I Was Only Trying To Help...

A good friend came up to me a couple months ago, telling me his stories of financial woe.  His car is on the verge of a complete breakdown, school fees were eating him alive, one of his roomates lost his job, and the other roommate simply just never puts up enough money to cover both rent and bills.  He had to put all his savings into bills and rent, just so he could have a place to live.

Why did he come to me?  Although I am not quite in the same boat as he, I have been trying to save money for the past couple years, in order to save for my future.  I'm in college studying to be a high school teacher.  I'm living with roommates in an apartment near school.  I am the typical broke college student, and due to my chosen profession, I will continue to be broke for a long time.  I've learned (and am still learning) quite a few tricks of the trade.

So, he came to me to ask for some ways that he might be able to save some money.  He had three must-haves:

1. Use as few coupons as possible (he gets embarrassed sometimes)
2. Quick solutions that do not require him to spend hours upon hours Googling or hunting down specific sales or bargains
3. Not a "Quick Fix".  He wanted some methods that could turn into habits and not something that's only good at one store on one day at one time.

I had a million and half ideas for him!  I started rattling them off the top of my head.  The problem came in when they didn't stop and kept flowing like salmon during spawning season.  I really was only trying to help...

But... he quickly became overwhelmed.  He said I needed to slow down and make him a list or give him one idea at a time.  I ended up doing both.  I made a huge list.  Pages upon pages on a Microsoft Word document.  Then I started giving him one idea at a time, and I grouped them into categories, like "How to Save Money on Electricity."

He loved it!  He's reopened a savings account and passed some of the ideas onto his roommates (in the hopes to get some money back).  So, that brings us to where we are now.  I am writing the "Just Starting Out Blog."  It's for people like you, me, and my friend, who don't have time to clip umpteen coupons or go spelunking on the internet or in newspapers for the biggest sales.  Our time is valuable!  We can't have a technique that works for one day - we need to make being thrifty a habit, and not just something to do when we're short on cash.

Every week, I will have a theme for my posts, like "Coupon-Less Grocery Shopping" or "Saving Some Green: Environmentally Friendly Savings."  I'm going to do the hunting for you!  Come and join me on this journey.  Bookmark it, Follow it, Google it, or do whatever else is easiest.  Visit once a day, once a week, or once a month.  There'll always be something new; you won't be disappointed!