Happy Friday: A Students Frugality
Our local newspaper, The Patriot-News, published a special section honoring “The Best and Brightest” students from around our area. Out of the copious amounts of materials my son submitted with his entry, they did not choose to focus on his academic achievements, his volunteering, or even the fact that he is graduating from high school at the age of 15. No, what seemed to impress them was his frugality: He is great about earning money on Swagbucks, especially Swagbucks TV (silently in the background, of course) while he is working on the computer. We now have $300 in Amazon money stockpiled for his textbooks.
He is careful with his spending money. He goes grocery shopping with me, so he keeps an eye out for gift cards and movie ticket deals (like the one General Mills recently ran). When he buys gifts for friends, he frequently goes the homemade route. Recently, one of his female friends had a birthday, and he went to the craft store with me and picked out some fabric so I could make her a scarf (she loved it and made him a hat for his birthday).
P.S. If he wins, the Amazon card goes straight into his college book fund!
HAPPY FRIDAY!
Do you have a funny, “Hip”, or unique photo to share?! Email us at happyfriday@hip2save(dot)com. Every Friday, I will post one photo, submitted by you and/or another Hip2Save reader, that gives us a glimpse into your frugal lifestyle or simply makes us smile. If your photo is published on Hip2Save, we’ll email you a $10 Amazon e-card! 😀
What a nice young man. You must be proud. He would make a fine son-in-law!!! I have six daughters!
lol!! 🙂
Sorry — he wants to be a priest! His thriftiness should help there, too….
Well, we need good priests so I won’t complain but maybe there’s an older brother!
Very Awesome!!! I am very happy for you and your family!!! Congrats!
Okay so if your a priest you can not date sorry I never been to church in my life just wondering
That’s right — the way it works is that he is “married” to the Church, like Jesus is married to the Church. If you look in the Bible St. Paul talks about those who forgo marriage for the sake of the Bride, the Church — he was talking about priests and religious. Hope that helps!
sounds like collin should start the “hip” dating service.
LOL too!
That was supposed to be directed for JLP and Sarah H.!
When he’s old enough, I think he needs to run for President!
Congratulations, John-Paul, from one Patriot-News reader & couponer to another!
Good for him! It sounds like he is going to do very well in life. Keep it up John-Paul!
That is awesome! Congrats!
Awww this one made me tear up a little. I hope my sons turn out to be such great people.
Yay! I think this is great. It’s important to start a new generation of savers and making the most of the dollars we earn!
Is he a seminarian? That’s great! 🙂
Not a seminarian — too young :(. However, he will be majoring in philosophy and theology with a view to entering the seminary in four years, God willing.
Sarah, that’s fantastic! Fr. John-Paul! Thanks be to God!
Someday to be Fr. John-Paul, I mean 😉
Thats awesome! You should be sooo proud! ^-^/
This is so cool! Way to go, John-Paul. You are awesome! You spread this around to your friends, cause holy cow does this world need help with its money management skills. Also congrats on graduating high school early. 🙂
Wow – Congrats to John-Paul ! I am so pleased he won !
Best of luck to this young man. May he succeed in all of his endeavors.
That is a great story, and your son sounds amazing. You must be very proud!
Congrats John-Paul!
Congratulations! What a wonderful testimony to family & faith this young many is, along with being a good steward of his resources.
If they send a link to the article to Swagbucks they might get additional Swagbucks. Or if you see a TV spot that mentions Swagbucks you can send that link to Swagbucks to. I saw one of our local TV stations show a news segment that mentioned ways to make money at home and mentioned Swagbucks, so I emailed the link to Swagbucks and got 100 Swagbucks.
That is a very remarkable young man. Sounds like he had great parents teaching him and he listened.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful glimpse into his life.
I would be very hesitant to bring it to Swagbucks attention an article that talks about him earning swagbucks for “watching” videos even though he isn’t actually “watching” them. That is clearly a violation of the spirit of Swagbucks videos. Am I the only one who sees the irony of a young man wanting to devote his life to God and yet his mother is bragging about how he cheats on Swagbucks videos?
I just LOVE the point you made! I thought I was the only one thinking that same thing! Gotta love how “all is right in the name of the lord” unless someone else is doing it, and then the other person is clearly wrong!
Religion just makes my skin crawl.
I’m sorry if I have in any way been a stumbling block toward the two of you or anyone else. Based on your comments, I have examined my behavior and still don’t believe it is dishonest or contrary to the “spirit” of SBTV. There is a mute button on the videos, so, obviously they don’t care if you have the volume on. The page does not require it to be viewed maximized, so you can work on one program — say, Word — while viewing the video. The bar progresses after the ad (which cannot be forwarded through) but not AFTER the video (which can be forwarded through). Finally, it does not require “attentive” behavior as the videos from Inbox Dollars or Zoombucks does, which require you to enter numbers which flash during the ads.
Again, I am truly sorry that you have an issue with this. I did write an extensive note explaning my child’s frugal behavior, and this was one small aspect of it (I understand that they needed to edit for space). If your issue is more with the fact that he wishes to pursue a life of service, I cannot comment. I’m also sorry if I appeared to be bragging. I am proud of my son and the choices he has made; this is not a sinful pride, but rather one of happiness which causes no harm to others. Also, anon., I didn’t criticize anyone in any of my comments.
What a wonderful young man … spiritual, smart and thrifty! You must be so proud. Congratulations on being such a great mom, and setting a good example. He’s definitely a gem.
Congratulations! So nice to have good news in the paper. A wise young man who will definitely impact our world with a positive light.
I love this story!
Congratulations John-Paul! We desperately need more young priests. It’s refreshing to read something so positive about a teen instead of the usual negativity we usually read in the papers.
Good for you, John-Paul! You have a bright, future ahead of you. God bless you and your parents!
Congratulations John-Paul! You have a geat jump-start in life.
What a wonderful young man with appropriate priorities – God and wise money management. Both will contribute greatly to your peace of mind and spirit. God Bless you John-Paul!
Go John-Paul. I am impressed with everything about you. Keep on keeping on! And Collin, thanks for sharing.
What a great kid!
John Paul….thank you for being one of the few and far between in our younger generation not obessed with the media, and fads. My husband brought me into the Catholic faith this Easter and I will never forget what a wonderful experience it was and still is. If only I knew back then what you know now. Your frugalness and being in good faith with God will always pay off. In my opinion there is nothing more valuable than a young man becoming a priest, the Catholic faith really needs it. Keep up the great work!
“In my opinion there is nothing more valuable than a young man becoming a priest…” ???
In my opinion, becoming a doctor and curing canser would be more valuable 🙂
Sorry, I didn’t want to diminish his achivements, but I’m not a big chirch goer. Anyway,
Congratulations John-Paul!!!!
Yes, curing cancer is extremely important. Becoming a doctor….depends on the doctor and their morals?? I would suppose that you may think becoming a lobbyist or a lawyer could be more important too. Nothing is more important than helping make the right choices to do good in our world and going to heaven.
I agree, Sara. We need the priests desperately. And for those of us that believe in “the life of the world to come…” yeah, I’d say the potential influence a priest has on a soul is pretty darn important.
I agree, too. Both have their important roles — but they are complimentary. The doctor works to heal the body, while the priest works to heal the soul. Obviously since the soul is immortal, whether or not it is healed before death is MUCH more important. The priest can be God’s instrument to feed and heal the soul unto eternal life, while the doctor can, of course, only prolong this temporal life, which although wonderfully important, is only really helpful insofar as the soul is being healed, too.
Congrats, Sara!!! I am a lifelong Catholic and I hope to bring my new husband back into the fold. Please pray for us! I will pray for you!
What a lovely and accurate response! We discussed something similar with a younger sibling this morning. Primarily, it is important to do what God is calling you to do, and to do it well, whether it is the priesthood or something else. However, there are thousands of doctors working to cure cancer, and perhaps one day it will be eradicated. The chances of him making a substantial contribution to this is slim (ok, none, because he has no gift for that!). As a priest, the chances of him ministring to someone with cancer and their families — of helping people in a difficult time and preparing a soul for Heaven — is incredibly high. Really, what’s the more important job?
Of course we will pray for you, and for all of the people who have commented. And for Collin and her crew — what a wonderful thing they are doing!
Wow, what amazing accomplishments at 15 years old! John-Paul definitely has a great future ahead! Congratulations!
OT: I went to Target today and was browsing the baby section trying to find a gift for my Aunt who is having a baby and I cam across 6 gdiapers on clearance for $9.98 original price was $79.98.
what an amazing kid
I googled and came across this: https://www.pennlive.com/high-school-life/index.ssf/2011/05/john-paul_heil_best_and_bright.html
You are amazing, John-Paul
I tried doing the Swagbucks TV and only earned 3 SB for watching 10 videos which took about 30 minutes although I had them running in the background. Is this the norm or is there a trick to it? 😉 I love Swagbucks, but haven’t really tried to earn anything other than by doing searches.
Great story!
I looked at the clipping for awhile trying to figure out why it was funny and then read the write up below. lol Collin has posted so many funny things lately I just assumed it would be a typo of some sort. Glad it wasn’t – very encouraging!
You don’t need to watch the video the whole way through. Keep your eye on the green progress bar. As soon as it moves, start up the next video. It usually moves fairly soon after the ad it shown — they want you to watch the ad, they don’t really care if you watch the video! I usually “watch” the same videos over and over (Pet and Nature — Emotions in Pigs, etc — because they are acceptable for children to watch.), and I have done it so often, I can usually tell when the progress bar will move.
That is so awesome!!! What great values and what a smart cookie!
a great frugal textbook site is bigwords(dot)com. i have used them for my many years of college and have always paid waaaaay less than anyone else in my class. best of luck to you in school – keep pinchin’ those pennies 🙂
Great story. I just wonder if his computer gets stuck all the time like mine does. I keep the movies on in the back ground constantly and my computer gets stuck probably 10 or more times a day.
I’m from MD and I have a couple friends who just graduated from Mt St Mary’s! Thats too cool!
What an impressive smart young man. I hope he wins. He would surely have my vote!
Not only am I proud of John-Paul, but excited to see my alma mater on my favorite savings site! Go John-Paul and Go Mount!
Love it! Way to go, John-Paul! Way to go to his family for teaching him how to be frugal! Yay!!!!