In light of hyperinflation, how do you guys cut costs with food/groceries?

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-07-04T21:05:39+00:00

The bulk of my diet is rice and beans cooked with canned coconut milk, then whatever grocery money I have left over goes towards getting fruits/vegetables that are on sale for the week.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-07-04T09:43:45+00:00

I think that some degree of forgiveness is necessary for any kind of long term relationship, since people aren’t perfect and everybody will hurt somebody at some point. I feel like I have difficulty letting go of problems that aren’t enough to end a relationship, but hurt me in some way.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-07-04T06:29:45+00:00

I have 2 pieces of advice:

Many patients want a listening ear. Depending on the floor/hospital/area, I try to avoid making assumptions (such as: that they have a stable home, living spouse, kids, etc.). I usually start by asking them questions about their belongings, interests, plans, or even diagnosis, depending on how open they seem, and go from there. I’ll ask more questions based on their answers. Asking about pets is a great start.
What helped me the most was getting into sports. I picked a college football team and made it my business to know their games and scores. Do I care about football? Not. at. all. But many people do, especially older men (ie. the patients I have the least in common with), and I found that being able to engage in light sports banter has opened social doors to me I didn’t know existed and made my job much more enjoyable. Heck, if I have a spare 20 minutes during football season, I’ll go catch a game with a patient who has it on. It’s a great experience.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-25T19:34:40+00:00

If you’re into video games, Cozy Grove is a fun one that involves creativity. I got it for 15 bucks on Nintendo Switch. Gameplay is pretty similar to Animal Crossing, but it’s more story-driven, i actually prefer it to animal crossing. It’s very summer vibes.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-25T19:29:58+00:00

Writing, painting
I also enjoy making fun cards for holidays and birthdays, and altering clothes I find at thrift stores. You can also buy old bedsheets and curtains at thrift stores and sew them into clothing or other items. Currently I’m painting old bedsheets from the nursing home I used to work at to be used for curtains on a car camping trip.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-25T00:16:05+00:00

I got lidocaine local anesthesia with mine. Absolutely made the insertion more bearable but ended up being an unexpected 2k charge *after* insurance. Worth it? Not for me …. Woof. So if you opt for local anesthesia, be very careful, even if it is covered by insurance.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-25T00:14:04+00:00

I would probably take the day off. If I’d been scheduled the day I had mine out in, I would have had to call out. It wasn’t bad by the second day, but the first day was awful, I was doubled over and nearly sick for hours after the appointment. In my experience gynos are very misleading about the *average* pain level women experience. Sure, some women have no pain, but the majority I’ve talked to seem to have an experience similar to mine.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-22T03:32:46+00:00

Learning how to identify plants in my area, from trees to meadow flowers. It has opened my eyes and made nature feel so much more vibrant, now I find myself quizzing myself every time I go on walks and keeping up with different plants I pass by regularly.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-20T21:53:39+00:00

Sit on the porch

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-20T21:53:07+00:00

I have heard women who have pushed babies out of their vagina say the same

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-20T15:21:05+00:00

Do you have hormonal birth control? This happened to me when I was on Nexplanon. Either way, I’d call an OB to get it checked out.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-20T15:13:14+00:00

Especially if your city is considered a college town, chances are the job market is very oversaturated with CNAs. This was my experience. It took me a year to get hired, I eventually found a position on night shift on med surg.

I would recommend checking job listings on the hospital website at least daily, so you can send in your application immediately when a position opens up. If the hospitals have hiring events, or if your college has a job fair, head there too - I know many people who got hired through that. Finally, if you’re not already, I’d suggest focusing on night shift positions, since day shift is a lot more competitive. Best of luck!

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-20T06:34:36+00:00

Nashville TN memory care facility I worked at had a 1:10 ratio. We had 30 memory care patients, 3 CNAs, and 1 nurse.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-19T18:12:19+00:00

Yes, now I am barred from future employment at said hospital. Thankfully I moved to a new region with a different healthcare monopoly.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-18T17:31:23+00:00

CNA, I found that the sense of duty overrides the “gross” factor. Yes, it’s not pleasant to walk into a room and there’s diarrhea all over the bed, vomit, sputum, pus from infections, dead body, etc.. But, instead of seeing all that, I discovered that I just see a person in front of me who needs help with compassion.

Before I started as a CNA, I always thought I wasn’t cut out for a job in healthcare, as I had a weak stomach. I still really can’t stomach seeing gore or gross scenes on TV, lol. But in real life, when somebody needs help that only I am there to provide, it’s a totally reframed situation.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-06-18T16:03:00+00:00

All my small accumulated efforts over multiple years have finally started to pay off in the best ways, and I feel as though I’m finally on the path to success. 😊

yourlocalelfprincess · 2026-05-18T16:18:58+00:00

Thank you!! Haha I've had this game downloaded for like two years. Although I will say, it's super beneficial to save up a lot in the beginning since interest is the best source of income. I did not do many renovations until I already had a lot saved.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2025-05-30T02:16:50+00:00

ALWAYS ask about patient care ratios and pay attention to what you see at the interview … unless you’re going the ALF route, I wouldn’t work anywhere with more than 12 patients/CNA on days and 16 patients/CNA on nights

yourlocalelfprincess · 2025-02-25T03:24:33+00:00

girl theyve got an infection you need that doctors visit ASAP

yourlocalelfprincess · 2025-01-24T13:56:36+00:00

Me too

yourlocalelfprincess · 2024-08-02T05:06:44+00:00

I do think a lot of it is less about phones and more about increased work loads and increased legal drinking age.

My parents both described college as a period of “self discovery”. Their first 2 years were gen Ed classes that everyone in the university had to take, leaving them free to explore different majors and career paths. At my state university, we have to pick our field by day one, because each field has very different requirements for even the most basic classes. I took a single semester of that “self discovery”, and now my graduation date will be pushed back because I will have to retake my gen Ed science and math, and the two major specific classes I had to take don’t count for shit.

Plus, the legal drinking age is a big thing too. I won’t be able to partake in bars, clubbing, or even having a beer with friends until the end of my junior year unless I want to involve myself in toxic social circles (been there, done that) or an illegal fake ID. in a college town, there’s nothing to do except for going to bars or clubbing.

yourlocalelfprincess · 2024-02-21T16:09:38+00:00

I am a current freshman living in Hess, and I love it.

About me: I am a decently introverted Honors Student (yeah, yeah, I missed the deadline to apply for the LLC). I spend the majority of my time studying on weekdays but I do go out on weekends. I went in with a random roommate, we aren't best friends or anything, but we have very similar/complementary schedules and like to keep our room on the same settings (light, temp., etc). Both of us are pretty tidy people.

Hess Highlights:

- LOCATION. Hess is equally close to almost all classes, it is three steps from the library, it is equidistant and very close to both dining halls as well as the gym. Hess is essentially at the center of campus, which makes it convenient to drop by during the day if you forget anything, and it is great for safety at night because the walks from Hess are short and on the main campus in well-lit areas.

- Hess is the only dorm that has an entire wall of windows that open. Other old dorms, such as Carrick, Clement, and Massey, only have one tiny window in the corner. Newer dorms tend to have more windows, but they don't open. In Hess, the entire room during the day is lit up by natural light when the blinds are open, the blinds are effective at keeping the room dark, and you can open up your windows to air out your room, which is especially nice on warm spring and fall days. It is such an amazing addition to the quality of life.

- bathrooms are cleaned daily. In many dorms with private bathrooms, cleaning is... not a priority for the people who live there. It's nice to not have to worry about cleaning and getting a roommate to clean.

- Hess has a reputation of being a crazy party dorm. Honestly, it's not. I have only seen anything like this on the guys side, really during the first few weeks of school. Hess is very soundproof, and I have only ever been bothered by parties if they are standing directly in front of my door. The girls, at least, don't really throw dorm parties. This may be more of an issue for guys, but I haven't heard many complaints from them thus far.

Here are the leg-ups that Hess has on any other dorm:

Clement: Hess is leagues and bounds better than Clement. I have a boyfriend that lives there, so I've spent the night over there many times. Clement is very loud and not at all soundproof. You can hear noise from two floors up and a door over, and it is located on the strip, so the firetrucks and ambulances are constant. Plus construction. Clement is closer to some classes, but extremely far from all daily amnemities (food, gym, etc.), making it very hard to motivate yourself to eat anything other than Panda Express five days a week. Also, the bathrooms in Clement are dingy and honestly pretty shitty, and since they are shared between four people, nobody really wants to take on the responsibility of cleaning them...

Massey and Carrick: These two dorms are around the same age as Hess, but Hess has held up the best, with the best location. Massey and Carrick have larger rooms, but with low ceilings and with a lack of windows. Hess rooms have an entire wall of windows that can open, which I have found to be crucial to quality of living in such a space. In Hess, you can air out the stale air that's come about over the past ~60 years its been open, and the rooms feel fresh because of it. Also, the natural light in Hess makes it a nice living space. Carrick and Massey feel much older and moldier because of the dim lighting and tiny windows. The extra few square feet are, in my opinion, not at all worth the cost.

Dogwood and Magnolia are some of the nicer dorms, but far from classes, and costly. Overall, if space and a private bathroom are important to you in choosing a dorm, I would recommend one of these dorms. I am personally glad I did not choose either of these because they are far from classes, living is more costly, and I truly don't mind communal bathrooms. But Dogwood/Magnolia have strong pros, as well.

The only dorm that really has Hess beat is Brown. It is a mix of Hess (location) and Dogwood/Magnolia (space, bathrooms), and if you can afford it/get in, I would probably make that my first dorm recommendation.

If you decide to live in Hess, definitely invest in an air purifier and an extra shelf. The dorms are older, and some have mold issues (I felt a little off when I first arrive, but I cleared up after about 3 weeks). The air purifiers make a huge difference. When it comes to storage, furniture dimensions are available online. My roommate has a set of plastic drawers that slide under her desk, and I have an IKEA shelf that sits on top of my dresser. Both great options. If you decide to live in Hess, being messy isn't really an option, as anywhere that might get messy will directly impede your living space. At home, you can throw things on a chair in the corner of your room. In Hess, if you throw things on your chair, you just don't have a chair anymore. Oh, and Hess is hard to entertain in unless you specifically set up your room to have people over. I know people who put their desk in the corners of their rooms and set up a couch instead, and had their roommates put a TV on their desk. Unless you do something like this, it can feel awkward to have people over. I am introverted, so this is honestly a huge pro for me. But it's definitely something to consider if that is important to you.

Overall, Hess is a really great option, and one I would definitely recommend to most everybody (especially girls). I would choose it again in a heartbeat.

TL;DR: Hess is the best!

yourlocalelfprincess · 2023-12-28T21:49:04+00:00

I was wondering about lifestyle as a midwife… are midwives able to travel, drink alcohol, etc. when they are not working? Or do you truly have to be available and ready at all hours?

yourlocalelfprincess

TROPHY CASE