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TL, I have a serious problem. I'm a full time student and freelance musician. I make okay money but mostly live off of student loans until I finish my undergrad degree. I use $800 a month from student loans. $400 for rent, ~$100 for utilities, ~$100 for phone. The other $200 pays for food and gas for a month. I also have a ~$50 credit card bill. (Stupid freshman year stupidity.)
On occasion I'll get gigs. This week I made $700 but that's all I've made this month in gigs. I bought the new iPhone 4 cause my old one was dying and so I had $400 left. $200 is going to next months rent and such because my student loan money is now dry.
Somehow, I've spent the entire remaining $200 nickel-and-diming myself. I look back and say, man, I shouldn't have gotten that WoW subscription, I rarely ever play! I shouldn't have bought into full tilt, I was fucking around drunk with a friend and lost $45. I shouldn't have transferred servers with my wow character and spent $25. I should have bought food at the store and made it rather than spend $50 in fast food in the last two weeks.
But for some reason I've never been able to make the change, I always say I'm going to do better and I never manage it. I have to be able to keep money. Every month I end up at ~$0. Right now I have $4.13 in my bank account. (That's free, since I did set aside $200 for next months stuff, otherwise I won't be able to pay my bills. I have that responsibility...)
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.
  
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I feel that you're spending way lots on phone bill. Aren't unlimited plans supposed to be 99 dollars a month (without taxes I assume).
Why would you spend 300 dollars on an iphone when you could've bought a 50 dollar phone that was probably decently functional?
WoW you could do without, but it's more of a hobby than anything else and you deserve to give yourself free time. Spending the money on transferring is somewhat dumb though.
Betting is also dumb. What is the 50dollar CC bill for?
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switch your major unless you plan on being this way for the rest of your life. also, quit wow and don't buy new phones the day they come out.
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Solid advice for people in tight money situations: dont buy stupid shit like a fucking iphone. That may be a bit harshly worded, but i see so many kids i know complaining about money and they have a god damn iphone and 80gb ipod, and shiny new shit they dont need.
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iPhone isn't something I'm likely to ever give up... it's -way- too useful in my life, and yes, I do use it for pretty much every damn thing including paying my bills, managing gigs, keeping track of my calendar, I'd be professionally lost without it.
I also know what I can do without, it's a matter of getting rid of it and not getting back to it. $100 phone bill is unavoidable with the iPhone... unlimited texts, data plan, and the bare minimum talk time is $100. (Fuck AT&T.)
Barrin has the right of it. I don't need to be told what to change, I need help changing.
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Controlled spending. Don't indulge yourself. Every time you want to make a spontaneous spending decision (like eating out vs eating in, going out drinking, buying an iphone, etc), don't do it. Start a regiment and stick with it. Create a spreadsheet and meticulously keep track of income and expenses you have every week or month. If you see how much you blow indulging yourself on paper, you might give it a second thought.
Edit: lol at needing an iPhone. Try the original calendar tracker, an actual calendar + notepad/pen. You can text with a regular phone. You can keep track of you gigs with pencil and paper.
To put it in perspective, you spend 12.5% of your total income a month on your phone bill. Your iphone cost you an extra 2.5% of your annual budget. If an average wage person (40k/year) spent 15% of their annual budget on their phone, they'd be spending 500 bucks a month on it. Don't live beyond your means.
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On June 26 2010 15:23 gchan wrote:
Controlled spending. Don't indulge yourself. Every time you want to make a spontaneous spending decision (like eating out vs eating in, going out drinking, buying an iphone, etc), don't do it. Start a regiment and stick with it. Create a spreadsheet and meticulously keep track of income and expenses you have every week or month. If you see how much you blow indulging yourself on paper, you might give it a second thought.
Edit: lol at needing an iPhone. Try the original calendar tracker, an actual calendar + notepad/pen. You can text with a regular phone. You can keep track of you gigs with pencil and paper.
Yeah, no. You're wrong about the iPhone stuff. But I'm not gonna argue with you. It's simply not true. And using paper and pencil ANYTHING is so volatile. Easy to misplace, damage, leave at home when you need information now, it's just not sensible.
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There really isn't too much to say. Get a job, get rid of the phone, and stop blowing money on fast food and alcohol.
And needing the iphone is such fucking bullshit. People have been scheduling things for years without smartphones. Needing a cellphone I could understand, but not an iphone.
I have friends that go to school full time and work full time and they definitely make more then $700 a month.
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Buddy, you're nickel and diming in all the wrong places. Your largest liability every month is your rent, as it should be. Your second largest liability is your utilities, as it should be. That in total is 62.5% of your monthly expenses. Of the remaining 37.5% of discretionary income you spent 40% of it on...an iphone? And here I thought that food was important.
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Need help changing?
... there's an app for that.
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On June 26 2010 15:23 gchan wrote:
Controlled spending. Don't indulge yourself. Every time you want to make a spontaneous spending decision (like eating out vs eating in, going out drinking, buying an iphone, etc), don't do it. Start a regiment and stick with it. Create a spreadsheet and meticulously keep track of income and expenses you have every week or month. If you see how much you blow indulging yourself on paper, you might give it a second thought.
Edit: lol at needing an iPhone. Try the original calendar tracker, an actual calendar + notepad/pen. You can text with a regular phone. You can keep track of you gigs with pencil and paper.
To put it in perspective, you spend 12.5% of your total income a month on your phone bill. Your iphone cost you an extra 2.5% of your annual budget. If an average wage person (40k/year) spent 15% of their annual budget on their phone, they'd be spending 500 bucks a month on it. Don't live beyond your means.
You can setup an account at http://mint.com to pretty much keep track of all of this for you, assuming most of your purchases are using a debit/credit card rather than cash.
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On June 26 2010 15:20 Divinek wrote:
Solid advice for people in tight money situations: dont buy stupid shit like a fucking iphone. That may be a bit harshly worded, but i see so many kids i know complaining about money and they have a god damn iphone and 80gb ipod, and shiny new shit they dont need.
^
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On June 26 2010 15:33 Bosu wrote:
There really isn't too much to say. Get a job, get rid of the phone, and stop blowing money on fast food and alcohol.
And needing the iphone is such fucking bullshit. People have been scheduling things for years without smartphones. Needing a cellphone I could understand, but not an iphone.
I have friends that go to school full time and work full time and they definitely make more then $700 a month.
I'll ignore the bolded, didn't read the OP nonsense. But i will say that I have never in my life purchased alcohol =P I actually rarely drink but when I do it's not on my dime.
You're all.. wildly ignoring the point of this blog. I'm looking for your ideas and experiences with implementing solutions. I'm not looking for you to judge me based on what I do choose... I have clearly recognized what is stupid spending and what isn't. Whether you agree with me or not on that matter is irrelevant because you are not me and I am not you ^_^. Point is, I am asking for... solutions. Things I can do to help myself implement the changes I want to implement. Because it's obviously not as easy as saying, oh, just change it. If it was, everyone in the world would be a perfect spender.
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What the fuck do you want people to say. There are no other solutions.
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Buying that phone was a really big mistake. Not sure what your contract is like, but it's at least $25 a month for a data plan, right? (went back and read and it's $100 a month for the lowest level plan.) Plus whatever they're charging you for everything else, on top of dropping nearly a month's rent on a phone. Seriously, I can understand wanting to have nice things and buying into hype and all, but when you're really short on cash, the phone should be the first thing to go; not buying into an expensive plan with an expensive initial price. But there's not much you can do if you're under contract for two years, though I'd look to see how much the cancellation fee is.
Honestly, making this blog about being in a tight situation when you're spending $100 a month on a phone that you paid $300 for is just asking to be flamed. Unless you find a more consistent job that somehow works with your schedule, your best bet is to get rid of the phone or drop your other spending a bit. There's really nothing more to it.
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How did he not read the OP? Get a job for the summer then, christ.
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Okay, forget this blog, nobody seems to think before they post.
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Are you kidding? You think there is some magical solution that is just waiting there to be posted about how to not be a fucking idiot with what little money you have? STOP LIVING BEYOND YOUR MEANS, there is your solution.
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CA10828 Posts
even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it.
having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone.
On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work.
i call absolute 100% bullshit on this
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On June 26 2010 15:45 Gatsbi wrote:
Are you kidding? You think there is some magical solution that is just waiting there to be posted about how to not be a fucking idiot with what little money you have? STOP LIVING BEYOND YOUR MEANS, there is your solution.
You're still not even thinking. You're not reading, you're not thinking, you're still posting the same basic crap you started posting when it's not what I asked at all. It'd be like if someone posted a blog saying, what's 2+2? and I went in and told them that it's spelled e-l-e-p-h-a-n-t. Totally irrelevant.
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On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it. having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone. Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this
You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap.
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On June 26 2010 15:40 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:33 Bosu wrote:
There really isn't too much to say. Get a job, get rid of the phone, and stop blowing money on fast food and alcohol.
And needing the iphone is such fucking bullshit. People have been scheduling things for years without smartphones. Needing a cellphone I could understand, but not an iphone.
I have friends that go to school full time and work full time and they definitely make more then $700 a month. I'll ignore the bolded, didn't read the OP nonsense. But i will say that I have never in my life purchased alcohol =P I actually rarely drink but when I do it's not on my dime. You're all.. wildly ignoring the point of this blog. I'm looking for your ideas and experiences with implementing solutions. I'm not looking for you to judge me based on what I do choose... I have clearly recognized what is stupid spending and what isn't. Whether you agree with me or not on that matter is irrelevant because you are not me and I am not you ^_^. Point is, I am asking for... solutions. Things I can do to help myself implement the changes I want to implement. Because it's obviously not as easy as saying, oh, just change it. If it was, everyone in the world would be a perfect spender.
I don't understand you. You open a blog asking for help, yet refuse to accept the most obviously, and perhaps the only suggestion:
Get a job or control your spending.
Since you claim you can't work, then don't buy stupid shit. Most people think an Iphone is stupid (and I am with them) because there is probably less than .01% of the population that can claim they *need* an Iphone, and I highly doubt you are one of them. People are just using the Iphone as an example; if you deem it as "not stupid spending", then so be it. What else is there to say?
Here is the magic solution to get out of money problems:
1. Make more
2. Spend less
3. Both
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You're the one that didn't think before you posted; we're all just pointing out the obvious. Your $800 is tied up in necessities (though I'd hardly consider the iphone that - you could save at least $50 a month right there.) And the rest of the money that comes in is inconsistent at best. We offered the only viable solutions: either pick up another job and find a way to make it work, stop spending money on things you really don't need, or learn some impulse control. What did you expect us to say?
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So do you want us to tell you HOW to get a job? Go to your local burger king grab an application and fill it out. and yeah.. must have to study a lot with that music major LOL
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On June 26 2010 15:48 Gatsbi wrote:
So do you want us to tell you HOW to get a job? Go to your local burger king grab an application and fill it out. and yeah.. must have to study a lot with that music major LOL
You're done in this blog. Useless poster.
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Art majors have no time. Most art students I knew were always so busy.
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On June 26 2010 15:44 Eiserne wrote:
Okay, forget this blog, nobody seems to think before they post.
No you just seem extremely irresponsible. You are strapped for cash every month, and the first big help you get from the music gig you spend on a new iphone? There wasnt any cheaper phones you could have gone for? You couldn't have saved that money you spend on fast food/wow/etc?
You know what you need to do, and that is to be a responsible adult. You are not looking for advice, as I am sure you are not stupid. Sounds like you just want a little sympathy to me.
Suck it up, budget your money wisely, and stop acting like you are in high school.
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On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work.
I've known people from every major imaginable that could hold down jobs while studying. Unless you are a grad student you can work.
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The point of this blog was to ask, how do you stop yourself from the nickel-and-dime useless spending like fast food, video games I barely even play or have time for, stupid nickel-and-dime stuff like online poker and trivial shit like that. If you want to address that question, feel free but if it's anything else I'll just ban you from my blog. I'm not trying to argue with anyone, I am having self-control issues, especially with the food thing, and I wanted advice on controlling that kind of spending.
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ok everybody's gotta realize he's not going to get rid of his phone.
look, i know you ignored the last guy who told you to get a job, but why can't you? because you're a student and musician? because you play WoW? it's not going to kill you to sacrifice 20 hours a week at a part time job. it's without a doubt the best solution given your income and expenses
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On June 26 2010 15:51 Carthac wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:44 Eiserne wrote:
Okay, forget this blog, nobody seems to think before they post. No you just seem extremely irresponsible. You are strapped for cash every month, and the first big help you get from the music gig you spend on a new iphone? There wasnt any cheaper phones you could have gone for? You couldn't have saved that money you spend on fast food/wow/etc? You know what you need to do, and that is to be a responsible adult. You are not looking for advice, as I am sure you are not stupid. Sounds like you just want a little sympathy to me. Suck it up, budget your money wisely, and stop acting like you are in high school.
Are you seriously even reading ANYTHING? "You couldn't have saved that money you spend on fast food/wow/etc?" That's what the fuck I'm talking about here! READ THE FUCKING BLOG BEFORE YOU POST, CHRIST.
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You can't afford luxuries if you're living beyond your means. You are not entitled to anything. You don't need an iphone. For god's sake if you only have that much money to live with then live like you only have that much money.
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Jeez Eiserne, you posted a blog asking for advice and when people gave you the answer you didn't want to hear, you pointlessly argue in favor of the lifestyle you want to change.
Take the advice in this thread or be quiet.
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On June 26 2010 15:51 Lemonwalrus wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. I've known people from every major imaginable that could hold down jobs while studying. Unless you are a grad student you can work.
Actually, once I get into grad school, I finally CAN work because I'll actually have a TF-ship in a chamber music ensemble that'll pay like 7k a semester plus I'll be assigned students from the university and that's a second TF-ship. One more year, baby one more year. And if you see my post above, I explained about my weekly time budget and how there's literally not enough time in the day for me to have a job.
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Don't know how demanding a music major is, but I'm pretty sure you can work. Finding a job might be difficult, but if you are truly strapped for money working is never not an option.
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On June 26 2010 15:51 Eiserne wrote:
The point of this blog was to ask, how do you stop yourself from the nickel-and-dime useless spending like fast food, video games I barely even play or have time for, stupid nickel-and-dime stuff like online poker and trivial shit like that. If you want to address that question, feel free but if it's anything else I'll just ban you from my blog. I'm not trying to argue with anyone, I am having self-control issues, especially with the food thing, and I wanted advice on controlling that kind of spending.
1. Unregister the stupid shit
2. Don't look at them again
3. Know that you won't be able to afford food if you register again
There. Done.
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sorry to tell you, you have your priorities completely wrong. everyone in this thread knows the benefits of an iphone, and people have managed, and continue to manage, life without an iphone. hell, i still dont have an iphone and i seem to manage just fine maintaining my schedule and managing my finances. a computer serves those purposes just fine. you sound like a spoiled brat who's view of money is so skewed in the wrong direction it's laughable.
your iphone bill is far from a necessity. people manage with less. if you think about it an iphone is just a mobile computer that you spend nearly $3000 for two years. you could buy a $500 computer that lasts 4 years and manage everything from there. hell you could buy a $200 net book. no one needs unlimited texting/unlimited data/unlimited minutes. that's incredibly silly and naive. it's honestly not at&t's fault, i don't know why you would even mention "fuck at&t." the people they're targeting with the iphone and unlimited plans aren't college kids with no money. (well i guess that's not true because the likelihood of you defaulting seems very high, they probably love seeing you blow your money on a phone you really can't afford) they're targeting business professionals, who have a well paying job, who's job is dependent on information in a rapidly changing, volatile environment where time is of the essence. at the present, your time is no where near worth the time of a business professional.
honestly, just work at mcdonalds. you really need to do some life searching and start from nothing to adjust your severely impaired logic and money managing skills.
everyone in this thread is telling you how to avoid nickel and diming yourself and how to cut out excessive spending and properly manage your finances. whether you choose to listen or not to the solid advice that's coming from your blog is up to you.
you basically ask this question: how do i control my impulses without getting rid of x, y, and z when x, y and z are impulses...people then justify why x, y and z are impulses because you do not understand where they are coming from. then you say people aren't addressing your issues.
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On June 26 2010 15:54 Carthac wrote:
Jeez Eiserne, you posted a blog asking for advice and when people gave you the answer you didn't want to hear, you pointlessly argue in favor of the lifestyle you want to change.
Take the advice in this thread or be quiet.
why don't you offer advice to the question I proposed. Then I'll consider your advice. Until then please stop posting. I'm not going to ban you, in hopes that you might even have a real solution.
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What kind of answer are you looking for, really? You just drop the small things. You simply just drop them. You know you need to, and so you do. It isn't a complicated procedure. You make a statement to yourself and you just stick to it. It doesn't even feel like you're trying to save money at all. Even if you fix all these small habits it still doesn't change that you are living way beyond your means. Are you forgetting that you're not even living off your own money? You're living off loans. Live like you are.
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On June 26 2010 15:51 Carthac wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:44 Eiserne wrote:
Okay, forget this blog, nobody seems to think before they post. You are not looking for advice, as I am sure you are not stupid. Sounds like you just want a little sympathy to me. Suck it up, budget your money wisely, and stop acting like you are in high school.
Bingo
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use a budget and start teaching kids for cash
On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this
normally I'd agree with you but some music performance majors have it rough; so I'd say 80% bullshit? I dunno
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Kau
Canada3500 Posts
On June 26 2010 15:48 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it. having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone. On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap.
Performing ensemble - 4 hours/day
Class - 6 hours/day
Private Practice - 5 hours/day
Lessons - 10 hours / week = ~1 hour/day
Chamber music - 20 hours / week = ~3 hours/day
Total = ~19 hours a day
Now including time to eat, travel, talk/text on your expensive iphone, complain on teamliquid, and all those little things in life, I'd say you're getting less than 4 hours of sleep a day. I think you should slow things down a bit before considering getting a job.
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On June 26 2010 15:55 FragKrag wrote:
Don't know how demanding a music major is, but I'm pretty sure you can work. Finding a job might be difficult, but if you are truly strapped for money working is never not an option.
It's not that I'm strapped for money, which seems to be the major misunderstanding here. I always have -enough- money to last me month-to-month. That's all well. But I'd like to be able to spend less, put money aside, pay off my credit card bill faster, start saving money for important professional things like a new cello.
People in this thread may think I'm net negative, which isn't true at all. I just want to eliminate from my spending, the more useless shit, like fast food and video game subscriptions. But I always make this valiant effort to do so... which lasts maybe a week or two. Then it's back to, this is so much easier/takes less time/seems cheaper, so I shouldn't worry about it. It's so easy to fall back into that bad habit.
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On June 26 2010 15:59 Kau wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:48 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it. having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone. On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap. Performing ensemble - 4 hours/day Class - 6 hours/day Private Practice - 5 hours/day Lessons - 10 hours / week = ~1 hour/day Chamber music - 20 hours / week = ~3 hours/day Total = ~19 hours a day Now including time to eat, travel, talk/text on your expensive iphone, complain on teamliquid, and all those little things in life, I'd say you're getting less than 4 hours of sleep a day. I think you should slow things down a bit before considering getting a job.
The first thing to go in my schedule is obviously private practice time, which gets bumped to closer to 3 hours a day. But yeah. Usually 5-6 hours of sleep a day, which so far has done me well but I'm sure has long term problems. And lessons is actually 8 hours a week, 4 2 hour lessons per week. In any case. That's my major.
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On June 26 2010 15:59 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:55 FragKrag wrote:
Don't know how demanding a music major is, but I'm pretty sure you can work. Finding a job might be difficult, but if you are truly strapped for money working is never not an option. It's not that I'm strapped for money, which seems to be the major misunderstanding here. I always have -enough- money to last me month-to-month. That's all well. But I'd like to be able to spend less, put money aside, pay off my credit card bill faster, start saving money for important professional things like a new cello. People in this thread may think I'm net negative, which isn't true at all.
You're living mostly off of loans.
LOANS. NOT YOUR MONEY. For god's sake you say that you want to save money for a new cello, which will rape your wallet up while also saying that you're not going to give up frivolous things like an iPhone? Are you even listening to yourself?
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is awesome32274 Posts
On June 26 2010 15:59 Kau wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:48 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it. having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone. On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap. Performing ensemble - 4 hours/day Class - 6 hours/day Private Practice - 5 hours/day Lessons - 10 hours / week = ~1 hour/day Chamber music - 20 hours / week = ~3 hours/day Total = ~19 hours a day Now including time to eat, travel, talk/text on your expensive iphone, complain on teamliquid, and all those little things in life, I'd say you're getting less than 4 hours of sleep a day. I think you should slow things down a bit before considering getting a job.
When you play music fast, time bends.
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is awesome32274 Posts
Or you bullshit people on blogs, you pick one!
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On June 26 2010 15:57 d3_crescentia wrote:use a budget and start teaching kids for cash Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this normally I'd agree with you but some music performance majors have it rough; so I'd say 80% bullshit? I dunno
I used to have two students. They showed up for two lessons each and never came back. That's in the last few months though. Before I moved here to Denton (transferred to UNT, one of the major music schools in the USA) I had several students. It was easier living there, financially, but I was also paying twice as much for school for half the quality of the education so it was a no-brainer on what I needed to do.
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On June 26 2010 15:55 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:54 Carthac wrote:
Jeez Eiserne, you posted a blog asking for advice and when people gave you the answer you didn't want to hear, you pointlessly argue in favor of the lifestyle you want to change.
Take the advice in this thread or be quiet. why don't you offer advice to the question I proposed. Then I'll consider your advice. Until then please stop posting. I'm not going to ban you, in hopes that you might even have a real solution.
That's what you're not understanding, man. There's no secret way of learning self control. It's either something you eventually learn, or you don't. Maybe you'll learn to stop spending money on all the fast food/WoW/etc. if your car dies and you don't have the money to repair it (and thus have to walk everywhere) because you spent all your money elsewhere. Short of that, there really isn't a magical way.
Maybe you should cut off your internet, or if you need it for school (and don't have access to a library where you can do the necessities) uninstall WoW/whatever other programs you waste your time/money on.
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On June 26 2010 16:01 IntoTheWow wrote:
Or you bullshit people on blogs, you pick one!
i don't know what you do for a living, but it's easy for you to say that when you have no experience of it. Talk to the music performance majors you know, if you know any. When every job out there is a competition with the person next to you... when there are on average 6-8 university teaching job openings every year and 10-12 major symphony openings every year... and thousands of students graduating every year in cello performance... the competition demands the schedule.
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Austin10831 Posts
TBH I think this thread is just full of Microsoft fanboys. What sane man WOULDN'T drop a few Benjamins on Apple's® latest pièce de résistance? I got an extra job doing medical testing at the local community college to afford one. Who cares if I'm bald and spermless when I'm 40? I have an iPhone now, and that makes it all ok.
Stand tall, Eiserne. You may be a music major, but you have an iPhone now, and they can never take that away from you. (unless you stop using your student loans to pay the monthly bill, I guess then they can take it away from you)
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On June 26 2010 15:46 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:45 Gatsbi wrote:
Are you kidding? You think there is some magical solution that is just waiting there to be posted about how to not be a fucking idiot with what little money you have? STOP LIVING BEYOND YOUR MEANS, there is your solution. You're still not even thinking. You're not reading, you're not thinking, you're still posting the same basic crap you started posting when it's not what I asked at all. It'd be like if someone posted a blog saying, what's 2+2? and I went in and told them that it's spelled e-l-e-p-h-a-n-t. Totally irrelevant.
They are not thinking?
lulz
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Also, how do you fit in WoW when you only have 5 hours to sleep a day or some shit according to what you say?
\o/
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is awesome32274 Posts
On June 26 2010 16:03 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:01 IntoTheWow wrote:
Or you bullshit people on blogs, you pick one! i don't know what you do for a living, but it's easy for you to say that when you have no experience of it. Talk to the music performance majors you know, if you know any. When every job out there is a competition with the person next to you... when there are on average 6-8 university teaching job openings every year and 10-12 major symphony openings every year... and thousands of students graduating every year in cello performance... the competition demands the schedule.
So now it's a dick measuring contest?
alrighty... *unzips*
_YOUR_ turn now.
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On June 26 2010 16:03 BroOd wrote:
TBH I think this thread is just full of Microsoft fanboys. What sane man WOULDN'T drop a few Benjamins on Apple's® latest pièce de résistance? I got an extra job doing medical testing at the local community college to afford one. Who cares if I'm bald and spermless when I'm 40? I have an iPhone now, and that makes it all ok.
Stand tall, Eiserne. You may be a music major, but you have an iPhone now, and they can never take that away from you. (unless you stop using your student loans to pay the monthly bill, I guess then they can take it away from you)
I laughed out loud in my chair. A work of art in text, haha. Well spoken.
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when i was in college my schedule looked like this:
MWF
8-12 classes.
2-6 lab class
6-10 work
12-2 study
TR
9-12 study
12-5 work
5-8 freetime
8-12 study
honestly, been there done that. also, i didn't think you were in the negative, just horrendous planning/management/reasoning skills.
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On June 26 2010 16:04 IntoTheWow wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:03 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 16:01 IntoTheWow wrote:
Or you bullshit people on blogs, you pick one! i don't know what you do for a living, but it's easy for you to say that when you have no experience of it. Talk to the music performance majors you know, if you know any. When every job out there is a competition with the person next to you... when there are on average 6-8 university teaching job openings every year and 10-12 major symphony openings every year... and thousands of students graduating every year in cello performance... the competition demands the schedule. So now it's a dick measuring contest? alrighty... *unzips* _YOUR_ turn now.
Uhm, it has nothing to do with any ego here. You're making it into an ego contest. I said nothing of the sort and wasn't trying to compare myself to you at all. I was just trying to explain to you why my schedule is so demanding. I can't comprehend your response at all.
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On June 26 2010 15:59 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:55 FragKrag wrote:
Don't know how demanding a music major is, but I'm pretty sure you can work. Finding a job might be difficult, but if you are truly strapped for money working is never not an option. People in this thread may think I'm net negative, which isn't true at all. I just want to eliminate from my spending, the more useless shit, like fast food and video game subscriptions. But I always make this valiant effort to do so... which lasts maybe a week or two. Then it's back to, this is so much easier/takes less time/seems cheaper, so I shouldn't worry about it. It's so easy to fall back into that bad habit.
Once again, you know the answer. There is no special technique everyone uses or some special pill we take to have enough will power to not spend our money on frivolous things. You just need to control yourself, think as you are buying whether you can afford it or not given your financial situation, and ponder if there is any better way you can be spending that money.
Honestly, you need to stop posting as well. You are most likely in a bad mood and trying to vent here on your blog. Whether you are or not, you are coming off as pretty childish
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Kau
Canada3500 Posts
On June 26 2010 16:00 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:59 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 15:48 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it. having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone. On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap. Performing ensemble - 4 hours/day Class - 6 hours/day Private Practice - 5 hours/day Lessons - 10 hours / week = ~1 hour/day Chamber music - 20 hours / week = ~3 hours/day Total = ~19 hours a day Now including time to eat, travel, talk/text on your expensive iphone, complain on teamliquid, and all those little things in life, I'd say you're getting less than 4 hours of sleep a day. I think you should slow things down a bit before considering getting a job. The first thing to go in my schedule is obviously private practice time, which gets bumped to closer to 3 hours a day. But yeah. Usually 5-6 hours of sleep a day, which so far has done me well but I'm sure has long term problems. And lessons is actually 8 hours a week, 4 2 hour lessons per week. In any case. That's my major.
What exactly is chamber music and why does it take so much time? And also, how come you have so many classes a day? I'm in computer engineering and barely break more than 3 hours a day of classes.
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is awesome32274 Posts
I don't understand what's so wrong about taking loans. You said you are going to be making 7k us$ in a year, so you should be able to pay everything back pretty fast and still make around 6k a month.
You still have a margin to loan more money imo.
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On June 26 2010 16:04 koreasilver wrote:
Also, how do you fit in WoW when you only have 5 hours to sleep a day or some shit according to what you say?
\o/
That was a point I made earlier int he thread... I did the WoW subscription last weekend and it was totally impulsive and outside of summer I never even have time to do that. That's why I smacked myself in the head today when Ir ealized all the stupid impulsive things I've done recently. I'm asking for advice in... I guess controlling that impulse. Maybe different budgeting concepts, spending practices... Things like the envelope system, where you put x amount of cash in 4 envelopes, one for each week of the month, and you spend that. Or even do better, and make it daily, but you cascade daily into the next one to make it bigger until you have enough to spend. That would certainly cut out impulse buying and make you plan ahead for bigger purchases. I actually quite like that idea.
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I know a really easy way to stop spending money on stupid things, don't carry money around with you. Try it man its served me well.
Well either that or realize that the things your buying have little to no real value and every dollar you spend now your going to have to repay twice as much with loan interest and what not.
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On June 26 2010 16:07 Kau wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:00 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:59 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 15:48 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it. having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone. On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap. Performing ensemble - 4 hours/day Class - 6 hours/day Private Practice - 5 hours/day Lessons - 10 hours / week = ~1 hour/day Chamber music - 20 hours / week = ~3 hours/day Total = ~19 hours a day Now including time to eat, travel, talk/text on your expensive iphone, complain on teamliquid, and all those little things in life, I'd say you're getting less than 4 hours of sleep a day. I think you should slow things down a bit before considering getting a job. The first thing to go in my schedule is obviously private practice time, which gets bumped to closer to 3 hours a day. But yeah. Usually 5-6 hours of sleep a day, which so far has done me well but I'm sure has long term problems. And lessons is actually 8 hours a week, 4 2 hour lessons per week. In any case. That's my major. What exactly is chamber music and why does it take so much time? And also, how come you have so many classes a day? I'm in compuper engineering and barely break more than 3 hours a day of classes.
Chamber music is things like string quartet and piano trio and stuff like that, which is typically 2 hours per day week days and 5 hours per day weekends. Biweekly performances, lots of stuff like that, required for a chamber music focus at my school. Also pretty much guarantees the chamber music TF in grad school, which is a big goal of mine.
I had to re-take all of my music theory classes when I got here so in order to graduate in 5 years which is necessary for my stafford loan amounts, I had to take 20+ hours a semester for the last 3 semesters.
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On June 26 2010 16:08 IntoTheWow wrote:
I don't understand what's so wrong about taking loans. You said you are going to be making 7k us$ in a year, so you should be able to pay everything back pretty fast and still make around 6k a month.
You still have a margin to loan more money imo.
I'm out of federal stafford loan money, so if I do take more loans it'd have to be private loans. I'm obviously gonna be looking into that for the next spring semester because I've capped out the federal loans. (Went to private university for two years which was the biggest major mistake of my life.)
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Then it's back to, this is so much easier/takes less time/seems cheaper, so I shouldn't worry about it. It's so easy to fall back into that bad habit.
This says all that needs to be said about your mannerisms. It is easier/takes less time/seems cheaper to take out loans and not work to pay for an iphone and not work, but in the long run it's not. you seem to understand this principle on small items such as fast food and gaming, yet fail to apply this concept to the larger issues at hand.
edit: I'm not saying you shouldn't take out loans or that loans are the root of your problems. i'm simply saying you should be taking out loans to pay for an iphone and eat fast food all the time blow it on gaming and alcohol.
i'm going to be taking out a loan soon for law school because i don't have 40k to spend up front. i'm going to be working nearly full time while trying to manage classes. good luck to me.
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Every time you want to impulse buy something, tell yourself that you can do it in an hour. Then think about it in the meantime and decide during that hour whether you really want it.
[[EDIT]] Why does everybody automatically assume that he has 20+ hours of free time a week and is lying about it?
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Kau
Canada3500 Posts
On June 26 2010 16:10 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:07 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 16:00 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:59 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 15:48 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it. having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone. On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap. Performing ensemble - 4 hours/day Class - 6 hours/day Private Practice - 5 hours/day Lessons - 10 hours / week = ~1 hour/day Chamber music - 20 hours / week = ~3 hours/day Total = ~19 hours a day Now including time to eat, travel, talk/text on your expensive iphone, complain on teamliquid, and all those little things in life, I'd say you're getting less than 4 hours of sleep a day. I think you should slow things down a bit before considering getting a job. The first thing to go in my schedule is obviously private practice time, which gets bumped to closer to 3 hours a day. But yeah. Usually 5-6 hours of sleep a day, which so far has done me well but I'm sure has long term problems. And lessons is actually 8 hours a week, 4 2 hour lessons per week. In any case. That's my major. What exactly is chamber music and why does it take so much time? And also, how come you have so many classes a day? I'm in computer engineering and barely break more than 3 hours a day of classes. Chamber music is things like string quartet and piano trio and stuff like that, which is typically 2 hours per day week days and 5 hours per day weekends. Biweekly performances, lots of stuff like that, required for a chamber music focus at my school. Also pretty much guarantees the chamber music TF in grad school, which is a big goal of mine. I had to re-take all of my music theory classes when I got here so in order to graduate in 5 years which is necessary for my stafford loan amounts, I had to take 20+ hours a semester for the last 3 semesters.
Well with all the time you're spending in class, how does it make sense to have an iphone? Isn't an iphone for it's apps and stuff? How do you have time to play with the apps? Or are you using your iphone in class?
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It seems your asking us techniques or how you can curb your at times unecessary spending.
If that's the case i suggest you slap yourself in the face with your brand new iphone till you bleed.
Worked for me.
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Beyonder
Netherlands15103 Posts
I think about everything a couple of days before I buy it: do I really need it?
Unless of course a girl is involved. Money spender then!
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On June 26 2010 16:09 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:04 koreasilver wrote:
Also, how do you fit in WoW when you only have 5 hours to sleep a day or some shit according to what you say?
\o/ Maybe different budgeting concepts, spending practices... Things like the envelope system, where you put x amount of cash in 4 envelopes, one for each week of the month, and you spend that. Or even do better, and make it daily, but you cascade daily into the next one to make it bigger until you have enough to spend. That would certainly cut out impulse buying and make you plan ahead for bigger purchases. I actually quite like that idea. yes that's it!! the envelope system! this solved all my money management problems too, basically here's what you do.
1) buy those little envelopes that have a little flap on them. then you can decorate them with markers. i made one into a face with the little flap as his mouth haha!! make one for each week, or better yet, if you're feeling bold, try getting one for each day. then you can do what i like to call the "cascade effect".
2) put the money in the envelopes, an equal amount for each envelope. all you gotta do is wing it from here man, day by day or week by week. you got a new set of training wheels and you're flyin. just... don't touch any of the other envelopes. i'm warning you.
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On June 26 2010 16:15 Kau wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:10 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 16:07 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 16:00 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:59 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 15:48 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it. having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone. On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap. Performing ensemble - 4 hours/day Class - 6 hours/day Private Practice - 5 hours/day Lessons - 10 hours / week = ~1 hour/day Chamber music - 20 hours / week = ~3 hours/day Total = ~19 hours a day Now including time to eat, travel, talk/text on your expensive iphone, complain on teamliquid, and all those little things in life, I'd say you're getting less than 4 hours of sleep a day. I think you should slow things down a bit before considering getting a job. The first thing to go in my schedule is obviously private practice time, which gets bumped to closer to 3 hours a day. But yeah. Usually 5-6 hours of sleep a day, which so far has done me well but I'm sure has long term problems. And lessons is actually 8 hours a week, 4 2 hour lessons per week. In any case. That's my major. What exactly is chamber music and why does it take so much time? And also, how come you have so many classes a day? I'm in computer engineering and barely break more than 3 hours a day of classes. Chamber music is things like string quartet and piano trio and stuff like that, which is typically 2 hours per day week days and 5 hours per day weekends. Biweekly performances, lots of stuff like that, required for a chamber music focus at my school. Also pretty much guarantees the chamber music TF in grad school, which is a big goal of mine. I had to re-take all of my music theory classes when I got here so in order to graduate in 5 years which is necessary for my stafford loan amounts, I had to take 20+ hours a semester for the last 3 semesters. Well with all the time you're spending in class, how does it make sense to have an iphone? Isn't an iphone for it's apps and stuff? How do you have time to play with the apps? Or are you using your iphone in class?
I use it to manage my string quartet and the people I hire to play with me for wedding gigs, I manage a large amount of gigs during the school year when there are players around. Keeping track of both a calendar and contacts and locations and finances that way is done on my phone. It's easy to say do it on paper or do it on a computer but I need to have it on something that's always with me so that when I get a calla bout someone wanting to set up a performance, it's right there and I can verify it and verify other people's schedules. (All the people I hire share their google calendars with me which I have loaded into my calendar so I can see when they are free, add the event to their calendar, send them a message asking them to confirm it, etc.) all done with the apps on the iPhone which streamlines the entire thing and has probably already made me thousands of dollars in that way. Or at least saved me that much.
I do use it as a metronome and tuner too  haha.
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On June 26 2010 16:17 yubee wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:09 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 16:04 koreasilver wrote:
Also, how do you fit in WoW when you only have 5 hours to sleep a day or some shit according to what you say?
\o/ Maybe different budgeting concepts, spending practices... Things like the envelope system, where you put x amount of cash in 4 envelopes, one for each week of the month, and you spend that. Or even do better, and make it daily, but you cascade daily into the next one to make it bigger until you have enough to spend. That would certainly cut out impulse buying and make you plan ahead for bigger purchases. I actually quite like that idea. yes that's it!! the envelope system! this solved all my money management problems too, basically here's what you do. 1) buy those little envelopes that have a little flap on them. then you can decorate them with markers. i made one into a face with the little flap as his mouth haha!! make one for each week, or better yet, if you're feeling bold, try getting one for each day. then you can do what i like to call the "cascade effect". 2) put the money in the envelopes, an equal amount for each envelope. all you gotta do is wing it from here man, day by day or week by week. you got a new set of training wheels and you're flyin. just... don't touch any of the other envelopes. i'm warning you.
I really do think I'm going to work on this. I'm sure I can handle that.
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On June 26 2010 16:12 EmeraldSparks wrote:
Every time you want to impulse buy something, tell yourself that you can do it in an hour. Then think about it in the meantime and decide during that hour whether you really want it.
[[EDIT]] Why does everybody automatically assume that he has 20+ hours of free time a week and is lying about it?
it's summer break? wouldn't he have more time to spend working... this thread turned into a much larger discussion about his spending habits
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Kau
Canada3500 Posts
On June 26 2010 16:18 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:15 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 16:10 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 16:07 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 16:00 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:59 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 15:48 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it. having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone. On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap. Performing ensemble - 4 hours/day Class - 6 hours/day Private Practice - 5 hours/day Lessons - 10 hours / week = ~1 hour/day Chamber music - 20 hours / week = ~3 hours/day Total = ~19 hours a day Now including time to eat, travel, talk/text on your expensive iphone, complain on teamliquid, and all those little things in life, I'd say you're getting less than 4 hours of sleep a day. I think you should slow things down a bit before considering getting a job. The first thing to go in my schedule is obviously private practice time, which gets bumped to closer to 3 hours a day. But yeah. Usually 5-6 hours of sleep a day, which so far has done me well but I'm sure has long term problems. And lessons is actually 8 hours a week, 4 2 hour lessons per week. In any case. That's my major. What exactly is chamber music and why does it take so much time? And also, how come you have so many classes a day? I'm in computer engineering and barely break more than 3 hours a day of classes. Chamber music is things like string quartet and piano trio and stuff like that, which is typically 2 hours per day week days and 5 hours per day weekends. Biweekly performances, lots of stuff like that, required for a chamber music focus at my school. Also pretty much guarantees the chamber music TF in grad school, which is a big goal of mine. I had to re-take all of my music theory classes when I got here so in order to graduate in 5 years which is necessary for my stafford loan amounts, I had to take 20+ hours a semester for the last 3 semesters. Well with all the time you're spending in class, how does it make sense to have an iphone? Isn't an iphone for it's apps and stuff? How do you have time to play with the apps? Or are you using your iphone in class? I use it to manage my string quartet and the people I hire to play with me for wedding gigs, I manage a large amount of gigs during the school year when there are players around. Keeping track of both a calendar and contacts and locations and finances that way is done on my phone. It's easy to say do it on paper or do it on a computer but I need to have it on something that's always with me so that when I get a calla bout someone wanting to set up a performance, it's right there and I can verify it and verify other people's schedules. (All the people I hire share their google calendars with me which I have loaded into my calendar so I can see when they are free, add the event to their calendar, send them a message asking them to confirm it, etc.) all done with the apps on the iPhone which streamlines the entire thing and has probably already made me thousands of dollars in that way. Or at least saved me that much. I do use it as a metronome and tuner too haha.
Doesn't an agenda and pen do 90% of those things for 1% the price at only 1.3 times the inconvenience?
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Dude.
![[image loading]](http://www.indiana.edu/~libpres/manual/materials/matimages/notebook.jpg)
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On June 26 2010 16:20 Kau wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:18 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 16:15 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 16:10 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 16:07 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 16:00 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:59 Kau wrote:On June 26 2010 15:48 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:46 LosingID8 wrote:even though you're going to ignore everyone's comments regarding your ridiculously stupid decision to get an iphone, i'll say it again to reinforce it. having an iphone, or rather any sort of smartphone like a blackberry or droid in your financial situation is a SUPER dumb move. i seriously can't think of a legitimate reason to spend that percentage of your limited funds on a phone. On June 26 2010 15:14 Eiserne wrote:
As a music performance major I literally do not have any time to work. i call absolute 100% bullshit on this You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap. Performing ensemble - 4 hours/day Class - 6 hours/day Private Practice - 5 hours/day Lessons - 10 hours / week = ~1 hour/day Chamber music - 20 hours / week = ~3 hours/day Total = ~19 hours a day Now including time to eat, travel, talk/text on your expensive iphone, complain on teamliquid, and all those little things in life, I'd say you're getting less than 4 hours of sleep a day. I think you should slow things down a bit before considering getting a job. The first thing to go in my schedule is obviously private practice time, which gets bumped to closer to 3 hours a day. But yeah. Usually 5-6 hours of sleep a day, which so far has done me well but I'm sure has long term problems. And lessons is actually 8 hours a week, 4 2 hour lessons per week. In any case. That's my major. What exactly is chamber music and why does it take so much time? And also, how come you have so many classes a day? I'm in computer engineering and barely break more than 3 hours a day of classes. Chamber music is things like string quartet and piano trio and stuff like that, which is typically 2 hours per day week days and 5 hours per day weekends. Biweekly performances, lots of stuff like that, required for a chamber music focus at my school. Also pretty much guarantees the chamber music TF in grad school, which is a big goal of mine. I had to re-take all of my music theory classes when I got here so in order to graduate in 5 years which is necessary for my stafford loan amounts, I had to take 20+ hours a semester for the last 3 semesters. Well with all the time you're spending in class, how does it make sense to have an iphone? Isn't an iphone for it's apps and stuff? How do you have time to play with the apps? Or are you using your iphone in class? I use it to manage my string quartet and the people I hire to play with me for wedding gigs, I manage a large amount of gigs during the school year when there are players around. Keeping track of both a calendar and contacts and locations and finances that way is done on my phone. It's easy to say do it on paper or do it on a computer but I need to have it on something that's always with me so that when I get a calla bout someone wanting to set up a performance, it's right there and I can verify it and verify other people's schedules. (All the people I hire share their google calendars with me which I have loaded into my calendar so I can see when they are free, add the event to their calendar, send them a message asking them to confirm it, etc.) all done with the apps on the iPhone which streamlines the entire thing and has probably already made me thousands of dollars in that way. Or at least saved me that much. I do use it as a metronome and tuner too haha. Doesn't an agenda and pen do 90% of those things for 1% the price at only 1.3 times the inconvenience?
No, absolutely not... how would I possibly know the schedules of all the people I hire for gigs?
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Austin10831 Posts
Lots of people here are telling you to moderate your spending, to not shop impulsively and to maintain overall better fiscal responsibility. You and I both know that it's impossible, these people are just talking about "theories" and they don't live in the real world.
But there is another option. First, you need to trim down your time spent playing music. I know each of those practice sessions are important, and you can't simply cut one, so what you should do is just play the pieces of music faster. If you play them all much faster, you can get through them quickly and have more time for other things. (its not like you need to play them at the right speed when people aren't listening, this isn't carnegie hall)
Ok, the next part of the plan is you have to use the money you already have to make more money. Gotta spend money to make money, right? Wrong! You have to loan money to make money. Leverage any credit you can with the banks or federal loans and get yourself as much cash as you can. Then you can start loaning out that cash to other people at a higher interest rate, with little to no risk. I know this sounds like a job, but it's not. It's more like gambling (like poker where its easy money, not like a slot machine). There you go problem solved, who's next?
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On June 26 2010 16:21 Lemonwalrus wrote:Dude.
As cute as you're trying to be, I've addressed why that doesn't work.
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On June 26 2010 16:21 Lemonwalrus wrote:Dude.
has not failed me yet. but i do have nicer pens. perhaps he could blow his money on pens.
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TossFloss
Canada606 Posts
Professionals kept organized long before the iPhone. Sorry, but you've been smoking the Apple hooch. Do yourself a favor:
1. Sell your iPhone
2. Cancel your contract.
Go find the world's cheapest phone & plan.
Regarding the credit card bill - do you mean you're paying $50 of interest per month? If so, let me put this into perspective: You $50 perpetual monthly payments are worth over $6000. Pay off your credit cards.
Keep in mind, you will be paying all these debts with after-tax dollars. So if the government taxes you 20%, your $800/month loan is really $1000 of pre-tax dollars.
Sit down and brain-storm a list of ten types of peoples/organizations who would pay for your services. Parents want a music teacher? Indy game studio? Go out and find them.
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On June 26 2010 16:23 Eiserne wrote:As cute as you're trying to be, I've addressed why that doesn't work.
You said a pen and paper were out because they couldn't always be with you. A notebook is several pieces of paper that are bound together between a protective covering, so it CAN always be with you.
Edit: And then when you get home you can look at the shit you wrote down and confer with google calendar to set everything up. You lose a bit of productivity, but you save a bunch of money. It is on option.
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I'd say keep looking for students - depending on what you play there will ALWAYS be some.
As for budgeting, have a focused plan/goal, and real external consequences if you don't think you can "just do it." Figure out how much you can save in a month if you stopped doing/buying X, and make your savings goal slightly over that so you think twice. Stage an intervention for yourself with your trusted friends and make deals with them to keep you on track (i.e. if I spend money on Y I have to give you an equal amount of money or you get to smash my iPhone). The key to changing your current savings situation is to trade your long-term unpleasant consequences for immediate unpleasant consequences.
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On June 26 2010 16:25 TossFloss wrote:
Professionals kept organized long before the iPhone. Sorry, but you've been smoking the Apple hooch. Do yourself a favor:
1. Sell your iPhone
2. Cancel your contract.
Go find the world's cheapest phone & plan.
Regarding the credit card bill - do you mean you're paying $50 of interest per month? If so, let me put this into perspective: You $50 perpetual monthly payments are worth over $6000. Pay off your credit cards.
Keep in mind, you will be paying all these debts with after-tax dollars. So if the government taxes you 20%, your $800/month loan is really $1000 of pre-tax dollars.
Sit down and brain-storm a list of ten types of peoples/organizations who would pay for your services. Parents want a music teacher? Indy game studio? Go out and find them.
As I've said many times before, there's no chance of me getting rid of my phone, the one thing in my life that saves me assloads of time and stress.
Re: cc bill, I always pay double the minimum payment so it was at like 40 a month now it's at about 25 a month, so I pay $50 to pay it off as fast as possible. which is still slow. haha.
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Austin10831 Posts
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.
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TossFloss
Canada606 Posts
On June 26 2010 16:27 Eiserne wrote:
As I've said many times before, there's no chance of me getting rid of my phone, the one thing in my life that saves me assloads of time and stress.
Your falling into the fallacy of acting big when you're small - you're time is not worth as much as you think it is.
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On June 26 2010 16:30 TossFloss wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:27 Eiserne wrote:
As I've said many times before, there's no chance of me getting rid of my phone, the one thing in my life that saves me assloads of time and stress. Your falling into the fallacy of acting big when you're small - you're time is not worth as much as you think it is.
uh.
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Well, off to bed for me. Gig int he sleep. Surprisingly I actually did get a lot of useful information out of this blog! haha. Thanks to everyone that actually helped out =P
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On June 26 2010 16:32 Eiserne wrote:
Well, off to bed for me. Gig int he sleep. Surprisingly I actually did get a lot of useful information out of this blog! haha. Thanks to everyone that actually helped out =P
Glad you decided to take Brood's constructive suggestions.
Best of luck!
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On June 26 2010 16:32 Eiserne wrote:
Well, off to bed for me. Gig int he sleep. Surprisingly I actually did get a lot of useful information out of this blog! haha. Thanks to everyone that actually helped out =P no problem man. and the envelope system? pay it forward.
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
blogs like this happen and sometimes I am late to it.. I always feel sad when that happens.
Are you really bitching about having no money while you just bought an iPhone 4? Seriously? Isn't that literally in the top 5 most expensive phone/plans you can manage?
Brood did a job well done here but.. fuck dude.. seriously?
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Since you practice 5 hours a day, why not make some money while doing it? Go to a busy street, put your cello case in front of you, and watch the dough roll in. While you're at it, you could probably also save some money on personal hygiene products. Just don't let anyone see you pull out your shiny iPhone 4!
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On June 26 2010 16:21 Lemonwalrus wrote:Dude.
you're cute walrus~ :3
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On June 26 2010 16:30 TossFloss wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 16:27 Eiserne wrote:
As I've said many times before, there's no chance of me getting rid of my phone, the one thing in my life that saves me assloads of time and stress. Your falling into the fallacy of acting big when you're small - you're time is not worth as much as you think it is.
This is exactly the right economic way of looking at this. When you are not making any money, your time is simply not worth very much. How much time can an iPhone save you versus going on a regular computer to pay bills or using pen and pad?
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Eiserne,
I don't think your money is that poorly spent. Yeah, you got suckered into WoW spending and some gambling; perhaps you'll learn from it. $50 CC bill is damn near nothing, but don't neglect to pay it. Also, I'd say get used to your lifestyle until you're ready to break out your professional name as a musician and you can angle for money. In the meantime, loans, school, and music is not a bad way to live. Maybe learn the art of writing letters so you can successfully acquire awards and grants en lieu of loans.
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Katowice25012 Posts
I am very, very confused. You seem really angry already, and incredibly set on buying one of these phones. So why did you make a thread? This is like kanye making a post "yo honkeys should i keep making albums?????" I have no idea why you even went here if you have no interest in listening to opinions aside from "YA DAWG GO DO IT".
Why should you remain unbanned? Here is your new issue.
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Your priorities are so wrong its astounding. Gee im living on loans, have problems with money, cant get a job, SO IM GONNA FUCKIN BUY AND IPHONE AND PLAY WOW
This is kinda like the BW strategy forum.
you: "hey guys cud u pls comment on my harss in dis game dnt kno why i lost"
someone who isnt a moron: "you didnt macro ever"
you: "no just focus on the harass and tell me what i could do better there pls"
someone who isnt a moron: "if you dont macro harass is worthless"
you: "omg ur stupid learn to read"
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Sounds like you need some cold hard self discipline.
Start by making a plan for each week. Even plan your meals. Know exactly what you are going to eat for each meal and stick to it. Make sure its not too difficult or time consuming or expensive.
Might sound dumb, but if you can control what you are gonna eat it might teach you to control other aspects of your life.
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First let me say you could have bought a cheaper phone with the same functionality and a cheaper phoneplan. With iPhone you pay big buck for the name value. Most of these phones are actually better as the iPhone as you apparently can't even hold it in your hand without screwing up the antenna.
But much more important is the following:
Write down all the money that's coming in and all your expenses.
June 2nd: $300 from gig
-$30 groceries
-$15 fastfood
-$100 phonebill
June 3rd: $400 from gig
-$400 rent
etc. etc.
There are also programs to help you with this. Just google for "personal finance software", "budget calculator", "budget planner"
Somebody already mentioned Mint and although I'm personally not familiar with it it's pretty good from a first look. I believe it tracks your credit card spending automatically but I don't know if you can alter it's descriptions.
I personally would prefer a program in which I personally had to enter everything because then you are more consciously working on it and whenever you get money from an ATM you can specify what it was used for a lot better.
This gives you a clear view of what's coming in and going out each month and helps you to adjust your spending pattern where needed.
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200 for food and gas sounds very low, regardless, I think the first step is looking at every single bill and try to decrease it. Maybe move to a cheaper place or get a roomate. The iphone is a problem but with ETF's and replacement phone cost and the unwillingless to part with it, probably just suck it up. You need a STEADY job and not rely on random gigs to get you through the month.
The credit card debt is most troublesome, how much is it? can you pay it off asap with savings? Do you have savings?
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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.
Brb, grabbing life savings for this epicness
![[image loading]](http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/unicross/funny-apple-ipad1-227x300.jpg)
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On June 26 2010 17:07 heyoka wrote:
I am very, very confused. You seem really angry already, and incredibly set on buying one of these phones. So why did you make a thread? This is like kanye making a post "yo honkeys should i keep making albums?????" I have no idea why you even went here if you have no interest in listening to opinions aside from "YA DAWG GO DO IT".
Why should you remain unbanned? Here is your new issue.
He made a thread about advice on reducing his impulse buys.
He got a shit ton of advice about dropping his iPhone plan.
If you'll notice, he responded constructively to the advice that he was seekign.
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Im just asking here, is there literally no cheaper phone that can do all those things the iphone does, I dont know much about phones, mine is like 6 years old.
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After these types of blogs, I'm always left amazed at Apples brainwashing capabilities, that force some poor ass dude starve instead of giving up their product. It's fucking magical.
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Switch majors to economics and/or accountancy. You'll learn to handle money in no time
And then after you graduated, then go follow music major
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On June 26 2010 18:59 Jusciax wrote:
After these types of blogs, I'm always left amazed at Apples brainwashing capabilities, that force some poor ass dude starve instead of giving up their product. It's fucking magical.
Its not just that apples really good at brainwashing, its also that this dudes carrying a potent load of dumbass
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you're dumb, you bought an iphone. the end.
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Until we have access to technology that allows us to slap someone over the internet we can't really help you.
The best thing to do is to let someone know that you really care about, perhaps your mom or other family member, and inform that person every time you do something you identify as wrong. The more this person grates your nerves whenever they are disappointed in you the better. You will quickly dread having to make that phone call and think twice about doing stupid shit that causes you to do so.
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hey buddy you definitely have enough time to teach music. Going rate here is £20-28 an hour. That should sort out some of your problems. Ask your teachers about getting students.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
On June 26 2010 16:16 Beyonder wrote:
I think about everything a couple of days before I buy it: do I really need it?
Unless of course a girl is involved. Money spender then!
This is the best post in the entire thread.
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On June 26 2010 21:43 sc4k wrote:
hey buddy you definitely have enough time to teach music. Going rate here is £20-28 an hour. That should sort out some of your problems. Ask your teachers about getting students.
this. teaching music always improves your own skill as well because it forces you to do the fundamentals again. Plus you seem to be good at it (seeing as how you go giging). Just charge 25 or so an hour, work maybe 1-2 hours a day or so and voila thats an additional 500 or so in income a month.
and drop the fucking iphone. I'm in a far better financial situation than you are and I have an 8 year old phone with the cheapest plan possible. There's a reason the former is the case.
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I'm sure all the greatest musicians ever like Miles Davis couldn't manage their gigs without an iPhone too.
Your mistake is that you've let yourself believe you need to waste an inordinate amount of money on something retarded.
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oh hi, it took me a really long time for me to realize that the OP wasn't trolling
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On June 26 2010 15:28 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:23 gchan wrote:
Controlled spending. Don't indulge yourself. Every time you want to make a spontaneous spending decision (like eating out vs eating in, going out drinking, buying an iphone, etc), don't do it. Start a regiment and stick with it. Create a spreadsheet and meticulously keep track of income and expenses you have every week or month. If you see how much you blow indulging yourself on paper, you might give it a second thought.
Edit: lol at needing an iPhone. Try the original calendar tracker, an actual calendar + notepad/pen. You can text with a regular phone. You can keep track of you gigs with pencil and paper. Yeah, no. You're wrong about the iPhone stuff. But I'm not gonna argue with you. It's simply not true. And using paper and pencil ANYTHING is so volatile. Easy to misplace, damage, leave at home when you need information now, it's just not sensible.
I'm a music major myself, so I can see how it is hard to have a job. However, there are jobs that can work, you just need to actually try and look.
That said, you are still spending your money really poorly. Yea, your situation may be kind of tough, but that's not an excuse to be stupid. Plenty of music people handle their money fine while dealing with the fucked up schedule that music entails. You need to control yourself and don't go out and nickel & dime yourself to flat broke. All of that shit was pretty unnecessary (especially WoW) and you just need to start practicing self control. Before you do any of this stuff from now on, ask yourself, "Do I really need to spend money on this crap?" Then, go to your checkbook, go over all of the numbers and see if you can actually afford it. That'll give you a good amount of time to think about if it's worth it.
Oh, and no, you do NOT need an iPhone. People have been using paper & pencil/pen for a very, very long time and they do fine. Hell, that's how I keep track of all of my shit. That was a pretty big expenditure. I'd recommend dropping that ASAP - you're basically buying into that Apple B.S. to keep the iPhone.
Finally, if things really are a problem for you, then consider living on campus in a dorm. You can get financial aid to give you a student loan to cover that and then you can keep what you are spending on rent for anything else from your other student loans (books, registration fees, etc...). It's a big reason as to why I won't live off campus (that and my campus doesn't allow it). Sure, you're still living off of money that isn't yours, but it allows you to actually live and then you can pay it all off after school when you get a damn job.
Oh, and on the topic of working,
You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap.
4 hours a day for a performing ensemble? Is this one ensemble? If so, what kind of ensemble is it? Jesus christ I'm in one of the top choirs in the country and we only practice an hour to an hour and a half a day. If it's more than one group, don't be in every group. Unless you're at a completely ridiculous school, you should only be required to be in one group based on your primary performance instrument.
Private practice 5 hours a day is starting to push it. Consider cutting it back. It's just like anything else in life - and I'll use a SC example here. We see that it's actually detrimental to practice SC a shitload every day - the same is true with practicing an instrument constantly. Re-evaluate yourself and make sure you aren't practicing too much.
Lessons 10 hours a week. Ok, what? This is completely ridiculous. Are you taking multiple instruments? Are you seriously taking lessons on one instrument 10 hours a week? I find it very, very hard to believe that you can't cut back here.
Chamber music 20 hours a week. That can go along with your performance ensemble. I'd be willing to bet it isn't required and you also need to evaluate if this is multiple groups or one group (in which case they're asking for too much time). Again, I'd be willing to bet that it isn't required that you're in this group.
Overall, you seem to still have the high school syndrome going - you think you should be entitled to be in every group/club that you have interest in. Unfortunately, you need to learn that you CAN'T do everything that you want to do. You need to sacrifice certain things in order to get along in life. Once you get your graduate degree, then you can be in a ton of different groups, but to pay your way through college and actually survive, you're going to have to - like every other student - sacrifice some groups/clubs in order to live.
However, some people just can't sacrifice those groups - I completely understand that some have enough of a passion to skip a job so they can continue performing. If that's the case, then your situation is 100% your fault and you need to suck it up and learn to manage what little money that you have.
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Yup you got nickle and dimed to death by Blizzard, not a surprise.
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On June 26 2010 23:17 Stratos_speAr wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 15:28 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:23 gchan wrote:
Controlled spending. Don't indulge yourself. Every time you want to make a spontaneous spending decision (like eating out vs eating in, going out drinking, buying an iphone, etc), don't do it. Start a regiment and stick with it. Create a spreadsheet and meticulously keep track of income and expenses you have every week or month. If you see how much you blow indulging yourself on paper, you might give it a second thought.
Edit: lol at needing an iPhone. Try the original calendar tracker, an actual calendar + notepad/pen. You can text with a regular phone. You can keep track of you gigs with pencil and paper. Yeah, no. You're wrong about the iPhone stuff. But I'm not gonna argue with you. It's simply not true. And using paper and pencil ANYTHING is so volatile. Easy to misplace, damage, leave at home when you need information now, it's just not sensible. I'm a music major myself, so I can see how it is hard to have a job. However, there are jobs that can work, you just need to actually try and look. That said, you are still spending your money really poorly. Yea, your situation may be kind of tough, but that's not an excuse to be stupid. Plenty of music people handle their money fine while dealing with the fucked up schedule that music entails. You need to control yourself and don't go out and nickel & dime yourself to flat broke. All of that shit was pretty unnecessary (especially WoW) and you just need to start practicing self control. Before you do any of this stuff from now on, ask yourself, "Do I really need to spend money on this crap?" Then, go to your checkbook, go over all of the numbers and see if you can actually afford it. That'll give you a good amount of time to think about if it's worth it. Oh, and no, you do NOT need an iPhone. People have been using paper & pencil/pen for a very, very long time and they do fine. Hell, that's how I keep track of all of my shit. That was a pretty big expenditure. I'd recommend dropping that ASAP - you're basically buying into that Apple B.S. to keep the iPhone. Finally, if things really are a problem for you, then consider living on campus in a dorm. You can get financial aid to give you a student loan to cover that and then you can keep what you are spending on rent for anything else from your other student loans (books, registration fees, etc...). It's a big reason as to why I won't live off campus (that and my campus doesn't allow it). Sure, you're still living off of money that isn't yours, but it allows you to actually live and then you can pay it all off after school when you get a damn job. Oh, and on the topic of working, Show nested quote +You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap. 4 hours a day for a performing ensemble? Is this one ensemble? If so, what kind of ensemble is it? Jesus christ I'm in one of the top choirs in the country and we only practice an hour to an hour and a half a day. If it's more than one group, don't be in every group. Unless you're at a completely ridiculous school, you should only be required to be in one group based on your primary performance instrument. Private practice 5 hours a day is starting to push it. Consider cutting it back. It's just like anything else in life - and I'll use a SC example here. We see that it's actually detrimental to practice SC a shitload every day - the same is true with practicing an instrument constantly. Re-evaluate yourself and make sure you aren't practicing too much. Lessons 10 hours a week. Ok, what? This is completely ridiculous. Are you taking multiple instruments? Are you seriously taking lessons on one instrument 10 hours a week? I find it very, very hard to believe that you can't cut back here. Chamber music 20 hours a week. That can go along with your performance ensemble. I'd be willing to bet it isn't required and you also need to evaluate if this is multiple groups or one group (in which case they're asking for too much time). Again, I'd be willing to bet that it isn't required that you're in this group. Overall, you seem to still have the high school syndrome going - you think you should be entitled to be in every group/club that you have interest in. Unfortunately, you need to learn that you CAN'T do everything that you want to do. You need to sacrifice certain things in order to get along in life. Once you get your graduate degree, then you can be in a ton of different groups, but to pay your way through college and actually survive, you're going to have to - like every other student - sacrifice some groups/clubs in order to live. However, some people just can't sacrifice those groups - I completely understand that some have enough of a passion to skip a job so they can continue performing. If that's the case, then your situation is 100% your fault and you need to suck it up and learn to manage what little money that you have.
Best post in the thread, if you respond poorly to this then I dunno what to say.
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of your 700, but 200 in a savings account and dont touch it. have some self control
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i'm assuming you own a computer/laptop
why don't you organize your days with outlook, google calendar, rainlendar, lotus notes or some other program that all do the same thing. it won't get lost like paper and pencil unless your computer magically blows up but i seriously doubt it will have a shorter life than your previous iphone
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I have no advice here (because it's so painfully obvious and been said already), but BroOd's posts are awesome. Well-played. 
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It's hard if you don't have rules. You'll always say.. "Well, it's just 20$".. oh.. Burger King? It's just 5 bucks and I'm starving..
If you make 1,000$ month then you need to plan out your budget and only allow yourself a certain amount for specific things, don't cheat.
If you have 400$ rent and 200$ food and 100$ gas and whatever else.. you need to plan aside from that some SAVINGS.. don't budget yourself out to have 0$... cut back a little bit everywhere that you can and while it might hurt in the short term.. you'll be much more stable mentally when you look in your account and know that should something bad happen - you have some money saved up.
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how did this post survive
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On June 27 2010 00:10 Pokebunny wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 23:17 Stratos_speAr wrote:On June 26 2010 15:28 Eiserne wrote:On June 26 2010 15:23 gchan wrote:
Controlled spending. Don't indulge yourself. Every time you want to make a spontaneous spending decision (like eating out vs eating in, going out drinking, buying an iphone, etc), don't do it. Start a regiment and stick with it. Create a spreadsheet and meticulously keep track of income and expenses you have every week or month. If you see how much you blow indulging yourself on paper, you might give it a second thought.
Edit: lol at needing an iPhone. Try the original calendar tracker, an actual calendar + notepad/pen. You can text with a regular phone. You can keep track of you gigs with pencil and paper. Yeah, no. You're wrong about the iPhone stuff. But I'm not gonna argue with you. It's simply not true. And using paper and pencil ANYTHING is so volatile. Easy to misplace, damage, leave at home when you need information now, it's just not sensible. I'm a music major myself, so I can see how it is hard to have a job. However, there are jobs that can work, you just need to actually try and look. That said, you are still spending your money really poorly. Yea, your situation may be kind of tough, but that's not an excuse to be stupid. Plenty of music people handle their money fine while dealing with the fucked up schedule that music entails. You need to control yourself and don't go out and nickel & dime yourself to flat broke. All of that shit was pretty unnecessary (especially WoW) and you just need to start practicing self control. Before you do any of this stuff from now on, ask yourself, "Do I really need to spend money on this crap?" Then, go to your checkbook, go over all of the numbers and see if you can actually afford it. That'll give you a good amount of time to think about if it's worth it. Oh, and no, you do NOT need an iPhone. People have been using paper & pencil/pen for a very, very long time and they do fine. Hell, that's how I keep track of all of my shit. That was a pretty big expenditure. I'd recommend dropping that ASAP - you're basically buying into that Apple B.S. to keep the iPhone. Finally, if things really are a problem for you, then consider living on campus in a dorm. You can get financial aid to give you a student loan to cover that and then you can keep what you are spending on rent for anything else from your other student loans (books, registration fees, etc...). It's a big reason as to why I won't live off campus (that and my campus doesn't allow it). Sure, you're still living off of money that isn't yours, but it allows you to actually live and then you can pay it all off after school when you get a damn job. Oh, and on the topic of working, You can call bullshit on whatever you want but when you're in a performing ensemble 4 hours a day, class 6 hours a day, private practice 5 hours a day, lesson 10 hours a week, chamber music 20 hours a week, you can tell me how much time I have to get a job. Seriously, where do people get off assuming they know everything about someone's life? I shouldn't have even bothered asking anything of people on this website. Please close this/delete this asap. 4 hours a day for a performing ensemble? Is this one ensemble? If so, what kind of ensemble is it? Jesus christ I'm in one of the top choirs in the country and we only practice an hour to an hour and a half a day. If it's more than one group, don't be in every group. Unless you're at a completely ridiculous school, you should only be required to be in one group based on your primary performance instrument. Private practice 5 hours a day is starting to push it. Consider cutting it back. It's just like anything else in life - and I'll use a SC example here. We see that it's actually detrimental to practice SC a shitload every day - the same is true with practicing an instrument constantly. Re-evaluate yourself and make sure you aren't practicing too much. Lessons 10 hours a week. Ok, what? This is completely ridiculous. Are you taking multiple instruments? Are you seriously taking lessons on one instrument 10 hours a week? I find it very, very hard to believe that you can't cut back here. Chamber music 20 hours a week. That can go along with your performance ensemble. I'd be willing to bet it isn't required and you also need to evaluate if this is multiple groups or one group (in which case they're asking for too much time). Again, I'd be willing to bet that it isn't required that you're in this group. Overall, you seem to still have the high school syndrome going - you think you should be entitled to be in every group/club that you have interest in. Unfortunately, you need to learn that you CAN'T do everything that you want to do. You need to sacrifice certain things in order to get along in life. Once you get your graduate degree, then you can be in a ton of different groups, but to pay your way through college and actually survive, you're going to have to - like every other student - sacrifice some groups/clubs in order to live. However, some people just can't sacrifice those groups - I completely understand that some have enough of a passion to skip a job so they can continue performing. If that's the case, then your situation is 100% your fault and you need to suck it up and learn to manage what little money that you have. Best post in the thread, if you respond poorly to this then I dunno what to say.
I'm only in one truly voluntary group and that's my bluegrass band. Which is the second thing to get cut, right after personal practice time =P And yes, I actually have to have lessons on 3 instruments, cello, my secondary instrument viola, (secondary instruments required for performance majors), and piano (required for all music majors.) Chamber music is my focus and the reason I do 20 hours a week is so I can get that paid TFship at 7k a semester. Absolutely necessary. Everything I'm doing is highly necessary.
I still don't understand why people feel the need to advise me to get rid of my phone. Not happening, people. That's not the point AT ALL.
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Tell me how to save money but don't say anything about my frivolous expenses!
edit: lol
Your thought processes aren't rooted in rationality at all. You can try to rationalize all your mistakes and shortcomings away with excuses but the primary issue of you being an idiot stays. It's laughable that you even talk about trying to purchase a good cello when good cellos generally run 5 digits. Your priorities are skewed incomprehensibly.
and i'm not asking how to cut my spending or how to save money, lol.
Really? Because I remember reading something in your first post that said something like...
Somehow, I've spent the entire remaining $200 nickel-and-diming myself. I look back and say, man, I shouldn't have gotten that WoW subscription, I rarely ever play! I shouldn't have bought into full tilt, I was fucking around drunk with a friend and lost $45. I shouldn't have transferred servers with my wow character and spent $25. I should have bought food at the store and made it rather than spend $50 in fast food in the last two weeks.
But for some reason I've never been able to make the change, I always say I'm going to do better and I never manage it. I have to be able to keep money.
Hmm...
The first paragraph is all about how you need to cut spending and the second paragraph specifically says something about keeping money, which is saving money.
Whatever though, buddy. You obviously know what needs to be done but you can continue to delude yourself at your own expense.
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On June 27 2010 01:50 koreasilver wrote:
Tell me how to save money but don't say anything about my frivolous expenses!
welcome to the banned section of my blog, join the other fools and have a good time.
edit: and i'm not asking how to cut my spending or how to save money, lol. you still can't comprehend that? I'm -not- looking for your opinion on how I spend my money. I know there are some stupid spending things in there, like fast food and WoW and shit like that, but in my life, not in your life, in my eyes, not iny our eyes, and in my priorities, not your priorities, my phone is not a frivolous expense. So if that's all you're gonna comment on, bow out and rage against the iPhone elsewhere.
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![[image loading]](http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7341/normalmonth.jpg) ![[image loading]](http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/782/thismonthp.jpg)
after some statistical analysis of ur spending, i have determined this this month, u spent far too much on useless (red) things than useful (green) things.
u should cut down on the red spending, then u will have more money...
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On June 27 2010 02:47 baller wrote: after some statistical analysis of ur spending, i have determined this this month, u spent far too much on useless (red) things than useful (green) things. u should cut down on the red spending, then u will have more money...
Forget it. He's completely delusional and refuses to realize that all of this is his fault for spending money on stupid shit. Not only that, he refuses to realize that his priorities are part of the problem.
Nice graph though. Props for both the effort and color choice. :D
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I can't believe you are just dismissing everyone trying to help you.
The saddest part is that even with all this superawesome music stuff going on for you, if you keep wasting your money on things you don't actually need you are most likely going to end up:
1. jobless
2. in your parents' basement for life/actually homeless
You said yourself how competitive music is. If you don't see yourself as in the top 5% of your class right now, you absolutely need to cut your total expenses as dramatically as possible because you aren't about to get a job that is going to pay a decent amount once you finish school.
Even if you cut out EVERYTHING useless in your life e.g. fast food instead of eating in, a WoW subscription.
It will NEVER add up to an amount that will help you as much as cutting your iphone plan.
You could possibly get an itouch which is significantly cheaper (and doesn't have recurring fees) which will have similar apps etc as an iphone without the plan.
Then just get any cheap ass phone (you can even find the cheapest blackberry for 0$ with a reasonable plan) and carry both with you at the same time.
This is both faster and more portable than carrying a pen and paper.
It is also cheaper than paying for exuberant iphone fees.
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This guy has no interest in listening to anything, or at least he's not responding to any criticism he considers constructive. Instead, he only chooses to repost when he wants to argue or validate himself.
Eiserne is a waste of time, people!
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I wonder what would happen if that iphone were ever to die...
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On June 27 2010 04:38 Taku wrote:
I wonder what would happen if that iphone were ever to die...
Probably sell a few blowjobs or a kidney so he can get another
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So you can't earn money but you desperately need to pay $$$ for iPhone and WoW every month.
Here's what you need to do:
1. Spend all your money.
2. Sink deeply in debts.
3. Get beaten up to death by loan sharks.
4. If somehow you're not dead, learn your lesson (if not, repeat 1)
Problem solved imo.
Or you could listen to what people have been suggesting in the previous 7 pages: drop the fucking iPhone.
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Ugh I feel like I'm enabling here, but why did you need an iPhone specifically? There are other devices that do the same thing for a fraction of the cost. The Palm smartphones range from $0-50 for the device itself, (Verizon) and all the unlimited garbage still brings you to less than $80 in recurring costs. It does all the same things if you're willing to put some time into searching for the right apps, has a superior operating system, superior network, and HP won't pretend it doesn't exist anymore when they release a newer model. Obviously the smart thing to do would have been to make do with a lower tech solution, but if you felt you absolutely must have a smartphone there are both better performers and less expensive devices than an iPhone.
I think most people that are ragging on you about the iPhone because you went with the most stylistic yet least economically efficient device in its class to meet a very questionable need. The fact that you don't consider this to be an issue when on a limited budget is a symptom of a far greater problem than not being able to keep things like your fast food spending in check. Ditch this mentality and the small stuff will fall into place as you (hopefully) settle into a less hectic lifestyle.
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The new iPhone is obviously more for social status. No one needs one to function as a human being. The WoW is just an addiction that steals time and money. There's really not much I can contribute for your issues. The best lessons learned usually happen after you fall flat on your face. Self-control isn't really something you can teach to an adult. If you don't understand the value of a dollar now, you may never know 
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this issue goes so much deeper than an iphone, you're just completely incapable of adjusting your own point of view after overwhelming disagreement. I bet that will work out nicely in an orchestra too.
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How did you live prior to 2007 back when the iPhone didnt even exist?
anyhow....blog is properly titled; Financially Pathetic. at least you recognize that..
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gotta agree with Nazgul here...even if hes a protoss user.
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Just stop posting if you are gonna keep harping on my decision to buy a phone when I needed one. (Yes I needed A phone even if you don't think an iPhone was necessary cause my old phone was dead.)
you fail to grasp the concept that I make enough money. I do live off of loans partially but I'm also a freelance musician and that brings in money too.
I am addressing my problem. my problem is fast food/gamblign/gaming money that I don't even want to spend! It's just that I seem to value convenience over everything else and it's more convenient to eat fast food than to cook for yourself.
I was looking for tips to change lifestyle habits, that do not include changing my phucking phone bill.
If you do not grasp this concept, please go to a different blog.
I will not respond to any post about my choice of phones.
That is all.
Re: Nazgul, I value the opinion of some people here, but to say I should change my mindset because the Teamliquid populus disagrees with me is... not entirely logical.
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no, you fail to grasp the concept that you're making enough money. living, even partially, off loans does not mean you're making enough money.
edit: grammar
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Just posting to say that if anything, I'm glad that this horrendous blog got baller to make more graphs.
Eiserne, at the end of the day this is a matter of self control and it's up to you to do something about it. I hope you're at least aware that the iPhone was a bad choice. It's fine if you really like the phone and are willing to make the sacrifices to pay for it, but damn, if you really think that you NEED the phone, then there really is a larger problem.
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On June 27 2010 07:17 Coca Cola Classic wrote:
no, you fail to grasp the concept that you're make enough money. living, even partially, off loans does not mean you're making enough money.
this.
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On June 27 2010 06:50 Eiserne wrote:
Re: Nazgul, I value the opinion of some people here, but to say I should change my mindset because the Teamliquid populus disagrees with me is... not entirely logical.
don't lump them together like the teamliquid populus is one big single-minded organism
you just took a sampling of a few dozen people from different backgrounds and from different areas of the world and they all more or less are saying the same thing. do you see the common denominator?
when you say you want peoples advice on how to stop stupid expenses and they rag on you for buying an iphone, maybe it's legitametly a stupid expense, even if you wish people would ignore it for whatever strange attachment you have to that device it is still the largest financial mistake you've talked about so far.
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On June 27 2010 07:17 Coca Cola Classic wrote:
no, you fail to grasp the concept that you're make enough money. living, even partially, off loans does not mean you're making enough money.
edit: grammar
Wow, you edited your grammar into that post? I'm astonished. And your point is completely false. I make the money I need to live right now. Not living off loans would be impossible in my situation. Get off your high and mighty horse and forget everything you think you know.
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On June 27 2010 07:37 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2010 07:17 Coca Cola Classic wrote:
no, you fail to grasp the concept that you're make enough money. living, even partially, off loans does not mean you're making enough money.
edit: grammar Wow, you edited your grammar into that post? I'm astonished. And your point is completely false. I make the money I need to live right now. Not living off loans would be impossible in my situation. Get off your high and mighty horse and forget everything you think you know.
I don't understand your reasoning at all. If you do make enough money, why are you even posting this blog? Because of can't spend it properly? Well, that's exactly what people are pointing out; yet you keep responding to them in an overly aggressive and defensive way...
Look, you need to realize that everyone here is only trying to help you, however rude that help ends up being. Coming back and insulting them for that isn't going to help you nor is it respectful.
Also:
1. You don't make the money you need to live. You get it from loans. It's fundamentally different.
2. Like someone posted earlier, why don't you just get an iPod touch instead of spending one eight of your rent on a telephone. That's 1.2k a year to be able to call people.
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Man if you want to have money at the end of the month all you have to do is not spend all your money.
Classic advice would be to go with the government approach. They don't say "okay you're gonna owe us X dollars at the end of this month, make sure you save it so you can pay us." They make sure they get their money asap, before you have a chance to spend it.
You just have to do the same, put money aside in some sort of investment right when you get paid, like 5-15% of your earnings, and just pretend that its money you didn't earn. It is not money you can spend. That way you don't end up trying to make a budget and running out of funds at the end of the month. Don't trust yourself to have that self control.
Oh, and if you really don't think you can afford to take 5-15% out of your income, look at your monthy expenditures and take out the frivolous stuff. Stuff like expensive coffee, fancy lunches, crazy phone bills, etc.
I'm sure you'll realize that you can definitely survive without that lil bit of your income.
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On June 27 2010 07:37 anderoo wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2010 06:50 Eiserne wrote:
Re: Nazgul, I value the opinion of some people here, but to say I should change my mindset because the Teamliquid populus disagrees with me is... not entirely logical. don't lump them together like the teamliquid populus is one big single-minded organism you just took a sampling of a few dozen people from different backgrounds and from different areas of the world and they all more or less are saying the same thing. do you see the common denominator? when you say you want peoples advice on how to stop stupid expenses and they rag on you for buying an iphone, maybe it's legitametly a stupid expense, even if you wish people would ignore it for whatever strange attachment you have to that device it is still the largest financial mistake you've talked about so far.
What? Banned from my blog.
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On June 27 2010 04:44 JustAnotherKnave wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2010 04:38 Taku wrote:
I wonder what would happen if that iphone were ever to die... Probably sell a few blowjobs or a kidney so he can get another
no he'd just die, can we move away from that subject. There's so many joke comparisons i can make here that i wont cause it'd be in bad taste
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A few places you can trim expenses.
1. Utilities - Unplug all devices at night. Turn off/unplug A/C when you leave. Take cold showers. That's 12.5% of your monthly budget you could perhaps reduce by a third.
2. Food and Gas - Any way to car pool? Any way to get a bus card? Any way to ride a bike instead? Try to get creative with different ways to save on gas.
In terms of food, try to go with cheaper options. Buy a big bag of rice from the Asian market and just make your own fried rice with eggs and scallions at home. Cheap and tasty.
Buy a bulk bag of oatmeal online and boil your own oatmeal for breakfast. There are some pretty cheap wholesale vendors online if you order a 35lb bag or more. Buy a big jar of cinnamon from a cheap spice market, get a bag of brown sugar or a jar of honey, and mix both of them into your oatmeal. Buy apples, dried cranberries, or raisins in bulk and mix those into the oatmeal if you're getting bored. Crushed nuts can be used as well.
In general, cereals and grains are the cheapest in terms of calories/dollars. But if you worry about having some diversity in your diet, I recommend tuna, tofu, or raw frozen chicken breasts as good sources of cheap protein.
Canned tuna, some lemon/pepper, and bulk boxes of pasta are often a good way to cook healthy for yourself with a minimum effort. Boil the pasta, pop open a can of tuna, drain it, break the tuna up with a fork, squirt a lemon wedge, sprinkle some pepper salt, and put it over the pasta. Mix it around a bit, maybe a dash of olive oil, and you've got a decent meal.
Rice goes pretty well with any other kind of meat. Ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey, bacon bits, etc, all go well with rice in some form or another. I don't want to turn this into a cook book but there are a million and one cheap, healthy, tasty, and easy ways to cook for yourself.
Oh and if you're buying broccoli, other veggies, etc, make sure to break the stems off before you purchase them. That's a good way to reduce the weight of the produce (it's almost always charged by the pound) and gets rid of parts that you wouldn't eat anyway.
Also, could you get a part-time job at a grocery store? Or a job delivering for a restauraunt/pizza joint? It's usually night-time shifts, so might not interfere with your schooling, and they always give free food at the end of the night. You could really start stockpiling food that way, AND make some decent money on tips.
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On June 27 2010 06:50 Eiserne wrote:
I am addressing my problem. my problem is fast food/gamblign/gaming money that I don't even want to spend! It's just that I seem to value convenience over everything else and it's more convenient to eat fast food than to cook for yourself..
It seems you understand that you are spending extra money for convenience and want to change that. However you state that your iPhone is for convenience yet you refuse to get rid of it. Cutting this convenience would save you as much money as your other problems combined.
Btw- I too understand the value of apple products as I am posting this from my iPad.
Edit- as for your other spending problems I'm sure there's an app for your iPhone that could help you manage your money, maybe something that'll make a load noise every time money is spent so that it will discourage you from spending more money.
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How the hell are you not banned yet? You keep ignoring everyone's advice and accusing everyone of being ignorant when actually you are yourself. Every single person who has posted in this blog has disagreed with you and told you to either get a job or get rid of that iphone. You know there's a saying where if one person doesn't agree with you, that's okay but if tons of people do, you need to rethink what you're doing.
User was warned for this post
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On June 27 2010 09:56 kb.RepulsE wrote:
How the hell are you not banned yet? You keep ignoring everyone's advice and accusing everyone of being ignorant when actually you are yourself. Every single person who has posted in this blog has disagreed with you and told you to either get a job or get rid of that iphone. You know there's a saying where if one person doesn't agree with you, that's okay but if tons of people do, you need to rethink what you're doing.
Yeah, so that means I should get banned. you're really fucking smart. How are you not banned yet for backseat moderating? You're definitely banned from my blog, as typically I want to converse with people with more than 50% of a brain.
User was warned for this post
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Considering you're a university student, you must realise that eventually people around you don't need to put up with your responses anymore. We're just trying to help out ....
Anyways as for the problem, I always found that putting some money away (into a savings acc) and NEVER touching it at all unless its an emergency helps out in the long run. (especially since you have loans to pay off eventually too). Interest builds up nicely over a long time so I'd consider that as an easy first step.
If you're a music major .... why can't you do a part time job by teaching friends your talent? It would be flexible hours for you (and to some degree your students). Also it would be nice money on the side (I'm working towards medicine and I tutor statistics, chem and mathematics along with my full time job in a research lab). This way you can still perform your obligations while attempting to mend your problem.
EDIT: lol didnt read some posters above whove described my 1st point sorry.
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OP just needs to get off his high horse. The majority of college students work (including ones with OTHER demanding majors such as being pre-med) and have to put in time with clubs and extracurriculars, volunteer work, research, real jobs, and then studying.
Working even 10hrs a week at campus dining would be better than having no money at all, especially if you refuse to get rid of useless things such as an iphone. And as someone stated before, an ipod touch would do the same job without the monthly bill. I'm on campus for a large part of my day, and my ipod gets internet service, so it really functions much like an iphone. If you are on campus as often as you say, that would suit you just fine.
My best friend is an art education major and says the same thing about having "no time" to work, but I guarantee she had the time, its all in how you manage it. If you want advice on how to manage your finances, it is just in having self control. Set aside money into your savings account so you can't use your debit card constantly at fast food places, etc. If you are living on mostly loans as well, I wouldn't suck up every dollar either, unless you are guaranteed that top paying spot next year...and well, for quite some time after. On top of schools loans, general living expense loans as well....that is a shit ton to pay back eventually. Especially with a career in music, in which it is not known for paying that well.
And also OP, most other students are also holding down jobs while being in extremely competitive majors, especially these days. Being able to manage your time and money is part of that, and the most successful people will be the ones who figure out how to fit in everything, and how to cut out what is unnecessary. I'd cut the iphone lol. But really, look into creating a savings account with your bank, and putting some % of money into it from your loan so that you have less money at your disposable to mess around with and waste. It gets interest too, so that is also to your advantage, and you can use it when you really do end up needing some extra money.
edit: lol sorry, I posted mine right after the person above me who pointed out the exact same thing.
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On June 27 2010 10:19 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2010 09:56 kb.RepulsE wrote:
How the hell are you not banned yet? You keep ignoring everyone's advice and accusing everyone of being ignorant when actually you are yourself. Every single person who has posted in this blog has disagreed with you and told you to either get a job or get rid of that iphone. You know there's a saying where if one person doesn't agree with you, that's okay but if tons of people do, you need to rethink what you're doing. Yeah, so that means I should get banned. you're really fucking smart. How are you not banned yet for backseat moderating? You're definitely banned from my blog, as typically I want to converse with people with more than 50% of a brain.
All you've been doing is insulting people. Thought I'd give you a taste of your own medicine.
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Braavos36375 Posts
I warned both of you.
Repulse, even if your intentions are good, let the mods handle banning and warning. "How are you not banned yet" is not an acceptable post, it's an insult that shouldn't be used.
Eiserne, it's your blog, but that doesn't mean you have the right to call anyone you want stupid. Don't insult people just because you disagree with them.
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There's no magic formula to not buying frivolous things, you just FUCKING DON'T.
Buying WoW time? DON'T
Going all-in? DON'T
Eating fast-food? DON'T
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yeah man, you GOTTA drop the iphone. it's simply not a necessity for you at this moment.
later, when you get a better income (because of the good decisions you make right now), go ahead and get a fancy cell phone if you wish.
it's all about priorities.
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On June 27 2010 10:32 SniperVul5 wrote:
If you're a music major .... why can't you do a part time job by teaching friends your talent? It would be flexible hours for you (and to some degree your students). Also it would be nice money on the side (I'm working towards medicine and I tutor statistics, chem and mathematics along with my full time job in a research lab). This way you can still perform your obligations while attempting to mend your problem.
I've actually found that this is a lot more easily said than done. Music is rather unique in the terms of private tutoring because people really don't like the idea of being taught how to do an art by a student compared to a professor - especially when private lessons with professors are the norm.
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This is actually pretty good.
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On June 27 2010 11:49 seppolevne wrote:
There's no magic formula to not buying frivolous things, you just FUCKING DON'T.
Buying WoW time? DON'T
Going all-in? DON'T
Eating fast-food? DON'T
you missed the iphone man, i really dont think that could ever be hammered home hard enough. Cause just maybe one day, it'll actually work and he'll thank us for it
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My suggestion is to leave your debit card or credit card at home and pay for stuff with cash if possible. That way, any money that you withdraw has to last until you make another separate trip to the bank. Don't leave home with all of it either, just a few bucks unless you're planning on a big purchase. It cuts down on impulse decisions like buying a snack or whatever and puts a hard cap on what you can spend in any outing.
Heck, I'd try and avoid making any purchases with your credit card unless there is literally no other alternative and it's really important to you.
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16987 Posts
This is kind of an aside, but living paycheck to paycheck is especially dangerous when you have to consider unexpected events. For example, if you get really sick, or end up in an accident, you're going to have to find money to pay for that somehow. Unless you have decent insurance (which you might, given that you're a student), that's going to be a lot of money down the drain to fix those problems. Same with any car issues, etc. If you need any more motivation to have at least some money in the bank, at the very least keep an emergency fund so you can get yourself out of potential messes.
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On June 27 2010 13:42 goldrush wrote:
My suggestion is to leave your debit card or credit card at home and pay for stuff with cash if possible. That way, any money that you withdraw has to last until you make another separate trip to the bank. Don't leave home with all of it either, just a few bucks unless you're planning on a big purchase. It cuts down on impulse decisions like buying a snack or whatever and puts a hard cap on what you can spend in any outing.
Heck, I'd try and avoid making any purchases with your credit card unless there is literally no other alternative and it's really important to you.
I shredded my credit card a long time ago
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On June 27 2010 13:42 goldrush wrote:
My suggestion is to leave your debit card or credit card at home and pay for stuff with cash if possible. That way, any money that you withdraw has to last until you make another separate trip to the bank. Don't leave home with all of it either, just a few bucks unless you're planning on a big purchase. It cuts down on impulse decisions like buying a snack or whatever and puts a hard cap on what you can spend in any outing.
Heck, I'd try and avoid making any purchases with your credit card unless there is literally no other alternative and it's really important to you.
Really? I find managing my funds with my credit card/debit card MUCH easier than with cash. With online transaction reports, I know exactly how much money I've spent; whereas I often lose track with how much cash moves out of my wallet.
My suggestion is however, don't spend what you don't have on your credit card. If you only have $500 in your checking, don't rack up a $1000 debt in your CC.
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16987 Posts
On June 27 2010 16:08 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2010 13:42 goldrush wrote:
My suggestion is to leave your debit card or credit card at home and pay for stuff with cash if possible. That way, any money that you withdraw has to last until you make another separate trip to the bank. Don't leave home with all of it either, just a few bucks unless you're planning on a big purchase. It cuts down on impulse decisions like buying a snack or whatever and puts a hard cap on what you can spend in any outing.
Heck, I'd try and avoid making any purchases with your credit card unless there is literally no other alternative and it's really important to you. Really? I find managing my funds with my credit card/debit card MUCH easier than with cash. With online transaction reports, I know exactly how much money I've spent; whereas I often lose track with how much cash moves out of my wallet. My suggestion is however, don't spend what you don't have on your credit card. If you only have $500 in your checking, don't rack up a $1000 debt in your CC.
Yeah. Simply treat your credit card as a debit card. Pay off the entire payment as soon as you can, and just build up credit/get some rewards perks along the way.
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On June 27 2010 06:50 Eiserne wrote:
I am addressing my problem. my problem is fast food/gamblign/gaming money that I don't even want to spend! It's just that I seem to value convenience over everything else and it's more convenient to eat fast food than to cook for yourself.
Even though I think you are absolutely wrong in the way you prioritize things. I dont know what iphones do, never had one, but just maybe its helping you keep your life organized, which I think you could achieve just as easily with your computer and an internet connection.
However in my year in the US I have faced the whole 'dont wanna cook, gonna order out' thing, and quite literally I was saved by google
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=easy to make food
almost every single result led me to some delicious good that I could make easily (while listening to some music or whatever) in minutes. You will never be rid of your gambling problem no matter how you try because you have a mindset that forces you to cling to your decisions. And the best advice that I can give you to stay away from subscription MMOs is to play other games online that dont take a monthly fee, sc2, guild wars, etc. Theres plenty of games out there that wont rob you monthly.
Re: Nazgul, I value the opinion of some people here, but to say I should change my mindset because the Teamliquid populus disagrees with me is... not entirely logical.
Do you think its logical to anyone at all in the world to play video games that require you to pay monthly while you are in a situation where you need to budget? Dude people in college eat ramen every day every week so that they can save money to do other stuff, hell I know a dude who had a super heavy stacked char on lineage 2 that sold it even though he spent yeeaars playing hardcore day and night, simply so he could afford more stuff when in college.
I dont think you'll find even a single person who agrees that you can keep doing everything you're doing and still find a magic quick fix shortcut solution to spending less.
And the teamliquid populus are people like you. Mostly college aged, with a huge sense of entitlement. If a community that argues about almost anything and everything not SC related (and a lot of sc related stuff too) surely it must mean something that almost everyone is calling you a dumbass? Sometimes, its not the world. Its you.
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On June 27 2010 15:35 Eiserne wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2010 13:42 goldrush wrote:
My suggestion is to leave your debit card or credit card at home and pay for stuff with cash if possible. That way, any money that you withdraw has to last until you make another separate trip to the bank. Don't leave home with all of it either, just a few bucks unless you're planning on a big purchase. It cuts down on impulse decisions like buying a snack or whatever and puts a hard cap on what you can spend in any outing.
Heck, I'd try and avoid making any purchases with your credit card unless there is literally no other alternative and it's really important to you. I shredded my credit card a long time ago
O brilliant idea! stop building up credit at all, that'll be wonderful for your future financial growth and stability. yes, wonderful that you can't control something as simple as a credit card, cuz obviously if you have one, you just HAVE to use it irresponsibly. ME TOO PARTNER! i'm going to DESTROY THE CREDIT CARD SO I CAN'T USE IT .//// YES. perhaps its better that i never get a gun cuz obviously i'll have to use that too, and how knows what kinda trouble that will lead me into
oh yeah, and ditch the iphone; it'll do a lot for your financially pathetic state.
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I stopped reading after page 6 or so, but how has anyone not brought up the fact that you could've just gotten a used 1st gen iphone for a hundred bucks? of ALL things, really the iphone FOUR?
But anyway, since I spend my time doing "trivial things" like playing poker, and apparently budgeting myself wisely, I am fortunate enough to be well off and financially independent. Here is what I'll offer you: In a year you say you will be making a lot of money. I'll loan you as much as you need and want, and at the end of the year you don't have to pay me any interest. The catch is I get to legally set your balls on fire until you're infertile (I'd have you sign something I guess?) if you run off with my money or you don't make your expected income.
If you take this deal, it's likely because you are confident you will make that amount of $ and have nothing to fear/lose.
If you don't, hopefully it's because you realize blind reliance on future hopes while perpetuating the exact same foolishness that keeps half of America in debt will only result in a broken heart (and incinerated genitalia), and the best way to avoid this is to just change your ways immediately. You've been asking "how" to change your ways, the solution has been pointed out many times already.
This has been a pretty long, and vulgar, way of me telling you what everyone else has already said but I thought maybe you'd appreciate it better this way, idk it's late and I'm not thinking straight. Someone did mention something very smart previously btw, in that you overvalue the worth of your time. Objectively look at things in perspective and realize afaik iphones haven't saved people from financial ruin, careful planning and sensible budgeting has though.
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On June 27 2010 16:08 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2010 13:42 goldrush wrote:
My suggestion is to leave your debit card or credit card at home and pay for stuff with cash if possible. That way, any money that you withdraw has to last until you make another separate trip to the bank. Don't leave home with all of it either, just a few bucks unless you're planning on a big purchase. It cuts down on impulse decisions like buying a snack or whatever and puts a hard cap on what you can spend in any outing.
Heck, I'd try and avoid making any purchases with your credit card unless there is literally no other alternative and it's really important to you. Really? I find managing my funds with my credit card/debit card MUCH easier than with cash. With online transaction reports, I know exactly how much money I've spent; whereas I often lose track with how much cash moves out of my wallet.
It sounds like the OP knows where his money is going, it's more a problem of keeping him from spending it on stupid shit because he's lazy.
Personally, I don't spend much on extraneous stuff so it's almost all big chunks at a time and I can keep track of it fairly easily. Especially since I withdraw in regular amounts so it follows a similar pattern every time.
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konadora
Singapore66161 Posts
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I would suggest dont listen to these silly comments. Iphone is a must have for the young hip musicians.
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The OP is a troll. We should stop feeding him.
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I'm not sure how much time you have etc, but if you want to earn some extra money you could sign up at http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/.
You're bascially a person who googles questions for other people, you're paid on comission so you have to have some time I suppose.
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I actually have a lot easier time managing my money with a credit/debit card than with cash. Cash just gets blown quite quickly when I have it, I RARELY ever carry cash anymore, unless I get some from somebody ... and I've been managing my money extremely well this year.
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yeah fast food really takes a big bite out of your earnings
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music major who is too lazy to get a job, but perfectly content on getting an iphone...
Why, how ever could you be in such a poor financial state!?
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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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