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On June 26 2010 16:29 BroOd wrote:
One possible solution, if you don't feel like making tons of money with my previous plan, is to buy an iPad to manage your time and iPhone bills. The iPad has a ton of great apps you can purchase to get a handle on your monthly spending, as well as programs you can buy to manage your sheet music. I think with this increase in productivity, your ROI would skyrocket. It almost doesn't make sense not to buy an iPad.
lol i love this guy~
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You should have considered a phone such as nexus/droid or any other smartphone. They got outlook/apps/agendas. They however don't cost 100$ a month. Iphone is overpriced for the name. In the future look at functionality before coolness. Atleast wile on a tight budget.
As for not spending money on stupid things........ Dunno.
You should try find like 1 hour a day for teaching music. Hell, it can even be to 10 year olds as long as you get 25$ a day you should be able to manage.
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Ok, stop recommending new phones, OP is obviously not going to consider any new phone unless its sent from the Apple heavens. Here's how you solve all your problems. You take that iphone, you open up a piece of e-paper or application or whatever you do, and you write/type/tap all your projected expenditures/earnings for the month. Plan out your meals, plan out what you're going to buy at the grocery store, plan out a LITTLE extra to eat out OCCASIONALLY. And then STICK TO THE PLAN. If you're going to cling to your iPhone, use it to assist you in your other areas.
And 19 hours a day is ludicrous. I can't 100% say that is bs, because my mother also was that busy in college (granted she was raising her younger brother on her own), but you need to manage your time better in my opinion. There's no reason to be spending that much time on your major, and you're going to burn yourself out in a few years if you're not careful
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Guys. I'm a musician.
All the greats had I-phones.
Trust me I've seen a few musicians in my day. All the best ones know about the increased productivity.
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Honestly, finding jobs is hard enough for music majors with finished degrees, and the OP is still a student.
Teaching is fine, but finding students and places to teach them is difficult. Generally, a new musician who wants to teach for money signs a deal with a studio. The studio provides a place to teach lessons, finds the students and matches them with teachers, manages the money, and takes off a huge fee to the teacher for this service. It's not that easy.
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What advice would you offer me? Getting a job is a great idea in the summer but unfortunately I can't have a job during the school year. As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. I really need help and I don't know how to make this change.
Get a summer job, save the money, use the money over the school year. Other than that, I can't add anymore because you really don't want any help, good luck trying to get other people to solve your problem.
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Other people have given probably more relevant advice to you. This is a small tidbit that might be a little boost if you incorporate it into how you live.
When we open our wallet to spend, we are making a decision to /use/ whatever is in the wallet. Another way to put it is that the decision to open your wallet is essentially like turning on a switch to light up your whole house. You should only use cash whenerever wherever possible. You should only have a small amount of cash on hand or you'll be prone to see the rest of it disappear soon afterwards. This is all a rough paraphrasing of Dan Ariely's research on spending. I could go find the TED talks if you're interested.
TlDR: Use only small amounts of cash.
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OK OP, GET READY FOR THIS
so i read through the first three pages of posts. everyone is bashing you for your iphone expenses. although it is like a third of your leftover monthly budget, it's important for you, makes you life a lot easier regarding scheduling, so keep it if it's what makes you happy. there are people in similar earning shoes to yours and they get starbucks every morning. that's 4 bucks a day totalling 120 a month.
you're looking for ways to help you save money. what do you do? make a system.
first of all, pay off your fucking credit card. don't use it anymore until your balance is $0.00. that's right, freeze the fucker in your freezer. literally. in a big block of ice. (this is a little better than freezing your account because in the event of an emergency, you can still use it.) but try to pay it off ASAP. you're making $20 minimum payments. assuming an average of 2% minimum payment, you owe about $1000. let's say your card is at 20% apr. every year, you have to shell out two benjamins just to pay interest. allowing compounding, that's about 20 bucks a month. so basically every month you give 20 bucks to the credit card company for nothing in return. that is a huge fucking ripoff.
second, decide how much you want to save. you want to get a new cello, right? well what price range are you looking for? 500? 5000? make saving up for it a long term goal. let's say you want to buy a cello that's 2000, and that you'll save money over a period of 2 years. you gotta save 80 bucks a month. so every month, before you touch one fucking cent, transfer 80 dollars into your savings account. make it a rule you don't touch your savings account, unless you get into an emergency. like a real one, if you get hit by a car and need to pay hospital bills. now take your monthly income, minus the rent, utilites, iphone plan, etc. divide by 4.5 and 30. this is how much money you have weekly (4.5) and daily (30). decide how you want to split it up, and that's how much money you have to spend every week or every day. stick to it, or you're going to be living on beans and rice for the last week of every month.
so what if you have extra at the end of the day or at the end of the week? well, that depends on how much you want to save. if you really want to save, get a shoebox and designate it your piggy bank. every day you have money left over, put it in the box. don't take it out. at the end of the week, make a trip to the bank and deposit it. if you're tempted to spend it with your debit card, get interest checking account in addition to your regular checking and savings. your interest checking account will be your reserve or buffer account. you keep 20, 50, or 100 bucks in there for any of those unexpected turns in life, like say your bow breaks or you need new strings, or you just gotta see that movie with your friends, you take it out of your reserve account. every time your account goes above that threshold you set, you put the extra into savings. now you'll get to your cello faster than 2 years. now if you're a bum and want to blow any money you have, that's fine too. you still have your 80 bucks per month in your savings account (which you're not touching) so in 2 years, you'll have 2000 for a new cello. savvy?
good luck, and may the force be with you.
edit: so i forgot to mention how you would pay off that monstrous credit card bill. cut out all unnecessary expenses for two months. decide for your next few gigs, tell yourself that half (or a third or whatever) goes to the credit card, no buts. pick something a stick with it. ONLY if you find that you're starving (like can't afford groceries) then lower the % of gig earnings that pay off your card. and try to buy shit that's on sale in the supermarket (you can also do some comparison shopping between supermarkets.) i make it a rule of thumb to buy shit that's only on sale at the grocer. box of blueberries for 3.99? fuck that. going for the seedless grapes at 99c a pound. boneless chicken breasts for 2.49 a pound? fuck that. chicken quarters are on sale for 49c a pound. just pay attention to the adverts since they rotate what's on sale each week, and in a few months you'll be able to spot the really good deals from the so-so deals. (i've seen breasts go for 1.49 a pound before. just buy a shitload and freeze them in bags of 3-4 breasts each.)
edit2: also, don't get a summer job at some shitty place like mcdonalds. instead, try to find more students for private lessons and search more actively for gigs. they pay way better, put your skills to use, and give you more experience in teaching and performing. try to pick up some teaching tips to make your lessons better so your students stay with you. hell if it's fun they might even tell their friends how much of a blast they're having, and then you'll have more students. most of student base is gained by word of mouth.
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hmm apparently iPhone is a necessary tool for survival now... dang
But seriously, you don't NEED the fucking phone. period.
Plenty of people don't have the IPhone and are fine, do you HONESTLY think that this apple product is a need now? You need to get things straight.
You made an argument paper is volatile. Dude... like seriously if your agenda or planner catches on fire you seriously must have fucked up. How many people do you know have lit their planners on fire? It's much easier to drop an Iphone and break it than get your planner fucking lit on fire. Also it's much easier for your iphone to run out of power than your planner to explode into flames. You do realize you can check other people's schedules before you leave or on your laptop if you have it on you and there is wifi around.I assume there will be wifi since like every restaraunt and campus has wifi like everywhere.
You say its easily forgotten? Ummm if you used it all the time like you use your iPhone you wouldn't forget it because it would be so damn important to you.
If ANYTHING there was no need to get the new fucking Iphone right when it came out. I'm sure your older Iphone could do all the shit like check your email, surf web, check schedule and make phonecalls and plan shit like the new one. The new one has some new fancy camera shit and whatever I don't even remember. IF ANYTHING YOU DIDN"T NEED TO BLOW MONEY ON THE NEW IPHONE
Look, the IPhone is a luxury product okay? It's not meant for low income people, that's why there are plenty of other phones out there with built in planners and internet connection as well. Hell my phone isnt a smart phone or anything but I can surf the web on it and check my email.
There are also other smartphone which have cheaper plans. Sprint has a nice line of smart phones and the plan is very cheap. My dad has one of those new ones he got for 200 dollars and it is sweet and has access to a 4G network. Sure you could argue the IPhone is still better, but for the purposes of doing what it needs to do, it is no worse.
But regardless, you don't NEED a smart phone, you have just been spoiled by one and think you need it.
You commit a lot of time to music which is nice, but it doesn't seem to pay off. I'm not saying to quit music at all, keep at it. But sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to get by. If you are seriously in deep shit get a job that pays well and cut down on the music. Be realistic dude sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do... and you need to actually DO what you gotta do.
It's like starcraft, you go for an econ build but you get rushed, sometimes you just gotta start cutting workers and building bunkers. If you dont survive now, you won't make it to the end game and if you are unwilling to change your build, well you are just dead in the water. Cutting workers and sometimes making sacrifices like pulling workers or slapping down 2x bunkers is something you just gotta do.
Now you know you have gambling and fast food problems. You just need to be less lazy and cut the shit. Look you know what is wrong with you and you ask us for advice? Think about it. It's one thing to say "Hey my computer can't start up, can someone give me tips/tricks to find out what is wrong and maybe some solutions?"
It's another to say "I know my computer's motherboard has been damaged here, here, and here and I know to fix it I need to do this this and this. Any advice?"
Seriously just fucking stop being so lazy man and start cooking your own meals and cut the gambling and drinking. I'm not on as tight as a budget as you (I am on a fellowship and scholarship for engineering) but I still cook at LEAST 2 out of 3 meals a day if not 3. I save a lot this way and I know the importance of this. I actually started enjoying cooking as well and tried a lot of stuff out. I also felt a little healthier since i knew what was actually going into my food.
You already know what you need to do, so just do it! We can support you and encourage you but in the end you are the one that has to do it, you just need to be motivated and fucking do it.
One last word, you are not the only one with a busy life, so don't act like like you are. So far, not a single person that actually took the time to respond thought your IPhone was a good idea. You sure are stubborn.
Goodluck and really I may sound mean but deep inside I really do care.
edit: Okay fine there's one guy that supported your iPhone but still
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The most important thing you should do is probably start budgeting using a spreadsheet. It allows you to see how to cut your expenses and plan ahead. And the most important thing is it helps you force yourself into saving. Can you save one dollar a week? how about two? maybe even 3? Put that in the bank and it'll slowly add up as long as you stick with it. Only use your savings for emergencies. Later when you have a sizable amount of money, maybe you can use a portion of your emergency savings for something nice. But only a percentage!
Another important thing in your situation is to try to make or save small amounts of money. While finding a job (such as tutoring) is much better, you can do small things to supplement your income or reduce spending. Craigslist (and various competitors) is probably the best way since its an easy way for you to get money or find free useful things. Or you can try selling your no longer useful belongings on there.
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Just cancel that WoW subscription. Just cancel it. Now. Ok now its been taken care of.
Fast food - set yourself a schedule with your fancy phone when to buy food, and cook food in advance. Stick to that. Now you are full after eating home-cooked food, no need to buy fast food anymore.
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EPT
