This tip is so simple and so dumb. Not dumb as in "you’re dumb if you do it," but dumb as in "Seriously? Why is this even a tip?" But don’t run away yet, because I stand by this fact: this is the most important and most helpful tip I could possibly share in this series.

That seems kinda silly, doesn’t it? Releasing the best tip right off the bat! Shouldn’t I save the good stuff for later, to keep you reading? Ha! Come on guys, I’m not that crafty. I’m way more concerned about you guys getting a running start, right now. So here we go.

Track What You Spend.

That’s it. That’s the secret. It’s hugely simple, and hugely effective. And everything else builds on top of it. Maybe it’s that old "knowledge is power" thing. Actually, it’s probably more like this:

For anything else to work, you need to know where the %@$# your money is going.

Too lazy? Bah! No one in the world is lazier than me, except maybe LazyMan, and even he seems to use Wesabe to track his spending. Which brings me to my next point - there are a ton of tools to make this task easier:

Old fashioned, dirt cheap: Small memo pad from the dollar store, and a pencil. Keep these two things in your purse or pocket, and every time you spend money, write down what you bought, where you bought it (maybe), and how much it cost.

*Bonus tip* I highly suggest that if you don’t use pencil and paper (I don’t), you at least keep a piece of paper in your wallet for tracking cash purchases that you don’t get a reciept for. If you’re anything like me, cash is incredibly hard to keep track of, even when you didn’t mean to be carrying much in the first place!

Free, more high tech: An Excel spreadsheet on your computer. This is what I use, so that I can track how much I make right alongside it. You don’t have to know how to use the math functions in Excel to do this - you can just use the little boxes (cells) as handy columns for the what, where, and how much.

Other computer programs work as well. Notepad, Word, whatever the Mac equivalent of Notepad is… you could even use a Paint program if it gets you to do it. I don’t care, just as long as it’s easy for you to read.

Also free, even more high tech: There are a lot of online sites that will pull the information from your bank accounts and credit cards, and analyze your spending for you. This is good if A) you trust the site and B) you rely on plastic forms of payment much more than cash.

Some examples of this: Wesabe, Mint, and Yodlee. Actually, most of these type of sites use the Yodlee system to do this - Bank of America’s "My Portfolio" feature is just Yodlee dressed up in Bank-of-America-red. To use Yodlee directly, click "Yodlee MoneyCenter login" on the upper right of their page.

I can vouch for the three sites listed above, because I’m a user. Your information will be safe thanks to their privacy policies. However, these tools aren’t completely perfect - you will have to keep an eye on them. Since they automatically sort and categorize your purchases, you might run into some weird blips. Like once, I had a textbook purchase show up in the "Health and Beauty" category. But most of these services are smart enough to "learn" after you correct them once.

The Power of Tracking

Not sold on tracking your spending? How about a story.

There was once a girl so broke and bad with money, she had to drop out of college and face the real world. But, when she dropped out of college, she also started tracking her spending. Over just nine months, she was able to go back to school. One year after that, her credit card was paid off, while she was still in school. Two months after that, she had $1600 in savings.

If you’ve read any other part of this blog, you’ll know that girl is me. It all started with tracking my spending. It’s the crux of all I was able to do.

You won’t have to do it forever. And you can automate it, now or later, using online tools. But you simply have to have some way to tell if you’re making progress. This is where it all begins.

We’ll get into how to use this information later. The important part is that you start immediately, if you aren’t already doing this. Start with the next thing you buy, or the next bill you pay. It won’t kill you.

As college students, we don’t manage our money because…

• We think we don’t have any
• We don’t know where to start
• We don’t think it’s important
• We think it’s too hard
• We’re kinda lazy - I mean, it will work itself out, right?

Sounds like the exact same reasons we put off doing assignments for class. And we all know how well procrastination pay off there, don’t we? It’s the same for money - put it off, and it’ll bite you right in the ass.

The only one of those that might actually be an excuse is "I don’t have any money." But for most college students, I don’t believe that for a second. In 2004, 78% of undergraduates worked while they were enrolled, according to a brief by the American Council on Education [PDF]. Thanks to current economic uncertainty, I’m willing to bet that percentage is higher right now.

So, at least 78% of us have a job of some sort - which means there’s money coming in, even if it goes right back out again. But thanks to that aforementioned economic uncertainty, we have to shape up. No one else is going to take the reins of your financial future - you have to do it yourself.

How to Become Financially Savvy While Carrying a Full Class Load

Ok, I’m done pressing the doom and gloom. If you’ve made it this far, you’re ready to ask me, "How, Stephanie, do I take the reins of my financial future or whatever?"

To answer that, I bring you a new weekly series on PTY. Every Friday, a quick tip you can use to bring yourself closer to financial freedom. Carrying out these tricks shouldn’t take you more than 15 minutes a week, but it will have a profound impact on the rest of your financial life.

Is that too lofty a promise? I don’t think so. But you can’t prove me wrong if you don’t read the series! See you tomorrow.

Are you older, wiser, or already financially savvy? Share your tips and financial hacks in the comments. Show us whippersnappers how it’s done!

Two months ago, when I paid off my credit card, I came up with a savings plan for my newly freed-up money. In case you don’t remember, or haven’t read that entry, the idea is very similar to a debt snowball. Rank up savings goals in priority order, save a set amount toward each of them every month, and throw any extra savings money at the goal at the top. Once the top savings goal is reached, start throwing all extra money at Priority #2.

Here’s what my Savings Snowball looked like when I made it in August:

Two months later, here’s what things look like:

Some things you might notice:

Textbooks: I put more aside than I originally planned. As I was saving, I was also buying the textbooks for my first term of the year, and the bill was higher than I expected. So I put some extra cushion room into this account.

Student Loan Interest: This is now the main focus of the snowball. I’ll tell you, I never would have thought I’d make this much progress in only two months! I’ve been acting like a squirrel, hiding nuts for the winter. Soon my income will dry up a bit (it always does in November/December), and I’ll be glad I got a head start on my savings before then!

Getting Established Fund: I wish there was more here, but that’s the nature of the savings snowball - this doesn’t get focus until my student loan interest is taken care of. Still, things are on the right track, so I’m not too concerned.

Emergency Fund: If this number looks high, it’s because I already had it started before the savings snowball. Also, it’s fed by sources other than just the snowball!

Future Car Fund and Retirement: Chugging along! Once the student loan interest is done, I plan to increase the minimums for these. Maybe. It depends on how things are going at that point.

Flexibility

My savings snowball might not be perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. If at some point I decide, for example, that I wish I had put more toward Getting Established than other goals, I can yank money out of the other savings accounts and move things around. Nothing about this is set in stone.

Some people think I should put more toward retirement sooner. Or that my emergency fund goal is too high. Or that I shouldn’t work on anything except my emergency fund. But it’s working for me, for now, and I can move any of the money at any time, as long as it’s all just sitting in different savings accounts.

Which is the beauty of the savings snowball.

What do you think? Do my goals need adjusting? Are you ready to start a savings snowball of your own?

Look, the name "PoorerThanYou.com" - that’s tongue-in-cheek. I’m well aware that, simply by being an American, I’m in the top 15% of the world’s wealthiest. Poor as I am, I’m actually rich. And if you’re reading this, you’re probably rich as well. Don’t believe me? Check out just how rich you are.

But I already know how rich I am, because of the quality of the education I’ve received. I’m not even talking about the fancy college education that I’ve gotten into way too much debt for - although that certainly could be used as an indicator.

Rather, I can tell my relative wealth simply by looking at my elementary and high schools. Textbooks, teachers, computers, music classes, science classes, drama club… all courtesy of the New York State public school system.

Most of the nearly two–billion children in the developing world are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One in three does not complete the fifth grade.

-One Laptop Per Child, www.laptop.org

Is poverty a cause of poor education, or is poor education a cause of poverty? As best I can tell, the answer is: Yes. Both. It’s a vicious cycle. Poor schooling means little economic opportunity, and struggling economies can’t afford to build schools.

Many of you already know that I lead a group on my college campus called Students for Cambodian Schools. I haven’t been able to donate much money to the cause, thanks to my debt and all that. But debt - being "poor" in America - is no excuse for ignoring the real plight of others. Just because I can’t give money doesn’t mean I don’t have something to give.

Time.

Call this what you want: bleeding heart liberalism, white guilt, "#62 Knowing what’s best for poor people" … it is what it is. I implore you today, on Blog Action Day, to take a look at people that truly are Poorer Than You. And think what one hour of your time or one bill out of your wallet might mean to someone living in poverty.

The floodgate - I mean, the comments section - is open.

When I got my ducks in a row and decided to head back to school, I did the math, and figured that I could really only go back to school if I commuted from home. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to afford it. But those calculations were really just guesses - I had no idea whether it would really save me money or not.

More than one year later, the question is: was I right?

The Costs of Commuting

Even though I saved money on rent by living with my parents, I incurred the extra cost of commuting 16 miles to campus. This includes the cost of gas, the nearly $800 in repairs that my car needed during the school year, insurance, and little things like oil changes, inspections, and new windshield wipers. I did manage to keep the cost somewhat low by crashing on friends’ couches now and then.

Car costs and miscellaneous from living at home: $2,177 for the 2007-2008 school year.

The Costs of Living On Campus

If I’d lived on campus, I would have probably lived in same apartment there that I’d been living in, in 2006. The rent for that apartment was $3,060 for the 2007-2008 school year.

So already, rent vs. cost of commuting, I’ve saved money. But it keeps going.

Food! I guesstimated groceries at $120 per month, based on what I was spending when I lived in the apartment before. That’s another $960 for the school year.

And, even if I’d lived on campus, I still would have had my car. I have no way of knowing whether or not my car would have still needed all those repairs if I’d lived on campus, so I included them as a cost as well. I assumed about $25 a month in gas - I didn’t drive much when I was living on campus, but I did go to the grocery store and such. Car costs add $1,692 to the cost for the year.

Total costs for living in an on-campus apartment: $5,712 for the 2007-2008 school year.

Total Savings

$3,535

Case closed - I was right in the first place. Commuting saved me a boatload. In fact, the saving are even better than that: that extra $3,535 would have come from student loans, so I would have had to pay interest on that, as well.

One final note: although commuting can save a lot of money, I don’t necessarily recommend it for incoming freshman. Living on campus, on your own, is an experience that you can’t really put a price on, even with all this math. I moved back home because I absolutely had to.

If you can’t afford to live on campus, I would recommend picking a cheaper school before I would recommend moving home. That, unfortunately, was not an option for me.

My participation in the HP Freshman 15 giveaway is coming to a close. It’s been a ton of fun, and I’ve really enjoyed reading the comments you guys have put in your entry forms! You all have really great insights into the content that I made you dig through.

I hope the questions weren’t too hard! There were nearly 200 correct entries, so I think it was a nice balance of hard-but-not-too-hard. Also, I gave you second chance and third chances if you needed them.

So, who won?!?

Heather Brown is the lucky winner of the HP dv4t prize pack! She’ll be receiving all of the following:

• 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

And the following four runners-up will each get an HP Protect Messenger Bag (which is a pretty sweet bag, if I do say so myself):

Alain Lai
Rebeca Chirinos
Karim Turay
and Scott Campbell

I’ve emailed all of the winners, so if you see your name above, check your inbox!

What if you didn’t win? Well, if I don’t hear back from one or more of the winners, I will pick new names, so keep a keen eye on your inbox. Also, keep an eye on this site - this isn’t the first giveaway I’ve done, so I highly doubt it will be the last. Subscribe via RSS or email to get financial tips, stories, and future giveaway announcements delivered right to you!

Many thanks to everyone who entered, this was a blast! And don’t forget, there are 14 other sites giving away similar prize packs! Here’s the list:

• 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

Normally, I love doing my net worth updates. Mmm… tasty numbers and graphs! But September comes with a huge chunk of dread: new student loans! So, let’s see what the damage was this time:

Change: -$2,735 or -8.08 %

Oh, the agony! My net worth chart is starting to look a lot like the stock market. Alas, not much to do about it but keep plugging away at savings. Speaking of savings, how’d that go in September?

Cash accounts: $680 increase
This category includes all of my various savings accounts for my savings snowball. Goal #1, my textbook fund, is completely full and done. Now I’m working on Goal #2, my student loan interest. Next week I’ll go into more detail on how the snowball is rolling.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with September - as long as I ignore the huge debt increase. Such is life, and it will happen again in December, for the last time. That’s right - a degree is within my grasp, and the student loans will finally stop piling up. Huzzah?

For a look at my assets and liabilities, check out my NetworthIQ for September. For an explanation of the categories I use, check out the bottom of my entry about February’s net worth balance.