Preparing for Grad School: Stuff I Bought
Trading in my cheap stuff for expensive *cry* but reliable stuff
I didn’t want to go into grad school the way I’d gone into my undergrad education: scared, with no money, and no ability to do my own laundry. So I’ve spent much of 2016 building my resources to have a relatively ~comfy~ life as I start grad school both financially and in terms of useful stuff.
Below is a little list of the things I have purchased. It hurts my cheap heart to go through most of them but I’ll do my best. I also included the magical method I used to save for all these things.
New Car, $11,000
I definitely would never have purchased a new car without the coercion of my friends, family, and literally anyone who’d ever heard me talk about my car. I’d gotten a 2003 Volkswagen Beetle when I turned 17 and I loved that car so much but it definitely did not love me. There were many betrayals and after seven months of resentfully looking at cars on cargurus.com and saving furiously, I decided to buy a 2012 Honda Fit.
My rationale for this car was that it was small and fuel-efficient. I definitely needed it for my job at the time (business meetings all over the place) and I thought it would be useful once I started school, additionally. This remains to be seen.
To buy the car in an intelligent way, I googled “How to buy a used car” and picked up some tips there. I also met up with some friends at Panera and ate a large coffee cake before heading over with them to the dealer. My friends stayed with me in that dealer for about three hours, negotiating a better deal on the car with me. Google does not tell you this but the most important part of buying a used car is to bring along your meanest friends.
Macbook Air, $800
I decided I needed a new laptop after my old laptop, a 10" HP notebook, took about an hour to open a word document. That laptop had been purchased in 2014 in a fit of absolute cheapness for $250. I just wanted it to carry me through the end of my undergrad degree and I guess it did that. This is one instance where being a cheapo backfired on me because that HP was a dud from the very start. I should have just forked over the money to buy a good laptop.
For the new laptop, I decided to go with a Macbook Air because it looked cool and my friends all had one and I wanted to answer my text messages from my computer. Good job on all the Apple brainwashing, Steve Jobs.
I started off by applying for a student discount at Best Buy. I was not a student at the time but I have a .edu email address and the woes of a student so I didn’t feel too guilty when I got a coupon for $25 off. Next, I traded in my cursed HP notebook for a $75 voucher (the laptop was relatively new and ran Windows 10 so I think that’s why I got so much). And so, boom! $100 off my new Macbook!
L.L Bean Backpack, $39.99
Given that the current bag that I use for work is a vintage Samsonite travel bag that weighs about 15 pounds when empty, I decided I needed a more practical way of my carrying my things when I started school again. I found this L.L Bean Backpack on sale online but it still cost more than I’d ever paid for a bag. (As a note, my vintage Samsonite was purchased at Goodwill for $3 and was previously owned by a woman whose obituary I found via Google. She lived a good life.)
This backpack met all qualifications of a good backpack: comfy, good water bottle holders, and many pockets. I decided to buy it.
The Ryan Saving Method
To save up for these things, I used a method that a friend of mine (named Ryan) once ranted about on his tumblr page. He was saving up to do study abroad in Spain and he decided to dispense his financial advice on how he was doing that with a part-time job.
The Ryan method is very simple: you work, you receive a paycheck, and you immediately put 90% of that paycheck into your savings account (or in a wad under your mattress, whatever). Done. That money is dead to you. You can do whatever you want with the remaining 10% of your money but at no time should you touch your savings.
This worked for me obviously because I was living at home and though I paid a couple of my parents’ bills, it was still feasible for me to save such a large percentage of my paycheck. It can’t work for everyone.
However, if you’re willing and able to stick to this method and only order very cheap large breads at restaurants, it really pays off.
