You are officially a college student. Moving out can be exciting, but taking on the responsibility can be daunting as well. Be sure to budget while you are in college to have some extra spending money, but also be able to get everything you need. If you spend all of your money on going out and having fun with friends, you may not be able to afford your necessities such as textbooks and supplies for class.
First, decide if you are going to get a job on campus or off campus, or if you want to work over the summer and save up that money for the school year. If you decide to get a job while you are taking college courses, make sure the job you choose will not be too stressful while you are taking classes. Getting a job on campus is a good option if you are a first-time college student and do not know what to expect. These jobs do not take up too much time, but they are enough to give you some extra spending money.
If you decide to get a job off campus, make sure your employer understands how often you will be in class, and when you will be able to work outside of class. Off-campus jobs could pay more, but you will have to pay more for gas to get back and forth to work as well.
Another option is to work over the summer and save money from that job to have extra spending money for the school year so you can focus more on school. Having a summer job is a good option as long as there is a good budget set for that time and you follow the budget closely so there will be an adequate amount of money left over for the school year.
Once you find out where your money is coming from, you can lay out your budget. The most efficient way to budget is to write it out, whether that be on a piece of paper or an Excel spreadsheet. This way you can see the budget, and it may be easier to follow and be strict with yourself rather than just telling yourself what you should and should not buy. Also with writing it out, you will be able to set up exactly how much you need for each thing, food, clothes, supplies, etc., and know exactly how much you can afford to spend.
Get a job on campus to help with the expenses. Having a job on campus is ideal for students who would like to have a job, but do not want to travel off campus for work or stress about work and school. School jobs do not require as many hours of work as other positions off campus may. Also, there are many different types of jobs on campus; you could even pick a position that coincides with your major in some way.
Having a job on campus will help with a little extra spending money to enjoy more time off campus or save up for the future.
Always try to save some money even if it is not a lot. Twenty dollars a paycheck is better than nothing, and soon, that little bit of money each month will add up to a decent amount of savings.
“If your car breaks down or you have an unexpected medical expense, you’ll be way ahead of the game if you have money saved in an emergency fund,” according to College in Colorado.
If you have money in a savings account, you have some fallback money in case of an emergency, this way, you will not have to borrow money, use a credit card or go without a car or food.
If there is not an emergency where you have to spend part or all of your savings, it can be saved for a place after graduation, a new car or anything else that you will want or need.
Another way to save money and help your friends out as well is carpooling. If you have a group of friends and several of you have cars, trade off on who drives each time you go out. Dedicate each week in a month to a different person, or keep a list written down of who drove last and keep rotating drivers. By doing this, each person will be saving gas and it will be fairer rather than one person driving most of the time or taking separate vehicles and everyone wasting gas.
By not buying everything you think you need and only getting the bare minimum to start off with, you will avoid wasting your money. If you only buy what you know you will need for class or your dorm room you could save money for other things. If you end up needing something later, buy it then, but do not buy everything to start off with as you may not even use it.
If you have the unlimited meal plan, do not bother buying a lot of food for your dorm room, you could save that money for something else. Take advantage of your meal plan and do not eat out very often. Allow yourself one meal off campus a month or do not eat out at all, if possible. This way you will not throw away spending money when you have already paid for a meal plan on campus.
Also, selling your textbooks when you are done with them could give you some money back. There are several options for selling your books. You could sell them back to the bookstore, sell them online or sell them to someone you know will take that class. By selling your textbooks, you could use that money to buy books for the next semester or year and not have to worry about spending a whole lot on textbooks for the upcoming semester.
Before selling your textbooks, look up how much the used book in the condition that it is in costs online, take a little bit off of the price from that and sell it. By doing this you know you are getting the right amount for your book, and you are not losing money.
Another way to price your books can be to write down how much you spent on them when you bought them. Then take some off of that for any wear and tear or if you bought it new.
Keep your budget up to date when you buy things, and at the end of the year look at the amount of money you spent. See what was necessary and what was not. Looking at the numbers will give you a good idea of how well you are budgeting, and you can plan better for the next year.
