So it has been a very long time since I've posted, and for this I apologize. I've been busy with work, and putting my room back together (I just painted it and moved everything around) I do have a few things to say though.
Experiment 1 is taking a little break until I can work up some capital to do everything necessary. I was thinking I might just wait until I get back into the dorm, since this is Dorm Room Business. I also tried another money making idea. It was obscure, but fun...and ultimately unsuccessful.
I went to a gas station locally with a "quarters" game with the slides that push quarters over the edge, with $25 in quarters. There were various prizes, including a $20 bill and a $50 bill (plus smaller denominations) on the quarters. I was not, however successful in winning either of these, although I came quite close to the $20, probably another $5 and I would have had it. Either way, this was probably a stupid idea, but it game me and my friend about 2 hours of fun, so it wasn't a total loss. I also won a girls watch...that's useless, but I won something :)
I'll admit, so far, my ideas have resembled gambling, and I need to get more solid ideas running; I don't however feel like doing this before I get back to the dorms. I get back the 27th of August, I leave to go back to Michigan on the 23rd, and hopefully I will have a cool roommate (I'm staying in the dorms, and my roommate request decided to transfer to Cornell)
My job ends on Thursday, which means my steady income is done, so I need to find a better way of making money. I start my job as soon as I get back to school, which is good. I need income.
One thing I want to buy when get the money is the AT&T 8525, which in my opinion is better than the iPhone. Someone at the AT&T store told me she thinks a lot of the iPhone ideas came from the 8525. It works on 3G, which is faster, has windows mobile, and a full keyboard that's easy to type on. The data plan is $40 a month. I figure I can afford $30 a month with my current income, which means if I can raise it by $10, I can safely do it. Any thoughts?
Good Day.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Experiment 2: Can you make money on Lottery Tickets?
This one was for 7-7-07. I'm still working on Experiment 1, but I was reading Neville's Financial Blog (www.nevblog.com) and I saw an experiment he had (http://www.nevblog.com/2005/03/lottery-experiment-itch-to-scratch.html)
I decided to try my own experiment in honor of the date. I went to a local grocery store and purchased one type of lottery ticket, all at this one business. I spent $53 on one type of $1 ticket alone.
I decided to try my own experiment in honor of the date. I went to a local grocery store and purchased one type of lottery ticket, all at this one business. I spent $53 on one type of $1 ticket alone.
I also bought a "7-7-07" ticket, just because I had to. I then purchased one each of the other $1 games, and 3 other $5 games. I scratched off all the tickets, and just as Neville indicated, it is not as much fun to scratch off all these tickets as you would think. Before midnight struck, I finished scratching all the tickets. I won mostly $1 prizes, with the big winner being $10. I was disappointed; a few of my friends did this with me and the rule was: if any of us hit it big and won $1000+ they would pay the others to make them even for the day.
So in the end, I spent $77 on lottery tickets on 7-7-07. Gotta be lucky right? Wrong. I ended up winning $32 back from the money, which was ok because I was ready to lose all $77.
So in the end, I spent $77 on lottery tickets on 7-7-07. Gotta be lucky right? Wrong. I ended up winning $32 back from the money, which was ok because I was ready to lose all $77.
The Winners
So when all was said and done, I spent $45 on entertainment. Since we did this in lieu of going to the track to bet on horses, or the casino, I consider this a win. I will get $32 back; if I had gone to one of those places, I probably would have lost all $77, since the $32 would have been regambled.
$1 Winners:12
$5 Winners:2
$10 Winners:1
Total Winnings:$32
Total Spent: $77
Win/Loss: -$45
Entertainment Cost:$45
Net Gain/Loss:$0
Ok, so that might be stretching it, but the first numbers are right. Here's my conclusion: You can do this experiment, and unless you get lucky, you will lose about 3 dollars of every 4 spent. If it's worth it, do it, if you feel lucky, go for it. I was just doing this because I couldn't make it to the casino or track.
By the way, I was told by my friend who used to cash lotto tickets "Scratch off the ticket to show the little box with four numbers in it, it makes it easier and faster for the cashier to cash it"
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
$1 Winners:12
$5 Winners:2
$10 Winners:1
Total Winnings:$32
Total Spent: $77
Win/Loss: -$45
Entertainment Cost:$45
Net Gain/Loss:$0
Ok, so that might be stretching it, but the first numbers are right. Here's my conclusion: You can do this experiment, and unless you get lucky, you will lose about 3 dollars of every 4 spent. If it's worth it, do it, if you feel lucky, go for it. I was just doing this because I couldn't make it to the casino or track.
By the way, I was told by my friend who used to cash lotto tickets "Scratch off the ticket to show the little box with four numbers in it, it makes it easier and faster for the cashier to cash it"
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Friday, July 6, 2007
Saving Money in College 1: You don't need to eat so much food!!!
I'm a big guy. I weigh around 350 pounds, but I used to weigh above 400 pounds; I have actually lost weight in college, which spits in the face of the "freshman 15". One of the reasons I lost this weight is that I chose to walk everywhere for classes, another is I realized I don't need to eat so much...at least I don't need to buy so much food. I had friends who purchased boatloads of food; mac 'n' cheese, popcorn, chips, pizza, etc. They were also broke all year. I did this too at first, but eventually I realized I could live life without all the food.
I stopped buying popcorn, chips, pizza, easy mac, burgers, I would buy a few snack foods, and then sneak food out of the cafeteria. I made a small investment in some disposable Tupperware and used them to sneak fries, chips, burgers, anything I thought would be good leftover out of the cafeteria. I kept track of my finances before that, and I was spending $150-$200 on food each month. By doing this, I saved around $100-$150 per month. I still spent some money, but I saved tons of money. Imagine making $100. That's basically what I did, was increase my spending power by $100.
I had friends who refused to do this, even after I told them about how effective this was. There's nothing wrong with that; they did have more flexibility in the food they ate, but they also spent much more money than I did.
At Michigan State they don't feed you on Sunday's for dinner (they will this upcoming year, but last year they did not) so we had to figure out dinners on our own. I either took some foods that would be good heated up in the microwave (burgers, hot dogs, etc.) and saved them for Sunday evening. Sandwiches were particularly good, as I could make them on Sunday at lunch, wrap them up, and eat it for dinner. I saved about $10-$15 each Sunday night by not buying dinner and having delivered.
Just remember, if there's something you really want to buy, then buy it, eat it, and enjoy it. If you don't truly want something, you don't need to buy it. Every time you don't buy something, you save money. Every time you save money, you increase your spending power by that amount. That is the exact same as earning money, it's that simple (or, in other words: A penny saved is a penny earned)
I stopped buying popcorn, chips, pizza, easy mac, burgers, I would buy a few snack foods, and then sneak food out of the cafeteria. I made a small investment in some disposable Tupperware and used them to sneak fries, chips, burgers, anything I thought would be good leftover out of the cafeteria. I kept track of my finances before that, and I was spending $150-$200 on food each month. By doing this, I saved around $100-$150 per month. I still spent some money, but I saved tons of money. Imagine making $100. That's basically what I did, was increase my spending power by $100.
I had friends who refused to do this, even after I told them about how effective this was. There's nothing wrong with that; they did have more flexibility in the food they ate, but they also spent much more money than I did.
At Michigan State they don't feed you on Sunday's for dinner (they will this upcoming year, but last year they did not) so we had to figure out dinners on our own. I either took some foods that would be good heated up in the microwave (burgers, hot dogs, etc.) and saved them for Sunday evening. Sandwiches were particularly good, as I could make them on Sunday at lunch, wrap them up, and eat it for dinner. I saved about $10-$15 each Sunday night by not buying dinner and having delivered.
Just remember, if there's something you really want to buy, then buy it, eat it, and enjoy it. If you don't truly want something, you don't need to buy it. Every time you don't buy something, you save money. Every time you save money, you increase your spending power by that amount. That is the exact same as earning money, it's that simple (or, in other words: A penny saved is a penny earned)
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Experiment 1: How to make a million dollars
For a few weeks, while I'm home, I'll be doing this blog from my room, but with the same constrictions as a dorm room. My room at home is basically a dorm room anyway. Even though ideally the ideas can transcend the dorm room/apartment, the goal of the blog is to find ways to make money in the dorm.
Idea: Place classified ads in paper/flyer's around town that offer the secret for earning a million dollars. The cost of this information is $1. This money may be mailed to me or paypal may be used.
Execution: I'll need to find some newspapers to place my ads in. This is going to cost something, but not much. Ideally I'll find some papers with free classified ads. I would also like to set up a website for this, to make it look more official. Something along the lines of "makeamilliondollars" or something like that.
How it works: So when I get the dollar, they get the information...place an ad somewhere telling people to send one dollar for information on making a million dollars. Then get a million people to do it.
Variations: This could work with flyer's, classified ads, and maybe even places like e-bay.
Idea: Place classified ads in paper/flyer's around town that offer the secret for earning a million dollars. The cost of this information is $1. This money may be mailed to me or paypal may be used.
Execution: I'll need to find some newspapers to place my ads in. This is going to cost something, but not much. Ideally I'll find some papers with free classified ads. I would also like to set up a website for this, to make it look more official. Something along the lines of "makeamilliondollars" or something like that.
How it works: So when I get the dollar, they get the information...place an ad somewhere telling people to send one dollar for information on making a million dollars. Then get a million people to do it.
Variations: This could work with flyer's, classified ads, and maybe even places like e-bay.
Welcome to Dorm Room Business!!!
I have just started this blog because I know there are thousands, if not millions of people out there who are sitting in their dorm rooms because they don't have any spare cash to do anything fun. Well I'm here to say it doesn't have to be that way.
I figure, while you're sitting in your room, why not be making money instead of just watching TV or watching another stupid video on YouTube again. If you take that time and make it even slightly more productive, then you're likely to make a few bucks.
I plan on trying different money making experiments in my dorm, and I encourage you to do the same in your own residence hall. If you are trying any new experiments, please e-mail me and I will post the details on the blog so everyone can see how it works. If we can just get a little creative, I think everyone can be making some good cash in their dorm rooms.
The next step to making money, is saving money. I'll be posting any neat little tricks I come up with to save money on anything, from supplies, to booze.
I hope you'll come back to visit again, and read about some of these experiments. Who knows, maybe you'll get a couple ideas and wind up a wealthy college student (you could be one of the 58 of them)
I figure, while you're sitting in your room, why not be making money instead of just watching TV or watching another stupid video on YouTube again. If you take that time and make it even slightly more productive, then you're likely to make a few bucks.
I plan on trying different money making experiments in my dorm, and I encourage you to do the same in your own residence hall. If you are trying any new experiments, please e-mail me and I will post the details on the blog so everyone can see how it works. If we can just get a little creative, I think everyone can be making some good cash in their dorm rooms.
The next step to making money, is saving money. I'll be posting any neat little tricks I come up with to save money on anything, from supplies, to booze.
I hope you'll come back to visit again, and read about some of these experiments. Who knows, maybe you'll get a couple ideas and wind up a wealthy college student (you could be one of the 58 of them)
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