College Living.

As I am about to graduate from college, I would like to pass on a few words of wisdom to all those who are about to know what life is all about.

In India, my whole lifestyle was very very different from the one I had here. My parents are all about good grades. Their life revolves around it. So, I was the kind who thought that nothing was hard to get as long as I got good grades, which I did and so I got everything I ever needed and much more without so much as a sigh! And then one day I decided to come to America to "study" further. That was the day I went from being a princess to a poor girl on the streets.

As expected, I had thought that the good grades philosophy would hold true anywhere. Come on, its only natural! I was spending away my earnings to a point where I would have one dollar in my account at the end of the month. Seeing this, my parents decided that their daughter had to "build some character".

So they kept me on tight budget lines every month. I was then forced to put on my thinking cap and find ways through which I could overcome this mess. I was not allowed to spend my own hard earned money, what do you expect! I tried and tested several money saving methods to overcome this hiccup in my otherwise awesome life. Today however, I am not writing about the things that worked but I am going to talk about the things that did not work.

• Do not create a secret bank account. If you were the obedient kid who gave all your passwords to your parents in the beginning, then my friend you are doomed! And once you realize the shit you are in , don't make it worse and create another unknown account where you could save up some money for your personal use. Although it will give you the feeling that you are one of those millionaires that who keep all their illegal money in an offshore account in the Caribbean, it is bound to fail. Parents always have ways of finding out, ALWAYS! The universal truth is parents are 100 times smarter than you, the faster you understand this the less trouble you will be in.


• Do not take secret vacations with friends. Whats even worse than a secret bank account is going away with friends on a holiday with your saved money without telling parents. Nothing gets them more riled up than you travelling with FRIENDS, especially if you are the only daughter. Its a time bomb waiting to explode and all you can do is say "Oh Boy" !


• Stop buying so many shoes. You know who you are. You can only wear one pair at time, unless you wear them on your hands, too. How many shoes do you need, anyway? ( remember, I am putting this point under the things that did not work for me)


• Stay behind times. Wait until books come out in paperback (half price books) and until movies come out on the internet. Don't buy the latest electronic gizmos; see if you can mooch gently used cameras and not-all-that lightweight laptops from your friends and relatives when they upgrade to the latest models. Don't bother changing your hair or clothing styles until people giggle and point to you whenever you leave the house.


• Stop thinking about your maid in India. If you were the kind who never made your bed in your "previous" life wait until you come to live in America. Stop thinking about your maid back home when you are scrubbing the bathroom floor or cleaning the kitchen or doing laundry or are starving and feeling lazy to cook. It only makes life harder! Face the fact you cannot afford to hire a maid here.


• Don't buy a cheap cell phone plan. As the saying goes, when you are not allowed to do something, thats the one thing you will want to do the most. Buying a plan that gives you very less minutes and absolutely no texting is like going on a diet when you live next to the chocolate store. No amount of not picking up calls, not charging your phone etc will help you save minutes. It just won't work! In fact, you will just exceed your minutes and pay a lot more than the normal plan that you didn't buy to save money.


• Water down your shampoo. I must say that Pert Plus not only lasts longer but works better when it's watered down a bit. I don't know the scientific principle underlying this discovery, but using this tip can save you literally hundreds of cents a year.


• Don't buy groceries until you are eating pickles for lunch and dinner. Use all the ready made food that you brought from home. Don't go to the grocery store until you've absolutely run out of everything, thats how it happens at my apartment anyway. To be honest, I doubt you can save any money this way, but what the heck I thought I'd just mention it.


• Listen to tapes. Once upon a time, in the age of boomboxes and Walkmen, tapes were the hottest selling music format around. Now that they've been kicked to the curb, first by CDs and then by digital downloads, no one seems to want them anymore — which means you can find perfectly fine tapes for fifty cents or a dollar at any decent thrift store. If you've still got a working tape deck, let your analog freak flag fly. Sure, you can't easily skip tracks but hey, who needs to skip tracks when you are listening to the greatest hits by Simon & Garfunkel.


• Don't get gym subscriptions. Lets face it, Indians, in general, no matter how they try tend to put on weight when they come to America. Guys put on weight in the face and girls put on weight everywhere else. I know its necessary to keep your market value up high, therefore go running on the streets and lift boulders/bricks to build muscles.


• Don't get tattoos. They're expensive going on, and even more expensive coming off. If you want to impress that rocker chick at the bar, draw something on your arm with a Sharpie before you introduce yourself to her. It doesn't matter if it looks convincing. She's not going to be interested in you anyway.


• Never leave the house. Doing stuff outside the house tends to cost money, so avoid the outside world whenever possible.

Although doing none of these saved me any actual money, there is however one tip that might just work, get an old fashioned loving boyfriend with a good job.