Operation Cheap Ass

Since I am looking at spending the medium-term future as a college student again, with all the poverty that goes along with that, I am currently embarking on a new spending mentality that I am calling Operation Cheap Ass. Essentially, OCA means not buying stuff, even if it's cheap, that I don't actually need. No, this isn't exactly the kind of personal finance methodology that will get me on the talk show or conference circuits or that I could recommend to a person with money management issues (it's the spiritual equivalent of the weight loss advice "Eat less" with all the assumptions that entails), but given what a cheap ass I already am, I think it should work well enough for me. (Maybe I should be calling this Operation Cheaper Ass.) By this I mean that I am already inclined to not spend money, so it's a simple [?] matter of taking that tendency to the next level, and I can identify some types of spending that are totally superfluous to my needs. (Like, no, I do not need to buy these shoes even though they are incredibly adorble. Really. I don't. Nor do I need these. Shoes I Don't Need could be its own regular series on this blog.) The downside to this, though, is that I don't have a lot of stupid purchasing habits that I can break and immediately see huge savings from. A lot of the things you hear people say you should give up, like the daily $4 Starbucks latte, I am already too cheap to buy. Well, I guess this is why I'm starting this new era with money in the bank and a money market account and not $15,000 in credit card debt. I've had a series of increasingly decent paying jobs but have continued to live like a more moderately paid person. But it's going to be very strange indeed not to have the regular income to support a comfortable lifestyle without really having to think about money.

My student timeline (an ever shifting thing) currently looks like this:

April - Dec 2007: Continue working full-time; take 2 refresher calculus classes online (sleep with calculator next to bed if the separation anxiety becomes too great)

Jan 2008: Start at UT part-time (2 math/stat classes per spring and winter semester for 3 semesters plus 2 psych classes where they can fit) and start part-time job - this addresses both the "get the quant up to snuff" and "get some good recommendations" issues that are my primary grad school stumbling blocks at the moment

Dec 2008: Grad school applications due

August 2009: Start grad school and do this for 4-5 years

Sometime about 2014: Get a full-time job again

So Operation Cheap(er) Ass will be in effect while I am still working my full-time job, but obviously things are going to get much tighter once I am no longer bringing home my normal income in Jan 2008. Then I will no doubt be in a new era along the lines of Operation Poor Student Somewhat Subsidized by Employed Boyfriend Who Will Not Want to Live in the Trashy Little Apartment I Can Afford. So don't worry - I do not expect to be sending out birthday present wish lists that say things like "Toilet paper" and "Fake pregnant-stomach apparatus so I can steal stuff more easily from Wal-Mart."

(Cue Jane's Addiction, "Been Caught Stealing" ...)