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

Tue Oct 16 17:12:55 UTC 2012

Good morning, Becky,

         I went to Metro for a briefest of whiles when I lived in 
Denver and Littleton, in '02-03. I would suggest, utilizing disabled 
students office. /Also, recruiting readers/tutors in your classes is 
usually an efficient means. Keep us posted okay, Becky?
Best of luck. Car, Berkeley, California/17/2012, becky sabo wrote:
>         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
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>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/carlymih%40comcast.net