Saturday, December 17, 2011

"How your broke ass can give back"

In the spirit of skint, here's a video showing how you can support charity when you haven't got a dime. He says he'll donate a penny for every comment, so spam him hard.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Freedom from want

In the spirit of Christmas, let's talk about the pressure to buy, buy, buy, and how to avoid it.

Let's face it, we're surrounded by consumerism. Ads and sales and store windows encourage us to buy, buy, buy. Even local media reports on releases of the latest game system or iphone. How is a skint student supposed to get by when everything around us tells us how much we NEED? Basically, avoidance strategies.

Watch not, want not
Don't watch commercial television. Even during the news, flashy ads try to convince us to try a new flavor of Mountain Dew, tease us with buy one/get one sales and get into our heads with repetition. It's what they get paid to do, make you want to buy. If you never see the ad, you have no idea how much you need it.

Ignorance is Bliss
Unless you are planning to go into the tech industry, it's probably safer not to follow technology blogs. it will only make you feel like the phone/computer/game system/mp3 player you already have is not good enough. My brother is a gadget guy, and falls into this trap a lot. of course, he makes more money than I ever will. i say, if it still works, it's good enough.

Lead us not into temptation
Don't go window shopping at the mall for fun. It's a nice idea to "look but don't buy" but the siren call to open your wallet will be strong. Stray not from the straight and narrow path to the thing you went in to buy and hurry back to the cash register. If you're going to Fred Meyer for groceries, enter and leave by the doors closest to the groceries without wandering into the department store section. just keep telling yourself, "I don't need it. I'll get one after I get that high paying job." Or if you're like me, "Hmm, how can I make that out of scraps from MECCA?"