interesting confluence of grad school and finances in one of this week’s PostSecrets

The big excitement this week was that we got a snow day!  I think we’ve had maybe one other in the time I’ve been in grad school – the university is very reluctant to cancel and we don’t have snow every year.  So we took advantage and stayed home for the day.

On Friday I spent all day at the first session of my professional development program.  I think it’s going to take a lot more time than the 10 hours per week advertised!  I really want to make our group project super successful but we’re having trouble settling on an approach.  We chose “internships” as our topic – as in, making completing internships during grad school easier for students.  Somehow.

This week an Amazon Prime (affiliate link – thanks for using!) subscription fee showed up on one of our credit cards unexpectedly.  Apparently my free student membership just rolled over into a paid student account and they didn’t inform me they were about to charge one of my cards on file.  It’s very clearly stated in their terms of service that the rollover will happen and there will not be notification.  Thankfully, I just called and asked to cancel and get a refund and since we hadn’t used the membership yet (1 day in) they did that for us without a fuss.  Sometimes it pays to just ask nicely, even when you’re not “right!”

We had friends over to watch The Big Game (away version) last night and it was a GREAT game, even though we didn’t get the outcome we wanted.  I came out of it still hopeful for a comeback this season.

My Favorite Posts This Week

Michelle from Making Sense of Cents had a remarkably terrible experience with a wedding vendor.

Lance from Money Manifesto encourages everyone to have a side hustle they can ramp up in the case of unemployment.

Done by Forty and his wife paid off their mortgage using the mental accounting of living on one income.

Stefanie from The Broke and Beautiful Life details how little she is paid for her work as a stage actor – it’s shocking!

Kraig from Create My Independence presents 10 tips for making your first $1,000 with your business.

Mentions

Cat from Budget Blonde included What Happened to the Term ‘Independently Wealthy?’ in her writing wrap up.

Carnivals

Blog Statistics Update December 2013 – January 2014 was featured in the Yakezie Carnival.

Financial Heroes or Financial Zeros? was featured in the Carnival of Financial Independence 47th Edition.

Our Best (Pain-Free) Money-Saving Moves was featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance, the Carnival of Financial Planning, and the Festival of Frugality #416.

How Do You Decide If You Can Afford a Purchase? was featured in the Carnival of Money #15 and the Carnival of MoneyPros.

Top Comment

Daniel from Sweating the Big Stuff gave an example of how he has benefitted from being more open about finances with his friends: “I’ve found that my group of friends are much more open to sharing their finances than I expected. The more you share, the more you learn and know. I remember graduating college, and nobody knew anything about 401(k)s or Roth IRAs. Slowly we learned and when our friends got jobs, they knew to ask us for advice since we had been through the same process recently.”

Most Frequent Commenters 

1. E.M. @ Journey to Saving
2. Ashley @ Saving Money in Your Twenties
3. Done by Forty

Top Blogs Referring to EPF

1. Get Rich Slowly
2. The Simple Dollar
3. Done by Forty