Internet can cost $30-$40 per month. Over the course of a year, that could be nearly $500! What skint student has that kind of money? Here's a wild and crazy idea: try living without internet at home. This really only works if you've got a laptop that you can take with you to the campus libraries, the EMU, the Eugene or Springfield Public libraries, a coffeeshop (although if you're really a skint student, what are you doing going out for coffee?), anywhere you can get free wi-fi. It may be a moderate inconvenience, but you're likely to be more productive at home, and if you've got to submit something online late at night, you can always park for a quick second outside one of the public libraries with your laptop. When I first started experimenting without home internet, I would park at the public library parking lot and put in two quarters, enough for 40 minutes. I found that I could pretty quickly get my stuff done if I opened up my email, facebook, and all the blogs I followed in tabs, read them one by one, then when my time was up, I left and didn't waste time on the internet the rest of the day.
Extra tip: Keep a little notebook in your laptop case for stuff to Google later.
The City of Eugene provides free wi-fi at a number of locations, you can usually hook up to it anywhere downtown.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, erl-queen!
ReplyDeleteDoes the public library have free wifi over there? Brian likes to escape the craziness here at home to go do homework at the library. He says you don't even have to go inside, he can stay in the truck and just do homework in the truck bed (he gets his own private room in a truck AND escapes that cute crazy buggles? no fair!)
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