Money woes = Ghettolicious

Since turning 16, this is the first extended period of time that I find myself without personal income. And it's somewhat horrifying. I worked all throughout the later portion of high school, at least 12-15 hours a week while up at Cornell, and every summer in between. Now, I have no time for a part-time job due to the demanding nature of medical school, and have to rely on careful budgeting and money from school loans. The fact that I have to be slightly more frugal and cautious with spending is more than a little dreadful. Knowing that I would be getting a paycheck two weeks down the road helped ease my mind when credit card bills and housing costs were creeping ever closer to the due dates, but now I have a large lump sum waiting to be distributed appropriately as the semester progresses.

On top of that, we've been stressed to save money wherever possible by our slightly neurotic, but wonderful, financial aid staff member at Stony Brook Med. Her advice included withholding on Starbucks, using blankets/coats/sweaters/mittens indoors during the winter to save on heat, carpooling, and refusing party/wedding/shower invitations - "It's an invitation, not a commitment." This lady had some good advice, but some of it seemed slightly over the top.

Which leads me to my ghetto moment of the week, possibly month, possibly semester. At Cassie's suggestion, I accompanied her to the local Walmart, since she was in need of a few things, and I needed some things as well. But to save on gas, and get some much needed exercise (drive to school every day ... ugh!), we decided to walk there. According to google maps, it's just under a mile to get there (0.8 miles). It's a nice day out, so we walked along a major county road/highway to get to the shopping center. We picked up what we needed, including snacks, juice, and a floor lamp for my room, and headed out. It was at this time that we started thinking about how we were going to carry all this stuff back ... in addition, we also needed to stop by the liquor store one shopping center over for a little booze for a small gathering we're having tonight (Wii Mario Kart and music). So I jokingly suggested bringing the Walmart cart all the way over to the next shopping center, and soon found myself doing just that.

We then went to the liquor store, bought three bottles of cheap booze, and made our way back towards the highway. In the end, we took the Walmart cart about half a mile away from the Walmart itself and left it in a Kohls parking lot. Despite the fact that we, and two minorities at that, got a lot of stares as we were walking around various parking lots with a Walmart shopping cart full of random stuff and booze, and even more stares while walking against traffic down a major route with a bunch of bags, a floorlamp, and a pizza box (we got hungry!), I feel like Stony Brook made us do it. At least we got some good exercise!

And now I don't want to do any more work ... argh! My current distractions are Professor Layton for the DS, and the new Fullmetal Alchemist. Both highly recommended. We'll see if motivation eventually kicks in. At least I did well on my first anatomy quiz!