Feeling poor

Fox is feeling very poor this month. You see, in the underfunded public midwestern university that Fox attends, graduate students are paid only 11 months per year for tax purposes and August is the month that he does not get paid. And the stipend here isn't exactly fantastic to start with, compared to what he could have received as a graduate student in a private university in upstate New York. *sigh*

To save money, he has converted his individual phone plan to a family plan with two other grad students, thus saving $30 per month. When one has to make do on $1250 per month over 12 months after tax, every dollar counts. It doesn't help that the price of gasoline is so high now.

On the bright side, the graduate education here is wonderful and better than he ever dared to hope.