Save your money--it's yours!

As college students, we are poor. We go for things that are free. We don’t have money to waste or to spend as we please.

You’d think that universities would be the last people to rip us off, but anyone can see that isn’t true based solely on the cost of tuition. But they rip our money out of our hands in another way: laundry.

Now, laundry is something that we all have to do, and it costs us money. At Purdue, it costs $1.25 per load to wash (unless you have Boiler Express, and then it’s $1.00, but those aren’t available in every dorm) and $0.50 per load to dry.
For starters, that $0.25 per load adds up. I tend to do 3 loads per week: one lights, one darks, one sheets and towels. That’s $0.75 per week that I have to pay extra because my dorm doesn’t take Boiler Express. Let’s just assume that I’m doing laundry once a week except for the summer (12 weeks). That’s 40 weeks per year.
That’s an extra $30 per year that I’m paying because I wasn’t fortunate enough to get into a dorm that has Boiler Express for laundry.

But it gets worse.

Not all your clothes need to be dried in the dryer. This is somehow not communicated to people. The only things that should go in the dryer are your sheets and towels. That’s one load of laundry to dry per week for me. If I were to dry all my clothes every week, that’d be $1.50 just in drying, which adds up to $60 per year in drying clothes. Instead, I only pay $0.50 per week, making my yearly total $20.

Instead of using the dryer, hand up wet clothes on plastic hangers in the warmest part of your dorm or get a drying rack. Clothes only take about a day to dry.

So, if you’re fortunate enough to have that $0.25 discount each load and you’re smart about drying your clothes, you can save around $70 a year. That’s $70 you can spend on pizza, video games, movies, and whatever else you want.

Sunday: Day of Recovery

I've come to realize that Sunday is the most important day of the week for a college student. It's absolutely necessary for recovery and preparation.

As far as recovery goes, it's needed for recuperation from the "festivities" of Friday and Saturday. Usually these festivities involve very little sleep and very large amounts of consumption of C2H5OH. Anyways, that usually means the Sunday is pretty rough.

Let me speak from personal experience. The last few Sundays have consisted of sleep. I returned to my room this Sunday morning at around 10 AM. Then I slept until 7 PM, ordered some food and then of course went back to sleep. Today I am perfectly fine.

Now let's explore what would have happened if I had not taken Sunday off and quit life for 24 hours. Today, I would be extremely crabby and swear a lot. Also, I would have probably proceeded to skip all my classes. Which in turn would have resulted in me failing and then being kicked out of school and becomiing a bum on the streets. It would be disaster. So in order to salvage my future, you can see how important Sunday is.

Basically, Monday through Friday end up sucking due to too much work. Friday through Saturday are good, but always a little rough towards the end. Sunday is the one of the gift the Gods have given us, a little break from the rigor of life. You basically get to die for a short period of time.

You want proof that Sunday is a day of temporary death? There's football all day. If that's not heaven I dont know what is.

My Printing Adventure

Alright so we had this paper due in my english class today. The paper had to be four pages long. I finished up two pages worth and figured I'd leave the remaining two for the day it was due. Which was today.

Everything was going as I planned. I skipped my math lecture, slept in until 11:00. Then I attended another useless chemistry lecture. After which I went to eat at the dining hall, which was pretty disgusting. Then I was ready for my paper.

Me being a proficient writer, I began rolling on my paper. I was unstoppable. I finished up the remaining two pages and was ready to go. It was 2:00 PM and my english class was at 2:30 PM. I had just enough time to print it off and then catch the bus to get to class. I'd walk but then of course I wouldn't get to class until 4:00 PM next Tuesday (thats a different story).

Then of course everything went wrong. My printer was broken, my roommates computer was locked so I couldn't get on his. It was 2:05. So I wasted another five minutes swearing and complaining about how bad my luck was. Then I ran to the computer lab in Cary East and tried to print there. Of course there was no paper in that printer there, so I wasted another five minutes swearing about how bad my luck was.

The building where my class was had a lab in it, so I figured I could get there and print it and be only a little bit late. It was 2:25. So I ran to the bus stop and of course, god was against me today so it took a good 10 minutes for the bus to get there. It was 2:35. By the time the bus got to the building where my lab was, it was 2:45. I was fifteen minutes late and counting.

So I ran (in the loosest sense of the word) to the second floor and got to the lab and printed my paper out. It was finally time. I burst through the doors of the classroom triumphantly and took my seat. Then of course I was made fun of by a few classmates and of course the teacher. It was light ribbing (just a few laughs and a cynical comment) but it still hurt.

With all of that said, I learned a few things. Finish up your paper a little earlier to give yourself time, and never count on God being on your side. He likes to mess with us.

Marijuana Madness

One of my friends at UK is considering dropping out of college. He is in a pretty bad place right now. He's practically moved out of his dorm and is back at home because he blames his roommate for a lot of his problems, even though his roommate is really quiet and agreeable. He has dropped his calculus class and his chemistry class, dropping him back to 8 hours this semester. Since this isn't enough for a full time student, UK revoked his scholarship.

Why is he in such a bad place? One reason (the main reason) is that he smokes pot. A lot of pot. As another friend likes to put it, "he blazed his brains out." Now, a lot of people claim that marijuana isn't bad for you. This isn't true. Mentally, it doesn't seem to be that bad for you, other than the fact that some people get almost addicted to it, even though it isn't addictive. However, it has been shown to increase the chances of mental illness when used chronically. It is also bad physically, because smoking a joint deposits more tar in the lungs than smoking a cigarette does. The worst effect by far is the lack of judgement shown while actually high.

My friend has gotten really bad about smoking weed. He does stupid things while high, like leaving all his pot paraphernalia around his house where his parents can find it. Good thing they didn't kick him out for it. All he cares about now is getting to the next high. He plans on dropping out of college next semester to do God knows what with his life. Even though it isn't addictive, he has become addicted to it. Remember that even though it seems fairly harmless, marijuana is a drug like any other and can seriously mess up your life.

Credit vs Debit

In response to my last credit post some people wanted to know what the difference was between credit and debit. The answer is a little confusing.

A credit card is a card that is not linked to a bank account. You can charge money to the card and the credit card company sends you a bill at the end of the month. On these cards you have to be careful of your limit. It is confusing but they do not actually limit you at your limit. You can go over the limit and they will then charge you over limit fees. I have had this happen to me. For this reason I will only get a credit card that has a high limit because I do not want to be worried about hitting it. My spending varies so a low limit might be fine most of the time, but some times I will spend ten times what I normally do. Some credit cards have a yearly fee for having them. This is most common with mileage cards, so you need to think if the fee justifies you getting the card.

On a credit card you have to pay the minimum balance on your bill or you will be charged a late free. In addition to the late fee you will be charged interest if you only pay the minimum. For this reason it is wise to pay the bill off in full. That way you don’t have to worry about interest or fees.

A debit card is linked to a bank account. When you purchase something the money is taken out of your bank account. You would think this would mean you could only spend what you have but it doesn’t. You bank will allow you to make your account go negative and they will charge you fees for doing this as well, so watch your balance.

Most debit cards can also be swiped as a credit card. By this I mean you can press the credit button when you checkout and it will still go though. It still works almost the same though, taking the money out of your account. By swiping it as a credit card you have to sign for purchases instead of entering a pin when it done as debit.

Swiping your debit card as credit has some advantages. Some debit cards offer you rewards like credit cards do. The only way to get the rewards is when you swipe it as credit since then the stores get charged a fee. There is virtually no fee when swiped as debit.

Also all cards swiped as credit have more security. Charges done as credit can be disputed with the bank if they are wrong, while debit purchases can not be disputed. A debit card allows you to get cash back most of the time, so you don’t have to go to an ATM to get cash. This is extremely useful if your banks ATM is not near by and you would be forced to pay a fee at another banks ATM. There is no fee for getting cash while using a debit card.

It costs retail stores money to accept anything swiped as a credit card. The stores usually have to pay 2-3% of the price of your purchase as a fee. This is why some places do not accept credit cards or only accept debit cards. Through this fee the credit card company makes money and it also allows them to give you rewards for purchasing stuff.

Becoming Greek

While living a Greek life may be attractive to many, becoming part of said life is never easy. In fact, it is often time-consuming and annoying, a constant thing that lasts months until initiation. One of my friends chose to join a sorority and she is going through this process as I write this. She won't be initiated until mid-November. Until then, she has to do all kinds of little tasks, which take up a lot of her time.

Right now, for one, she has to take this online course on alcohol awareness. I understand why this is important to her sorority. A lot of people in Greek organizations have had bad things happen to them as a direct result of their booze consumption. However, this course doesn't say anything that she hasn't learned a thousand times already. How much a drink is, how men can drink more than women, how being drunk can affect your judgement. None of it really matters since she doesn't drink anyway. It seems like a waste of time for her to have to take the course just like everyone who does drink.

This isn't the only thing she has to do. Not by a long shot. She has all of these random little tasks her sorority assigns her. Last weekend she had a lockin to go to, where she and everyone in her class have to stay in the sorority house for 24 hours together. It is supposed to encourage bonding or something. Next weekend she has a lockout, where she will go with a handful of other girls and stay at the house of one of the sorority members who lives a few hours away from Purdue. She has also had to do some other things, like go to a pumpkin carving and pledge night. Most of these activities serve no real purpose. They are supposed to help the group become closer, but it doesn't help much when none of them want to be there in the first place. My friend is also supposed to go to a lot of parties held at fraternaties, but she chooses not to because of all the alcohol consumption at them.

Now her sorority cannot actually force her to do all these things. They are not allowed to force her to do things like go to fraternity parties. However, they can reward her for doing so. She can get points for going to events and meeting sisters from older classes and stuff, points that will help her get a better room and other benefits when she actually moves into the house next semester. In this way the sorority perpetuates the Greek traditions of togetherness and drinking.

Why does she have to jump through all these hoops to join the sorority? She doesn't drink and doesn't want to drink, yet she has to complete the alcohol awareness course and gets invited to parties (which seem kind of contradictory...). She wants to be a part of her sorority, but she doesn't want it to take up all her time and become her whole life. It seems like her sorority makes joining overly difficult on people like her who want to join and won't do anything stupid, but have things to do outside of Greek life.

Roommate Rumba

It’s been a few months and I think I have a handle on this college bit. I know people, I make it to my classes, and I have friends.

This means that I can further test the waters of my roommates. Don’t get me wrong. They’re great roommates. I’ve heard horror stories of bad roommates (like getting peed on). You can simply look through this blog and find rants about roommates.

So, here’s the background: I live in the dorms with 2 other girls. We have an apartment, basically, because they turned some married student housing into undergrad. We have our own bathroom, a living room, a fridge, a stove, and all the other cool stuff that an apartment should have. I’ve been doing almost all the grocery shopping (and both of my roommates are loaded with money…) and the cleaning. I’m the one who calls them when they don’t come home to make sure that they’re not on the side of the road somewhere.

So, I decided to leave for the weekend, get some fresh air, and see how long it would take them to realize that I’m not there, and I won’t be for a few days.

I left on Friday after class. I packed my backpack with everything I needed so it wouldn’t look suspicious and so I could just leave without going back to the dorm. I had a friend who lives near Chicago come pick me up. (We haven’t seen each other in a while, so said person didn’t mind making the drive. There were other reasons for me leaving, as I said above.)

I left campus around 4:30pm. We made it to said friend’s house around 6:30 (we had some car trouble). We then proceded to Chicago for said friend’s father’s name day (it’s a Greek thing). So, we wandered around Chicago for a while, and I tried to think positive, as if my roommates would realize that I wasn’t there and never said anything about leaving.

I didn’t receive a text message until 3 AM (their time). So much for concern about my well being. I literally could’ve been on the side of some road somewhere and all I would’ve gotten was a text message at 3AM. Thanks, guys. I feel the love.

On the other hand, they have to fend for themselves until Sunday. That means that they’ll have to go buy their own soda (if they don’t steal mine that I have specifically for me), clean the place themselves, do the dishes, and they’ll actually have to get dirty for once.

In a weird way, I’m looking forward to getting back, just for the looks on their faces.