Welcome to the Economical Academic! EcoGeoFemme and I decided to start this blog as a forum for discussion of anything and everything finance-related for a wide-range of academics. Why was I interested in a forum for this? (I will let EcoGeoFemme speak for herself :) Because I increasingly find myself frustrated with the financial limits and sacrifices of being a graduate student – wondering how other students get by, what I could possibly be doing wrong (or right), and generally just looking for a place for people to say “Hey! Yeah! Me too!” Whenever I post about money on my own blog, I invariably get lots of comments from other academics, mostly grad students, in similar situations. Somehow, though, in my real life, I find finances to be an “off limits” topic of conversation with other graduate students. Despite the fact that we all make roughly the same salary and have the same expenses. This is something I’ve whined, er blogged about semi-regularly. And don't even get me started on all of those friends of mine in the "real world" with houses and careers started a decade before mine will be!
But financial woes or considerations are not limited to graduate students. Just today, as a matter of fact, Bright Star reviewed a book on her blog regarding the ins and outs of Universities and their use of certain types of labor, as well as advocacy for those providing the labor (that is a harsh summary that doesn’t do Bright Star’s post justice so you should check it out for yourself.) Bright Star directs her readers to Styley Geek’s post on payscales for academics.
I will also admit that this blog has been in the plans for an embarrassingly long period of time (Hey, we’re grad students, y’all know we’re swamped.) So why did I finally get my act together today? Because yesterday was my pay day. I got my pay direct deposited into my account. I subsequently balanced my checkbook and paid all my bills. Imagine my excitement to find a whole $70 leftover with which to purchase food, groceries, and anything else I need until my next pay day in two weeks. The thing is, this isn’t unusual for me. Thankfully, I’ve managed to learn to be satisfied with this amount of disposable income, and somehow I’ve even managed to spin it into some type of competition with myself to not use my own credit card. I admit, this is ridiculous. But then, I’m not alone. In fact, food prices have risen so much in the past year that the increase is even beginning to change Americans' eating habits. And let’s not even discuss the cost of gas lately!
So here is a forum to vent, share tips, vent, get information, vent, and generally discuss the financial aspects that arise in academia (or just in life, really!) To get us all started, here are some recent conversations and comments around the blogosphere. We hope you enjoy this blog and find it useful. Please contribute if you would like to do so – maybe we can all lend one another some great advice and support.
I don’t know if there is any kind of broke like a grad student broke. You’re an adult, but financially you live like an undergraduate (depending on your funding situation and location, of course.) I think that when anyone posts about their financial difficulties and challenges they deserve some kudos for putting a difficult topic out there. Didi at Appropriately Stressed blogged recently on the lows of bank accounts, and finds the leap year
adds insult to injury (actually the same thing happened to me and I had to put off groceries one more day, which meant pasta for one more day for me as well.) Sisyphus blogged about living in a graduate student environment when you’re sick of it but can’t afford the investment of improving it (also something I experience all of the time.)
A lot of people posted in general about finances and benefits in academia. EcoGeoFemme discussed compensation as a graduate student which is a complicated issue depending on what perspective one takes: Are we students? Are we employees? Some hybrid in the middle? Do we deserve to accrue holidays and sick time? Female Science Professor waits for reimbursement while Flicka Mawa at A Cat Nap discusses bureaucracy and cash and Science Mama blogs about childcare expenses. Amanda blogged about taxes, and mortgages and adult stuff like that, with an added twist of sexism for fun.
Also going around the blogosphere lately were lots of money resolutions, like those of EcoGeoFemme and Dr. Crazy. History PhD student offers a suggestion about a quick way to make extra cash. Finally, Zen Habits had a great post on improving finances (and generally has lots of posts involving money.)
But financial woes or considerations are not limited to graduate students. Just today, as a matter of fact, Bright Star reviewed a book on her blog regarding the ins and outs of Universities and their use of certain types of labor, as well as advocacy for those providing the labor (that is a harsh summary that doesn’t do Bright Star’s post justice so you should check it out for yourself.) Bright Star directs her readers to Styley Geek’s post on payscales for academics.
I will also admit that this blog has been in the plans for an embarrassingly long period of time (Hey, we’re grad students, y’all know we’re swamped.) So why did I finally get my act together today? Because yesterday was my pay day. I got my pay direct deposited into my account. I subsequently balanced my checkbook and paid all my bills. Imagine my excitement to find a whole $70 leftover with which to purchase food, groceries, and anything else I need until my next pay day in two weeks. The thing is, this isn’t unusual for me. Thankfully, I’ve managed to learn to be satisfied with this amount of disposable income, and somehow I’ve even managed to spin it into some type of competition with myself to not use my own credit card. I admit, this is ridiculous. But then, I’m not alone. In fact, food prices have risen so much in the past year that the increase is even beginning to change Americans' eating habits. And let’s not even discuss the cost of gas lately!
So here is a forum to vent, share tips, vent, get information, vent, and generally discuss the financial aspects that arise in academia (or just in life, really!) To get us all started, here are some recent conversations and comments around the blogosphere. We hope you enjoy this blog and find it useful. Please contribute if you would like to do so – maybe we can all lend one another some great advice and support.
I don’t know if there is any kind of broke like a grad student broke. You’re an adult, but financially you live like an undergraduate (depending on your funding situation and location, of course.) I think that when anyone posts about their financial difficulties and challenges they deserve some kudos for putting a difficult topic out there. Didi at Appropriately Stressed blogged recently on the lows of bank accounts, and finds the leap year
adds insult to injury (actually the same thing happened to me and I had to put off groceries one more day, which meant pasta for one more day for me as well.) Sisyphus blogged about living in a graduate student environment when you’re sick of it but can’t afford the investment of improving it (also something I experience all of the time.)
A lot of people posted in general about finances and benefits in academia. EcoGeoFemme discussed compensation as a graduate student which is a complicated issue depending on what perspective one takes: Are we students? Are we employees? Some hybrid in the middle? Do we deserve to accrue holidays and sick time? Female Science Professor waits for reimbursement while Flicka Mawa at A Cat Nap discusses bureaucracy and cash and Science Mama blogs about childcare expenses. Amanda blogged about taxes, and mortgages and adult stuff like that, with an added twist of sexism for fun.
Also going around the blogosphere lately were lots of money resolutions, like those of EcoGeoFemme and Dr. Crazy. History PhD student offers a suggestion about a quick way to make extra cash. Finally, Zen Habits had a great post on improving finances (and generally has lots of posts involving money.)
6 comments:
Thanks for the links! I definitely think this topic is worth its own blog. Finances are hard to talk about in my department partly because we have different funding situations and different family circumstances that result in some people having a much harder time than others -- but nobody feels like they are making enough.
I'm always looking for ideas for saving or making money that relate to academia. For example, overpriced books. When my professors assign several expensive texts, they encourage us to look for "deals" online, but buying several books for $40-50 instead of $80-100 is not a good deal when you have no extra income. I feel like between area libraries, xeroxing, and borrowing, I have become quite good at rarely paying for books. But I wish faculty were more aware of our incomes when they assigned piles of seriously expensive texts.
I'll link to you and check back for more..
This is a great idea for a theme for a blog!
I have to say that transitioning from a career back to full time student life did initially take quite a toll on finances...
Now my problem is more about having enough money for airplane tickets (and time to fly far away).
I try to help my grad students by putting articles online for free on a password protected site in .pdfs rather than charging for course packs. The books are usually about $30 / each new, and I only assign one or two... I do try to be aware!
Cheers to you both!!!
I am working on teaching a lecture on personal finance to my critical thinking students becuase sadly, no one teaches us how to manaage money or save.
I think it is improtant for women to become comfotable with finance and investing, so I would love to put my two cents in. Also, I did Bankruptcy law during my attorney days.
Great idea ladies! I'm really looking forward to reading this blog. I'm pretty obsessive about budgeting and I have been for the past 5 years or so. When I started grad school this year, I didn't get paid until 6 weeks after I moved here. My partner didn't find a job until the end of September. We had *no* money in September. Realizing the severity of our financial situation, the two of us together spent only $1242, of which $800 was rent. We were able to pay my credit card balance with the August moving expenses in full at the end of the month with only $20 to spare. Budgeting is very important to stay out of debt- and good luck doesn't hurt either.
I love the new blog! (And thanks for the link)
Great idea for a blog! I'm not an expert, but it shocks me that so many grad students and academics are financially illiterate.
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