’t have to be that way, which I learned after reading So Many Shoes, So Little Money: A Girl’s Guide to Finance. Lisa Serwin, a girly girl to her core, breaks all that budget business down in a way that is easy to understand and, even more importantly, easy to incorporate (realistically!) into the college girl’s life. Serwin doesn’t tell us to eat ramen and wear our leftovers from middle school; she explains how to save and how to spend in a way that won’t send us back to our childhood bedrooms when the money (inevitably) runs out.

Naturally, I needed her to set my budget to talk to her. And I did! Here is a bit about my new financial hero and a lot of useful information that all of us can benefit from!

5 Questions We Ask Everyone:

1. What’s your most hysterical/ridiculous college memory?
That’s fit for print? I accidentally locked myself in a second floor bathroom during a fraternity party.  The door handle broke off, and no one heard my pounding. (The one and only time in history there wasn’t a line for a ladies room!) I climbed out the bathroom window onto the roof – high heels and all, shimmied down a tree, and walked back in through the front door. However, apparently everyone had been watching my descent through the window.  When I walked back in I was greeted with cat calls and applause.

2. What are the five things you can’t live without?
In no particular order:
Great shoes
Chocolate
My family and friends
Books
A good night’s sleep (otherwise I’m really cranky) Read More »

[College kids are notorious for being poor. And why shouldn't we be? We take out student loans to pay for private universities, can barely balance a part-time job with our full-time courseload, and the only "balance" we're familiar with refers to the number of points left on our dining hall cards. Oh, did I mention many of us tend to splurge every extra penny on PBR's at the campus bar?

Ok, before everyone gets up in arms about every generalization I just made, let me clarify: if you disagree with everything I just said, you probably don't need this column. But if you're nodding along because you're officially an adult and still don't know how to manage your money, then you might want to pay attention every week, because I'm going to (try to) get you through this, and make you a successful saver and a wise spender. Starving college students of the world, I bring you Money Matters: a Guide to Handling Your Income (or Lack Thereof).]

This week, I’d like to introduce you to a splendid gem called Free Student Checking. Now, normally, banks will hold your money for you, but they like to find sneaky ways to make a few bucks back themselves. Some checking accounts, for example, have a minimum balance that you always have to have in your account. If your balance goes below that minimum, you get a fine.

Yeah, that’s right. You have to PAY your BANK for being too poor to have any money in the account that consists entirely of your own money that you started out with in the first place. I understand credit card late fees– with credit, you’re spending money you don’t necessarily have– but a fine on your own money? That’s bullsh*t. Read More »

We’ve all felt the effects of the current economical status; gas alone has been breaking my bank account on a weekly basis. While I work my butt off to make ends meet, everything from fruits and veggies to gas to, well, almost anything, contines to get more expensive. And my bank account whittles away.

What’s a striving- to- have- more- money- 20- something to do? I brainstormed – in my desperate need to scrounge up some extra cash – ways in which you can get creative, have some fun and throw somethin’ extra into that piggy bank.

Turn your hobby into some cash. Do you enjoy making scrapbooks, knitting, creating playlists or setting up peoples’ iPods for them with the latest tunes? If so, take your hobby and make it into something profitable. Put out flyers in your neighborhood, an ad in the local paper, send out a mass email or even create a standard template website and let people know you’re open for business!

Sell some old clothes. Those prom dresses have sat in your closet since high school and, let’s face it, you’re not going to be wearing them anytime soon. Go to a consignment shop, take out an ad in the paper or swing by a local beauty pageant (I swear they’re around and the ladies will bite for those gowns). With, say, 50 bucks a dress, you could walk out of there with a couple hundred dollars! Read More »

Believe it or not, it’s actually not too difficult to make (and stick to!) a budget. You can make the most of your cash by simply figuring out how much you have and then deciding how much you can spend. Easy, right?

Start with income. Do you get an allowance? Have a part-time job? A scholarship that pays for living expenses? Calculate how much money you take in per month. Don’t forget to include your after-tax job income (you may make $8/hour, but some of that will be eaten up by taxes before you ever see it!) You may also be taking money each week out of your savings (from a Summer job for example), so calculate how much of that you can spend each week without going broke before May.

Now figure out how much you absolutely MUST spend each month–these are the essentials, like rent (if you pay rent, or housing fees), transportation, loan payments, etc. If you have a meal plan and never eat out, you can throw that in there as an essential expense. Once you see how much you have left, you’ll be able to decide how much you want to spend on groceries and how much you can afford to eat out. Read More »