Today was a beautiful, warm, sunny day.

All my tests are already over for the week, so I guess it wasn't too bad.

My cold has migrated to my sinuses. I hate to admit that I've been that one sniffly kid in the class on a few occasions. I'm trying to blow my nose as much as possible to just get it over with though. I hate the sniffly kid and I especially hate BEING the sniffly kid.

For awhile I was drinking Stash brand Chai Tea, cause I had a coupon for it, but now I'm back to Roundy's store brand, which is even cheaper than Lipton. I've never been one to by things just for a brand, and I definitely never want to be that tea-snob hippie that only drinks tea leaves that were pressed in house and brewed through a cute little draw string baggie - but there is definitely a difference between a $0.65 cup of tea and a $0.15 cup of tea.

I try to be super frugal all the time. I've cut my grocery budget to under $30 most weeks, and I've been trying not to buy things I don't need. I consider it a splurge when I get Jimmy Johns or Q'Doba once a month for dinner. The only time I've ever bought a drink at Starbucks is when I have a giftcard (which still has enough for one more drink on it...) And the way I look at it, is if I buy the Roundy's brand peanut butter that is $0.05 an ounce less than Skippy, that's $0.05 an ounce I have that I can use to pay back my student loans when I graduate.
And I know $0.05 here and $1.00 there adds up. If you look at how much money I've spent this semester compared to last semester I've spent about $200 less than I had at this point in the semester last year. For me, $200 is a lot of money. It's half a month of rent. It's textbooks (all of them if I look hard enough). It's money I can spend on gifts for people I like. It's money I can put towards my student loans in the 6 month grace period they give me before they start gaining interest. It's thousands of dollars I will save in interest.
But sometimes I want nice things. I want Eggo Waffles for breakfast and Frosted Mini Wheats instead of plain instant oatmeal even though a 42 oz carton of oatmeal is like... hella efficient for a poor college student. I want the $4 coffee-mocha-caramel-raspberry-frapachino-with-whip-cream.
... I want tea bags that don't leak ground up tea leaves into my mug...

And I know one day I will be at that point. I will eventually get to the place where my parents are, where $200 is chump change and if you want something you just buy it and the only time money ever comes up is when tuition is due and it's not a question of WHERE they will come up with $15000 at once but only WHICH ACCOUNT would it be best to take it out of for tax purposes.
I will have nice clothes that fit because I don't have to buy them off the clearance rack and say "For $7.50 this pair of jeans can be a little off," and I will have steak for dinner just cause I want it and a speedy little car that gets excellent gas mileage and a house with a back porch.