Happy Birthday! Wait… it’s my birthday, I’m not supposed to say that. And I’m not supposed to be giving out gifts. I’ve got this all wrong, don’t I?

Too bad! I’ll do what I want for my birthday, and what I want to do is give you the chance to win a sweet laptop prize pack from HP. I’m really pumped to be the first blog in the HP Freshman 15 giveaway, so let’s get this party started, shall we?

How to Enter

It’s an Easter Birthday Egg Hunt! The answers to the following 10 questions can all be found on this blog:

• Since it’s my birthday, how old am I?
• What did I do for Earth Day this year? (Not on what I did here on the blog, but out in the "real world")
• What is the Compact?
• How many college seniors have four or more credit cards?
• What’s one reason you should over-pay your taxes right after graduating college?
• List Rule Zero and the Steps of the Quick Start Financial Guide.
• Name a government application that I hate.
• Name a show from my childhood that I miss.
• What should you do with extra financial aid money?
• What "percent of a guy" is checking in on bottled water’s cleanliness?

Find the answers to these questions, and submit them using the contact form. If you get all the right answers, you’re entered to win! I’ll use randomizer.org to pick the winning entry, and announce the winner on October 3rd.

Rules and Stuff

• Don’t post the answers anywhere online! Remember, the more correct entries, the lower your odds of winning, so giving other people the answers can only hurt you.
• Send in your entry by 11:59PM, EST October 1st. This will give me time to sort through all the entries, so I can pick the winner before the announcement date.
• You do not have to be a US resident to enter!
• One (correct) entry per person.
• If any of your answers are wrong, I’ll reply to your email telling you how many you got wrong, but not which ones. Kinda like that game Mastermind, which I love!
• The correct answers are the one’s that come from this blog. Although I’m sure many of them can be found on other websites, the only answers that are correct for the purposes of this giveaway are the ones that come from PoorerThanYou.com.
• Use a valid email address that you check often when entering, so that I can contact you if you win!

That’s it! Find the answers, send them in, and then check back on October 3rd to see if you’re a winner! You might want to subscribe via RSS or subscribe via email to help you remember. And most importantly, don’t forget to check the other 14 blogs giveaway away these prize packs! The next giveaway starts on September 28th at Broke-Ass Student!

How can a poor college student, that doesn’t have $1000 on hand, start investing?

- A PTY reader

Your boat is my boat, my friend! It’s hard to scrape together enough money to put gas in my car - how can I save up enough to start investing and take advantage of sweet, sweet compound interest?

Should I Invest?

First things first, you’ve got to figure out if investing is a good idea for you right now. When we say "investing," we mean "buying stocks and holding onto them over a long period of time." With this in mind, ask yourself three questions before you start looking for ways to invest:

What’s my goal?
Since investing is so long term, you should really save it for goals that are 10+ years off. If your goal is shorter-term than that (say, a new car in five years or a down payment on a house), you should look into more conservative investments, such as bonds, CDs, and money market funds. If your goal is something like "retiring in something better than a shack," then stock investments are your friends.

Could my money be put to better use?
It seems like investing is the best thing you could do with your money, right? But that’s not always true. If you have any debts with interest rates over 10%, you’re better off funneling your money into paying off your debt. Compound interest works both ways, so high interest rates on debts will only work against you.

Do I have enough savings?
Along the same lines as above, your money might be put to better use preventing debt. This means having an emergency fund and a "getting established fund" to take care of expenses you’ll incur when you start off on your own. You know, like security deposit and furniture for your fabulous new apartment. Don’t go overboard, but make sure you’ve got a nice cushion of savings before you dive into investing.

Investing What You’ve Got

So, you made it through the three questions, and you’ve decided it’s time to start investing. But, that just brings us back to the original question: HOW? The way I see it, there’s two ways to go about this:

No-Minimum Online Brokerages

Check out sites like ShareBuilder and Zecco - you can buy stocks and pay less than $10 in commission each time. Since there is a charge, what you’ll want to do is save up your investment money in a savings account, and then buy larger amounts every few months.

What, exactly, are you buying? Well, if you want to try your hand at individual stock picking, that’s your deal. But what I would do is buy index fund ETFs. These are little funds that act like stocks, but what’s really inside them is a tiny share of every stock in the market that it’s tracking. So if you buy an ETF that tracks the S&P 500, you’re getting a tiny share of each of 500 companies! Instant diversification.

Or… Save Up for Vanguard

Ok, so, why buy index fund ETFs instead of just buying index funds? Well, this again brings us back to the original question: how to do this with less than $1,000. Index funds have a really big buy-in. Vanguard’s index funds require a $3,000 minimum investment! Who’s got that lying around?

But the advantage to buying an index fund directly is you go from paying commissions to paying "expense ratios" - or a percent of the value of the fund. The reason I bring up Vanguard is that they’re known for having one of the lowest expense ratios around. Mmm… tasty low-cost index funds… that’s what I want!

So here’s what I’m doing: I’m putting money away each month in a savings account, building up to that $3,000 minimum investment. Once I get that, I can buy my coveted Vanguard index fund! And once I’ve made the initial investment, I can buy individual shares of that fund at my leisure. (I’ll do this within a Roth IRA, since the goal here is retirement!)

Saving up $3,000 can seem really, really frustrating. In fact, it was so frustrating to me, that I just gave up the first time I found out about Vanguard’s $3,000 minimum. I was 18 at the time, and I just pushed it out of my head - I’d never save up that much!

But… if I’d put aside $100 a month instead of giving up, I would have reached $3,000 six months ago. That’s food for thought.

First thing you have do is say "ooooooooooooo!" in excitement and awe. Come on, do it, or I won’t tell you what’s going on!

Ok, good, here’s the deal: HP (yes, Hewlett Packard) is giving away 15 laptop prize packages on 15 blogs. For serious! And you know what’s better than a free laptop prize pack? A free laptop prize pack given away on PoorerThanYou.com!

The prize pack I’ll be giving away includes:

• HP Pavilion dv4t series notebook
• HP xb4 Media Docking Station
• HP 500GB Pocket Media Drive
• HP Photosmart C6380 All-in-One
• HP Protect Messenger Bag

(The dv4t is the first laptop featured in this video, if you want to get a better look at it.)

Not only do I get to give away this fabulous prize pack, but I get to kick the whole thing off! The excitement starts right here on Friday September 26th. I’ll announce the requirements for my giveaway, and every two days after that, another blog will announce theirs. So you get 15 chances to win, and it all starts right here!

Giveaway will vary by site, and the details will be announced on each site’s start date. Here are the participating sites and the dates of their giveaways:

• Sep 26 - Oct 3: Poorer Than You
• Sep 28 - Oct 5: Broke-Ass Student
• Sep 30 - Oct 7: Broke Grad Student
• Oct 2 - Oct 9: Study Hacks
• Oct 4 - Oct 11: Cooking for Engineers
• Oct 6 - Oct 13: College Being
• Oct 8 - Oct 15: Paul Stamatiou
• Oct 10 - Oct 17: DormDelicious
• Oct 12 - Oct 19: Student Bloggers
• Oct 14 - Oct 21: Jessica Mah Meets World
• Oct 16 - Oct 23: UNEASYsilence
• Oct 18 - Oct 25: Gomeler.com
• Oct 20 - Oct 27: CampusGrotto
• Oct 22 - Oct 29: Hack College
• Oct 24 - Oct 31: The University Blog

So you’ll want to check each site on their start date. Some blogs will give away dv4t notebooks, like me, and some will give away dv5t and dv7t series notebooks. We each got to pick - I picked the dv4t because it’s the most portable. All three are great systems!

So check back here on September 26th to get find out how to enter. You’ll want to subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe by email, so you don’t forget!

Heh. I run the risk of being labeled dirty, liberal, cheap, and insane for writing this post. All things I’ve been called before, of course, but only the last three are true!

"No ‘Poo" is what it’s called when someone elects to forgo the use of chemical-laden shampoos and conditioners. There are a lot of reasons a person might do this, but the basic premise is that modern shampoos have only been around since the beginning of the 20th century. If people before were able to achieve beautiful hair without it, why can’t we?

There’s a lot of health concerns with shampoo as well, but I’ve decided to forgo talking about it, because frankly there’s already a fantastic explanation of all the No ‘Poo details on a blog called Babyslime. So in the interest of not reinventing the wheel, I’m only going to get into the financial aspects of it.

I’ve been Low ‘Poo since high school, when I found out that the reason my curly locks were frizzing so much was partially due to over-shampooing! My hair is really, really dry, so I cut it down to the point were I was shampooing only once everything two weeks. I would still rinse and use conditioner every day.

Four months ago, I read more about the No ‘Poo movement and decided to give it a try. Personally, I’ve got three reasons to do it: Money, my hair’s health, and the environment. So… about the money…

Savings?

No ‘Poo calls for replacing your shampoo with baking soda and your conditioner with apple cider vinegar. The great thing about this is that I already had both in my house! And so far, neither have run out!

Since my shampoo use was negligible before, I’m only going to compare the savings based on the cost of the conditioner I was buying before: Garnier Fructis (the kind made especially for curly hair). I’m using the prices from my local grocery store, Wegmans, but these are fairly standard prices as far as I’ve seen.

13 ounces Garnier Fructis (13 uses) = 2.99 = 23 cents per use

Days since I started: 111

Total savings so far: $25.53

Ok, eventually the baking soda and vinegar I have on hand with run out, and the savings won’t be as dramatic, right? Well, let’s see what these ingredients cost!

16 ounces of vinegar (32 tablespoons) = 99 cents = 3 cents per use

1 pound of baking soda (32 weeks) = 75 cents = 2 cents per week

That works out to less than 25 cents per week. The Fructis comes out to about $1.50 per week. 52 weeks in a year means long term savings of…

$65 per year

Wait! It gets better! Remember I said I have a gallon of vinegar on hand? Well, what if I continue to buy it by the gallon, instead of the 16 ounce bottle?

128 ounces of vinegar (gallon, 256 tablespoons) = 3.19 = 1 cent per use

9 cents per week works out to yearly savings of $73.32!

That’s not huge, but finding a few things you don’t mind changing that will save you $75 a year can add up to big money.

Other Questions About No ‘Poo

I can direct you to other No ‘Poo websites all I like, but I figure you still want hear some of this stuff from me!

Q: Does it work? Really?
A: You know that silky feeling you get from putting conditioner on your hair? It sounds like it would never work, but the vinegar truly does give it that feeling! And my hair does not get greasy or dirty - the baking soda really does clean it without stripping off natural oils like shampoo does (which is what makes you need conditioner!).

Q: Does it work as well as shampoo and conditioner?
A: Some people say their hair turns out better because of going No ‘Poo! I have long hair, so I haven’t noticed a dramatic change. It certainly doesn’t seem to have hurt it any. It may be psychological, but I seem to be having a greater frequency of good hair days!

Q: Do you smell like vinegar?
A: Only when I don’t rinse well! And even then, vinegar smell disappears with evaporation, so my dry hair never smells like vinegar. As soon they invent Smell-O-Vision for the Internet, I’ll prove it to you!

Q: What about styling products?
A: I’ll admit, I haven’t completely weaned myself off of mousse yet. The Babyslime blog has recipes for natural mousse, gel, and hairspray, but I am still using up old stuff I have leftover.

Q: You’re weird.
A: Yeah. I know.

The comments section is open for further questions!

Holy crap! Wait till you guys see these numbers! I’m too excited to even write a proper introduction! Here goes:

Change: $440 or +1.28 %

Ok, so, perhaps the graph itself is not that impressive. A gain, yes, but only a little one in the scheme of things. But it’s the numbers behind the graph that bare the shock and awe:

Credit Card Debt: 0

The very last of my credit card debt bit the dust in August. Gone. Done. The end.

Cash: +$502

Not only is cash up by $502, but all of that is savings! Most of it went toward my textbook fund, but I managed to meet my savings minimums for my student loan interest, getting established fund, car fund, emergency fund and…

Retirement Fund: $16

It’s just a little baby now, but I have a retirement fund! For now, it’s just money sitting in a separate savings account. Once there’s $3,000 in there, though, I’ll use it to buy into a Vanguard index fund. Oh how sweet it is to be saving!

I’ll revisit my thoughts on this in a couple of days - including an update on how my “savings snowball” is going. For a look at my assets and liabilities, check out my NetworthIQ for August. For an explanation of the categories I use, check out the bottom of my entry about February’s net worth balance.