I’ve been dropping the ball on Cheapion posting, but in an effort to procrastinate, it’s time for me to start back up. While I had originally intended to do a few early posts on moving to a new city, cost/benefit analysis on joining coops, etc., I will start with “Ways to get free things from your university,” in case any of you are also trying to mooch as much as you can from a school. This is an acceptable alternative even if you’re not a college/grad student, as you should be taking advantage of these free things if you live near one. I’m talking to you, Boston and Philly people—Philly apparently has 70 institutes of higher education in the greater area, and Boston has more. That’s crazy. That’s a lot of free lunch.
Now, here are some tips:
1) Get onto every list serve there is. These list serves are like cash money—they advertise free lunches. For example, I am on the Annenberg one, the Political Science one, the Center for East Asian Studies, the Graduate Student Events, and I generally check the blogs related to the University. (Perhaps a future Cheapions post will be about finding the best city-related blogs...)
a. Make sure you quickly figure out which ones simply serve pizza and which ones have tasty salad bars, brownie cups, etc. Just like in the last post—you have to be selective, kids.
b. Like Heesa and Caitlin, I also don’t take responsibility if you get Type 2 Diabetes
2) Investigate your free transportation options. For example, we can ride a free little shuttle bus, call Penn Transit (they’ll pick you up), or even have someone walk us home. I guess the last one isn’t that enticing until it’s really late at night, but hey, safety matters too, especially if that safety is free.
3) Scope out where the free things are left
a. Our grad student center, for example, offers free coffee and tea at all times. They don’t have milk, which is a problem, but a solvable one—there are cafes nearby that have free milk out near the coffee. Now that’s problem solving.
i. There is a sign that basically says, “don’t be that d-bag who takes all of the tea”—so I’ve actually resisted my hoarding tendencies because I respect the foresight to put up the sign.
b. Free condoms in the student health centers and the grad student center
4) Get Amazon Student—it’s free two-day shipping for a year. That’s delightful, Amazon, thank you. For those of you thinking, “that’s almost enough to motivate me to go back to school!”—don’t fret, you still don’t have to. All you have to do is have a .edu email address. Thanks, Wes, for letting us keep those forever. I registered w/ that one long before I got the Penn email address.
5) MOVE-OUT DAY. While Caitlin and Owen can speak even better to the bounty they got from Brown’s move out day in the spring, it’s important to begin your thought process about move-out days. For example, I’m not buying a bike yet since it’s 1) not a pressing need and 2) I’m thinking that May will be the time that people unload big purchases for little money, and I want to get in on that. So, while it’s a ways away, this is perhaps the best thing the universities in your town are offering to you, Cheapion follower.
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