Learning How to Budget

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Most of my life, I’ve relied on my parents for money, but once I moved out on my own, I was responsible for doing that myself. Now, I’m not saying that they wouldn’t help me if I needed it… of course they would. I’ve just learned to take care of it myself and here’s how.

Wants vs Needs

Going shopping when you’re responsible for budgeting for yourself is hard to get used to. You really have to know what you need and what you just want. An important step in this journey for me was to learn that if it wasn’t necessary, it could wait. If I didn’t have the money to buy it right off the bat and it wasn’t something that I absolutely needed, it could wait. Most of the time, if you wait just a little bit, you forget about it anyways.

Learn to Say No

As with most things, it is important to get into the habit of saying no. Say no to things that you can’t afford to do. You don’t have to go out and spend money to have a good time.

Learn to Host

If you want to have fun with friends, do it on your own terms. Buy cheap wine or cheap beer and have a good time doing whatever you want to do at your own house. It’s way cheaper than going out, and it might even be more fun.

Write it Down

An important thing that has helped me is that I write my budget down on paper and track every cent that I spend.

All in all, focus on what is truly necessary but remember to treat yourself every now and then.

Stay Golden,

Emily

You Can Call Me a 20-Something Grandma, But…

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You can call me a 20-something grandma, but…

I’m just responsible.

I feel as if my life is more than going out and drinking every night of the weekend. Budgeting money is important. I do not want to go out and spend more money than is necessary. I’d rather have a girl’s night at my place; drinking wine and relaxing.

I just care about my health.

I hate feeling hungover, but it’s more than just that… I care about my mental health. I’d prefer to spend my free time working on me and my relationships with my friends and family since the rest of my time is spent on school.

I just don’t care.

I don’t care what you think about me. I’m living the life that I want with the people that I love and I would never give that up for anything. If you have a problem with me and the way I live my life, well quite frankly, I don’t care.

I’m me, I like the way I am, and that’s all that matters.

Don’t let anyone make you feel bad about yourself and as always…

Stay Golden,

Emily

 

You’re Not Alone: Mental Illness in College Students

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College is generally thought of as the best years of your life. You get to branch out and do all of the things that you think could interest you. You join club after club, organization after organization, but have you ever thought about how these years of your life cause you mental pain?

Anxiety disorders, being the most prevalent mental health disorders in college students, are on the rise in this population (11.9% of college students have an anxiety disorder).

Depression is also up there at 7-9% of college students.

Around 3.2% of college students show symptoms of Bipolar Disorder.

It is unsurprising, then, that college students take part in dangerous activities to decrease their mental health symptoms. For example, many college students take part in binge drinking or illicit drug use.

If you have recently been diagnosed with a mental health disorder in college, you are not alone. College is the time of many changes. All of these changes can affect you and increase your mental health problems. These things include making your own decisions (especially when you are indecisive), moving away from family, spreading yourself too thin with all of your activities and studies, not allowing yourself adequate relaxation, and not eating healthy and exercising.

College is hard, but it is especially hard when you are suffering from a mental illness. Seek help if you feel that it is too hard. Make sure that you are also making lifestyle adjustments to help with your mental health as well.

All in all, you can most definitely manage it, but it will be a long, hard road.

Stay Golden,

Emily

 

Source:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4527955/

 

Keeping a Relationship With God in College

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I didn’t grow up in a crazy religious family. My family always kept me exposed to God, but we really didn’t go to church. And that’s OK! I do not feel like church is central to having beliefs or to living a Godly life. My parents are some of the most respectful and giving people I know.

When I went off to college, I was really scared, but that didn’t stop me from having a relationship with God. It is completely possible, even with the busy college lifestyle.

First and foremost, I surrounded myself with a faith-bearing community. A lot of my friends are God-fearing, and that made it easy. From a lot of my roommates to a Christian Service Sorority, I found myself surrounded by love and support from Godly women.

Also, I made sure to set aside time to have a devotional daily, or at least weekly. Whether this was by myself or with other people, I made sure to keep this a main part of my life. Now for me, it was unrealistic to expect myself to find time every day, so I made it a point to have a devotional at least weekly. My favorite daily devotionals come from the app: The First Five. It is an amazing app to give you devotionals that you can relate to, and they are easy to understand.

Online Sermons are available when you can’t find a church that is right for you. It is okay to be wary of churches. It is okay to search for the right one, but in the meantime, make sure to keep up with your favorite online sermons.

All in all, it is very important to keep up with your faith no matter what, and it is feasible.

Stay Golden,

Emily

What It’s Like to Unplug For a Weekend

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Okay, so this is super overdue, but forgive me on that one. Over the first weekend of Spring Break, I stayed off of my phone and social media. I still got on my laptop to do homework and study (because let’s face it… I can never catch “break” in Pharmacy School without homework or something to study). So here I am to tell you how it felt.

Friday. Friday, being the first day, was hard. Every time I opened the internet, I feel like I started to go to Facebook. After the first few hours, it was good though. I went to dinner with my parents and then we watched a movie and were able to spend some quality time together. I was already feeling as if I didn’t need my phone to be happy, and that it was much better to spend QUALITY time with the people I am around. I’ve always thought it was rude to be on your phone constantly when you plan to hang out with someone, but even I do it sometimes. It’s a bad habit, but it’s one I’m trying to correct.

Saturday. Saturday was a lot easier. My mom used to always get mad at me when we would go shopping and I would be on my phone constantly. It was really nice to spend a day shopping with her and truly focus on what we were doing. I’m starting to really understand why it upsets her for me to be on my phone. She wants to spend as much QUALITY time as possible with me while I’m home from school. After shopping, we watched another movie with my dad, and then, we went to bed. It was a pretty eventful day, and I didn’t find myself reaching for my phone as much as I did Friday.

Sunday. On Sunday, I was getting pretty used to having my phone, but I had to turn it back on to respond to someone about them potentially purchasing a laptop that I had for sale. After that, I still didn’t use my phone a whole lot, but I did respond to some friends who had not heard from me all weekend.

All in all, I feel that it was a really good experience. I would highly recommend it to anyone who feels like they are on their phones too much. It was a nice cleanse, and now, I keep my phone on Do Not Disturb mode so that I only get my notifications when I look at my phone, and it doesn’t vibrate and disturb whatever task I have going on. However, when someone calls me, it goes through because I know they really wanted to get my attention and it was something that couldn’t really wait.

I hope you guys decide to try this out for yourself, you won’t regret it.

Stay Golden,

Emily

A Pet Profile: Nemo Gamma

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Here’s a little profile on my sweet little kitty, Nemo. I brought Nemo into my home in October of 2016. She’s the sweetest little thing. At first, my parents were not very happy (I got her without their permission), but they’ve grown to love and cherish their grand-kitty as much as I do. She’s a Calico and will be 2 years old in June. Bringing her into my life was one of the best things I could have done. I love her so much.

Nemo Gamma.jpg

Nemo Gamma

Stay Golden,

Emily

My Lifelong Bucket List

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Hey loves, this is just a small list of things that I hope to accomplish in my life and be able to be the best version of me that I can be. I hope to fall in love, but more importantly, I hope to be happy in all that I do. Hope this gives you some ideas.

  1. Travel to all 50 states.
  2. Have and/or adopt 1-3 kids
  3. Do everything in my power to make said kids happy
  4. Spend quality time with my family
  5. Get married and have a solid foundation for that marriage
  6. Be the best Pharmacist possible
  7. Always remember to be thankful for what I have
  8. Save money
  9. Get a puppy
  10. Make time for the people that I care about
  11. Talk to long-distance friends as much as possible and plan yearly reunions
  12. Give back as much as possible
  13. Do lots of volunteering
  14. Stay fit
  15. BE HAPPY.

Stay Golden,

Emily

Helpful Apps for All College Students

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Here’s a list of the apps that I feel are the most useful for college students. Enjoy!

Quizlet. For all of your flashcard needs, Quizlet is the best. I’m sure that you’ve all heard of it, so download it. It has the feature to test you on the words that you put into it.

Tapingo. If your school is set up with this company, it’s the best thing in the world. You can skip the lines and order your food ahead of time from the dining places on campus. They also partner with other places around the city to give you more dining options.

GroupMe. Ever try to set up a group chat with someone who doesn’t have an iPhone? It’s really hard to do because nobody can ever leave if they want to. GroupMe is a great alternative and I’ve used it for everything from friend group chats to group chats for group projects.

Uber/Lyft. Now, we can all admit college involves quite a bit of going out and drinking. Be safe and get a lift from someone when you don’t have a DD. These apps have very reasonable rates and they will even drive you to and from the airport if you need to go home and you live out of state.

BookScouter. If you’re looking to sell your textbooks, this app is great to find you the best selling price from several different sources. I’ve used it for 3 semesters now, and I swear by it. Your payment can either be through PayPal or a Live Check through the mail, but that way takes WAY longer so I would suggest PayPal.

Flipboard. Flipboard is the perfect place to get all the news that you want from any of your favorite topics. You can even block out stuff that you don’t want to see by choosing exactly what you do want to see. For example, I barely see anything bad on my news feed anymore, only stuff that interests me or is really important.

Headspace. If you don’t know how to meditate, you should try out this app to get a little bit of “head space”. It’s so helpful with your stress levels.

Achievement. You get points for every step you take a day, and after 10,000 points you can redeem it for $10. It does take a while to get your $10 but it can’t hurt.

Venmo. Ever owe someone money but have no cash? It is rare for someone to carry cash now, and Venmo is great for getting money or giving money quick and efficiently.

Mint. This is a free budgeting app that can hook up to all of your financial accounts. I absolutely love it.

SworkIt. Need to work out but don’t want to go to the gym? SworkIt has many  little workouts that will be useful for a busy college student.

XMind. This is a mindmap service for your phone or iPad. It is very useful for making quick mindmaps while you’re studying.

Google Drive. Keep all of your documents together on this cloud service. I love Google Drive for all of my notes.

Hope all of these help you in your college journey!

Let me know if you have any other suggestions for apps, I’d love to hear them!

Stay Golden,

Emily

 

10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me

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Here’s 10 things that most of you wouldn’t know about me. If you did know any of these things… comment below how many. Enjoy!

  1. I used to write for ‘The Odyssey’.
  2. I’ve always wanted to be fluent in another language.
  3. I would love to learn to snow ski AND water ski.
  4. I hate being randomly hugged by friends. Saying hello or goodbye is fine, but just a random hug… no thanks. ESPECIALLY when I’m sad bc it makes me cry worse.
  5. I can’t remember wanting to be anything other than a Pharmacist, though my mom has said that I wanted to be a doctor, a ballerina… you know, normal kid stuff.
  6. I’ve never broken a bone, but I’m EXTREMELY clumsy.
  7. I can’t whistle to save my life… I mean it. It’s so bad.
  8. I hate speaking in public, but I’ve always imagined being a speaker at a conference of some sort.
  9. I’ve had 3 different YouTube Channels. Two of them were for singing and dancing (LOL) and now I have a Vlog channel.
  10.  I’m a picky eater.

Stay Golden,

Emily