If there’s anything that’s true in life besides death & taxes, it’s gotta be that printer manufactures will ALWAYS try to screw over their customers. Besides the fact that getting a new printer to work in the first place is similar to getting teeth pulled without the Novocaine, Epson has decided to make even using their product as difficult as possible.
It all started when I sold a textbook on eBay a few days ago. When I went to print the shipping label, my computer and printer threw up alarm bells. “REPLACE BLACK CARTRIDGE” “INK IS OUT” “CODE RED: GIVE US $15.50 FOR A NEW CARTRIDGE OR WE’LL SLEEP WITH YOUR MOTHER*”
Keep in mind that 2 minutes prior, I had printed 10 pages that came out perfectly fine. No streaking or fading ink. Not exactly a sign I was out of ink. Then suddenly, I want to print one page and all the ink has conveniently run out? Not even a drop or 2 of ink was left, Epson?
One of the manufacturers’ dirty tricks is to program ink cartridges to cease printing after a set amount of pages even if plenty of ink remains. Classy. I can’t say with 100% certainly that Epson is doing that with my cheap $80 printer, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I simply stumbled upon that arbitrary number the other day.
That same day, I tried to scan a document I needed to email. It didn’t go well. BECAUSE YOU NEED ALL 4 CARTRIDGES INSTALLED JUST TO SCAN SOMETHING. There is no excuse for that. My printer uses 4 cartridges and they run at least $15 a piece. $45 for ink just to scan a document. Using the power of common sense, I know that passing a beam of light over a piece of paper does not require liquid.Of any kind. Especially not the kind that can cost $8,000 a gallon.
Screw you Epson and all your other manufacturer friends. You suck.
What up everybody! After working like a dog all week long (see: my lack of posting), I came home Saturday night to one of my favorite emails of all time. My school was notifying me that my financial aid award for the 2011-2012 school year was ready to view. I’ve received a few of these emails over the last couple of months as my loan stuff and everything comes in, so I knew something good was about to happen.
A few clicks later and this is what I’m staring at:
My favorite screenshot of all time.
See that top line worth $2,690? That definitely wasn’t there before. My study abroad trip just cost me $2,700 less than it was going to. So how what sorcery did I have to perform for this to happen? I filled out a form. Not kidding.
Way back in March, I filled out my school’s continuing student scholarship form. I didn’t expect to get anything. The form itself even warns you that most scholarships go to juniors and seniors. But it only asked for a 300 word essay, so I deleted 200 words from the previous essay I’d written for another scholarship and copy and pasted it in. Efficiency at its finest.
I’d say it took me 20 minutes to complete that scholarship form. That makes my hourly wage something like $8,070! I’ll take that any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Now I really don’t have an excuse to come home with at least some leftover money.
I’ve been using my credit cards responsibly for about a year now. Never paid a cent in interest, cause interest is for fools. I whip out my Visa for almost everything these days – I can’t even remember the last time I paid cash for something. But after looking at my last card statement, I think I’m gonna change things up a bit.
In the summerOK all the time, I make a lot of impulse purchases. Summer though is when my spending restraint all but disappears. I don’t spend a lot of money, but I probably end most months with around $50 in random charges – 1AM Taco Bell runs with friends can add up.
I’m cool with that amount but I always hate paying for it later! So I’m taking a pretty big step…and ditching my credit cards for impulse stuff. I‘m gonna try out my debit card so I’m paying as I go. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a time or 2 where I bought something (small) and just thought “Eh, I don’t have to pay for this until next month. Whatever.” That type of thinking is 12 different kinds of bad and going over to the debit side should keep it to a minimum.
What’s your credit vs. debit policy? I like the idea of just putting everything on one card for the convenience and only having one bill to pay every month, but I feel like reserving CC use for bigger, planned purchases might make more sense in the real world.
It’s been awhile since I wrote about my obsession with computers and (expensive) gadgets. You can say I’ve drank the Kool-aid all you want, but you’ll be prying my iPhone and Macbook Pro from my cold, lifeless hands. They aren’t cheap, but I think technology is a perfect example of “you get what you pay for”. Especially when the extra you pay for a Mac isn’t a crazy amount AND you get some cool stuff for the extra dough, like a system that crashes maybe 4 times a year. Go ahead though. Call me a fanboy.
It’s not usually hard to decide if you want new hardware whenever Apple or whoever releases it. When the iPhone 4 was announced, you can’t tell me you didn’t at least think for a second – “Damn, that phone looks awesome.” Throw in a new feature like the better camera and a $200 upgrade don’t sound so bad.
Buying software though is like getting a cavity filled – you know you have to pay but don’t wanna. Its seems like money wasted. You just did it because you had to. Now it’s easier/cheaper to buy an app online, so you don’t even get a real object – just a link to click on after handing over your credit card number. Operating system updates are awesome (most of the time), but do they really warrant spending $30? That’s how much I spent on the Lion upgrade for my laptop. My laptop that’s 10 months old and works perfectly fine.
I can justify both sides. $30 really isn’t a lot – and it’s way cheaper than what Microsoft charges for windows. But Windows also doesn’t release major upgrades almost every year. For Apple customers, you pay a little bit over a long time period but Windows clears out your wallet every 5 years with no apologies. But it’s still $30 for something that isn’t really needed. Unfortunately for me, Apple knows all too well that I’ll be one of millions of people who just can’t resist all the shiny (even software) stuff they release.
Hello again readers! Long time no see, eh? I’ve been off work this whole week and couldn’t tear myself away from the pool to write you guys a post. Anyway, it’s time to get back to some nerdy financial conversations.
Speaking of not working, I wanted to talk today about jobs. I’ve said it before (I think) but I’m a retail associate/cash register ninja at at a decently popular clothing store. I’ve been working there off and on for 3 years for a total of something like 16 months now. Overall, the job ain’t bad. My schedule is flexible, the drive is short and convenient, and my co-workers don’t suck. Dumb customers suck, and always will, but dealing with them is why I get paid.
Now that I’ve worked at a few places, I gotta say flexibility is the most important thing. Being able take a few days off with no problems is awesome and I hope my first job outta school comes with that type of perk. Some 401k matching would also be tight.
Do you like your job? What’s the coolest one you ever had?
The LAST Harry Potter movie came out last Thursday and I gotta say – it definitely met my expectations. Me and a friend bought our tickets online at www.movietickets.com a week in advance and paid $15.50 for our tickets – we saw the 3D version (not sure if 3D is worth the money, but that’s another post).
But $1 of that was a B$ “convenience charge”. If you’re not sure what a convenience charge is, you’re not the only one. Probably because there is no such thing as a convenience charge, just a “please bend over and pay more” charge they call a convenience charge. Buying stuff online in 2011 is not convenient. It’s just the way things are done now. I shouldn’t have to pay extra to get something online. If Apple or American Eagle or any other company that sold “real” products tried to screw customers this way, people would think they were joking. Ticket Master is of course the original spawn of Satan with all their fees and charges and nonsense:
Someone had to pay $29.75 just to get $20 tickets.F. That. Noise. Movietickets.com isn’t quite on Ticket Master’s level…yet. Thank god. In another few years though, a $10 movie ticket will probably cost $23 and you’ll have to pay extra for the 3D glasses when you get to the theater. Enjoy the movie!
Did these ridiculous charges always exist or have they just gotten 100X worse? For years it seemed like technology was making things cheaper and cheaper. Now the same technology is being used to collect more and more cash.
Two months ago, I completed an “App-O-Rama“. I applied for around 7 credit cards and got approved for 3 of them. Then last month I got approved for a retail store card, saving me 20% on my purchase AND earning me $40 in store rewards (same as ca$h rewards rock) just by making one purchase outside the store. The bank practically paid me for opening a card and I’m OK being used and abused like that.
The downside of having so many lines of credit is that supposedly your credit score bites the big one. At least that’s what I’d always heard. Customers at work, who know everything of course, tell me all the time that having lots of credit cards is the worst thing you could ever do and they’ll destroy your credit. My own experience says different.
The sky's the limit!
That screenshot above shows my TransRisk score over the past year. TransRisk is the red headed step child of credit scores. The only people who can tell you your actual score are FICO, but the credit reporting agencies like to make money by selling stuff, so they come up with their own “unique” credit score. TransRisk is good enough for me though (and 100% free at Creditkarma.com) – my actual FICO score was even higher than what Credit Karma suggested it would be. Notice that my score keeps going up, even as more cards are added. There might be a tiny drop right after I submit an application, but it recovers quickly.
I’ve never thought the “lots of credit cards equals $hitty score” logic made much sense anyway. Look at it this way: If someone has 5 credit cards and they’ve always paid on time, you probably think “Yeah, they know what’s up and are trustworthy.” Now lets say they have 10 credit cards and they’ve always paid on time. Our imaginary person is still just as trustworthy, maybe even more, so it’d be dumb to penalize them. Looks like the credit rating people got this one right.
Has your experience been different than mine? If you don’t mind sharing, tell me how many credit cards you have and what your credit score is.
I’ve been out of school for 31 days and I’m just now selling my text books from last quarter. And the quarter before that. And that quarter before that. A few books are even from my senior year of high school when I took community college classes to get a head start on my bachelor’s. You could say I have a procrastination/laziness problem.
The important thing though is that I’m getting rid of them. I have enough clutter in my room; I don’t need text books I’m never going to open again. I want as much cash as possible, but I’m willing to take a smaller amount if it means I do less work. I’m using 3 different services to get cash for my books:
eBay – I listed one of my accounting books here. It’s easily an edition or 2 out of date, but accounting is one of those subjects that doesn’t really change that much so a lot of instructors might still be using this one. One recently sold for $50. I’d be happy with that, since I paid nothing in the first place.
Half – eBay owns Half.com, but you can list things separately. I put a philosophy book I used my senior year of high school on here. I think it’s more likely to sell on Half compared to eBay and for a higher price if it does.
Chegg - I’ve bought a book or 2 from Chegg.com and had a good experience. This is my first time selling through them, but so far the process is easier than tying your shoes. I typed in the 2 books I had, printed out a packing slip and all I have to do now is drop them off at a UPS store. I should receive a check in 10 days.
I predict Chegg will be the easiest method to use and the one that gets me the most cash. Once I actually get the couple hundred bucks I expect though, the question becomes what to do with it? As much as I want to consider book money to be free for spending, I know I have to buy…more books. .
Where do you sell you sell your textbooks? Does anyone else just want to blow any money they get back?
I’m 53 days away from jumping on a plane and heading out on my own for a few months. Not that I’m counting or anything. My 4 months in Italy will be the first time I’ve ever not lived at the house of Mom & Dad. Kind of crazy when I think about it like that. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m nervous and I keep saying no, which is 99% true. Saying yes would probably make me more nervous and I’m trying to avoid that.
Being out on my own got me thinking though about how long I’ll call this place home. Studying abroad is temporary. I already know the exact time and date I’m coming home. My bedroom will be waiting for me exactly like I left it. But what about after that? I’ll still have at least 2 years of school left. If I stay for my masters, which I will unless I get an awesome job, that makes it 3. There are definite pros and cons that come with living at home:
Things That Rock About Living At Home
Cash. Flow. No rent, no utilities, no groceries.
Nice thangs. Better than what I could afford on my own.
Room. House = bigger than any apartment in my area. Huge yard and no neighbors.
Things That Make Me Want To Sign A Lease
The feeling that I’ll be here forever. For-ev-ver. For-ev-ver.
Gotta be super quiet when I come home at 3AM so I don’t wake anyone up.
The “I don’t really approve of what you’re doing, but I’m not going to stop you” look I get sometimes all the time.See: Coming home at 3AM
Right now though I’m 100% against living on my own if it means taking on extra student loan debt. I’m on track to easily owe $30,000 at graduation and possibly as much as $50,000 while living at home the entire time. I obviously made an exception for leaving the country, but studying abroad is about more than just living by yourself. Even if I could afford to rent my own place in another year or 2, I’m not sure I would. Not having rent to pay would add up to around $7,000 a year. Graduating with $14,000 or more saved up would be cooler than the time I found $60 bucks in my Bible.
When did/will you move out of your parents house? Is it lame if I want to stick around for a few years to save money like it’s my job?
Summer 2011 is turning out to be 100X better than Summer 2010. I get up around 9 or 10. Run a few miles. Then read or blog for a bit. Watch some TV or hit the pool. I’ll work a 4 hour shift a few days a week, nothing too backbreaking . Much better than working 40 hours a week like I did last summer. Livin’ like Being a college student ain’t so bad sometimes.
Whoa buddy, keep in mind that I am NOT a financial professional. That means I don't have any cool abbreviations behind my name like CPA or CFP. Remember that this blog is for your (and my) entertainment. For those serious financial questions, consult with a legitimate financial professional.
Efficiency at its finest.
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. Much better than working 40 hours a week 
