November 2007

Every college student has gone through that phase where they eat disgustingly cheap meals to save money. I’m not a doctor, so the meals I’m about to list aren’t the healthiest options. However, they are some of the cheapest options. Without further ado, here are some of the most disgustingly cheap meals I’ve stuffed down my throat over the past few years:

1. Ramen - I think every college student eats at least one bowl of ramen noodles during their collegiate career. It’s cheap, it tastes good, and it’s not very healthy — the epitome of a college meal. For the health conscious, add some vegetables to give it more nutritional value and make it a more rounded meal.

2. $1 Menu - I have a love/hate relationship with fast food. I loved it, then I hated it, and now I hate to love it. It’s cheap, it tastes good, and it’s not that healthy. I see a pattern here. Fast food chains do offer healthier options now, so you can eat healthy if you choose.

3. Soup - Make a pot of soup and it’ll usually last you at least a week. If you’re too lazy to make your own, canned soup is also really cheap, and it goes on sale frequently.

4. Burritos - Bean and cheese burritos are one of the cheapest and easiest meals to fix. Burritos are great because it’s easy to add in new ingredients, so you don’t get tired of eating the same thing over and over again.

5. PBJs - These are great because you can mix them up too — PBH (peanut butter and honey), PBB (peanut butter and bananas), PBP (peanut butter and pickles). The combinations are endless.

6. Free food at campus events - I can’t even begin to remember how much free food I’ve consumed at campus events. If you tried really hard, you could probably find free food at some event on campus every day of the week.

7. Frozen dinners (the cheap ones) - Yes, I’m talking about the 10 for $10 frozen dinners. Quite possibly the most disgustingly cheap meals I’ve ever eaten.

8. Half price appetizers - A lot of restaurants have half price appetizers during happy hour. It’s a great deal as long as you don’t blow all the money you save on extra drinks.

9. Hot dogs - There’s nothing like a juicy hot dog to the get the day started. They have healthier hot dogs nowadays, but I still prefer the beef franks.

10. From the garden - Here’s one that I have yet to try, but my parents have been doing this for as long as I can remember. Growing your own food in a garden is great because you save money, and you know exactly where your food is coming from. Depending on where you go to college (urban vs. rural), this may or may not be an option for you.

This post is for people who scratch their heads when they see this icon:

By the time you finish reading this, you’ll only be scratching your head if it itches.

What is RSS?

That orange icon that made you scratch your head is the standard icon for an RSS feed. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it’s a family of Web formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news stories, or podcasts. An RSS document, usually called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains a summary of content from a web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to get the latest content from their favorite web sites automatically, instead of having to check each site manually.

RSS content can be read using software called an “RSS reader,” “feed reader” or an “aggregator.” The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed’s link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.

Why should I use it?

Subscribing to RSS feeds is like creating your own custom newspaper or magazine. You have total control over the sources of your content, and it’s conveniently gathered in one place. Instead of having to visit each individual site, you just have to open your reader, and everything is right there in front of you. Have you been itching to read Fox News and The Onion side by side? Well, now you can do it.

How do I set it up?

Modern browsers have support for subscribing to RSS feeds, so all you have to do is click on the link to a site’s feed. On most sites, it’s marked with the icon that formerly caused you to scratch your head. I’ll walk you through subscribing to the feed for this site.

1. Go to my feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/BrokeGradStudent
2. You’ll see a list of options to subscribe. Choose your weapon of choice. I use Google Reader, so I’m going to assume you click on the Add to Google button.

3. That will bring you to the following page. Click on Add to Google Reader.

4. If you already have a Google Reader account, you’re finished.
5. If you don’t have an account, click on the Create an Account Now link.

Now you get the latest content from this site without even having to come here. Be sure to drop by and leave comments though!

For those of you who still don’t trust RSS, you can also subscribe via ol’ fashioned email.

I started this blog just over two weeks ago, and things are going better than I ever expected. I know it takes a while for a blog to get off and running, but it’s been fun so far thanks to the help of my fellow bloggers and readers who have been stopping by and leaving comments. I really enjoy reading the feedback.

I’ve also been participating in carnivals and festivals, which has been really exciting. In case you’re wondering, a carnival (or festival) is a collection of posts on a particular topic collected in one post and published on a single blog every week. Bloggers, like me, submit our posts to be included, and the host decides if the post meets their standards and is on topic. The host reads through all of the articles and usually selects a few of their favorites to highlight at the top of the post. Given that 80+ articles are submitted to some carnivals, it’s a lot of work for the host. I’m not quite sure if I’m ready to host yet, but it’s definitely something I want to do in the future. In the meantime, I’m happy with just submitting my posts into the carnivals. Enough explaining, you’re probably wondering why this was such a great week.

For starters, Pinyo did a great job of hosting this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance at Moolanomy. He’s also been leaving some great comments on my posts. To top it off, he selected my article on Why I Use Credit Cards as an Editor’s Pick! Given that Pinyo chose Wonders of World as this week’s theme, I’m glad that he still chose 10 top picks instead of just 7. Check out the carnival to find out why.

As if that weren’t enough, my blog was featured on Tuesday at MSN’s Smart Spending blog. There’s a great summary about a few of my recent posts. You should definitely check it out if you want to read my words in the words of someone else.

Last but not least, Kyle did a wonderful job of hosting the Festival of Frugality at Rather-Be-Shopping. I’m glad people are getting a kick out of buying cheaper underwear to save money. If only you could see what I’ve got on underneath these pants.

It’s great to know that what I’m writing is being appreciated by others. I can’t stress enough how much I value all of the feedback from my readers. It really motivates me to keep writing and provides me with ideas on how to improve this site. Thanks all around.

Well, it’s been two weeks since I signed up at CashCrate, and my earnings are still on the rise. Since my last update, I’ve completed a few more trial offers, which have boosted my total earnings for the month to almost $60!

One thing I’ve noticed is that it’s not fun having to wait for some of the offers to clear. As you can see, I have a pretty large balance of pending earnings. If some of those offers happen to clear any time soon, then I have a chance of breaking the $100 mark for the month, which would be awesome.

To help you out, I thought I’d mention a couple trial offers I completed recently that were credited within a couple of hours.

• Yahoo Success Center — $15.00 (-$1.95 fee = $13.05 profit)
• eVoice — $5.00

A credit card is required for those two offers. If you complete them, you’ll have a $20.00 payout for the month and end up with a $18.05 profit. Of course, you also need to remember to cancel the trials. You can either do this right after the offer clears into your account, or keep a list of the trial offers and their expiration dates and cancel them all at once before the trial period is over. Pick whichever works best for you. Regardless of what method you choose, please just remember to cancel the trials. The whole point of this is to make extra money, not to make extra money and spend it on subscription fees.

For those of you just getting started, be sure to check out my tips on making money with CashCrate.

Good luck!

Thanksgiving is a great time of year to get back in touch with friends and family, sit down together, and enjoy a delicious meal. Just because you’re a broke college student like me doesn’t mean you can’t have a feast at Thanksgiving. A great way to cut down on costs is to have a Potluck Thanksgiving. My family does this every year, and it works out great. Make sure you figure out what everyone is going to make beforehand, so you don’t end up with 10 pumpkin pies and no turkey.

If you’re not sure what to cook, there are tons of free recipes online. One of my favorite sites is All Recipes. It’s great because users can rate and leave comments on the recipes, and most of the time they’re right. Almost every five star recipe I’ve tried has been a keeper. The comments are also helpful because people will suggest changes to the recipes that make them even better.

I spent a few minutes on the site and put together a tasty Thanksgiving menu:

Grilled Turkey - Try something different this year. Grill your turkey.

Bread and Celery Stuffing - Quite possibly my favorite part of Thanksgiving. Don’t forget the stuffing.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes - A staple dish in every feast.

Perfect Pumpkin Pie - No Thanksgiving meal is complete without a piece of pumpkin pie.

Happy Eats!