And you can bet we'll be on food stamps once we get out to school! That's a few hundred bucks a month saved.
The family is coming this week to live with me from now until graduation. I am relieved and thrilled. It's also the ending of the semester so we shall see how I manage all this. However, I was already told (three times long distance and via text) that we will be on food stamps. I know I am not going to win this argument. A few other classmates, some married, others single, made a beeline for FS the first month in medical school, and I said I would. Our school financial aid officer indeed provides the information, contact sheet and release of financial information authorization, so they are very helpful in many ways.
If mom and dad have a generous supply of money for you, then you'll be fine. One guy in my class has daddy pay for his rent at a luxurious penthouse overlooking the city and the ocean at $3k/month, maid service, flashy clothing and goes out drinking every weekend - we have to smell his ETOH in anatomy lab. Plus he drives nothing but the best. Money is not an issue for him. Some kids are fortunate and I do not begrudge them. If you are not one of those types, be prepared to adjust. For example:
At home we had a cleaning lady, lawn service, ate at the finest restaurants, and spent whatever we wanted to have lean meats, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, fat free products, low sugar, low sodium, natural healthy stuff....all very expensive. That was 5 years ago.
Tonight for dinner: I ate out of a can of cold black beans "Goya" Brand, fresh frozen thawed Papaya chunks right out of the bag, and I poured Cranberry Lite Juice with 50% cold water mixed in to make it last. I ate dinner standing over the kitchen sink. Since I live alone and do not have TV, that is a typical dinner time for me...about 10 minutes. I jumped back on my laptop to study Exam Master for Neuro.
Now I am on another study break so I write this on SDN. You learn how to negotiate, flex, juggle and make do.
Some more examples:
There are
alot of initial start up costs the first year that Financial Aid Officers advise you to consider. AAMC website has a list of those items as well, I believe. I saw it somewhere when I started M1 year. I was advised, did not take them too seriously b/c I am generally frugal and not materialistic and have a die-hard mindset, but when it hit the fan in late October, I went scurrying. And I couldn't call home b/c home was depending on me to maneuver the family's finances from medical school. It got dicey. But the good Lord provided.
If you are moving to medical school away from home, where ever home is, and if your medical school location does not have subways or mass transit (mine has neither), you will need to budget for a car. A few classmates of mine arrived to our medical school without cars (like me), they were strapped b/c their student loans did not account for buying a used car (like me), and had to bum rides from other classmates, and often missed quite a few classes until they could afford to buy a car as well. One student never was able to buy a car and he missed about 50% of classes. He missed a ton of group class exercises and it got to be a nuissance b/c we kept having to ask, "where is so and so, is he going to make it, is he going to submit his work to us or....." We had to cover for him plenty of times and it caused resentment. He was threatened by the school that he was going to be dropped for attendance.
What else can you expect to possibly buy your first year not covered by student loans?
Computers need to be super fast for medical school. I dragged mine to medical school thinking it would do fine. It was 5 years old, and it was woeful for the tons and tons of torrents, um, i mean, legal files, GBs, MBs, videos, not to mention multiple windows being processed at the same time - my old MacBook Pro gave up the ghost by October as well. October was a bad month my first year.
So already I racked up $3500 for a used car on Craigs List (Blue Book Value was $5K), and a new MacBook Pro ($2K).
I tried to save money initially by buying an iPad ($1K), and though they are pretty, not very practical compared to a new screaming laptop. I use my iPad in the bathroom, in Church (I follow the Mass on Kindle), I write on my iPad for therapy, and when I have it crammed with my multiple textbooks, I use my iPad that month for re-reading stuff I have already read in my textbooks or PDFs on my Mac. So an iPad can be useful. I am also big on videos I download off of torrents. I have watched Devil Wears Prada 10 times on my iPad. It's a great movie, what can I say. I also watch it in 1 hour increments. Since I do not have internet service at my apartment, streaming internet videos are not an option for me. I am happy with watching downloaded videos on my iPad.
I had to scramble and buy medical insurance ($1K) for my second semester b/c my wife lost her job and we lost our medical coverage. My school would not allow me to register for the second semester unless if I could provide proof of coverage. I had no choice in the matter. I would have gladly risked going without it but the school had to have it.
Apartment Furniture
New Bed ($1500)
Dining Room Table and Lamps, Couches, EZ Chair, Side Tables, Cookware, Dishes, Utensils....and Xanax to recover from all of the money flying through my fingers.
And all of that was just for me. Now that the family is coming, that means finding a new apartment that can accommodate 3 of us.
My financial aid award was based on one person's consumption. Now it is blossoming into three.
I also save alot of money unlike most medical students, which is why I am able to justify other expenses.
I choose to:
* NOT have a TV in my apartment
* NOT have Cable service (e.g. Apple TV, Netflix, etc)
* NOT have internet cable connection - I surf off my neighbor's wifi with his permission
* NOT go out on weekends....Period. At my age, partying isn't all that. Lying down Friday evenings can be a treat in themselves, or a walk on the beach with a beer
I also don't fly home all that much.
I eat very clean and healthy which can be very cheap if you learn to adjust:
eating out of a can of Albacore Tuna does not phase me
I eat 5 eggs every morning (no yolks) and 3 slices of multi grain bread untoasted. I love egg sandwiches. It's what I have every single day. You adjust. I miss my fancy breakfast meals of the past. I will have those again one day . I also adjust by looking at meals as something necessary as opposed to something fulfilling or satisfying. No fat Greek Yogurt with uncooked Oatmeal and cinnamon do fine by me. That's a very healthy meal. Lean turkey burgers at Costco have about 35 g of Protein, 3 g of fat, slapped onto multi-grain bread and I am set . I also buy Costco breaded Chicken breasts, throw those on a skillet, throw it on some spinach, add olives, parmesan cheese, and bingo. another meal. All very inexpensive. They do the job. You just learn to adjust.
I wear the same clothing I have worn for the past 5 years. They look new to my classmates, professors and patients. My dress shirts for patient clinics are the ones I wore for my former career. Ditto for the belts, silk ties and slacks.
About the only splurge I have is a gym membership and on occasion I treat myself to a local deli shop with an awesome bakery. Otherwise I'm a big ol' cheapo. I have gone to the cinema just once.
First year bites. I expect second year to be much better.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
- the 47% have spoken. Regards to Mitt Romney
