Economy down, salaries up?

Seeing as I (and a whole bunch of other people I know) just graduated from college, it's always interesting to know what we'd be making in the real world, should we choose to go out into the real world rather than going straight to graduate school, as I am doing.

My Mom sent me yet another MSN article (I think we're at two-three a day, mostly about finances...I take it as a hint). I found this one super interesting.

Apparently, if I were to go out into the world with my liberal arts degree and try to make a living, my starting salary would be around $33,258.

If I decided to use my journalism degree, my salary would be a little less, at $32,250.

If had decided at the beginning of my college career that I hated words and wanted to work in the medium of computers, my salary would be somewhere near $56,921.

The moral of the story? If you like words, you're destined to stay right around the Arizona poverty line in your post-graduation years. Yay, right? Eh, nothing new.

The main point of the article, however, was that salaries for new college grads are higher this year than last year. That's a good thing.

It's just pretty weird because the economy is tanking like crazy. Wild.

Living cheaply

It seems my theme lately has been money. Oh well.

So I read this article (yes, yet another article from Mom) that gave tips for living on $7 a day. I scoffed at the title. Bwah, I can barely get by on $40 a week for groceries and gas, and that doesn't include putting away $5 or $10 a week to save for retirement. What's a poor college student to do when the week's allowance slips away like dandelion fluff in a hurricane?

Now, I'm not anti-money saving and frugality. Americans are notoriously the worst of all Western countries at saving, so I definitely support change.

I'm just not sure how plausible it is to save money when you're in college, with stores targeting you as a consumer, yellow being all the rage this season, gas prices rising, summer heat waves approaching and the economy flushing itself down the toilet. But it's worth a try, right?

The $7 a day tips aren't too terrifying. They range from buying food in bulk (Costco, anyone) to comparison shopping. It's all common sense, and it comes down to planning (another tip mentioned, which I have known about all along).

With planning in mind, I thought it apt to list some of my own tips for living cheaply, which I think are much less painful than giving up food for a month so you can afford textbooks.

1. Plan a weekly menu and don't deviate
2. Try to eat meals over the course of the week that share ingredients
3. Plan trips out in the car so you're not driving back and forth and wasting gas--plan a route that is most effective in hitting all the stops in a loop or straight line.
4. If you have a TV at home or the Internet, you don't need to go out every weekend to be entertained. Hell, why not stay home and read? Books don't even need to cost money--ever heard of a library?
5. Coffee is not a necessity for life. Cut it out of your daily budget (you know how you are, Starbucks regulars) and you will have more money and a smaller waistline. The same goes for fast food.
6. Try public transportation. While I haven't grown enough balls to do this in Tucson yet, I'm working towards it. The bus is way cheaper than spending $40 a week on gas--especially if you get the U-Pass and university discount.
7. AC at night, blinds closed during the day.
8. Don't turn on all the lights in the house. Use only those you need, which is usually one at a time.

These are just suggestions. They work. You can try them if you like (and you should).

Also, the person from the $7 a day article reads the Simple Dollar financial blog, which is worth a look-see.

Pet bills...ugh

Everyone should know at this point that pet ownership is expensive. If you didn't know, now you do: owning a pet is expensive.

While I've been lucky to have a mixed-breed dog free of the infirmity that often comes from inbreeding (i.e. purebreds), I have had to shell out some dough for my doggie.

The biggest thing about owning a pet is saving up for vet bills. There is great technology to help pets so we don't have to put them down when they get hurt. But that technology costs.

For example, when my dog had a prolonged cough and regular vomiting, I took her in and had to pay $50 for the visit plus $90-something for a blood test to see if she had valley fever. Then we got antibiotics for $30-something. Right there, you've got almost $200 in vet bills, plus the gas it took to get to the vet and the mental distress your dog would sue you for afterwards if she could.

I read an article today about the costs of pet ownership. As with most articles I've read lately, the information was common sense.

I did learn a few interesting things that could save you an expensive pet-related bill in the future:

-The following foods are poisonous to dogs: grapes, raisins, macadamia nuts and onions. (Whoops.)
-Animals do not need massive toy collections. (Whoops.)
-Taking your dog to a nearby veterinary school is a good way to get cheaper pet care.

So if you're a starving college student like me and you want a cute little puppy or kitty or piggy or ___, think about the money before you give in to that precious face. At this stage in life, you shouldn't be getting a baby animal anyway, because you don't have the time to train it and give it adequate care.

You need to think about the time factor, and you also need to think about how much you have (or will be able to have) saved up for visits to the vet, groomer, store (for food and treats), park (for exercise, hopefully) and any other emergencies that come up along the way. And what about pet insurance? Designed to help you out in case of emergency, it's yet another monthly cost to consider. And guess what. The costs of everything pet-related have been rising.