Friday, May 25, 2018

How I Survived Poverty in College

A request from Asshole Consulting that I thought might be of use to any of you current in, or about to attend college:


2 comments:

TD said...

Cappy,

You said that you set out to prove that you were the best economist as a student. If your young advisee is paying for internet, he could monetize his life by making turning his economizing into a Youtube Channel after making an initial investment in equipment & time defining the challenge with some eyecatching/unusual parameters. Needs to be a bit professional on what he says, though, since it could affect future employment.

A goal like yours also provides focus: "Work without vision is drudgery."

You covered the big costs: tuition, housing, transport.

There are also intermediary costs that financial advisers warn against: cable, Netflix, an outsized phone plan, Amazon prime. That's money that just disappears. I use Project Fi. The deal that I have is base $30 with 10 gigs. With the approx 20+% tax it comes to ~$36/mo minus a $1 per gig unused = approx $26/mo. One can do better with no plan, pay as you go (AT&T, phone from Walmart), but this is a baseline.

I live in upstate NY, which is not as cold as MN, but gets it's share of snow and winters. I use a fan for most of the warmer weather, if things get really hot, pull out one of those gel blocks used for coolers, wrap it in paper towels & a plastic bag & sleep with that. Not gonna work if there's a gf, but could tide the guy over until he finds deal on a good AC. Since I was a kid living in the inner city, I used an open sleeping bag as my comforter, which is portable.

With the advent of craigslist, ebay, etc., I don't know if this is true anymore, but deals could be found during graduation time when students need to move out. I think that this goes more fore Phd & MD advance degrees, since they have a longer time to accumulate stuff.

Livingstingy has some tips, such as avoiding coffee for tea. The Northern Chinese drink hot water, which takes some getting used to, but works during the winter.

Anonymous said...

A follow on video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE