002: How To Save $

Millie: Hey its Millie

Gabi: It’s Gabi

M: And we are back for another week of Change By Degrees. We hope your first week went great.

G: Yes, we want you to let us know how it went. We have our twitter and Instagram and Facebook up. The twitter and Instagram handle is @changebyd3grees but the first E in degrees is a number 3.

M: Yes.

G: Because there’s already a change by degrees but it’s not us.

M: Don’t follow that page.

G: Yeah, but you’ll see our logo, so hopefully you recognize it by now and you can follow us. But on Facebook it is Change By Degrees. 3 separate words and its spelled correctly. There’s no number 3.

M: It’s simple.

G: It’s normal. So hopefully you find us and follow us and let us know how you’re doing.

M: We really want to hear how it’s going for you guys. But this week we are going to be covering money.

G: Yass.

M: And saving.

G: Or not saving.

M: Or not saving it. But we wanted to talk about it because this is gonna happen super quick, guys, whether you’re in college or not. Like you’re in charge of your money now, you need to keep track of it. It’s not—it doesn’t just happen; your parents aren’t looking over everything that you’re doing now so let’s discuss what you have to do and what we have learned along the way that we’ve either done right or wrong.

G: Yes, because it’s very easy to, I think, be on your own and be spending money and then be surprised when you look at your bank account and the money is gone.

M: Yes. What happened?

G: Because it’s like—

M: It disappeared.

G: And it’s no one else’s fault, it was your fault. So how do we approach money? How do you approach money?

M: Well for me, here we go guys, I don’t spend it. I suck at that. And it’s not a great thing. I mean, it’s helped me save money, but, like, when it comes to spending myself, even now it’s a struggle. I’m like, I don’t need this, I don’t, you know, want this. Um, which is not always the best thing. When it comes to people, like if it’s for a gift, I’m like, take my money, go, take it. But if it’s for myself, it’s such a struggle.

G: You wait a really long time to spend.

M: I do, and she knows, for whatever it is. It could be like a $10 cup, I’m like, ‘I don’t need this, no.’ Um so I—but I think I have grown throughout college and realized that there’s a difference between being frugal and being a scrooge. You know what I mean, like, its ok to spend money. But we’ll talk about that in a little more detail.

G: Yeah I’m not gonna say I’m the complete opposite, but I’m definitely—I…I’m a saver because my parents are savers, and they’re pretty…I wouldn’t say they’re super frugal. It’s just they’re smart with the way they spend money and save money. Um, and they always have been. And I…watching them and the way they deal with money, um, it’s definitely instilled in me how I deal with money.

M: Yeah.

G: However, I would say I’ve gotten better at finding a balance between spending money and saving money. So, for example I use to be a little paranoid about it, and I would save, save save, and not spend it, but that’s really not the point. I mean, we have money so we can spend it. If you’re hoarding it, that’s not fun.

M: Exactly.

G: If you can pay your rent and pay your mortgage and whatever, and still have money left over to spend on yourself or other people then do it. Um, for example, I’ve been saving money the past few months and in 2 weeks when I go to New York to go see my friend which is not cheap, but I feel like I’ve earned it because I’ve been saving money for the past 5 months. Um, and that’s just something fun you can do. So, I’m still finding that balance, and it’s not like I have tons of expenses right now but, um, I just think it’s something that’s an important balance, but while you’re in college it’s important to establish those guidelines early.

M: Yeah to develop those habits early on because you’re gonna follow that throughout your life.

G: Yes.

M: You’re gonna need that. So, but really quickly, the first step to saving money is to not spend it. Ok, I’m gonna go back to how I use to live my life and the really the first step is to just not spend the money, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Of course, there’s things you need, um, you need to eat.

G: Yes.

M: You are going to be paying college or whatever else if you’re working on a, you know, career. You need to spend money and those things do need to be spent first but as a college student in particular, when I went my first week to get a special little card, you have your spirit wear store, the 50 bucks for a t-shirt. That’s, dudes, that’s not the way to go.

G: No.

M: Like ok, you can buy, like, one thing. Buy yourself like, I don’t know, something for your keychain that’s 5 bucks, but don’t spend 50 bucks on a shirt.

G: But yeah, it’s a t-shirt, also, just side note: a lot of times with colleges, instore you can buy the t-shirt for like 50 dollars and then when you go online—

M: Dude!

G: There’s like a discount.

M: Yeah.

G: Like, why would I come in and spend 50—

M: Don’t. it’s a trap.

G: Yes.

M: Don’t, like. Just go in get your textbook, what you need, get out. And then also, you get your little food card

G: Yes.

M: Guys, it’s not magic. It will run out.

G: Yes.

M: I’ve seen kids the first week, “Ha-ha I can spend it. Ding ding ding Starbucks—"

G: All gone.

M: “—Chickfila”—all gone first week and you’re like “What happened?” Dude, you spent it.

G: And that reminds me, ok, so CNU, and I don’t know if other colleges have something like this, but CNU would give you, like, we had cards, like, and they would have dining on it.

M: Mmhm.

G: They would have swipes for the dining hall, and they had a printing fund. So CNU gives you—I say, “Gives you,” quote unquote gives you—because it’s part of your tuition that you spend.

M: Yes.

G: They say, “These 20 dollars we give to you. Its 20 dollars for printing.” But it’s still coming out of your paycheck; it’s not complimentary. Uh, and so they would give us that, and this is the thing, it’s 8 cents a page to print. Ok I was an English major and all of my professors wanted us to print out the pages we were gonna turn in. they don’t want to print 15 pages for 40 people in the class—their papers that they wrote, and they want us to print out articles and PDFs and all this, and I remember one semester my printing fund was completely gone by October. Like, one month—and its 8 cents a page.

M: Crazy.

G: And 20 dollars was gone in one month. That’s insane. So, the rest of my printing for the 3 months I had left of school, came out of my pocket. So that’s an expense that sometimes you really can’t help. Like, your professor wants you to print it out. I can’t help that. I have to print it out to appease my professor who is grading my paper.

M: Right.

G: Like, I wanna stay on their good side, so that’s just one. That’s an expense that you really can’t help.

M: Basically guys, just, like, don’t be an English major. That’s all there is to say.

G: Don’t be an English major.

M: Don’t spend that money.

G: Okay, that is—

M: Be a CS major. All I had to do is submit stuff online. I didn’t have that extra—

G: We had to do that too, but we also had to print it out, so—

M: That’s terrible.

G: I can’t—

M: Well, it’s okay, guys.

G: I’m sorry.

M: No no, um, but, yes, sometimes other than printing and things you need textbooks, there’s some stuff. Maybe you don’t need a venti Starbucks cloud macchiato, ok?

G: I will tell you—

M: At least not every day.

G: You don’t need it. I will tell you that. You don’t need it.

M: You can get a tall.

G: A tall.

M: Or as Gabi would say, a small.

G: I can’t get Starbucks lingo right.

M: She doesn’t learn.

G: Small medium, large. The barista knows what I mean.

M: No.

G: It’s fine.

M: You don’t have to spend that money. Maybe every once in a while, you treat yourself, but you don’t have to spend all the money in the world. Realize that super quickly, because if not you’ll run out of money super quickly. Um, and also there’s things like school discounts. There a thing, ok?

G: Yes.

M: And not just in your university, like, if you are gonna go on a night out I’m saying you can go on a night out and watch movies. Usually movie theaters have a school discount. Or online, I know Apple, if you have to get, like, a laptop it’s not a lot but it’s something. So be, like, vigilant.

G: Also, sometimes—

M: Take extra effort.

G: Places won’t even tell you. You have to ask. Some companies are super proud of their student discount and other companies or places have student discounts and they just don’t advertise it for whatever reason, so even if it’s some obscure place just ask and they might have a student discount.

M: Take the chance.

G: Usually, I feel like student discounts are always like 20 percent, which isn’t a lot like you said but it—

M: Well, it’s a good amount.

G: For a student it’s a lot.

M: I saved a buck, yes, that’s me every time. And then with school discounts, something that works in the background is Honey.

G: I love Honey.

M: It’s a web extension. Its magic.

G: Yes.

M: This works in the background for you. You go check out, maybe you’re going to get a school textbook on whatever website, and it’ll just pop up and be like, “Dude, here’s a coupon, and it’s live and on,” and I click it and that’s done. Dude, no extra effort on my part, and I just saved 10 bucks, 15 bucks, like, every time. Most of my online shopping—

G: And Honey is nice because you don’t have to spend, like, 400 years—and I think they even say this in their commercials—that you don’t have to spend 400 years looking for a coupon code that then doesn’t work. You just download the browser extension or whatever and then it tells you, “Oh, by the way, this is 30 percent off.” Or you have, ‘Elaine bla bla bla used this 30 minutes ago’ and it works.

M: Like, thank you Elaine.

G: Like, it’s not something you have to spend time doing. You just apply it and it does it—

M: Super helpful.

G: —Because it worked 20 minutes ago.

M: Use Honey, download it right now.

G: Yes, use Honey. Any browser extension. There’s actually a lot out there, once again, they’re just not advertised, but Honey is one that we like. Also, with money, treating yourself is important. Uh, but don’t use it as an excuse. I think we live in a day and time now where treating yourself is kind of, like, a buzz phrase, and so everyone’s like, “Oh, just treat yourself” and that’s well and good and nice, but at the same time, that can get super dangerous, too. Like, that’s a slippery slope.

M: It is.

G: I think it’s an excuse that people use for spending money when they know they shouldn’t.

M: Yes.

G: And that’s kind of—especially when you’re with your friends and you’re like, “Oh, I’m gonna treat myself. Like, its fine.” And it’s like, well, you treated yourself last week and the day before—

M: Or yesterday.

G: Or yesterday! Like, you don’t need to go out eating with your friends every night. Would it be great? Maybe! But you don’t need to.

M: Exactly.

G: So, it’s one of those things that I think you need to be careful of because, once again, it’s a slippery slope, and it can easily get dangerous.

M: And it can become unhealthy. Like, that’s not a good way to approach situations. Like, if you’re stressed, ok, maybe I’ll go get like, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. You don’t need to go buy the whole grocery store, like, that’s not a healthy way to approach situations. So, its ok to treat yourself but definitely—

G: In moderation.

M: Put, you know, a cap on it.

G: Yes definitely. And that kind of goes a long with our next point which is planning. It’s important to plan how you’re going to spend your money instead of just spending it off the wall randomly. If you know that in a week you’re going to be gone on a trip, and you’re gonna be spending a lot of money, this week you probably should be saving and waiting for your pay check to come in so you—if you have it, and that’s the other thing. A lot of people don’t have jobs in college which is fine.

M: Focus on school.

G: Tons of people don’t because you don’t have time, so you also need to be vigilant of that. If you don’t have paychecks coming in, you need to be vigilant about how you’re spending your money.

M: For sure.

G: You need textbooks so that’s a large chunk of money. So, for the first month of school do you really need to be buying chicken wings every day for lunch? Probably not. Would it be nice if you could, totally. You don’t need to so that’s another thing. Planning is key.

M: An important—yeah. But along with that, like, good habits take time. We’re not saying—this is not gonna be night and day. It wasn’t for us. But especially to take more charge of your money a good habit that I’ve grown into is, like, checking your bank account. Like, that goes along with keeping a budget, so for me, I check it consistently. Maybe I was a little bit OCD about it earlier on.

G: Did you check it even when you don’t spend money? Nothing changes, you still check it.

M: I do, I do, guys, so you don’t have to do that, but just keep a track on it. You know, maybe if your parents are helping you pay for college, mine did, thankfully, like, I’m super thankful for that, either way, like, you’re still gonna be having some expenses on your own that you need to keep track of. Like, if you spent it at a shifty store or online shop you never know if your card is gonna get stolen.

G: True.

M: There’s things like that and just in general, like, here’s how much I have, here’s what I’ve spent, can I spend it? If you don’t look at it how are you supposed to know? So that’s a good habit that I’ve kind of—Not taking it too far, trying to reign it back in, but yes, good. That’s for me. I don’t know if you have a good habit that you’ve—

G: Mines, well, it’s kind of similar in that when I get paid the first thing I do is transfer to my savings because a lot of it—I have different checks coming from different places, and they all tend to go into my checking account, but the first time I get paid from whatever job, I transfer—not the majority of it, but half or maybe a little less than half—to my savings just because, I mean, I could leave it sitting in my checking account, but you’re checking account probably shouldn’t be higher than your savings.

M: No.

G: So that’s one thing I do, is that I don’t even think about it too hard.

M: First thing, that’s the first thing.

G: Just transfer to your savings.

M: That’s good, I do that too.

G: That’s just one thing I do, and you get into the habit of doing that.

M: For sure.

G: So, at first you might be like, “All that money is going to my savings and I don’t have tons to spend.” But you get into the habit that—I actually write it on my calendar and my planner.

M: That’s great.

G: Like this Friday I get—I’m actually not that organized but that’s one thing if I don’t write it down, I won’t do it.

M: You’ll forget.

G: Or I’ll forget. So, um, that’s one thing that I do. I just transfer it and don’t think about it. I just transfer it and—

M: It’s done.

G: Leave it at that.

M: Done and over with. And that can vary, like, if you’re tight then—but still even if it’s a buck, keep the habit. Keep the habit.

G: Yes.

M: Super important. But those are some of the tips that we’ve thought of and we’ll keep growing. I’m not saying that we know everything on how to deal with money.

G: Right.

M: But that’s really helped us save in the situations that we’ve kind of grown in. What we spend and what we earn and balancing that all out.

G: I’m still trying to figure out how to do a budget. That’s a thing that I’m struggling with.

M: it’s a struggle, guys.

G: And there are templates—that’s the other good thing—there are templates online that will literally tell you how to make a budget and you just put in your income and your expenses and it’ll, like, do it for you. I’m just really bad at—I’m really bad with numbers in general, so that’s already stressful for me but a budget is also something you should be looking into, especially when you’re in college or a young adult and you’re getting your first apartment or your first house and you’re figuring out how to pay utilities and rent and electricity and all that.

M: Yeah and give yourself a buffer I’ll say. Like, I’m gonna take a trip, dude, I’m gonna spend 100 dollars give yourself the extra 50. And maybe you’ll be under, but at least you budget. You’re like, “What if I did spend the extra 50, will I be short? Don’t do that.”

G: That’s very true.

M: So, give yourself a little bit of a buffer on things that are variable. Like, you know how much you pay for rent and utilities give or take, but, like, groceries and other things, like, you give a little extra room.

G: Right because then when you don’t spend it—

M: So, when you’re under, you’re like, “I’ve got all this money I’m rich!”

G: Exactly.

M: Yeah, add that in there. It’ll make you a happier person. I’m like, I’m thrifty.

G: I didn’t think of that because I’m the kind of person to, like, if I need a hundred dollars, I do like a hundred and 2 dollars. I need to do that. For some reason I think that makes a difference, I know it doesn’t.

M: But it’s something. We’re gonna work—

G: You’re over here like, “A hundred and fifty dollars if you need 100.”

M: I’m extreme, we know that, but maybe 125. Ok, that’s a good between from 2 to 50.

G: Ok, I don’t know, I’m just really proud of myself when I’m like, “Oh, I didn’t spend these two dollars.”

M: Good, win the game. Little victories, you guys.

G: You can buy a lot with 2 dollars.

M: What can you buy with 2 dollars?

G: You can buy—

M: A chocolate bar.

G: You can buy a small…you can buy a small drink at Starbucks.

M: You can’t buy a venti cloud macchiato with 2 dollars, okay?

G: I don’t know what venti means; I don’t know what word to use.

M: Large, Gabi, large. You’ll learn it eventually.

G: Oh, is that the large one? Wait, what’s the middle drink?

M: Grande, almost lost it. You’re rubbing off on me, man.

G: Grande means big.

M: But…

G: Anyway.

M: It’s tall, grande, venti.

G: You can buy a tall drink; I think a tall drink.

M: With two bucks.

G: 2 dollars.

M: Nothing too fancy.

G: Just a plain latte.

M: So, add two dollars in their guys be like—

G: No, it makes a difference that’s all I’m saying.

M: To make 2 dollars. So, guys, with that we are probably gonna bring it to a close with our tips that obviously are great, um, yeah, just a little reminder to follow us @changebyd3grees but the e is a 3.

G: Exactly.

M: Because there was already change by degrees so don’t follow that, guys. But yeah, we hope that your first week went great and stay strong. We’ll be here with you, we’re gonna check back with you next week, but stay connected. We’re gonna try to update our social media accounts and, uh, we just look forward to hearing from you. it’s a community, guys. Stay connected. But we’ll see you next week, bye guys!

G: Bye!