Maintaining a Reasonable Budget

In college, with little previous experience handling money, it can be very difficult to handle and manage money effectively. Here are some tips that I have learned over the course of my time here on campus.

• Eat on campus as often as possible
• Have a set weekend budget
• Do your research
• Keep emergency funds/ don’t be impulsive
• Separate business from pleasure

One tip for students that live on campus or that have meal plans is to actually use them! Though eating at the dining halls every day can bore your taste buds, it is the economical decision to make. If you’re already spending the money on the meal plan, why not get your full monies worth out of it? Saving the $5-10 for each meal on campus rather than running to Wendy’s or Whataburger will quickly add up. As Benjamin Franklin said “a penny saved is a penny earned”.

With that in mind, sometimes you just have to get off campus and splurge a little bit, relieve some stress and break the norm. I try to reserve that for the weekends, then set a weekend budget for myself. I will set out 20 to 50 dollars and that is my absolute maximum to spend between Friday night and Monday morning. Obviously that is a large range, and it takes some planning beforehand to set that budget. If you are planning to go to a party, to have a really nice dinner with friends, or to go to a sporting event; pre-plan for these events and add that into your weekend spending limit. I usually set my weekend budget at a minimum of twenty dollars for a couple of off campus meals just to enjoy some time off.

Another tip I have is to always do your research. One of the worst feelings ever is spending money, then realizing soon after that if you would have gone just down the street to a different store you could have gotten a better product for cheaper. If you do your research before you spend money you can make sure you buy a valuable and reliable product that will last, and won’t have to spend more money keeping it from falling apart.

If you do your research before you make major purchases like computers or text books or anything else, you can avoid making impulsive purchases. If you can avoid impulsive and unnecessary purchases you can keep some of your money in a safety or emergency fund. This is extremely important because you never know when you might get a parking ticket, have an unexpected fee to pay, or even need medicine. You have to know how to separate your funds so that you can handle everything you have to and some of what you want, and still handle the unexpected.

Finally, my last point is also about separating funds. Students have to be able to separate business from pleasure. Knowing that you have $300 for textbooks and $100 for new clothes shopping, or whatever the case may be; and the allotted money needs to go towards books and clothes respectively. Students should find some way to separate the two, even if it involves physically keeping them separate. For me personally, when I have a certain amount of money that is supposed to be for a very important purpose, I move it from the right side of my wallet to the left, so I can physically look and remind myself that I shouldn’t mess with that money.