Illegally Sighted » Thrifty Thursday

Thrifty Thursday – Free WiFi Anywhere!

Amber — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:58:12 +0000

I will continue the posts about budgeting next week. I almost have mine together and all figured out. It’s just been hard to figure out. My living situation throws off my budget sometimes.

For today’s Thrifty Thursday I have something for everyone who wishes they could hop online when they’re out and about doing their daily errands, going to school or work. It’s free WiFi!!!

There are so many places that charge crazy prices to use their WiFi services. But with this website http://www.wififreespot.com/ you don’t have to worry about that anymore.

First you pick your state. Scroll to the city you will be3 in and read through all the places that offer the free WiFi. In my experience it is a good idea to call and make sure that the place is still offering the service. Nothing like getting somewhere and setting up just to realize you’re not going to be connected!

I would also recommend reading the FAQ section found here. It will give you important information on things to consider when using a free WiFi hots pot.

After surfing this site I found that the Downtown Fullerton area has a free WiFi signal within a certain number of blocks. This is great news since i go to school near there and often eat and get coffee around the campus.

What are your Thrifty Thursday tips? Comment here and I’ll pick one person’s tip to feature in next weeks’s Thrifty Thursday post!

Thrifty Thursday Free Money Saving Resources

Amber — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:21:00 +0000

Today’s Thrifty Thursday has to do with keeping track of your bank account.
As a person with low vision it is really hard to read and write in one of those teeny weeny check registers. I have tried and every time the results are disastrous! Overdrafts, illegible writing, mysterious transactions that I’ll never know what they were. It’s ugly Ali-l around. I’ve been told my check register looks like a 1st grader’s first attempts at math and printing. Wow! really? that bad? Yep!
So I have 1 site and 1 IPhone app to recommend today.

Mint is the perfect money management website! Your bank account information is imported and then you can see exactly how you spend your money. It lists your transactions and shows you where you’re spending your money. Then it gives you tips on how you can save money. The best part about this site is it’s FREE! Why PAY money if you’re trying to save money right?

The next cool thing I have to share is the Bank of America IPhone app. If you are a BofA customer you can take full advantage of having your account information at your fingertips. You can do everything that you do on the BofA website straight from your IPhone. It has kept me out of several sticky situations and I’ve only had it 2 weeks! This is a free app and it’s accessible with the zoom and voice over programs on the IPhone!

Stay tuned for my next post which will be my first ever blog giveaway!

Thrifty Thursday – Talking About The Dreaded "B" Word!

Amber — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:38:00 +0000

I’m not talking about that word that some people call me because I’m highly opinionated. Oh no! There is a much worse word that I am going to talking a lot about today. One that I have never really learned about but truly need to start doing.
That word, my friends, is BUDGET! You can all start horror movie shrieking now. It’s OK.
I don’t live on a very large income. Being visually impaired I get under $900 a month from Social Security. I have a part time job but I won’t see what my true take home pay will be for 2 weeks due to the fact that I worked some holiday pay hours and a couple extra besides that.
I need to start budgeting y money and keeping track of it better. When I was living in Las Vegas I was making 3 times what I get a month now. I was working a 40 hour a week job at $16 an hour. Since the cost of living wasn’t too high when I was living there it worked out quite nice for me. I got into bad habits though. I just shopped, ate out and went out constantly. If something broke or went missing I would just buy a new one. So what if i found the other one or fixed it whatever it was! I would also buy crap for other people for no reason. It was one of those things that I did just because. If I saw someone I knew needed something I’d just get it for them (within reason of course.)
Now I am living at home but I have expenses. I am working and going to school with plans to find my own place next year sometime when the public housing list opens up again. to do these things I need to make sure I am prepared financially.
I plan on putting together a spreadsheet. I will list my income and what expenses I have. Once I find or make a spreadsheet that works well I can post it here for anyone that wants to use it. I plan to post budgeting tips that I learn along the way every Thursday. I’ll call it thrifty Thursday. I hope that others on a fixed income (or any income really) can learn along with me!