what i wish i had known in college

i recently wrote this handout for a mutual night with my laurels and i selfishly want to share it for when my own kids go off to college. of course by then it'll be irrelevant because they'll be traveling through tubes, jetson style, and will live at home forever.

What I Wish I Had Known Before College

Grocery Shopping

·      Never go hungry or without a list. Keep a running list of things you need and try not to go more then once a week. Organize your list by grocery sections.

·      Walmart is your best friend. Grocery stores have better quality but higher prices. The Dollar Store isn’t always a better deal on items. Take your time to do the math and price it out.

·      Know how much room you have to store the items. You’ll be sharing that space with other people.

·      See what your roommates wants to do about food. Share certain food items? Keep everything separate? Take turns making meals? That’ll help on cost and time.

·      Plan at least an hour for your trip. Look for marked down meat and breads. You can freeze these items.

·      Meat and cheese is EXPENSIVE. Cut things in half or make meatless options. Shredded chicken goes a long way.

·      Almost always buy generic unless you have coupons. Use Ibotta or Walmarts saving catcher app to save money. *Or steal things from your parents when you come home!

·      Prepared or prepackaged food always cost more so buy those sparingly. Peel and cut your own carrots. Make your own pizza.

·      Only eat out once a week.

·      Loss leaders: items that go on deep sale once a week to draw customers in and spend more. Typically chicken, cereal, chips, soda, canned goods. Watch the circular ads and buy those things at Walmart. Their price will be cheaper and if not, they’ll ad match it.

·      Know the shelf life of some items, how to extend them and how to store them. Ex: celery lasts longer wrapped in tin foil. Bananas do better spaced out.

·      Eat a lot of filling and cheap items. Ex: rice, pasta, potatoes, beans.

Meal Planning

·      Breakfast: Cereal can get expensive unless you buy it as a loss leader. It’s also not very filling or healthy. Oatmeal, cream of wheat, eggs and toast, protein smoothies, yogurt with granola.

·      Lunch: Leftovers, sandwiches, quesadillas, salads topped with grilled chicken.

·      Dinner: Most meals typically have a carb, protein, and vegetable component. IE: pasta, chicken, and broccoli. Rice, beans, and tomatoes. Pair these three things together to make healthy and hearty meals.

·      Snacks: package your own items and bring them along. Buying things on campus will add up. Bring your own lunch. ALWAYS have a snack on hand. Bring your own water. Institute has cheap snacks.

·      Don’t gain that freshman 15! Keep yourself active. The gym on campus will be affordable or join a campus club. Try to eat 2 fruits a day and 3 vegetables.

·      Freeze as much as you can. Make your own pancakes and waffles to freeze. Bean and cheese burritos. Make a full recipe and freeze half or just the sauce.

·      Plan what you’re going to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and dessert a week at a time.

·      Splurge on things you love, skimp on things you don’t like. Juice and soda is not a necessity.

·      Eat at the free or discounted events offered through school. There’s ALWAYS events where you can eat for free or pick up some snacks.

Finances

·      Get your own checking account and credit card. Don’t use the CC unless you can pay it off every month. Use it to build credit.

·      TRACK where your money is going. Put yourself on a budget. I use EveryDollar.com

·      Make a budget and keep to it. Items to typically budget for: Groceries, Eating Out, Gas, Entertainment.

·      Learn how to manage your money NOW while you have your parents as a safety net.

Roommate Tips

·      Get an idea of each other’s schedules so you know about when to expect her coming and going.

·      Lay down ground rules of the apartment. What time should “quiet” time start? Share food? When is rent/utilities due? Who will clean what? What’s the rule on boys in the apt?

·      Make sure you have each other’s numbers and know how to get a hold of their parents in case of an emergency.

·      Get to know each other and each other’s friends early on. They’’ll become your friends too.

·      Be honest. If it’s not working, don’t be afraid to mix it up next semester.

Grown-Up Things to Do

·      Dentist 2x a year

·      Doctor/gynecologist checkup once a year

·      Eye doctor once a year

·      Continually apply for scholarships. It’s not just a thing for freshmen!

·      Get your oil changes every 3 months or 3,000 miles. This will save on costly repairs down the road!

·      If you’re going to a cold climate, learn how to drive in the snow and how to take care of your car. Ice scrapper, snow tires, anti-freeze, etc.

·      Sit down once a week to plan that week. Your meals, homework due, visiting teaching, study time, when you’ll grocery shop, go to the gym, get your car worked on, etc.

Get a Job

·      Apply for jobs before classes begin. Get there a week or two early to get used to the campus and people. There will also be more jobs available.

·      Write a resume. Ask for help when needed and get three great recommendations.

·      Think of these small jobs as building blocks towards your future. No one becomes CEO overnight. If possible, choose jobs that help you learn valuable skills (coding, account receivable/payable, cash, etc). They’ll also be able to give you better references in the future.

Other Tips

·      Buy your textbooks used online then sell them back. 9/10 you won’t use them again. You can wait until the class starts to actually buy the book.

·      Choose a career, not a degree. Now is the time to figure out what to do with your life. Take chances and make mistakes!

·      Plan your summers out a year before. Internships, travelling abroad, whatever you want to do. That’s an important time to get ahead of the game.

·      Don’t bring everything you own. Simplify. And put your bed on cinder blocks to create more space.

·      Always make at least one friend in a class; to help with notes, homework, study groups.

·      Sign up for Institute. It’s SO much better then Seminary. Great FREE parking, free food. There’s a reason why the church spends so much money with YA.

·      Get a planner and write EVERYTHING down. Do your work sooner then later.

·      Group your classes together back to back to cut down on how many times you have to go to campus. Try to limit it to 2/3x a week.

·      USE and ABUSE your parents! Don’t be afraid to mooch. Take leftovers, use their Netflix login, make them take you to Costco.

·      Get yourself some pepper spray on your key chain.

·      See what services are available on campus: health offices, counseling, tutors, computer lab.

·      You don’t need a notebook per class. You WILL need a printer.

reader's request: my little peanut

*did you realize these reader's requests are turning into birthday shout-outs? i feel like a radio dj-- 

someone please request something other then your living eugoogaly

so fabulous

this reader's request comes not from the birthday boy but from my favorite sister & my competitive nature that keeps me the favorite aunt [anna, you can try but you shall not succeed]. today is the birthday of one of my most loyal readers- my favorite peanut. now by reader, i mean viewer. because i'm pretty sure he just looks at the pictures, laughs at the silly things landon does and hopes there's a picture of him. well he's in for a big treat, bc here's a buttload of pictures of him.

he ASKED to be walked around like a dog

he loved this- until we got the camera

at his preschool graduation

again, he ASKED to do this

his birthday last year? or the year before?

my bridal shower

peanut is a whopping 9 years old today. so weird, i distinctly remember the day he was born. he spent a lot of time at my mom's house growing up so to me, peanut always felt more like the little brother i never wanted. i babysat him, i played with him, i changed him, i tortured him, i took pictures of the embarrassing things he did to show his future girlfriends. oh, and i drilled into him, from day one- that i was his favorite aunt. and let me tell you folks, it's worked like a charm. together we love to go on slurpee runs [and by slurpee runs, i mean i get a slurpee and he gets a treat] or he, most recently, has loved to torture me [thanks josh].

on one of our many, many roadtrips together

in utah - i think my freshman year of college

peanut [oh, his real name is taylor] is honestly one of the sweetest, most kind hearted little boys i've ever met. and he's growing up way too fast. and although his father is intent on making him a little devil child [by threatening to kill my cat or fish, by feeding landon tampons (in my defense, he FOUND the tampons. and i just waited to take a picture before i took them away from him), or getting in food fights with me], i know he'll always be my little peanut.

caught- pink handed

*he LOVES landon- just loves*

who better not pee in my toilet or ELSE.

reader's request: my arch nemesis

here's another reader's request- my sister anna requested i give a eugoogley to people on their birthday. so basically she was just wanted me to talk about her. be careful for what you wish for....

today is my arch nemesis' bday- so granted, not my biggest party day of the year. anna is my older sister by 3ish years. she has made it her life's mission to bug me all my life- and it all started with the fake flowers.... 

simpler times- when we often ran around naked. called "the 3 little girls"- all 18 months apart

*to preface this, i absolutely adored anna growing up. i wanted nothing more then to be exactly like her. whether it was when she would bring home dudes and make out with them on the couch or work at an ice cream shop. she was the coolest as far as i was concerned. but if anyone ever asked me, i'd deny-deny-deny

my four partners in crime

the story of the fake flowers

my granddad and grandma once came into town when we were little and brought with them a truck load of junk- for who knows what reason. well in that truck was a bunch of fake flowers- which anna proceeded to take and play with in our bathtub. well who got blamed? and spanked? me! she just let me take the blame- or she blamed me and i said i did it [i was that nice of a sister]. either way, my butt has never fully recovered from that belt.

christmas morning - prob dancing to my mk & ashley cassette

the story of the gold coins

was it gold coins? or the asparagus? either way, my dad had a penchant for leaving wallets or money out because his kids were kleptos, esp when it came to money [it blew my mind when i would see justin leave money out when he was living at home- i couldn't believe people could leave money on their nightstand and not have it be stolen! still the reason why i don't carry cash- ever]. well some gold coins disappeared and anna and i were banished to my dad's closet to think it out [or was it the bathtub? i have a terrible memory] and anna came up with this brilliant idea to have us BOTH confess so our punishments would be lessened. so i confessed first. and no one else followed me. and i was spanked.

i'm in the blue, she's in the purple. notice the turkey on the bottom right

the story of the night we slept in a chicken coop

we moved into our house when i was 6 - and our house was a huge farm [to vegas standards]. while my dad was creating our chicken coop, he told us that we weren't allowed to go play in the coop once he put the concrete down [a 6" slab, mind you]. anna and i didn't listen so we were banished to sleep in the coop that night. luckily he threw over 2 sleeping bags. and one pillow. so we slept with the chickens. and anna slept with a chicken in her bag- no joke. she was a weirdo [she even had a friend once who kissed horse poo...not that that's relevant but it goes to show her criteria for friendship].

justin's farewell- as you can see, she was still annoying me

the story of the can opener

as you can tell by now, we never really got along growing up. one of the many times we fought, it would get violent [her- not me. i would just cry]. one time we were fighting in the kitchen over who knows what, all while i was making myself a tuna fish sandwich. and she threw a can opener at my head. and missed.

backing it up - on one of our sister trips to ca- she was pregnant at the time

 the story of the mystery car thief

my parents once bought my oldest sis a honda- a nice BRAND NEW honda civic- it was awesome. well the said sister was working nights at the time, so she slept during the day. well anna, being about 15ish, would often steal the honda and take joy rides down to mcdonalds [the closest business to us at the time. it was really a big dealio]. she did this quite often until my sister wised up and started tracking the odometer. she didn't get spanked but she should have. what would you expect from someone who would leave early to school and put makeup on at the bus stop?

her quinceanera

all laughing aside, anna has become such a beautiful and amazing woman. she not only mothers two of the most rowdy and hilarious superhero boys but also works tirelessly for her family, while finding time to create awesome crafts. she does so much for others and asks little in return. i'm proud to be her little sister...sometimes. granted, the boy on the couch wasn't her finest moment. she's one of the 5 people [justin, justin's house, mom, kayla, and my mom's old work #] i know their #s by heart [not bc i call her often....i really don't know why] so she must be a big dealio.

when i was little [maybe 1st or 2nd grade, i brought a beloved cat poster with me to school for show and tell. on the way home from the bus, some older kid took it away and was crinkling it. by big sister went up to him and laid the law down, putting the fear of god into that bully.

that's my big sis.

reader's request: my role model

proof you were at my wedding

welcome to a new segment i'd like to call reader's request - for the 5 readers of mine out there. feel free to put your own request in next time- not just a spotlight but commentary on a certain trend/show/person [skinny jeans? hate bc i can't wear them. snooki's pregnant? i guess the mayans got it right afterall]

this one goes out to my favorite big brother nate. you see, nate's birthday was saturday [and his anniversary is today]. he noted that i posted something on his birthday and completely failed to mention him. well lucky you nate, here it comes. and i'll try to keep it entertaining for those lucky enough not to be related to me.

i'm the cute one with the purse- he's in black

this is nate- my big brother. he's bald, tall and quite geeky. nate's about 10 years older then me so naturally, i remember quite little of him growing up [chalk it up to my self-centeredness that began at an early age youthful naivety]. i remember he was always tall and would tease us endlessly. he particularly had a fondness for having us sit on his lap- at church to conduct the music or at home while we belted out 'les miserables' [victor hugo, eat your heart out]. he even assigned us our own personal ballads, "my little corner" because i was the littlest youngest and cutest. i looked up to him so much, i even wrote about him in my car-shaped autobiography and called him my role model- granted, i was 8 so now that slot now goes to ke$ha & bruce willis but still...he'd round out the top 10. i remember he loved to walk around in his robe and we loving called him nune or squarehead. when he left on his mission i remember sending many colorful letters typed on my parent's typewriter at work with taped jolly-ranchers [wasn't i thoughtful? i knew he'd get hungry in texas]. once he got home he got married and forced into some horrid pale blue number [yes autumn, i'm still resentful] that did nothing for my coming-to-age-bustiness 12 year old self.

i'm the baby and he's the one who looks stoned

now that i've grown up i've become quite fond of my C.D.O brother. let's face it, he's an old fart but he's a pretty cool old fart. not only is he kind of a big dealio in the computer world but he has opened my eyes to various television shows that i'd otherwise be ignorant of. not only did he give me my favorite sister in law autumn but i also got my favorite ben & emily out of it, so he's not too bad. now i wouldn't say this to his face [because he's already got enough of an ego already] but he's really a great husband, father and brother - and i wouldn't die at the thought of becoming like him.

so all those mothers out there, keep your faith. your children will one day learn to enjoy each other's company, even if it takes 15 years and several murder attempts [not that i ever tried to kill nate, but i did several other family members].