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>> Liz Matthews: Hello, everyone.
We appreciate you taking time out today to join us for "Living
on the Living Allowance".
Before we begin today's session, I want to draw your attention
to a poll that is now open
in the lower right corner of your screen.
So just take a moment to answer these questions
because the responses will give us a sense
of whose on today's call.
So we invite you to participate in this session in several ways.
If you have questions for our presenter, you can submit them
at any time by using the Q&A feature
in the bottom right corner of your screen,
and we will do our best to work them into the presentation
or to address them during the formal question-and-answer
portion of this session.
Likewise, if you have technical issues, just let us know
through the Q&A feature.
We'll have plenty of time to answer questions that come
in through the Q&A and to take more of your questions
by phone later on in the session.
You can share your tips, resources,
and ideas with other attendees by using the chat feature,
also found in the right-hand corner of your screen.
You can send a chat message privately to the host
and presenters, but your message
to attendees will be visible to everyone.
So keep that in mind as you compose your message.
And if the chat becomes distracting,
you can minimize the window pane by clicking
on the small triangle to the left of the word "chat".
So right now, all the phone lines are mooted
to keep background noise to a minimum, but as said, later on,
we'll open the phone lines to take more of your questions.
So as you can see, we're on, we display the phone number
and the pass code in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
So if you do get disconnected, you'll be able to call back in,
and if you get disconnected from WebEx,
you can rejoin using the link
that was originally e-mailed to you.
Keep in mind, if you're interested
in hearing the session without having to dial in from a phone,
you can consider using a voice over Internet service
such as Skype or Google Voice, and by using your computer,
a headset, or one of these three devices,
you can participate fully
without using your mobile phone minutes or typing
up your organization's phone line.
So maybe that's something to keep in mind
for the next webinar that you participate in.
So as said, this webinar's being recorded and will be available
on the webinar's provost page of the campus along
with all the other sessions that we presented.
The slides for this presentation will be sent
in a follow-up e-mail along
with additional resources on today's topic.
So we will keep the conversation going for thirty minutes
after the conclusion of the formal presentation
to answer additional questions from the Q&A and to take more
of your questions by phone.
So we will begin in just a moment.
So welcome to this webinar for VISTA's "Living
on the Living Allowance".
I'm your host, Liz Matthews,
AmeriCorps VISTA outreach specialist here
at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
So we all know that addressing poverty
in your community is challenging
and managing your own personal finances can seem just as hard.
So today we'll be looking at what strategies have worked
for other VISTA's to manage their year
on the living allowance, and Mark Wilson,
an AmeriCorps VISTA Program Specialist here at CNCS,
will show you ways you can use budgeting to plan for success
as well as provide strategies for living on your stipend.
You'll also hear tips and stories from current members
and alums as they have figured out ways to cut costs
and live simply during their service year.
But before I introduce the team behind today's call,
I just want to take a moment to say that we recognize
that living on the living allowance and finances
in general are of a personal nature.
So each of you comes to VISTA with different resources
and debts, and your living allowance rates will
vary slightly.
Some of you may be supporting a partner or a child,
and some of you may have additional support
from a parent or a partner.
So for some of you, VISTA may be your first job
and your first time managing your own finances,
and others may have been managing your budget
for a long time.
So we just want to recognize these differences
and experiences, and keep in mind,
our presenters are sharing tips from their own experiences.
So our intention with this webinar is to help you be aware
of your resources and expenses and find tips
that will work for you.
Alright. So I am joined by Suzanne Knizner, Robyn Stegman,
and Michelle Bond, all from Campaign Consultation,
as you can see on the screen there.
And today's presenter is Mark Wilson, my colleague here
in Washington, D.C. Mark served as a VISTA for two years
with the Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland,
Oregon and then became a VISTA leader with Friends
of the Children, also in Portland.
So Mark is here now with CNCS as a program specialist.
So, Mark, I will go ahead, and turn it over to you.
>> Mark Wilson: Thanks so much, Liz.
And I think as we're starting to see from the poll,
and as Liz mentioned, everybody
on the call has a really varied experience going into VISTA.
The resources that you start your year
with are probably also really varied, and the resources
that you have access to might vary depending
on whether you live in an urban area or whether you're rural.
Whether you relocated for service,
or whether you started VISTA right out of college,
or whether you have prior budget experience running a household,
which is all to say the only expert
on this call regarding your personal financial situation
is you.
And so I know a lot of this advice might actually seem
to be common sense, and I can also remember
that that might be a little frustrating because we know
and I've seen as a VISTA alum that it can be a time
where you really struggle when you're a VISTA.
And so for me, from my point of view,
I'm hoping that this webinar will be a refresher
and a reminder that there are positive things that we can do
to support each other and also to support ourselves
and also a chance, a call to action to go
to the VISTA campus, see the resources there.
Go on the VISTA forums and see some of the money-saving ideas
that other VISTAs have posted in the past.
And to that end, I'm actually going to spend,
speed a little bit through some of the basic ideas and skills
that we're going to talk about, about maintaining a budget
so that we can get to the really good stuff.
So we can get to the part about the resources on the campus,
and then we'll also have some time to use the chat function
and use the dial in to do some resource sharing from everybody
on the call and to just collect some ideas
and brainstorm a little bit.
So we've invited Lara Roberts, who is a current VISTA
who is staring down the beginning of a second year
as a VISTA in Jackson, Tennessee, and she's going
to help us kick off that discussion later in the webinar.
So I know I'll feel like this call has been a success.
This conversation bleeds over into the campus forums,
and we're able to keep it rolling.
And so to that end, we'll talk about ideas
that you might do before you make a budget or just
in addition to making a budget,
and then we'll talk about budgets.
We'll talk about the campus, and then we'll share resources.
So, Robyn, how are we coming with first poll?
[ Pause ]
>> Robyn Stegman: It looks
like we do have the poll results available.
So I want to go ahead and go through that with everybody here
on the webinar, and it looks like the biggest area of expense
for everyone is housing at nearly 70 percent,
and that's not very surprising because that is true
across the country as well.
Your next biggest expense is transportation followed
by debt followed by grocery, and then a couple
of people do have, yeah.
And so then a couple people say they don't know.
So that's really good to hear because we will be able to go
through that when we're looking at our budget.
I know Mark has some good plans for us today.
And which of the following situation best describes the one
that you are in?
Almost 50 percent is the, I've supported myself before
and took a pay cut to become a VISTA.
So thank you for your responses to this poll,
and I will hand it back to Mark.
>> Mark Wilson: Thanks, Robyn.
So I'm actually going to start with a file from the chronicles
of really obvious research, which is to say, last year,
the University of Chicago did a study
where they set participants up in a game kind of like Monopoly
where some participants were given really good resources
and other participants had less money
and had less borrowing opportunities.
And so the really interesting but also probably obvious
to most of us thing that the University
of Chicago confirmed is that being poor is really stressful.
And also that fatigue builds up over time, and you can,
the worrying about money can lead, led the participants
in this study into making worse decisions and even led them
to borrowing more money from the bank in the game
than was productive because they felt
like it was something they had to take advantage
of when maybe it wasn't such a great way to get ahead.
And so that leads me to some kind
of unconventional advice about budgets.
Because another way to say what the University
of Chicago discovered is that the feeling
of having few choices can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So it's really easy to look at numbers on a page and feel
like you have nowhere else to go, and one way is
to look outside that page.
We all know budgets are really stressful sometimes,
to think about money all the time.
To take some time aside and really just take action,
to take those small steps that you can do right now
and make things better for yourself because a small step,
of course, is even better
than sometimes looking at a page of numbers.
So give yourself permission to not think
about those money problems during some parts of the day,
and then set aside time to plan, to think about those things,
certain hours so that you're not kept up at night with worry.
One of the really hard things during my first year
as a VISTA was that one of my friends showed up,
and she told everyone at the organization
that she was living off her credit cards, and that she had
to give her two weeks' notice to early terminate.
And I know it was really heartbreaking for a lot of us
because no one at our organization had any clue
about what was happening,
and whether we could have changed things or not,
I know we all wished we had a time machine
so that we could go back in time and help her out.
And, of course, the end of that story is she's doing awesome
now, and she went to law school,
and is a practicing lawyer in Oregon.
But the thing to remember is there are ways
that your sites can help you out.
That's something that we discuss with supervisors
at supervisor training.
And although it will vary whether your organizations can
have the resources to help you out because we know
that organizations that need VISTAs
to build their capacity might not have the capacity
to support a VISTA.
So leaning on your organization, talking to your supervisor,
being open about it, and, you know, talking with other VISTA's
if there's others in your area
so that you can be a resource for each other.
You know, share meals, plan entertainment together.
That kind of stuff can go a long way
to making the year feel less stressful, and,
of course, friends and family.
They really do want to help you out,
and it's really helpful before you're even thinking
about a budget to brainstorm a list
of all those resources you have, even if it's a silly list
or it's a list of distant connections
in your social network.
Because you can be really surprised
about what's out there.
And so -
>> Mark. If I can interrupt really quickly.
We do have some participants today
who are non-native English speakers, and they've asked
if we can just speak a little bit slower during today's
presentation so that they can, obviously,
get all the information that we have to share with them.
>> Mark Wilson: Absolutely.
Yeah. Thank you for that feedback.
>> Thank you.
>> Mark Wilson: So that leads me to talk about some
of the other small things from my experience.
To take stock of what you have,
and also of what you might be spending money
on that you don't need.
So, for instance, for me, I know that I have a problem
with when I buy my lunches at work, and I didn't need
to make a budget to know that I spend a lot of money on that,
and that that is something that I can do better
by making my lunches and taking them to work.
Another thing is I really admire people who can live simply.
There's some people who can, you know,
travel out of their carry on, for instance.
And one of my big lessons from being a VISTA was
that sometimes even cheaper free stuff has a cost.
So I acquired a lot of stuff from Goodwill
in three years of a VISTA.
That's a lot of cheap stuff.
And so I was living big on swag from Goodwill, and in 2008,
I had the best in technology and entertainment
that 1992 could offer, but the thing about living that way was
that it made it really hard to move when my rent went up,
and it was emotionally hard to get rid of all that cool,
you know, VCR's and VHS tapes that I had acquired in 2008.
So another horror story that I have is a friend
of mine acquired a free couch out of an alleyway,
and the scary part was that I was the one who was hanging
out in the living room when we found the first bed bug,
and that was really scary.
That story also has a happy ending.
We all got together and we bug bombed the place.
We got lucky, and that was all it took, but the moral
and the idea is that sometimes the, when things are free,
they're not always free of risk or free of costs.
It's easier to make big changes if you have a small amount
of stuff to work with.
So that's something to keep in mind.
So when those cringe worthy things happen,
it's really important to have built up a safety net
of your friends and family and other VISTAs and your co-workers
because they're the ones who are going
to remind you what got you excited
to join VISTA in the first place.
We all know we didn't sign up to do an easy thing,
and we didn't sign up to have an easy year.
So even at that low point in the VISTA life cycle that we talk
about at PSO, there's always something that keeps you going,
whether it's friends or supporters, and, obviously,
you're adding to your resume,
and you're seeing good things happen in your community.
My story is maybe a little unique.
My hardest year was actually when I finished VISTA.
It was the year after VISTA, actually.
And I can remember one week
where I was eating life boat rations
out of my disaster prep kit just to supplement my diet.
They don't taste that great, and that was in 2008,
and the only way that I could make that fun was to pretend
that I was bunkered down, like Will Smith against the zombies
in "I Am Legend", and that was a kind of a wake up moment for me,
and some of the reason that I got
into that budget situation was because I didn't plan ahead.
I didn't prepare.
I was actually too proud after I finished VISTA to reapply
for my SNAP paperwork.
And so when I first got a job after VISTA at $15 an hour
at half time, I thought it was the greatest thing ever.
I thought it was the end all, be all.
I was going to live high on the hog.
But, and so I didn't think of making a budget,
and I didn't plan ahead to see
that my expenses were actually rising faster than my income,
even though it seemed like I was getting ahead.
And so that's my way of segwaying into the idea
that if you're not tracking your money, tracking your budget,
you're not going to know if you're getting ahead
or getting behind, and as you probably seen,
the only good option is to get ahead
because if you're just coming out to 0 every month balancing
that budget, that's not going to be sustainable
because life is going to happen.
So I ended up having to make some really radical changes,
some big changes when that first year after VISTA hit me hard.
So I was able to lean on the good support of my friends
and family, and I actually ended up living on a couch
for several months and got a job that paid a little bit more,
and that was how I saved up enough money to move to DC
and take this job with VISTA headquarters.
So I had to make a choice
to let things get worse before they could get better.
The thing is I could have avoided a lot of that pain
and suffering if I had just been keeping a regular budget
because I could have seen that I was getting in danger sooner.
Which is to say maybe you do need a budget.
And so I know when I talk about savings, that might sound
like I'm talking about a unicorns and leprechaun gold,
because the living allowance isn't always conducive
to savings.
But the goal of a personal budget is really
to maximum the amount of money
that you're keeping from month to month.
If you make sure that your income equals expenses,
and everything comes out to 0, that's a great start,
but we all see that life is going to eventually happen.
So even if you're just setting aside $15 a month, $20 a month,
that might add up and be exactly the saving piece you needed
when an emergency happened.
The other thing about budgets is they can be a motivator.
So you can use a budget the same way a runner uses a stopwatch.
You can always keep track of what you're doing,
and always try to keep beating your goals.
So in addition to that, you can use it as a diagnosis tool.
You can use it to troubleshoot things,
to look at the problem areas,
and the small things that add up.
So like I said, I'm always awful about buying lunches instead
of fixing them, but at the end of the year,
seeing a four-digit number glaring me in the face
or each month seeing a three-digit number,
it's a really big motivation for me to fix my lunch,
and I'm getting better about that all the time.
But, of course, we also know that a lot
of us have trimmed all those little things,
and a budget can also help you make a difficult decision
because as we saw in the poll, there are a lot
of big-ticket items,
and sometimes those are hard to change.
So, for instance, the average cost of owning a car
in America is $9,000 a year, and that's an average.
So that's factoring in uncommon expenses like maintenance,
you know, sometimes you buy a new car
or you might have an accident.
So, clearly, no one who is doing VISTA can afford $9,000
in one year.
So we cross our fingers there won't be an accident,
and we make fewer trips, and we carpool,
and we might ask the people we're carpooling with to help
with gas money, but those major problems, those sporadic,
those uncommon problems, they're going to come eventually.
So taking a hard look at a very difficult to change part
of one's life, because it's hard
to rearrange how you're using your car,
but taking a difficult look at it, that might be the only way
to move forward, and your budget will tell you whether
that is one of the major areas
that is preventing you from moving forward.
So another example.
I'm sure many of you have heard
that the VISTA living allowance is based on the poverty level
of the county that your site is in.
The only, that's only part of the story.
The other part of the story is
that your living allowance is based, to the best that we can,
on the HUD fair market housing rates also for your county.
So the living allowance assumes that you're living
in a two-bedroom apartment, and you have at least one roommate,
and the more roommates you have,
usually the more affordable your housing is going to be.
So we do our best to see
that that two-bedroom apartment divided by two is
about one-third of your budget, but that's impossible
in some high-rent areas,
and some of you might know about that.
So cities like New York City, the DC metro area,
and areas in Southern California,
we know that VISTAs sometimes spend up to sixty percent
of their living allowance on housing.
So that is to say we know it's a big piece of your budget,
and sometimes it takes a difficult decision
to at least make sure that you're
in that two-bedroom apartment with one other roommate.
So we have a second poll.
[ Pause ]
And so that is have you taken the time
to create a written budget.
>> OK. So just give me one second,
and I'll have the poll results for you.
So I appreciate you giving us some really clear examples,
Mark, especially, you know, the couch example.
Sometimes free is, you know, not the best thing,
depending on what you find.
And, alright.
So here we have some poll results.
It looks like the good news is that the majority
of people are taking the time to have created a written budget.
So that's really great news.
>> Mark Wilson: That is really heartening news.
So a lot of you are better off than I was
when I finished my last year of VISTA.
And so one of the things to keep yourself motivated
about that budget, I'm sure a lot of you are doing this,
is after you write the budget, you post it somewhere visible
so that it can be a reminder to stick to it,
or it can be a reminder to see
where you're getting ahead or getting behind.
It's important to use whatever works for you, and so if writing
on scraps of paper works for you, that might be good.
Keeping a budget sheet in Excel might work for you.
There's free software or there's services like Mint dot com.
There's a cheap software called Maybe You Need a Budget.
Those things are things to maybe look into if
that is what might work for you.
So we also have a simple budget calculator on the Living
on the Living Allowance page of VISTA campus
that we'll show you in a little bit.
It's best to do your budget frequently,
certainly, on a monthly basis.
You start with the amount of money that you had available
at the beginning of the month, and then for most of you,
if you're getting paid directly from CNCS,
you look at the net pay for one
of your living allowance statements after tax,
and then if you double that, since it's a bi-weekly,
that'll give you a good idea of what your monthly income is.
That's not perfect because the pay is bi-weekly, and,
of course, you know, your rent and things
like that tend to be monthly.
So, for the most part,
most months have two pay days, but some have three.
So if you're planning for two pay days each month,
that'll also help you get ahead in those months
that have three pay days.
If you're planning it the other way around and planning
to always have three pay days, you might end up behind.
That happens to a lot of people,
but we also have a link to the pay calendar.
So you can see exactly
when those every other week pay stubs are going to come for you
on the VISTA campus as well.
And if you're receiving other types of assistance,
such as SNAP, commonly known as food stamps, you can look
at that similarly to how you see income,
and add it to your income line to get a total amount
of money you bring in every month.
Because we know that the "S" in SNAP stands for supplemental.
So you're going to end up using money out of your pay for food
at the end of the month if you qualify for SNAP
because we all know that, you know,
that around $150 a month per person doesn't last very long.
A month, it comes down to about $4 a day,
which is very difficult to do.
So if you're, one other thing to keep in mind is
that VISTA does not withhold state and local taxes,
and so I can't give you tax advice, but I can tell you
that if you live in a state with income tax, you're going to have
to think about setting aside money for tax day in April.
So I did my service in Oregon.
It has an income tax.
I usually got a refund federal,
but I always owed money for state taxes.
And so the good news is that there are all kinds
of free resources around tax season.
There's VITA, which is the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
Program, and we'll have links to that as well.
There's also offers of free tax software for people
who make below a certain income.
So there's certainly resources to help that tax time
to become easier, but setting aside a little bit of money
if you live in a state with an income tax is really important.
And, of course, you can go onto My AmeriCorps portal
and take a look at which taxes we are withholding,
and what your living allowance looks like by going
to My AmeriCorps dot gov.
So we're looking at these spreadsheet grids,
and we certainly don't mean to imply
that you don't know how to create a budget.
Again, this is a reminder and a refresher.
Many of you are working with organizations
or even helping your beneficiaries create budgets,
but the thing is forcing yourself to write things down
and seeing what you spend might lead you to see ways
that you're spending money that you didn't expect.
It's definitely different than keeping in your head.
So when it comes to expenses,
you want to list those fixed monthly expenses first.
Those things that you know are always going to come
to $375 a month for rent, $150 for car payments.
If you know your utilities tend to fall around $30.
Things like that.
Your cell phone.
Those expenses that are very, very predictable,
start with those, and then if you have debt payments
such as credit card debt,
that amount you pay each month is also an expense,
and you always want to make sure you're paying the minimum, but,
certainly, it's always better to pay more than the minimum.
You can look at, compared to those fixed expenses,
you can look at expenses such as food, which varies from month
to month or clothing or entertainment or gifts.
Those things you can fiddle with, those things you can play
around with and change and raise and lower
and see exactly how much you can distribute those.
How those compare.
So that's why we arrange expenses in those general areas,
like housing, transportation, utilities, communications,
debt payments, food, and then entertainment
and personal expenses so that you can see some
of those things are really hard to change and some
of those things are easy to change.
[ Pause ]
So some other refreshers about living on a budget.
So it's really a way to compare your income and the resources
that you have with the expenses
that you expect to have each month.
You want to review it every so often.
Certainly every month.
Some people do it every week and make adjustments to make sure
that you have a balance between what you're spending
and what you're taking in.
The goal of budgeting is to make it so that you can live
within your resources and to always avoid going
into to debt if you don't need to.
So checking in is important.
If you go over your budget one month, you know,
don't beat yourself up.
You can get back on track by cutting one
of those flexible areas of expense the next month.
You know, life happens, and you just have to be fair
to yourself and be flexible.
If you're constantly going over budget, that's a red flag,
and so you want to keep a record
of everything you spend during the next month maybe
so that you can really pin down what is hurting you
and what is making you go over.
So if you go over, you know, the best you can do is
to take a deep look at what's happening
and to trim excess spending and keep trying.
And so whatever tracking system works for you,
whatever record keeping, filing system works for you.
I personally, I don't keep every receipt,
but I certainly always look at what I'm putting
on a credit card and make sure I have enough money
in my checking account to pay it off at the end of the month.
Having those regular bill-paying habits, whatever works for you.
If you have bill pay through your online bank account
or whether you keep a file next to the door
where you know all your bills are, and you pay them
on the last week of every month.
Just making sure you have the system that works
for you is important, and not beating yourself
up if your system is different than other people's.
Just making sure that you do what you need to get ahead.
So I think I mentioned there's online resources.
There's the VISTA campus with the budgeting piece,
or you might just use a spreadsheet and pen and paper.
The goal is to keep track however you need to.
Certainly, you want to keep a close eye
on your checking account because if you bounce a check,
that's another expense, that's another ding against you.
And to, of course, avoid using credit cards
as much as possible.
We know that that's not always the easiest thing to do.
If you do use a credit card,
you want to track it the same way you would track
spending cash.
Some people keep a Post-It note in their purse or wallet.
Some people actually write
in their checkbook the same way they would write
as if they were writing a check so that it looks to them
like the amount of money they have
in their checking account is subtracted from the credit
that they're spending.
[ Pause ]
So when I was a VISTA, my big credit card hit was actually
when my pet cat, Hope, got pneumonia, and it ended
up in a really difficult decision.
I actually ended up using a low APR deal I had from my bank
on a credit card, and the thing is the fine print is always
going to get you on any of those deals.
And so I knew that was the case, and I knew I was taking a risk.
So I paid my minimum, you know, every month.
You know, that was the first thing I paid every month
because I knew if I didn't pay it, I'd be even worse off
because if you don't pay the minimum then you might get hit
with an even higher interest rate.
The fine print almost always says that.
And so I had to make a difficult decision
in a difficult situation because we had emergency vet bills,
and sometimes the vets have credit plans,
and that was something we looked into as well,
but I went into that situation with my eyes wide open,
and I paid attention to the risks.
It took me a few years to pay it off, but it was worth it for me
because even though it was risky, our cat, Hope, survived.
She got better, and she's actually really thriving.
[ Pause ]
So we're actually going to segway
into taking a quick look at the VISTA campus.
So as you know, you log in through the log in.
You hopefully have an account because if you register
for an account, you can participate in the VISTA forums,
which I think is the most useful part
of the whole website, personally.
And then as you log in, you've probably seen this before.
You get this bookshelf for Life as a VISTA,
and in the center square, for those of you who remember
"Hollywood Squares", the Whoopi Goldberg square,
there's the living allowance section,
and then in the bottom middle square, there's finding help,
and so we're going to zero in on those two really quickly.
So on the page you get to when you click on living
on the living allowance, there's a course of, in Flash for living
on the living allowance, that's the one with the calculator
for you to help work on your budget and gives you an idea
of whether you're getting ahead or getting behind.
There's also a link later on for the living allowance calendar,
statement information, and then jumping over to finding help,
this is where you can see what types
of options might be available to you if you have an emergency
in the VISTA handbook.
The VISTA resource board is really great
about giving you ideas about how to live on the living allowance.
There's also some common questions answered
about [inaudible] health care or about the child care.
And then if you go into My AmeriCorps dot gov,
you can see your pay statements and living allowance,
and then there's also forums like from lost to found
and the V Café and the Dollar Store where you can share ideas
for living on the living allowance.
[ Pause ]
>> Great. Thank you.
It looks like we've just come to briefly a brief freshen period.
So if this is [inaudible] the Q&A below, they should be able
to ask any questions that you have for the presenter.
So if you have questions, put them in, and it looks
like at the moment we don't have any questions in the Q&A,
but we will be answering questions throughout
the presentation.
So if you have them, please feel free to use that as,
to communicate with the presenters.
[ Background Sounds ]
>> Mark Wilson: Well, thanks.
I'm actually seeing some cool ideas jumping up there
where someone turned to living,
the living allowance into a game.
That's a good way to make it more fun to look at that.
And we are going to talk now with Lara Roberts,
and so she's a current VISTA serving at the Alliance
for Technology Access in Jackson, Tennessee.
So, Lara, or Lara, what tips do you have
for the other VISTAs on the line?
>> Lara Roberts: Hi.
First of all, I'm a first-year VISTA, and I will be signing
on for a second year in August,
and to complement Mark's experience,
I'm from a rural area versus the urban area.
So here in my area, I want to give you some tips on how
to save on groceries, things like gas, phone,
toiletries, entertainment.
What I would consider necessities.
And the first on groceries, what I have found locally
at my grocer is they have manager discount specials,
and those are labeled with orange stickers.
Those are usually found along the edges and the produce
and fruit section, meats, dairy, breads.
Things like that, things that are perishable.
They're perfectly fine,
and usually just the sell dates are coming up.
So we usually stock up on those.
Get loaves of bread for 79 cents and freeze them.
Whole mushrooms and freeze those.
Anything pretty much can be frozen.
I also like to buy whole chickens or leg quarters.
Boil them down, break them down, and prepare meals ahead of time,
and stick them in the freezer,
and not only does it save you money,
but it also reduces the likelihood
that you're going to go out to lunch.
So usually in the morning I'll just grab something
out of the fridge or freezer, and I'm good to go,
which is another good way to save
because when I first started here, I found that a lot
of the staff members wanted me to go to lunch to kind of get
to know me and that sort of thing,
and it didn't take very long for me
to realize exactly how much money I was spending on lunch.
So now I'm pretty cautious,
and I try to bring my lunch every day.
Maybe once a week I'll go out just as a treat.
The next thing is gas.
Actually, the same grocer has a discount program.
So every $100 that I spend
for my SNAP benefits I get ten cents off at the pump.
So what I try to do is accumulate those points,
spend the full, you know, $200 that I'm allowed through SNAP,
and then maybe once a month or, you know,
once every three weeks I will fill my tank
up using those discount points.
So I'll save twenty cents off at the pump.
So I get the most for the benefits and for,
my SNAP benefits and for the discount.
The next thing, the phone is I switched to a prepay phone
where now I get unlimited -
>> Wally.
>> Lara Roberts: Unlimited talk, text, and sorry, guys.
I get unlimited talk, text, and Internet for $45 a month,
and you can also go online and get a refurbished phone
so you don't have to buy one at full price, which is what I did.
Actually, it uses AT&T carrier [inaudible] towers.
So I have great reception.
No problem.
The next thing that I'd like to talk about is toiletries.
And I looked up, and I found a Laundromat
that ally provides the laundry soap
and fabric softeners and that stuff.
So if you can, look around.
Hopefully you'll find a similar Laundromat
that you can take advantage of that.
It really does add up if you don't have a washer
and dryer at home.
And also I think that a big misconception is
that people think you have to use name-brand soaps, shampoos,
lotions, that sort of thing.
The reality, just the dollar store version is just as good.
So I save there.
And if you don't feel comfortable at a low,
like a dollar store, you can try the closeout chain stores,
which is name-brand items.
They're just marked down for clearance.
Entertainment is a big one that I think a lot
of people don't consider a necessity,
but let's just be real.
As VISTAs, we get stressed out, and I think that it is,
especially for us, just to have that outlet.
I'm a library nerd.
I love the library because of, obviously, you can get movies,
you can get books, you can use the Internet there,
like I don't have Internet at home right now.
I go to the library or I use it at work.
You can also check the community events board.
Here in our town, we have dinner and a movie that's on the square
that they actually block off a street, and a movie's shown.
It's free.
You take your blanket, and it's a good time.
There's also groups online that, which there's a VISTA group.
What I use is meet up dot com, and there's actually a lot
of different VISTA groups across the country that use it where,
you know, maybe once a month, you'll get together
with other VISTAs for coffee or just whatever.
Just go out to the park just to have social time.
So. There are lots and lots of other tips
that I know we're kind of running short on time.
So I will just pass it back over,
and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak today.
>> Liz Matthews: That's wonderful.
Thanks, Lara.
I must say, I am impressed with everything you've said,
and the chat is really entertaining, too.
To call out Amy, we may have to have you lead a session here.
You make your own laundry soap and your own beer.
So that's fantastic -
>> Mark Wilson: And long walks which actually -
>> Liz Matthews: Yes, and long walks -
>> Mark Wilson: That was a lifesaver for me
because at the Native American Youth and Family Center,
if you went out the front door, there was a highway.
If you went out the back door, there was a wildlife refuge.
>> Liz Matthews: Oh, nice.
And that leaves me to just share
from my VISTA experience quickly.
This is Liz.
I worked at a domestic violence shelter in Southwest Louisiana,
and, obviously, that was stressful for many reasons,
and once the director of the YMCA learned
that there were two VISTAs in town,
he gave us a free membership, which was fantastic.
And the other thing to think about is what is it
that your sponsor site does.
What is the mission of your organization?
We had a full kitchen, because the women lived there.
So we were able to eat meals and do our laundry there.
And if they don't offer, go ahead and ask if that's possible
because we're [inaudible],
your sponsorship should be supporting you
in any way possible.
Alright. So, Robyn, do you want to, are there any more tips
that you want to highlight in the chats?
>> Robyn Stegman: There's been some really great tips
that have come through the chat people are giving right now.
Information about ways to eat on the cheap.
So somebody suggested buying a whole chicken, which is cheaper
than buying cut up chicken in parts
and making meals off of that.
We've had suggestions of going to Goodwill
to get tennis rackets to go out and play tennis.
There are some great tips coming in now just
about different places that, different places and products
that VISTAs can use that are -
>> Mark Wilson: Yeah -
>> Robyn Stegman: Portable.
>> Mark Wilson: Patrick says teamwork makes the dream work,
and so he and his roommates saved money to buy an xBox 360,
which sounds pretty extravagant for a VISTA.
Actually, some other resources you might use for video games.
There's the Humble Bundle, which you can give any money,
and it actually goes to charity
to get independently made video games.
For music, many libraries have free to download mp3's.
It's part of the library services,
and it's called Freegal.
F-R-E-E-G-A-L.
>> Liz Matthews: Nice.
I'm feeling like I got cheated
because I served before the Internet was really a big deal.
Well, I had Robyn.
What else do you have?
>> Robyn Stegman: There's also a lot of sharing,
you know, economy things.
Like I'm trying to remember the name,
but there's actually, what.
[inaudible] Oh, well, I was thinking
about time banks are a great example of ways
that VISTAs can both get services because they,
time banks basically allows you to give an hour of your time
to the community and then the community, you can spend
that with somebody who will give, you know, an hour back.
So it's a great way for VISTAs
to get more resources while also meeting new people
in the community.
So they can do something, like, helping with yard work
and in exchange get, you know, vet services
or whatever is out there.
>> Mark Wilson: So Laura Bradshaw's tips is beans
and rice go far, and actually they can go really far
if you're buying those staples, and you have enough time
on your hands, which is the hard part.
I've seen a website called the Hillbilly Housewife Emergency
Menu, and we'll send that link out.
She has a $40 menu to feed an entire family,
but the trick is you've got to wake up early to start working
on the soaking those beans, for instance.
>> Liz Matthews: You can always do it overnight.
This is great.
OK. Well, let's move quickly through the next couple
of slides so we can open up the phones and hear from you all
and not just read your suggestions.
So go ahead and take a moment now to fill out the evaluation.
We really appreciate it when you all do that because it helps us
as we continue to improve our webinars
with each one that we conduct.
So thank you for taking the time to do that, and just a reminder
for your call to action.
So you're going to review all these money-saving tips
and options that have come up during the course of the calls
through Mark and Lara and all of the tips in the chat.
You're going to perhaps maybe make a plan.
Maybe take a little bit more stock
as to what you have been spending your money on.
Keep track of that, and start a budget.
Remember that the VISTA campus is there for you.
Please utilize it.
We spend lots of time creating resources there for you,
and we love it when you use it.
So check out the campus resources, and use the forums.
We see people exchanging recipes all the time in there
and other tips for living on the living allowance.
So watch out for the follow-up e-mail that will contain all
of this information that we've covered today.
So this concludes the formal part of the presentation,
and like we said, we'll open up the phones.
So please stick around if you'd like to continue the dialogue
and get more tips for how you can make your living allowance
stretch even further.
And also keep in mind that we are having another webinar
on Tuesday, July 9th, and the focus
of that one is resume writing.
So you may be, in your service year, you may be at the point
where you're starting to think about what you're going
to do next, and you're struggling
with how are you going to be able
to capture what you're doing into your resume in order
to get a great job after your VISTA service is over.
So if that's the case,
please tune in on Tuesday, July 9th at 2:00.
So I just want to say thank you to Lara for being a part
of this webinar and to Mark for all of his great tips
and to everybody in the chat room
and everybody who's been participating.
These sessions are much more interesting
when we get to hear from you.
So why don't we go ahead and open up the phone lines.
>> Thank you.
At this time, if you would
like to ask a question, please press star 1.
Please unmoot your phone, and record your first
and last name when prompted.
To withdraw the question, you may press star 2.
Once again, please press star 1 if you'd like to ask a question.
One moment, please.
[ Pause ]
>> Robyn Stegman: Great, and while we're waiting
for questions to come in, we can still kind of look at tips.
There's been some great ones that have come through.
One of them is to be sure you let your community know
who you are and what you're doing, and that's a great tip.
I know, and I don't know if others have had this experience.
For instance, I had a community shop keeper
who would give me all the day-old bread and then cheese
that was, like, a day past its expiration but was still good.
He would always, I would drop by, and he would have, like,
a huge basket of bread and cheese for me for free,
and that was a great way that, to get food,
and he did that because I had talked to him about the fact
that I was a VISTA, and he knew the work
that I was doing in the community.
And so he was more than willing to help out.
And I think you find a lot of people in the community,
even something small like taking you to dinner.
Are willing to help out during your year of service.
>> Liz Matthews: Robyn, that's a great point,
and I think it's not just about getting free stuff.
It really is about helping to spread the word
as to what AmeriCorps VISTA is,
and a lot of people don't realize the work
that you all are doing in your communities.
So while we try to market AmeriCorps VISTA
from our angle here, it really is so helpful
to everybody involved.
The more that you can tell folks
in your community what AmeriCorps VISTA is,
what it is that you're doing, the more awareness that is built
around the program, and the more support, not just in helping you
as an individual, but supporting the program overall.
So that's a great point.
Thanks for bringing that up, Robyn -
>> Mark Wilson: So one resource
that I don't think is very well known is,
they're called food ministries,
and so these are sometimes non-profit or sometimes, well,
they're non-profit groups that operate, like, Wal-Mart or WinCo
or Kroger might operate.
They get food at a discount at wholesale rates,
and then they mail it out to people who sign up.
And so you can get a lot of non-perishable food
from a food ministry each month for pennies
of what you'd be spending normally.
And so I added a link to the chat about food ministries.
So you can actually have packages mailed to you,
and they even have vegetarian packages
or gluten-free packages sometimes.
It's really a cool resource.
>> Liz Matthews: I like what somebody else said.
Grow your own food if possible.
I definitely had my first garden when I was a VISTA.
Not only was it fun and relaxing and a stress reliever,
but you also had results from your hard work,
which were wonderful to enjoy.
So that's -
>> Mark Wilson: And one thing is that SNAP is designed
in such a way that you can buy seeds
for planting your own garden with your SNAP dollars -
>> Liz Matthews: Oh, wow.
Very cool.
Any calls that have come in on the line?
>> Yes. We do have a question from Janna Kicknasum.
>> Janna Kicknasum: Yes.
I just sent a question into the host.
It's got to do with both presentations today
and last week.
During the webinars, we're being told that we will receive a copy
of a PowerPoint and sometimes additional information
from a speaker, and I'm not receiving any of those,
and I'm just curious as to how long it will be before we get
information from today's,
and how do I check the previous webinar that took place?
[multiple speakers] with motivating volunteers.
>> Liz Matthews: OK, great.
Thank you for your comment, our question.
So it does take us at least a week to get the recording
and make sure that it's 508 compliant and put it
up on our website and send it out.
So that might be why you haven't received the one from last week.
So make sure that for the, the one this week,
give us at least a week to process that.
If you haven't still received it,
are you receiving the notices for the webinars,
the e-mail addresses [inaudible] -
>> Janna Kicknasum: Yes, I am receiving those, but -
>> Liz Matthews: OK -
>> Janna Kicknasum: The speaker for the last webinar
on volunteer motivation was going
to send additional information, and that sounded
like it was going to be paper,
and we've never received anything.
>> Liz Matthews: Well, you wouldn't, you mean in the mail?
>> Janna Kicknasum: No.
Internet.
>> Liz Matthews: OK.
OK, yeah. Because we wouldn't be able to mail [inaudible] -
>> Janna Kicknasum: Well, no, no.
I don't think, you know -
>> Liz Matthews: You can also -
>> Janna Kicknasum: A document.
>> Liz Matthews: Sure.
You can also get the information, we'll put the link
in the chats where all these webinars are hosted
on the campus.
>> Janna Kicknasum: OK.
>> Liz Matthews: And folks at campaign,
did you have anything else you wanted to add to that?
>> No. I mean, we are [inaudible] as you said.
It takes us some time just to get the recording
and the supplementary materials,
like we do send out the chat and Q&A.
So that's probably why you haven't received last week's,
the PDF for last week's webinar.
It does usually take us a week, but you'll get it.
>> Janna Kicknasum: Thank you.
>> Liz Matthews: Thank you.
Thanks for being a regular webinar attendee.
We appreciate it.
Any other questions on the phone?
>> At this time, there are no further questions.
>> Liz Matthews: OK, great.
For those folks managing the chat, Robyn, Mark,
any others that we want to highlight.
OK.
>> Mark Wilson: Well, let's see.
Cary O'Keefe writes that they use the YMCA
and the sliding scale there for their gym membership.
>> Liz Matthews: Nice.
That's good.
>> Mark Wilson: And I think we got another tip from Michelle
to host a clothing swap.
>> Liz Matthews: Oh.
That is good.
Make sure people are invited that are your size
because I've been to one, and it really wasn't that helpful.
I gave a lot of stuff away, but.
Alright.
>> Michelle: This is Michelle.
>> Liz Matthews: Yeah.
>> Michelle: Just know also that I have been sharing some tips
that we've also gotten
out of our previous webinars on this topic.
So they're also being put in the chat,
and then when we have the transcript,
we'll send that out with the materials.
So there's a comprehensive list.
>> Liz Matthews: OK.
Super. Alright.
Well, thanks everybody.
We really are grateful for all that you're doing
across the country, and while it may seem difficult at times,
these money-saving tips will last you a lifetime.
We have colleagues that still take Greyhound
and are living off their living allowance even though they're
now earning salary.
So -
>> Mark Wilson: You're talking about me, aren't you, Liz?
>> Liz Matthews: You and some others.
So, and they are benefits that last a lifetime.
So thanks, everybody, for participating
and please be patient with us as we get the materials organized
and send it out to you in the next week or so.
So take care -
>> Mark Wilson: Thanks, everyone.
>> Liz Matthews: Thank you.