A Buck A Day!

Well, I am going to count and deposit my change at the end of this month, so it will show up on the totals for April.

I think I have a pretty good chance of reaching my goal of $1 per day this month because of the Sirius/XM merger, since I have about 40 shares of Sirius for this blog that will be affected. I currently have a sell trade set up if the stock reaches $4.65. The shares for this blog were purchased in 5 increments of $2.84, $3.02, $3.80, $3.81, and $3.95. So I will make a small profit for this blog, if a sell is reached.

I am also looking for some ways to recycle magazines, I have 3 magazine subscriptions which gets me about 7 magazines per month. I am looking for a way to be green and make some green.

The worm thing is very interesting and helping me protect my identity. I am able to shred the credit card offers that I get in the mail with all of my information on it and feed it to the worms.

By the way, the totals for the worm experiment are as follows.

$2 plastic barrels (bought 2 but only needed one, the coca-cola company sellss their old barrels for $1, plus I own stock in them)
$10 8 dozen worms (dillie variety since I couldnt find the red wiggler variety locally)
$12 extra organic dirt
$23 Containers, these will be used to sell single doses of compost tea mix, I got 100 containers.
So so far I am down $47 for the worm experiment!

I will be selling some items on ebay and will be giving 10% to this portfolio, to help keep the principal growing, so I can make more money!

As of right now, the portfolio ha made over $1 for the month, but that is mostly due to stocks, that could all change in the last week of the month.

This post will be updated periodically as needed. If you remember, I started the work project for two reasons: to make money and to do something Green!

So...on this post I will keep track of how much has been recycled or saved from the landfill!

To start out:
2 tires
2 plastic barrels
1 newspaper
1 pc of junk mail

March 20th
3 pc of junk mail
coffee grounds
coffee filter

March 24th
Some brown lettuce that I forgot to eat in the fridge, about 1/4 pound

April 2nd
about 4 cups of green ruffage from when I was cleaning some vegetables

April 17th
Coffee grounds
2 tea bags from Starbucks (I had a cup of tea for lunch) *How many other worms do you know of that get Starbucks! LOL

April 31st
1 newspaper
3 pc junk mail

Many people (including me) primarily use a debit card, credit card, or check to make everyday purchases because our paychecks are electronically deposited into our accounts at our favorite banks. We may be losing the advantage of one of the oldest and easiest savings methods there is.

If you were to go to the bank right now and take out $50 to pay for small ticket items, like a coke, snack, toll booth etc.. you would have a pocket full of change at the end of the week! In most cases you would have close to $5. Let's say you put all of your change into a jar and didn't count it for 3 months. After that time you would have about $60 to invest! That's $240 a year!

What I do, like I said, I hardly ever use cash, so I go to the bank and ask for $50. I then use that money to buy lunch, bottled water (it's $1.25 so I get .75 cents everytime) etc... Every night I put my loose change into an old Coka-Cola piggy bank that I have had literally for years. Every 3 months (when I receive my dividend check from my credit union) I roll up the change and deposit it into my savings account! My change is now making me interest and I don't miss any of it!

*Note*
Depending on your where you are depositing your change you will take it in loose or it has to be rolled with your account number on it, call before you go to your back. Nothing sucks more than having to unroll $80 in pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters so that it can be put into a coin counting machine!

Let me know if you do something like this or do it better!

UPDATE 3/11/08
Yesterday alone I was able to put $2.59 into my change bank and so far today I have got .53 cents back from the post office!
Makes you want to bend over and pick up that penny huh!

Also, today I will be taking advantage of my "day off" (I have to go in for about 2 hours) and I will be building my worm beds. I was able to find 8 dozen worms. more on that later, I will post pics of the process!

I am trying to decide what to do with the $25 I have in the money market account.
I am thinking about buying a share or two of PBT, a royalty stock that pays a monthly dividend (it would cost $4 to move it but, if I did would set the dividends to be put into the money market account instead of being re-invested)
-or- I could use it to add to the personal loan account and collect a monthly interest dividend
-or- I could leave it where it's at and collect the monthly dividend amount?

Another option would be to add $25 to my investment account, and add another $25 to my personal loan account? That would cost me another $50 this month which may be unrealistic for many college students to do every month? hmmmmm....what to do?

Here's a solution, this month my job is offering to give me $4 for each credit card application that I receive. I will see how much money I make from that and use that income for this blog, instead if just giving it a cash infusion. This way I am taking advantage of a promotion that is being offered.

Many college students (me included) get a part-time job at a retail outlet while in college to help pay bills. That is why I feel that I am able to include this post into my blog, because a large number of students have the same option. I know that Sears, Lowe's, and Dillard's all have this promotion. I am sure that other retailers offer this also. Now, I usually don't get the minimum to get paid, (we have to get 5 credit apps) but I have gotten as many as 27 in one month! (that would be over $100 if I can do it again) So I will be trying really hard to get some this month.


I will post my results next month and I am also trying to locate some cheap worms for the worm bed and a large plastic barrel, I was told to try the local Coca-Cola plant, they may give me one or two for free!

If you have any ideas on what I should do with the $25, let me know, I might just do it to see what happens!

I had a great idea for a small money making business (I hope).

I was trying to find something that I could do to help the environment. (I was actually going to buy a solar phone charger off of ebay) I was looking on ebay for ideas, solar power, wind turbines, etc..... then I came upon vermiculture! That is where you have a worm/bed and you put shredded paper and food scraps into the worm pile and they eat it. After a while, you have organic matter for your garden, since I just planted my herb/tomato/onion garden last week, I liked this idea. Plus...since I do a lot of stuff online, I am always printing items off, giving me an abundance of paper.

So I decided I was going to do it, all I need is the supplies, I already have dirt! I need some containers, (I am sure I can find some barrels in my grandpa's scrap pile for free) All I really need is the worms, (and I am too busy to catch my own) so I went to the bait store to buy some worms, THEY WERE OUT!!!!!!! I told the old guy what I wanted the worms for and he said that if I can get a colony started, he would buy all of his worms from me!!!! (The red wiggler type, not the night crawlers)

So here is my thinking....I recycle paper and food scraps......saving them from the landfill, and I get worms to sell! From the little research that I have done so far, it shouldn't take much capital to set up and hardly any to maintain.

I will post a list of items needed to do this, a business plan, how much this is costing me, and the plans and pictures of me building my home made vermiculture farm.

From what I have read, you can do this on a small scale in a house -or- garage and won't take up a lot of precious time. So, there you go, let me see if I can make some money and save the planet at the same time! If you already have tried this, send me some tips or insights!

I actually started out with the intentions of just helping the environment, then the money bug hit me when I found a small niche that I could inhabit.

I am a little disappointed to report that my Garage Sale Experiment failed horribly for me. I sold absolutely nothing ...but... my mother and grandmother both made over $1000 each. Oh well, off to the drawing board.

How I got to these totals:
If I had $12,251 in msft stock, i took the $251 and left the $12,000 off, same with the savings account, money market account, and personal loan account. I consider it reasonable that a student could have some money in some type of account already, or even a piggy bank at home, and hopefully through this blog, we can get students invested in the economy and not just storing cash in their mattress.

My Savings Account: $256.24
My savings account is though a credit union that you must be a relative of to get in, I got in through my Great-Grandfather a few years before he died.

My Investing Account: $672.40
I hold positions in General Electric, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, AT&T, Napster, & Sirius Radio. All of my dividends are automatically re-invested into these companies.

My Money Market Account: $25.79
This is handled by the same company that handles my investment account and at any time I can move this amount into my investment account to purchase stock.

My Personal Loan Account: $238.82
Currently Loaned: $206.02
Waiting to be Loaned: $32.80 * does not make any of interest while waiting.
Thanks to Prosper.com I am able to make loans to individuals and make a lending fee off of each loan. If you want to join Prosper let me know and I will send you a link and we will both get an extra $25.

So...The Grand Total is............(drumroll please)...........$1,193.25

My Goal is to increase this amount by at least $1 per day for at least a few months in roll. We will try experiments about making money and trying new things and old ideas...(I am thinking about a lemonade stand in the next few months to just see who profitable one would be)
If you have any ideas, let me know, I want to try it!