Frugal Finance Part I

I thought a little journey through my life living frugally would be a neat helpful article so here goes.

College Days:
For that college bound high school graduate whose single parent family can't finance your higher learning or parents who won't: Get a job early, in high school and start saving. I knew early on I was college bound. It was a dream that my grandmother instilled in me. I amassed $3,000 one summer in 7th grade by raising 3 pregnant guilts and selling their piglets at the sale barn. There were also the 100 chickens raised from chicks picked up at the feed store. The eggs went for only 50 cents a dozen in the 70's, but it was well worth it to my neighbors and friends who bought from me and put quite a stash in my pocket after feed expenses. In high school, I mucked barns for injured and retired race horses and exercised them to. My mother wouldn't let me or the owner would have taken me to the racetrack to work there to warming up those great animals. After graduating, I moved in with my grandmother and got a minimum wage job through a job works program. Then I had a windfall when a lady friend, whose son I was sweet on, let me know the factory she worked at was hiring. I thought I was rich at $3.90 an hour, many times working 50-60 hours to finish important contracts on time. I made about $130 plus a week. $13 went for my church tithe, $20 for groceries, and about $10-$15 for intertainment. I was only 18 you know. The rest was tucked away safely into a savings account.  Then my mom, who didn't like the idea of my riding my bike to my job and also didn't think I was looking very hard myself, called me one day and said she bought me a car. She had spent money to put some hoses and things on it and could I make out a check and come it? Here's the real kicker, the tires were bald and it was a stick shift! Guess who didn't know how to drive one. Quite a two-hour drive back home in a smurf colored AMC that I had not picked out, asked for, and was expected to pay for. Now I had to add insurance and the weekly tank fill-up to my list. It was a couple of months before I drove it though, saving up for 4 new all weather tires.   Ask your church if they can help out. Many denominations have funds set aside for their colleges. I had great youth leaders who saw my dream and canvased the members for me. They even helped for the first year after my husband and I married. The Wesleyan Church matches up to so much of what local membership puts into the scholarship fund to send their kids to the denominations colleges. Don't forget to fill out your FASFA. I had to obtain my mothers financial information. She was not happy about this. At the time of the application I hadn't been on my own for a year yet and you had to be independent for two. Check out scholarships and grants. If you had great grades in high school you'll have many opportunities to apply and win these. My husband had many scholarships through high school, so make sure you apply to all of them. Remember that job through job works, it was at the YMCA as a lifeguard. I applied for and got $500 each semester through them. The local Polish Heritage Foundation on the other hand, didn't think I was Polish enough (my fathers side) and I never even got a response to my submission. I mention both because you  get some, some you don't. I also qualified for the Student Work Program and took on a part-time job off campus. Mike worked a full-time job to help pay his way. I had a $250 loan that 1st year out of a $7,000 full-time room and tuition. Not bad.
509K Here is one to keep in mind if you have children. We started one in Kansas that matched us dollar for dollar and we paid into it the maximum amount allowed for 3 years. We have invesed about $5000 and it has grown to about $10,000. Our 2 oldest children are named as benefactors currently, but they're as spend thrifty as we are and haven't had to use any of it yet. I'll talk more about them and kids in college in another blog post. The beauty of this 509k is that we can transfer to name another child as benefactor if we want any. That is a handy thing since we have a total of 6 children.

Next Time: Juggling Fulll-Time College and Marriage

Seems I am Lax.

Trying to find my feet in this writing field is quite the challenge. I am going through my chick lit, "A Simple Life," since realizing I had switched the 1st person narrative in a couple of spots. I am severely in need of a proper word program, as my word starter just doesn't serve me adequately. I simply can not afford it right now. I am in the final stretch with that book though and hope by the end of September to load it into my Creat Space Account to see if I can sell it. My biggest project is the non-fiction, "Holiness in Ethics." How can I work on things 2 worlds apart? It actually helps keep me sane. holiness is such a deep, personal topic, writing the non-fiction lets me relax and keep perspective.