DebtFREE-Revolution

Over the weekend, wealthy_1 posted a comment on my If I Were Debt Free meme post asking

What about giving? Wouldn’t you give a percentage to your favorite charity?

And that had me thinking of just how to respond.  I asked him for a few days to form my thoughts into a coherent post, and this is what I have come up with.

First of all, I am not under a religious mandate to give a certain percentage, nor even to give at all.  For the record I am not Christian.  With that out of the way, I will say that I do give now. 

My favorite charity is the Red Cross Bloodmobile which hits campus about every other month, which is the recommended time between blood donations.  Usually I will pass out flyers until the last 45 minutes of the blood drive when I finally submit to the needle in spite of my mild phobia for needles and a penchant for passing out.  I am Type A Positive, so the “vampires” love me for my blood as well as my running around campus for 1-3 hours trying to get people to join me in rolling up a sleeve.

For the past few years I have also given small donations to the local firefighter’s disabilty support organization and also to a police essay scholarship contest, both once a year donations.  No, it’s not much at all, but those are both things I feel are worthwhile.  And I am not yet debt-free.

Once I do become debt free AND graduate from pharmacy school, it is my intention to set up not just one but TWO scholarships: one for the four year school I am currently attending - Austin Peay State University -  and one for the pharmacy school I will attend, which I have not yet selected.  These won’t be general scholarships either…they will be specifically for non-traditional students like myself, and will be for pre-pharmacy majors and first year pharmacy students with preference given to veterans.  These scholarships are perhaps the most important to me.

I didn’t mention this plan in my original post, because right now that is much farther out than being debt free is!  It seems like a faint, distant dream at this point, especially with my chances of going to pharmacy school next year beginning to look shaky because of my organic chem grade as well as the student loan/lack of scholarships angle.  Also, it is much easier to talk about things that really aren’t as important than to talk about things that are deeply important on a very personal level.

Finally, it honestly didn’t occur to me to mention giving in the original post because I am giving right now!  I don’t need to be debt free before I start giving, although I imagine the amounts I give in regards to actual money will increase over time as we do shed the debt we have remaining.  I just don’t have a set percentage or amount in mind, because I tend to give as I feel it will do good and is right for me at that time.  Or, as my Christian friends would phrase it, “as the spirit moves me.”  Hope this answers your question, wealthy_1

It’s near the end of the month, which means I have started playing with numbers for the month of November.  October has been a good and bad month for my budget, with the snowball thrown at the truck note so far totalling $1300 credited to the account, with another two payments totalling $635 scheduled to go out on the first and second.  I only told hubby about the $1000 payment…the rest will be a surprise for him.  Well, it will only be a surprise if he checks his account before reading the blog here LOL

The bad part for the budget this past month was hubby’s confession that he doesn’t really like the little paid-for purple truck and wants to keep the 2005 Chevy Colorado (I am biting my fingers to keep from calling it my usual nickname…he says he hates it when I call it the Stupid Truck Note).  So we will not be debt free before the end of the year as I had hoped and planned.

As I went to go indulge in my personal stupid tax, aka buying a pack of cigarettes, I noticed one of the store employees outside changing the price on the sign: Gas just went up a dime a gallon today.  This is a big impact on me as a pizza delivery driver, and I had been very much enjoying the lowered gas prices in comparison to the prices in the spring.  Time to fiddle with that number in the budget for November, because with oil hitting new records almost daily (at least it feels that way) gas prices won’t be coming down for a little while.  Another factor in raising the number budgeted for gas in November is hubby coming home from Korea, and he will be driving the truck while I am out driving the little Escort.

Now, for the sucker punch from last week: Lipscomb University sent a representative from their new School of Pharmacy to talk to us prospective students.  When I asked her about financial aid, she said the school has no plans to offer scholarships, and my only financial aid will be Pell grants and LOANS.  That one floored me…how can they not offer any kind of scholarship?  Especially when the tuition is $27,500 per year?  It sounds like I shouldn’t even bother to apply, and save the application fee.  Some days it seems to me that college financial aid offices are much more interested in pushing student loans on us rather than helping us find ways to finance education without debt!  Does anyone know if these schools get some kind of kickback from all these student loans?

I’ve got a physic test this evening, and homework due, but for those of y’all wanting your blog post fix, I have two posts in two carnivals that are both HUGE!

Millionaire Mommy Next Door hosted this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance and included My Meme: If I Were Debt-Free.  She’s also got very neat polls in the post where you can vote for your favorite out of each group of posts, with prizes for the bloggers who wrote the winning posts.  It’s a week early for elections, but it is always good fun!

PaidTwice hosted my favorite carnival this week, the Carnival of Debt Reduction and my Top 10 Reasons to Be Debt Free was an editor’s pick!

Now I will disappear into my textbook…and resurface tomorrow for more blogging fun.

It’s the weekend, which means I go out and taxi pizzas around (aka delivering pizzas) while most “normal” people are relaxing and having fun.  So I thought now would be the perfect time to toss up a couple of cute video clips I found on YouTube for entertainment purposes

First up is one of my My Total Money Makeover board buddies, which appeals to the latent pyromaniac inside me.  I tell ya, this clip makes me want to run out and buy a blowtorch for my credit cards!  Oh, the background music is SUCH a nice touch.