Speaker 1: Episode one twelve, how to graduate college without debt. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money,
Speaker 1: embrace simplicity rights, and liberate your life. Here your host
Speaker 1: Jen and Jill. Oh yeah, welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Jen, my name's Jill. And today we
Speaker 1: are talking about college, which is seems to be a
Speaker 1: little young for our target audience, but weren't doing it anyway. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was a request from our Frugal Friends community on
Speaker 1: Facebook and we talk a lot about paying off debt,
Speaker 1: and most of that time that debt includes student loans.
Speaker 1: But you know what about just not getting into student
Speaker 1: loan debt? Is it possible? And uh, inc in two
Speaker 1: twenty over the last few months we've just been through.
Speaker 1: We think now more than ever it definitely is well
Speaker 1: And not to mention, I think this is relevant even
Speaker 1: for grad school. Uh, and that is part of our
Speaker 1: target audience. And for let's be honest, kids going to school.
Speaker 1: Grandparents and parents and siblings bear great influence on those
Speaker 1: decisions and how they choose to go about their college education.
Speaker 1: So if you are a person of influence in a
Speaker 1: young person's life, I think that this content can be
Speaker 1: helpful to even know that it's possible to significantly reduce
Speaker 1: college fees. And it's a lot of people I think
Speaker 1: are going to start going back to school. I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe you took a few months off and realized I
Speaker 1: actually hate my job, so I'd like to do something else.
Speaker 1: So this is a way that you can um graduate
Speaker 1: college and do it without debt. So before we get
Speaker 1: into that, our sponsors also brought to you by seniors.
Speaker 1: We want to thank all the recently graduated seniors for
Speaker 1: sponsoring this show. You pulled together your dimes and nickels
Speaker 1: and really came through for us. But today we want
Speaker 1: to celebrate you. Congratulations on your hard work and effort
Speaker 1: and completing an important chapter of your lives. Whether you
Speaker 1: just finished high school or college, you had a lot
Speaker 1: more obstacles than most in this final stretch of your race.
Speaker 1: We see you. Thanks for the sponsorship. Yes, you saw
Speaker 1: us and throw money at us, and we see you
Speaker 1: all right. So the way we look at education right
Speaker 1: now is changing. So you no longer need to live
Speaker 1: on campus, get a meal plan, sit in freezing cold
Speaker 1: arenas while a professor tries to explain organic compounds any right,
Speaker 1: so small that you can't even see what they are?
Speaker 1: Is it hydrogen or carbon? Like? I still don't know. Uh,
Speaker 1: you just don't have to do that anymore. Um. And
Speaker 1: that opens up a lot of opportunities for saving money
Speaker 1: on on college. So our first article today is from
Speaker 1: good call dot com and it's actually by Jocelyn Panita,
Speaker 1: who is the author of the Scholarship System to book
Speaker 1: and a website really really great resources for scholarships. Um.
Speaker 1: She's been doing this a long time. So, and this
Speaker 1: is a guest post on the site. It's called say
Speaker 1: No to Student Loans. Four ways to pay for college
Speaker 1: without going into student loan debt. Yeah. I thought every
Speaker 1: one of these are great. So we're going to go
Speaker 1: through all four. Yes. So the first one is find money,
Speaker 1: free money, just pick up all those pennies on the ground,
Speaker 1: combine it to pay for college. Yeah. If you just
Speaker 1: throw money at me, take you back. That's that's the first. Um.
Speaker 1: So the ways she's talking about our grants, um. So
Speaker 1: you have to fill out the FAFSA UM to apply
Speaker 1: for most of these grants. Um. But there are there
Speaker 1: was two point nine billion dollars um of grant money
Speaker 1: unclaimed in two thousand fourteen. How crazy is that that's
Speaker 1: not unclaimed, not even what's available. Yeah, people just think, oh,
Speaker 1: it's so much work. I just finished, you know, I
Speaker 1: just graduated, and I've already done all these applications and
Speaker 1: I don't even feel like searching for this. But with
Speaker 1: some effort, it is real. Got grants. Yeah, you're either
Speaker 1: going to spend effort after college trying to pay off
Speaker 1: your student loans, or you're going to spend it up
Speaker 1: front to find these grants. So put in the effort today. Um.
Speaker 1: And that goes the same for scholarships and cash awards,
Speaker 1: so you can get them for all kinds of things
Speaker 1: like if you like horses or video games or volunteering,
Speaker 1: there are scholarships for all of those. Um. And then
Speaker 1: she says cash awards are more common for upper classmen
Speaker 1: in college through associations and organizations. Um. But they don't
Speaker 1: have to be paid back, So it's it's great, Like
Speaker 1: I had a I had a full ride to my
Speaker 1: undergraduate program, and it's it made me able to go
Speaker 1: to college like I probably wouldn't have I mean, I
Speaker 1: would have gotten student loans surely, but uh, yeah, that
Speaker 1: was Yeah, I had a few years left in high
Speaker 1: school and I didn't have to worry about college because
Speaker 1: I had a scholarship, and so yeah, it's just it's
Speaker 1: worth putting in the work up front to find those things. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They also mentioned crowdfunding, which I thought was interesting. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: why not give it a try? Um using different platforms
Speaker 1: like go fund me or indiego go. And then they
Speaker 1: also mentioned employee employer tuition reimbursement. So if you already
Speaker 1: work somewhere and you're thinking about maybe going back to
Speaker 1: school or in between, UM, look into this. Certainly we
Speaker 1: can look into this if we already have our degrees.
Speaker 1: Sometimes employers will help pay pay down our loans UM.
Speaker 1: But even better if you can jump on this from
Speaker 1: the start, they mentioned that Starbucks and Fia and Jet
Speaker 1: Blue are a couple of companies that offer UM tuition
Speaker 1: reimbursement to their employees. So maybe even if you're looking
Speaker 1: for a job, these are places you would want to
Speaker 1: consider so that they could help you out with college expenses. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a six It's estimated six of employers offer something
Speaker 1: like this, so it won't be hard to find if
Speaker 1: you're between jobs, right, now then definitely considering what their
Speaker 1: tuition reimbursement um is and before you choose a job.
Speaker 1: The second one on this list is to make money.
Speaker 1: So once you found all your money, now go and
Speaker 1: try and make some more you uh. And certainly this
Speaker 1: can be a dreaded and difficult conversation for college students
Speaker 1: who are already working their butts off full time trying
Speaker 1: to get their degree. To say just get a job
Speaker 1: sometimes can feel a bit insensitive or lacking, you know,
Speaker 1: especially if you're doing a sport in college. Two there's
Speaker 1: there can be a lot of demands that really limit
Speaker 1: the time. And so for that reason, this article is
Speaker 1: suggesting look for work that's flexible, where you know you
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have to have set days or set hours,
Speaker 1: or you can take off a week here and there,
Speaker 1: maybe on especially heavy academic work weeks. Uh. Find a
Speaker 1: job that doesn't require late night hours so you can
Speaker 1: actually still sleep, one that offers a decent wage, has
Speaker 1: a positive work atmosphere. I know we're asking for a
Speaker 1: lot here, but they list out a couple of options
Speaker 1: that that I do like, and I think it's worth
Speaker 1: talking about. So certainly, depending on the type of degree
Speaker 1: that you're aiming at, looking for a paid internship in
Speaker 1: your field. So finding work that is going to help
Speaker 1: you in as you obtain your education, not just this
Speaker 1: other thing that you have to do on the side
Speaker 1: in another box to check just to make money, trying
Speaker 1: to pair it with the very thing that you're interested
Speaker 1: in doing, which can help in your education process, but
Speaker 1: I would say can also help you in your resolve
Speaker 1: and motivation to do that job if you kind of
Speaker 1: enjoy it and you feel like it's adding value to
Speaker 1: your life. They also mentioned driving for uber or lift,
Speaker 1: which is very flexible. You can do it as you're able,
Speaker 1: if you get yourself set up and you end up
Speaker 1: having some free days on the weekend and you live
Speaker 1: near your city. Perfect. Uh. They also mentioned selling your notes,
Speaker 1: So this depends on the school that you go to
Speaker 1: and what you allow, and it has to be all
Speaker 1: your own work. But there are opportunities at various universities
Speaker 1: where you can note take in your classes and sell that.
Speaker 1: You can tutor in a subject that you excel in,
Speaker 1: you can freelance in a field that you're interested in. Babysit, pet, sit, house, sit,
Speaker 1: Holy moly, that's a real thing. I had a lot
Speaker 1: of friends in college who would house sit um for
Speaker 1: some some of the wealthy families in the area, and
Speaker 1: that's a perfect way of that doesn't inhibit any other
Speaker 1: things that you're trying to do. And depending on when
Speaker 1: you're babysitting, if you can get a gig when you're
Speaker 1: babysitting at night, and you can get your school work
Speaker 1: done while you're on the job, if you can do
Speaker 1: maybe even a work study program or work the front
Speaker 1: desk at your school or something even where you could
Speaker 1: combine opportunities to study while you're getting paid. I know
Speaker 1: that has been really helpful. I had a lot of
Speaker 1: friends who like work the front desk at different certain dormitories,
Speaker 1: and for the most part, it was pretty low key
Speaker 1: and they had a lot of time to catch up
Speaker 1: on schoolwork while also working. So it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be the traditional way that we imagine it, where you
Speaker 1: have to go in for a set number of shifts
Speaker 1: and you're not going to have time for anything else. Um.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of flexibility out there, so consider finding
Speaker 1: a job. Yeah, and remember you don't have to be
Speaker 1: so stressed about finding full time work or finding really
Speaker 1: lucrative work if you take that first step of finding
Speaker 1: grants and scholarships, mostly grants, because I feel like people
Speaker 1: do a lot of searching for the scholarships but not
Speaker 1: as much for the grants, and so you only have
Speaker 1: to worry about finding work to compensate for what that is. So, uh,
Speaker 1: figure out how many hours a week you can work UM,
Speaker 1: and then try and work backwards and try and fill
Speaker 1: the gap with as many grants as you can find.
Speaker 1: So the third one is too lower tuition costs UM,
Speaker 1: and that is by attending an in state college UM,
Speaker 1: finding where the tuition is lowest based on your major,
Speaker 1: because that actually does play into the cost per credit
Speaker 1: hour UM, or pursuing a degree that offers extra scholarships
Speaker 1: or grants, which so it's a lot of the STEM
Speaker 1: degrees so Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics UM, a lot of
Speaker 1: those will offer extra scholarships and grants. So, and there
Speaker 1: are other ways you can reduce your tuition costs UM.
Speaker 1: High school students can take like a p classes or
Speaker 1: dual enrollment. I actually started a dual enrollment course in
Speaker 1: high school and I got bored and I left after
Speaker 1: like one class. It ain't go back and I was like,
Speaker 1: I am looking back when I was in college. I
Speaker 1: was like, I have so stupid. Should have done that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but UM, if you're in college, you can try to
Speaker 1: take UM college level examination programs so clip exams UM,
Speaker 1: and that gives you credit without having to take the class. Uh.
Speaker 1: You can maximize the amount of classes included intuitions so UM.
Speaker 1: In most cases, colleges will charge a flat tuition amount
Speaker 1: for up to five or six classes, so if you
Speaker 1: take less than that, you'll pay the same amount. And
Speaker 1: if that's the case for your school, then just try
Speaker 1: and stay at the maximum number of classes possible so
Speaker 1: you're getting the most value for what you're paying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I supplemented. Actually I'm remembering this. UM. A lot of
Speaker 1: local community colleges will offer winter break courses and so
Speaker 1: on my winter break, rather than taking the courses at
Speaker 1: a high high rate at the college I was actually attending.
Speaker 1: When I was back home on winter break, I took
Speaker 1: like a three week intensive I think it was biology
Speaker 1: and just transferred those credits. There were credits that I needed,
Speaker 1: but I got them at my community college even though
Speaker 1: I was technically going to another college. So yeah, you
Speaker 1: can get creative with that too. Um, and certainly consider
Speaker 1: community college for the first couple of years to get
Speaker 1: your um jen ed's out of the way. Yeah, with
Speaker 1: so many things going online, I think it's really smart
Speaker 1: to think about community colleges and lower cost colleges. I
Speaker 1: actually remember when I was getting my volunteer hours in
Speaker 1: the hospital UM to get a scholarship I had. They
Speaker 1: wouldn't put me in the actual hospital like with patients.
Speaker 1: They put me in the daycare center for the employees kids.
Speaker 1: So uh. But one of the doctors was dropping off
Speaker 1: their kid and saying like telling me, like, you really
Speaker 1: need to go to community college for the first like
Speaker 1: two years, like we are drowning in debt, and I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, whatever. I didn't listen to her, but
Speaker 1: that conversation replays in my mind quite often. So many
Speaker 1: wise voices tried to tell me that, and I really
Speaker 1: wish I would have listened. Yeah, all we can do
Speaker 1: is tell the next generation to go to community college,
Speaker 1: but they really just want to leave the house. So
Speaker 1: but you can. Now you can leave the house and
Speaker 1: still do community college and um, you know, classes online
Speaker 1: and stuff, so there are options to be flexible with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: The fourth and final tip on here is to reduce expenses,
Speaker 1: and this is where all of our frugality comes into play.
Speaker 1: Once you've looked at finding money, making money, lowering tuition costs,
Speaker 1: now we look at reducing all of our other living expenses.
Speaker 1: And the basic ones that they list out here are car, rent, food,
Speaker 1: and books. And we want to look at how to
Speaker 1: slicense dice all of these as much as possible, particularly
Speaker 1: if all the other three categories have not brought you
Speaker 1: down to zero debt. Then we want to look at this. Um,
Speaker 1: do we need a car? Nor do we can we
Speaker 1: If we have a car, can we leave it at
Speaker 1: home and pay less on insurance because we're not driving it?
Speaker 1: Um what whatever the case is, isn't necessary. Can you
Speaker 1: utilize public transportation That could be a depreciating it expense
Speaker 1: that you just don't need for this time. Also, look
Speaker 1: at rent. Are you living on campus? Would it be
Speaker 1: more cost effective to live off campus? Can you share
Speaker 1: rent with other people? There's there a way to reduce
Speaker 1: the expenses within the place that you're living. Of course, food,
Speaker 1: we we would be remiss to say, let's look at
Speaker 1: how much we're eating out doing take out? How much
Speaker 1: are we spending even on a mail plan at school?
Speaker 1: Do you take advantage of it as often? I know
Speaker 1: that schools offer various types of meal plans, and sometimes
Speaker 1: we just get all of it, imagining we're going to
Speaker 1: be so hungry all the time, and we go like
Speaker 1: once a day or a couple of times a week,
Speaker 1: and my goodness, to be paying to get take out
Speaker 1: and going out to restaurants and paying for a meal plan.
Speaker 1: That is a highly unnecessary expense. So take a look
Speaker 1: at your food costs. And finally, books, We know that
Speaker 1: this is such an added expense and sometimes one that
Speaker 1: we don't anticipate for well. So part of this has
Speaker 1: to do with saving up for books. But also, and
Speaker 1: I've talked about this on other podcasts, we do not
Speaker 1: have to spend the amount that the colleges suggests that
Speaker 1: we'd be spending on the brand new editions. I have
Speaker 1: gone through undergrad and grad school and I have never
Speaker 1: ever needed to use the exact newest edition ever ever. Ever,
Speaker 1: I always got away with it, even if it was
Speaker 1: one of the ones that came with the special c
Speaker 1: D that you need to do the special work with
Speaker 1: the special program. Emailed professors found a work about. There's
Speaker 1: always a work about. So just yeah, get creative, be
Speaker 1: an advocate, do your research, use all the rent books.
Speaker 1: You can absolutely get that down to like a couple
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a year. Yes, and you can buy. Don't
Speaker 1: go straight to the bookstore to buy and sell your books.
Speaker 1: Try and find somebody who is a year ahead of you,
Speaker 1: and you can buy your books directly from them and
Speaker 1: then resell them to someone that's a year behind you,
Speaker 1: and you can pretty much almost net caught your cost um.
Speaker 1: So don't utilize uh, Facebook marketplace, um or eBay or
Speaker 1: probably not eBay, but at least Facebook marketplace to try
Speaker 1: and do something like that, or or groups for your
Speaker 1: major uh so yeah, and uh yeah, I loved um
Speaker 1: one thing she said on here, Now I can't find it. Oh,
Speaker 1: prepping meals so for reducing food expenses, we always talk
Speaker 1: about this to meal plan, uh and you know, eat
Speaker 1: leftovers and stuff. But when you are super bisy s
Speaker 1: like you have a job, maybe you have kids, and
Speaker 1: you're going back to school, like, you don't have time
Speaker 1: to cook and so meal prep is such an important
Speaker 1: part of your life in seasons where you're really busy
Speaker 1: it's not something that I mean, maybe you want to sustain.
Speaker 1: Some people love it, some people don't. But if you
Speaker 1: can just say, okay, for this six weeks where I'm
Speaker 1: really busy, where I've got a lot of exams, I
Speaker 1: got a lot of things at home, I am going
Speaker 1: to set every Sunday aside to meal prep for six
Speaker 1: sundays in a row so that we are not going
Speaker 1: out and getting take out every night. This doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be things that you do indefinitely. Honestly, you're more
Speaker 1: likely to fall off after two to three weeks if
Speaker 1: you view it like that. So when you're looking at
Speaker 1: ways to save money, uh, set a start and stop period,
Speaker 1: commit to doing it for that long, and then re
Speaker 1: evaluate after if it's something you want to continue to do,
Speaker 1: or if you want to find a different way to
Speaker 1: save money on that expense or a different expense. It
Speaker 1: does require forethought. All of these pieces require forethought intentionality.
Speaker 1: And I will say, a lifestyle that looks completely and
Speaker 1: drastically different from all of your college friends. Try goodness,
Speaker 1: will you be kissing yourself after graduation and you see
Speaker 1: the loads of debt on your friends, Not that you're
Speaker 1: going to laugh at them or poke fun at them.
Speaker 1: They didn't know, they didn't listen to this podcast. But
Speaker 1: you should feel really proud of yourself. You should be
Speaker 1: feeling yourself when you graduate with no debt because you
Speaker 1: will have earned it. Our second article is from learned
Speaker 1: dot org and it's called ten reasons why online college
Speaker 1: courses save you money. So we really feel like this
Speaker 1: is the direction that college is going college you. University
Speaker 1: expenses have sky rocketed like hundreds of percent, multiple hundreds
Speaker 1: of percent over the last twenty years, at to a
Speaker 1: point where it is not sustainable, and so it was
Speaker 1: going to take a worldwide pandemic to change things unfortunately, UM.
Speaker 1: But I think that we're going to start seeing change already.
Speaker 1: These institutions that refused to host certain UM majors or
Speaker 1: classes online have started to once being forced to get
Speaker 1: creative on how they are doing it. And I don't
Speaker 1: think that they're going to throw those discoveries away. I
Speaker 1: think it's more cost effective for colleges to offer online courses,
Speaker 1: so I think they are going to find a way,
Speaker 1: UM to do hybrids and to offer more online. I
Speaker 1: got to mention there's already programs doing this plen to
Speaker 1: your programs offering online. Yeah, I was, I was reading.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's in this article, but Georgia Tech
Speaker 1: UM has a really prestigious computer science degree and they
Speaker 1: started offering it for I think was a third of
Speaker 1: the price of what the in UM in class rate was.
Speaker 1: And not only did they make a ton more money
Speaker 1: for the school by offering this, they're in school. Uh
Speaker 1: class rate did not drop, so they just got a
Speaker 1: lot of people that maybe were considering a second degree
Speaker 1: or whatnot. It gave them access to get it um.
Speaker 1: And so I think I hope that colleges will combine
Speaker 1: with this, and you know, cases like that will make
Speaker 1: these programs more available. So, and that's that's a good point.
Speaker 1: I think that that is part of the barrier for
Speaker 1: people is well, how good is the school or how
Speaker 1: good is the program, and certainly do your research and
Speaker 1: feel comfortable and confident about the program that you are choosing.
Speaker 1: But it's becoming more and more common for even top
Speaker 1: tier schools to be providing at least a hybrid of
Speaker 1: online and in person options. Yeah, so I liked, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: go ahead, Sorry, I was just gonna mention I really
Speaker 1: liked the no wake up fees on this list. Um,
Speaker 1: it's the you know, quote unquote wake up fees is
Speaker 1: like the coffee and energy drinks and like drive through
Speaker 1: breakfast in the morning, Like nobody thinks about that. But
Speaker 1: when you're taking courses online and you're not driving out
Speaker 1: of your home, you skip all that. And so those
Speaker 1: are small expenses that you like, do miss out on,
Speaker 1: not just like the big ones. Yeah, yeah, they're they're
Speaker 1: listening out all these reasons of why going to school
Speaker 1: online can save you money and why that could be
Speaker 1: a good move for yourself in getting your degree. And
Speaker 1: I also like the no commute and that saves a
Speaker 1: lot of money. You're not money and time and time
Speaker 1: is money. So this is a win win because you're
Speaker 1: not paying uh for gas uh and the mileage that
Speaker 1: it costs to get there and back depending on how
Speaker 1: far away that school is. I mean, chances are you
Speaker 1: don't live right next to a university that you want
Speaker 1: to be attending. So um, yeah, even if you are
Speaker 1: living off campus and commuting, that's that's a cost. So
Speaker 1: going to school online cuts that out, and it cuts
Speaker 1: out the time that you would spend in the car
Speaker 1: and as you just mentioned gen it cuts out the
Speaker 1: money that you'd spend on your way during your commute.
Speaker 1: Of course, you do miss out on podcasts when you
Speaker 1: don't have a commute, true, but maybe you can like
Speaker 1: maybe get a job and listen on your way to
Speaker 1: your too work. I don't know, there you go. But
Speaker 1: uh so I also like the um potentially lower tuition
Speaker 1: costs um because sometimes they do lower the cost for
Speaker 1: online classes. UM. That they say because some schools specialized
Speaker 1: in online learning don't incur the same overhead as traditional
Speaker 1: brick and mortar colleges. UM. So if you can find
Speaker 1: one that's strictly online, UM, you might have lower costs
Speaker 1: per class. It's absolutely true, because I can tell you
Speaker 1: for a fact, my professors for my online classes, we're
Speaker 1: teaching me from home. So yeah, that is that is
Speaker 1: no overhead for those universities. I mean, they're paying the professors,
Speaker 1: but otherwise it's it's not paper, it's not office supplies,
Speaker 1: it's not a brick and mortar building that they've got
Speaker 1: to be in to teach us. Yeah. Yeah, but they
Speaker 1: article also does say that it's some brick and mortar
Speaker 1: schools online classes might be have a higher tuition, So
Speaker 1: don't just assume that it's going to be lower. Actually
Speaker 1: check to see, check get across different schools for that major.
Speaker 1: Paying for the convenience probably yeah. I also like what
Speaker 1: they have to say about no lost wages as in
Speaker 1: and what I took this to mean was you're able
Speaker 1: to maximize your time. And so I experienced this personally.
Speaker 1: I got my grad degree entirely online. I didn't have
Speaker 1: to go in at all. And what I realized that
Speaker 1: I liked about that is any time that I would
Speaker 1: have spent commuting or I would have spent in the classroom,
Speaker 1: everything got to all my time got to be put
Speaker 1: towards my graded assignments. And in that way, what what
Speaker 1: is supposed to be a full time program felt to
Speaker 1: me to be less than that. Um maybe what would
Speaker 1: typically be a forty hour a week program most potentially
Speaker 1: five to thirty hours, because I wasn't communing, because I
Speaker 1: wasn't spending time in the classroom, I was reading and
Speaker 1: writing the things that directly went towards me obtaining my degree.
Speaker 1: And so for all the other maybe cons of going
Speaker 1: to school online, of not having the camaraderie and not
Speaker 1: being in the classroom and feeding off the energy of
Speaker 1: other people and the questions. I found it to be
Speaker 1: highly efficient and created space for me to work, Whereas
Speaker 1: typically if I would have gone in for the exact
Speaker 1: same content, I would not have been able to hold
Speaker 1: down the work that I did hold down for that time.
Speaker 1: So I think for that reason it far outweighs the cons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and for people who feel like they're going to miss
Speaker 1: the camaraderie and the experience, I feel like in college,
Speaker 1: my experience is really stemmed out of things that did
Speaker 1: not happen in the classroom, like at least for my
Speaker 1: undergrad I know it's maybe different for graduate programs, but
Speaker 1: if you are you don't have a lot of time
Speaker 1: to make friends while you're in class for most of
Speaker 1: your classes. And so if you can at least get
Speaker 1: um those classes out of the way online and just
Speaker 1: save as much money as possible and then you do
Speaker 1: want to take the rest of the experience in the classroom,
Speaker 1: then you've still saved more money than if you've done
Speaker 1: all of it there. Uh So, don't think it's one
Speaker 1: or the other. See how you can make it balance.
Speaker 1: Make a balance that's right for you. Speaking of a balance.
Speaker 1: That's right for me. M this is brings balance to
Speaker 1: my week every week. The week, that's right, it's time
Speaker 1: for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a
Speaker 1: baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you've
Speaker 1: paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're
Speaker 1: happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That
Speaker 1: built buffalo bills, bill clean. This is the bill of
Speaker 1: the week. Hi Jen, Hi Jill, Mrs Kelly, and my
Speaker 1: bill of the week is about a certain time of
Speaker 1: the month. That's right. I am no longer putting money
Speaker 1: towards menstruation, no more tennies towards my period. And I
Speaker 1: think I'm pretty clear clo. I did invest in one
Speaker 1: of those soft silicone cups and some of like really
Speaker 1: cute cloth um maxi pads that are out there, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of variety its and it's not for everybody,
Speaker 1: but it's worth a shot, and I encourage um any
Speaker 1: ladies to check it out. I will no longer be
Speaker 1: flushing my money down the toilet or throwing it in
Speaker 1: the trash wink. Thanks ladies, Thanks for your frugal friends,
Speaker 1: loving the podcast. Bye, oh Kelly. I am celebrating with you.
Speaker 1: Why a good feeling. It was the wink that was
Speaker 1: really good. I don't know if you could hear it,
Speaker 1: but like I as she was saying it and I
Speaker 1: found out what she was saying, I actually like toppled
Speaker 1: over my water bottle, like not for that reason, but
Speaker 1: I think it was just very ill timed. But I
Speaker 1: think that's a great idea. I think that it's more
Speaker 1: sustainable and it's saves money, and so I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that's awesome. Oh yes, because needing to go out
Speaker 1: for those last minute purchases are the worst and you've
Speaker 1: got it figured out for the rest of your fertile years. Right,
Speaker 1: you're going to say life, but for the rest of
Speaker 1: her life, right, yeah, but she won't need it for whatever.
Speaker 1: We don't need to get into female biology right now.
Speaker 1: It's fine. You just you only took three weeks of allergy,
Speaker 1: so like we are not way to bring that full circle.
Speaker 1: I only know three weeks worth of an online winter
Speaker 1: break experience. So this is not the podcast for biology, uh,
Speaker 1: just the podcast for bills. So if you have one
Speaker 1: you want to share with us, If it's shocking enough
Speaker 1: to make me spill more water bottles, ill timely. Just
Speaker 1: submit it to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill
Speaker 1: uh and leave us a voicemailer speak pipe and we're
Speaker 1: going to play it without listening to it. Fort We
Speaker 1: play all of them regardless of what they're about. Next
Speaker 1: is the Lightning Room. Poo poo um spoiler alert. We're
Speaker 1: gonna have Rachel Cruise on the show next month. And
Speaker 1: we did this with her earlier this week, and and
Speaker 1: I don't know how she felt about it, so she
Speaker 1: was pretty quiet. So dude at that part. Um, But
Speaker 1: today's lightning around. Jill and I are sharing our biggest
Speaker 1: waste of money in college and a place where we're
Speaker 1: glad we saved. So kick it off. I'll kick it
Speaker 1: off biggest, my biggest waste of money. I said earlier
Speaker 1: that I had a full ride for my undergrad and
Speaker 1: I did not use the full scholarship. I how did
Speaker 1: that come about? So I had, Um, I went to
Speaker 1: the University of Central Florida, go nights and you didn't.
Speaker 1: He probably didn't even know I went there because I
Speaker 1: didn't graduate from there. Um, but I did two years
Speaker 1: there and then realized I wanted to go to acupuncture school.
Speaker 1: And they offered a dual bachelor's Masters, so I didn't
Speaker 1: need to finish my bachelor's at uc to go to
Speaker 1: the program. Um because I would have had to retaken
Speaker 1: a lot retake like a lot of classes anyways. Um
Speaker 1: so I cut off. I wasted two years of that scholarship,
Speaker 1: didn't utilize them, and instead paid for the rest of
Speaker 1: my bachelor's degree and my master's debt free. Now, yes, um,
Speaker 1: but I still I still regret not graduating from UCF
Speaker 1: because my all my best friends today are still friends
Speaker 1: that I met at UCF. Um So I still feel
Speaker 1: connected to the school. There's a case for this is
Speaker 1: such a hard one. But zeroing in a bit on
Speaker 1: what you want to do and not putting pressure on
Speaker 1: yourself to go straight away to school just because everybody
Speaker 1: else is. I mean, there's no problem, Like you're making
Speaker 1: these decisions as you are, like still exiting childhood. So
Speaker 1: that's that's a lot of power. But yeah, you can,
Speaker 1: you can change your mind, that happens. But to also
Speaker 1: give yourself permission to take some time to to experience
Speaker 1: some things and zero in on what do I actually
Speaker 1: want to do? Where do my where does my skill
Speaker 1: set lie in? My interests, which bleeds into my piece
Speaker 1: of My biggest waste of money was going out of
Speaker 1: state to college UM and living on campus. So being
Speaker 1: out of state usually costs a whole lot more UM
Speaker 1: than than going to any school in state, whether that's
Speaker 1: a state school or a private school. And then the
Speaker 1: living on campus. It's just it's so expensive to pay
Speaker 1: for a dorm room, even though it shared with like
Speaker 1: five people in your bathrooms are down the hall. I
Speaker 1: don't understand how it's so expensive. I should have been
Speaker 1: paying like a hundred dollars a month for what I got. Ah,
Speaker 1: and the food is terrible. I don't know, it's that
Speaker 1: was silly. Also what was silly was the fact that
Speaker 1: I felt the pressure to like go to an expensive
Speaker 1: school out of state before I had any idea what
Speaker 1: I wanted to do. What I should have done was
Speaker 1: go to community college, get what I knew were just
Speaker 1: going to be general requirement classes as I'm figuring out,
Speaker 1: or taking a year off, and just traveled. I ended
Speaker 1: up doing that halfway through undergrad. I took a year
Speaker 1: off after my sophomore year and traveled, gained clarity on
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do, and came back full, full
Speaker 1: throat and finished my degree. But my goodness, two years
Speaker 1: of two different colleges, just so I don't know what
Speaker 1: I was doing, paying way too much for a dorm room. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I took a year off, actually too, I did. I
Speaker 1: did two years ECF and then one year at acupuncture school,
Speaker 1: and then I took a year off, and then I
Speaker 1: came back and I finished acupuncture school and I met Eric.
Speaker 1: That's what I did Eric on my year off. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, I married him though I locked a down.
Speaker 1: Yeah you did, girl. Uh yeah, I was in San
Speaker 1: Diego working for UM, the nonprofit formerly known as Invisible Children.
Speaker 1: That's what I did. Gosh, so much clarity you gained then.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you did that. We would not know
Speaker 1: each other if it weren't for that. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that's so true. Our gap years brought us together. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. We won't take ended that too much, but
Speaker 1: to take that for what it's worth. Back on topic, um, So,
Speaker 1: my biggest place where I'm glad I saved is the
Speaker 1: opposite of Jills. I lived off campus when I went
Speaker 1: to UCF. I mean, I never lived on campus. My
Speaker 1: master's program obviously didn't have a campus to live on.
Speaker 1: So well, it had a camp I'm sorry, it had
Speaker 1: a campus, you couldn't live on it, um And so
Speaker 1: I lived off campus, right across the street from the
Speaker 1: university and had a free shuttle, so I had free
Speaker 1: parking for my car. I didn't have to pay for
Speaker 1: parking on campus at the school, and it was a
Speaker 1: fraction of the price. I got my own bathroom, a
Speaker 1: full size bed, a kitchen in the apartment. I had
Speaker 1: to share it with three strangers, but only one was
Speaker 1: a drug addict, and I had great neighbors. I went
Speaker 1: to There was even in this so this was campus
Speaker 1: affiliated off campus housing, and there was even a fraternity
Speaker 1: in the apartment complex. And so I went to my
Speaker 1: first frat party there. So that that for you, that
Speaker 1: goes on the pros side that there was a frat. Okay,
Speaker 1: oh no, no, no no, that's just a side. Um. I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm glad I lived off so much. It was
Speaker 1: a fraternity living there too. I'm saying I got the
Speaker 1: experience of living on campus and saved money living off
Speaker 1: the sordid experience. Yeah, where I am glad that I
Speaker 1: saved money is a couple of places. Going to school
Speaker 1: online for my grad degree. What what saved so much money? Also,
Speaker 1: and not all programs do this, but I had an
Speaker 1: opportunity within my course of study to get my master's
Speaker 1: degree in one year, which does reduce the costs significantly.
Speaker 1: So if you can find a program that is accelerated,
Speaker 1: that helps a ton. Also on a smaller scale, I
Speaker 1: crushed it when it came to saving on books, like
Speaker 1: that is where my frugality sword and shined. Um. I
Speaker 1: paid little to nothing on my books and every semester
Speaker 1: I was so proud of my soul. If you want
Speaker 1: some tips, be al free to hit me up and
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends Facebook community group, because that's that. That's
Speaker 1: my little like my my my secret skill. Like you
Speaker 1: know when someone tells you like raising man, like what's
Speaker 1: your secret skill? And somebody's like, I can pop my
Speaker 1: shoulder out of place, I'm like, I can say money
Speaker 1: on books. Oh my gosh, that is great though you
Speaker 1: and now you're debt free. Now I'm debt free, and
Speaker 1: you cash flowed your master's degree. Yeah, And part of
Speaker 1: that was because I went to school online and I
Speaker 1: didn't accelgrated program and then I lived tiny and made
Speaker 1: all sorts of other very frugal extreme decisions and it worked.
Speaker 1: So Jill is living proof that you can go back
Speaker 1: to school at cash flow another degree and live to
Speaker 1: tell the tale. And then afterwards then finished paying off
Speaker 1: your undergrad degree as I got my master's. Okay, said
Speaker 1: that before my undergrad was out of the way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fine. We do what we have to do. You
Speaker 1: do what you gotta do. UM. One last thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to say about UM online colleges before we wrap
Speaker 1: up is that it's important to choose an accredited online college.
Speaker 1: That impacts. So there are four profits schools that are online,
Speaker 1: and you will know the difference because you will see
Speaker 1: a lot more TV advertisements for them. Accredited ones are
Speaker 1: starting to have their moment too, But that really impacts
Speaker 1: if you do have to take out student loans and
Speaker 1: you want to refinance them later. Not all student loans
Speaker 1: can be refinanced, so be sure when you are choosing
Speaker 1: an online school that you choose an accredited UH school
Speaker 1: and that will help you later. UM. Should you want
Speaker 1: to refinance student loans or whatnot, or even go back
Speaker 1: for another degree elsewhere, good word, yes, So thank you
Speaker 1: for listening to my ted talk, um, and thank you
Speaker 1: for reviewing the program on iTunes and stitcher. Um like
Speaker 1: this great one. It's from Salmon Pony. Uh. That's get
Speaker 1: that visual out of your head, it says, obsessively refreshing
Speaker 1: every Thursday night. Um, I've really enjoyed this podcast for
Speaker 1: some time and can finally match the right voice with
Speaker 1: the right name. So I figure I am now qualified
Speaker 1: to review caviat like. You don't have to be able
Speaker 1: to do that. Deliver you Um. The dry humor appeals
Speaker 1: to me. The first episode I listened to, Pennies You
Speaker 1: Find on the Ground was the sponsor, and I really
Speaker 1: did laugh out loud. Occasionally the selected topic doesn't sound
Speaker 1: interesting to me specifically, but it usually ends up being
Speaker 1: entertaining and I really have learned new ways to be fruital.
Speaker 1: Very helpful. Yes, thank you Sam and Pony. Thanks Salmon Pony. Um.
Speaker 1: We don't really start episodes on Thursday night, but apparently
Speaker 1: this is when Sam and Pony listens to us, which
Speaker 1: is great whenever she wants. Absolutely, I just want our
Speaker 1: listeners to know, and also I do appreciate that they
Speaker 1: waited until they knew the podcast a bit more to
Speaker 1: review that. That's always appealing to me that you've given
Speaker 1: it some time to know what this is about what
Speaker 1: we're claiming to be, and giving reviews that will help
Speaker 1: others determine if this is what they want to be
Speaker 1: listening to and spending their time on. Yeah, we have
Speaker 1: two reviews that really waited until they knew the show
Speaker 1: coming up on the next few shows and so share
Speaker 1: ready for those those areas. It's great because oh, I'm
Speaker 1: excited to read those. Yeah. Sometimes we get reviews for
Speaker 1: people who have listened for like the first two minutes
Speaker 1: of one show and well, you know how that Usually
Speaker 1: that's like stepping into a restaurant and taking a quick
Speaker 1: whiff and walking out and reviewing. It's like, did you
Speaker 1: want to find out how amazing it is? We are
Speaker 1: like Taco Bell. We are us. We are the Taco
Speaker 1: Bell of podcasts. I don't know, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: can get on board with that. We also want to
Speaker 1: thank you friends who are sharing these episodes on social media.
Speaker 1: When you share our latest episode by tagging us on Facebook,
Speaker 1: our Instagram, we add you to our monthly drawing. So
Speaker 1: we give away a ten dollar Amazon gift card uh
Speaker 1: four every five tags or reviews. So whether you tag
Speaker 1: our latest episode or you review us and send us
Speaker 1: a screenshot to Frugal Friends Podcast at gmail dot com,
Speaker 1: you enter our drawing for a ten dollar Amazon gift
Speaker 1: card m M. So keep leaving us reviews on iTunes
Speaker 1: and stitcher um send those screenshots to Frugal Friends podcast
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com, and don't forget to tag us
Speaker 1: on social at Frugal Friends podcast so that we see
Speaker 1: that you shared it. See you next week. Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: is produced, editive and mixed by Eric Seria. I want
Speaker 1: somebody to review the show, and I want him to
Speaker 1: say that as the title the Taco Bello Bell Podcasts,
Speaker 1: it was to have to be a five star review
Speaker 1: if that's going to please I thought we just assumed
Speaker 1: that that was what I wanted. So then you know, like,
Speaker 1: if you hate Taco bell then you might hate us, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you might. If you want eating sushi off of another
Speaker 1: person's plate, you might hate us. We shoulders the most classy,
Speaker 1: but we do deliver, yeah, and we are fun and
Speaker 1: we accept tips. It's just and sometimes we combine with
Speaker 1: a long jong Silver's or like an n W I
Speaker 1: ate it long John Silver's once when I was a
Speaker 1: kid and I was sick. Yeah, we are, we are
Speaker 1: not the lj s of podcasts. Hopefully did you quickly
Speaker 1: abbreviate them? In my head? I said, what are the
Speaker 1: first three letters? What are the words letters? Good job,
Speaker 1: thank you. Actually I was listening to an audio book
Speaker 1: and they gave a math problem, and that just just
Speaker 1: kind of telling of the audio books I listened to.
Speaker 1: And uh, it was a big number and the answer
Speaker 1: ended up being four eight and I was able to
Speaker 1: do the multiplication problem. In my head, I'm looking for something.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the multiplication problem was, like it
Speaker 1: could have been four D eight times one, like I
Speaker 1: don't know, but also I don't know, like if what what?
Speaker 1: There's so many things that we don't have time. But
Speaker 1: you're listening to math problems on books. Okay. So the
Speaker 1: book is Thinking Fast and Slow. Um, it's a book
Speaker 1: by a behavioral economist and he was demonstrating like when
Speaker 1: you make a an impulsive decision, or you evalue if
Speaker 1: you evaluate somebody based on what their face looks like,
Speaker 1: I mean not like judge them, but they have like
Speaker 1: an angry face and you're like, oh, that person is angry.
Speaker 1: That's your fast thinking. But if someone says, like, what's
Speaker 1: fourteen times twenty four, then you have to like sit
Speaker 1: back and be like, okay, what is fourteen times care
Speaker 1: the one four hundred and eight? That wasn't the problem.
Speaker 1: It's like you see Taco Bell this podcast like Taco
Speaker 1: Bell and immediately decides, yes, it's for me. It was
Speaker 1: seventeen times twenty four that was the problem. Seventeen times
Speaker 1: twenty four equals and we all learned something new today. Bye.