Saving for Holiday's, Free School Supplies, Dalai Lama Failure
The holiday times are expensive. Traveling, gifts, birthdays, special occasions etc... Before every holiday season I try to build up my spending account to at least a few hundred dollars, but this time I am trying something different.I have opened up a 2nd spending account for big expenses such as Christmas gifts, big purchases and vacations. I will set an automatic, weekly transfer of money into this account like I do with all my other ancillary accounts.
I hate the idea of allocating more money towards spending during the holiday season, so I will start preparing now.
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I decided to go uber-cheap school shopping after an Entrepreneur Society meeting. Basically whenever I need to stock up on pens, pencils or notebooks, I simply go into some of the very large auditorium classrooms around campus and pick up the good pencils and pens that people leave behind. I walked through two adjacent auditoriums at about 9:00pm before they were cleaned, and picked up the following supplies:
Why buy when it's free?
The Dalai Lama speech was this past Tuesday. I wanted to take a picture with the Dalai Lama, but it didn't quite happen. I had some appointments with professors right before the speech at 4:00pm, so I didn't have the proper preparation time required. My attempt to gain press access was also not granted (and it turns out would have been useless). The speech filled the whole Erwin Events Center:
Just as in business: You win some, you lose some.
posted by Neville @ 1:03 AM
19 comments
19 Comments:
About the pens...school supplies aren't that expensive, why not just buy? Doesn't look like you wasted much time gathering up your supplies, but sometimes your time is more valuable than money and you should just buy. Stressing out over cheap stuff will drive you crazy. Save that for the big ticket items. Anyways, I know you didn't stress or spend much time on the supplies, but its something maybe you could apply to other purchases....hope that makes sense!
Dave's Journal to Financial Freedom
Lets see...can we think of any reasons why we should not spend .29 on a new pen, instead of picking up used pens? Oh, wait, I can think of one...I put my pen in my mouth....here's another...I have seen people use the bathroom and then not wash their hands.
Good grief, Nev....you are such an idiot sometimes.
It's sad you have to deal with people like the above anonymous. All they do is criticize. A new pen or mechanical pencil doesn't always only cost $.29, and it also seems anonymous is a germaphobe.
If you took his advice, you would never touch another door knob, book from a library or computer keyboard.
It's funny how people who post negative comments are almost always anonymous.
Keep up the great work Nev!
If he doesn't, then he really is pretty dumb, and deserves whatever medical expenses he accumulates
Free school supplies never hurt, esp. when you're saving for the holidays and making $2 on lottery tix!
I was introduced to your fabulous blog by the famed NYTimes article. I'm writing an essay of my own on entrepreneurship and curiosity for an essay contest (3-4 hours for $500, odds of winning unknown), and wanted to know: how do you think these two traits are related?
if there are any plates that still have food on them, i dig in. you'd be surprised how many people leave food on their plates. once i even scored someone's nearly full glass of wine! that's $6.50 i saved on a glass of nice wine.
Come on! Some of those people simply forget those, they did not left it. What you are supposed to do take them to the "Lost & Found".
Maybe, you die from a disease you picked from one of those so, people don't actually think that this is frugal! (just kidding: don't die, you entertain a lot of poeple)
I was already walking by the two classrooms and I decided to swing by to pick up some pens (I use my tablet all the time and therefore do not keep many pens/pencils).
The last time I heard of someone contracting a disease from a pencil or pen was never, so I will be just fine.
Also, in one hour those rooms would have been cleaned and everything left behind goes into the trash. Pens/Pencils do not make it into the lost and found.
Anitasyv,
Many people have curiosities about different business ideas. An entrepreneur will more likely ACTUALLY perform experiments.
Some people think because I sold bottled water as an experiment, I am actually trying to make money from it. It was an EXPERIMENT to fullfil a CURIOSITY. The lottery experiment was also simply an experiment. Goodluck on your paper!
Max Y.
www.howtobepoor.com
I've got another tip for "scrounging" - have a look around for those business lunches that often happen on campus or at conferences.
Make sure you come back when they are clearing away and ask what will happen to the food. I've managed to get some really good food this way. (Of course you might need to make sure it hasn't been sat in the sun for several hours!).
Good luck on your quest Nev.
At the end of the year, when the rich kids moved out and didn't want their stuff, I'd swing by the dorms and salvage perfectly good things like detergent, refridgerators, etc. Don't hate because you shelled out $20 for a pack of pens you'll use once and forget. And when I talk smack at least I sign my name.
Operation Llama... hilarious!
I'm a bit nervous about posting this on your site. I'd just like to note to your readers that the purpose of FreeCycle is not profit, but to help out others.
Nev, can I quote you for my essay?
Save before you spend.
A great philosophy.
Money And Investing
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