[nabs-l] need some help with readers/ tutors

[becky sabo]

	Hi everyone,
I was wondering if any one could help me out or give me some suggestions for
school.  I am struggling in school.  I graduated with my AA this summer from
the community college of Denver than I started this fall at Metro state
University.  My DVR councilor stop paying my reader and she had to quit
because of financial issues.  I am trying to fine new readers but I do not
know how to go about that any help would be great.  I started out doing full
time but I was failing one of them so I dropped it now I am hurting in my
other classes and I do not want to drop out but I do not know what to do.
My mom and dad have been helping me but they said they can not help me
because they are retired but I do have other disabilities and school is very
hard but I want to successed.  So my question is where do I go or what to do
next'
Thanks again.
Becky Sabo 

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arielle
Silverman
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2012 2:51 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] Budgeting

Hi all,
I think keeping a monthly budget is a good skill for all students to learn.
I will describe the method I use for my own budget. You don't have to do it
this way, but I do think it is important to have some formal way of tracking
how much money you have and how much you can afford to spend on a weekly or
monthly basis. I think this is especially critical for those of us on fixed
incomes. Once you have a budget, you will be able to tell not only when you
need to cut back on your spending, but also when you are "ahead of the game"
and can afford to spend a little more.

Before creating your budget, I suggest looking at your past three bank
statements and noting a few things. First, note exactly how much money you
get per month, from all regular sources such as wages from a job, SSI,
checks from family, scholarship funds, etc. Also, note all expenses you have
that are mandatory or non-negotiable that come up every month, such as rent
and bills.
I keep my budget as an Excel spreadsheet and when I used to have a Braille
Note, I kept it on that. First create an entry titled "income"
and enter your total monthly income into that cell. If for example, you earn
$500 each month from wages, and an additional $500 from Social Security, and
this happens every single month, you would put
1000 into the income box.
Below that make an entry called "fixed expenses" and add up all of your
bills and other non-negotiable expenses you have to pay every month.
Examples might include: rent, utilities, Internet charges, cell phone bill,
doctor and pharmacy bills, etc. Note I don't count groceries as a fixed
expense because even though buying groceries is required for survival, the
actual amount you spend on groceries is flexible and can be changed from
month to month, whereas the amount you spend on your cell phone bill is
generally the same from month to month. You might want to designate a
minimum grocery payment as a fixed expense to make sure you've set aside
some money for groceries, and then allow yourself to spend more than that
minimum on groceries if you have extra discretionary money (see below). For
our hypothetical example of the person getting $1000 per month, suppose that
person pays $400 monthly rent, $50 utilities, a $75 cell phone bill, $50
Internet bill and $25 to refill a prescription medication.
That person has a total of $600 in fixed expenses per month.
Once you have carefully added up all your fixed expenses, subtract the fixed
expense total from your total income. What you have left is "discretionary
money" which you can spend on anything you want. Our hypothetical person has
$400 per month in discretionary money that he/she can spend on whatever. You
might choose to further divide your discretionary money into more
categories, for example, giving yourself
$100 to spend on clothes, $100 for groceries, $100 for transportation and
$100 for other stuff. It is really up to you and only you know what kinds of
things you like to spend your money on. The big key is just to make sure
that in a month you don't spend more than what you have available for
discretionary spending, so this person should not spend more than $400 per
month on optional or discretionary things.
Now, this next part is really important. Once you have your budget and know
how much leftover money you have for discretionary expenses, every time you
buy something, even if it's just a $5 lunch, go back to your budget and
subtract that amount from what you have designated as discretionary money.
That way, you will be able to see right away if your funds are getting low
and can make a decision not to buy that new party outfit, etc. If, however,
it's almost the end of the month and you still have quite a bit of
discretionary money left over, you can treat yourself to something nice
without feeling guilty, because you will know that you will still have
enough money left to get through the rest of the month.
If I have discretionary money left over at the end of the month, I will put
that extra money into a category called "savings". Once my savings adds up,
I can use it for bigger expenses, like taking a trip.
If you have money saved from previous months, you won't have to dip into
your discretionary fund for the current month when an occasional big
expense, like a trip, comes up.
The budget is also really helpful for making decisions, like whether to move
out of one's family home or whether to move to a cheaper place. If you are
putting lots of extra money into savings each month, then you can probably
afford to pay more rent, but if you are perpetually running out of
discretionary funds before the end of the month, then it might be time to
cut back either on the discretionary expenses (i.e. not buying a coffee
every day) or on the fixed expenses (i.e. by moving to a cheaper apartment
or cutting back on the cell phone plan).
In order to make the budget work, it is important to be good about setting
it up on the first day of each month (or whenever your payday
is) and then recording each and every time you spend money. Keeping regular
tabs on your checking account and any credit cards you have will ensure you
don't miss an expense.
I know this sounds complicated, so I'd be happy to talk more off-list or by
phone. I do think it is a worthwhile thing to do in spite of the minor
hassle.
Best,
Arielle

_______________________________________________
nabs-l mailing list
nabs-l at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
nabs-l:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/beckyasabo%40gmail.com