How a College Student Budgets

" a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values," is one of the many definitions of materialism.

Having the newest gaming system, or phone, or clothing. If you've taken a solid ten minutes trying to talk yourself out of buying the newest streaming subscriptions when you know your phone bill is due in two days and you can barely afford that -- this article is for you. If you've pushed off your rental payment to take a four-day trip to the coast with your friends -- this article is for you. If you've spent more than a paycheck's worth on Amazon's "Best Sale Ever," -- this is for you. Now I'll fully admit, I've done every single thing listed above at least once. And I've suffered the consequences. Here's how to stop that madness before it starts.

So the year is 2016. I'm one year out of high school going to a commuter school about 45 minutes from my father's home, living in an apartment with some of my friends. I go home one day and my father over dinner tells me that he's lost his job of over 25 years. As such, he'll be moving back in with his almost-at-the-time-ex-wife. Thinking back to the train wreck that was them living together, I instantly put a stop to that idea, and suggested instead that we sell the house he was living in at the time, and split a two bedroom apartment. He agreed. So I set out budgeting exactly how much we'd need to reasonably make this happen. Here's how it worked.

My expenses consisted of the following before I moved in with my father:

• Tuition - $172/month ($685/semester)
• Phone Bill - $320/month
• Car Insurance - $108/month
• Rent - $750/month
• Groceries - $300/month
• Miscellaneous - $200/month

Total per month: $1,850/month

Yes, I was fully independent by the time I turned 18 years old. Yes these numbers look pretty scary don't they. Don't worry, it's not that bad once I tell you how it actually works each month. But first, let's talk about my income.

My income consisted of the following:

• Job #1 (20 hrs/wk) : $1,300/month
• Job #2 (10 hrs/wk) : $548/month
• Job #3 (35 hrs/wk) : $2,100/month

Total per month: $3,948/month

Like I said. The numbers are less scary when you lay them all out. All in all at this point I was able to save around $1,900 per month. I didn't do anything with it, just put it in a savings account for emergencies. Or in this case, a deposit on an apartment.

Now I know what you're thinking. Three jobs? On top of being a full time student? How the heck did that work out? Are you okay? The answer is to be smart about two things. Your money and your time. More about this later. Back to the story.

So at the point my father lost his job I had been saving up for a solid seven, eight months. For the purpose of this article let's estimate seven. That's $13,300 in a savings account. Pretty good right? I thought so too.

So I put down a deposit on an extremely nice apartment that went for $1,700/month. We put down our deposit ($900) and got approved for the apartment! It was awesome! Until I realized that I'd have to be paying for two people until my dad could find a job.

Let me spell this out for you. I already broke down my expenses above, which was for a single pers0n (minus the phone bill, but that's another story). Now my expenses looked a bit like this:

• Tuition - $172/month ($685/semester)
• Phone Bill - $376/month
• Car Insurance - $280/month
• Medical Insurance - $486/month
• Rent - $1,700/month
• Groceries - $650/month
• Miscellaneous - $300/month

In total my expenses increased by about $2,114 per month. Bringing my new total expenses to a grand total of $3,964. Per. Month. Do you by any chance remember my income per month? Yeah, it wasn't looking too good for me when it came to my budget. So here's how I fixed it.

My jobs consisted of cooking at a restaurant for 20 hours a week, running my churches social media for ten hours a week, and working at my colleges student activities department for 35 hours a week. I was used to this schedule and still made time in the day to relax and wind down. So I just switched my hours up a bit. I went from doing short four hour shifts at the restaurant on a regular basis to adding on and picking up shifts whenever I could, which added an extra $200-$300 onto my check each pay period. Talking to my pastor, he ended up offering me the added position of education coordinator, giving me an extra 15 hours of pay per week. I couldn't change much with the student activities job, but I added on an extra semester to my college plan and my tuition went down by $288 per semester.

I know, that's a lot of words, so let me write it out for you in an easier format.

• Tuition: $99.25/month ($397/semester)
• Phone Bill - $376/month
• Car Insurance - $280/month
• Medical Insurance - $486/month
• Rent - $1,700/month
• Groceries - $650/month
• Miscellaneous - $300/month

Total expenses: $3,676/month

My new income:

• Job #1 (33 hrs/wk) : $2,100/month
• Job #2 (25 hrs/wk) : $1,500/month
• Job #3 (35 hrs/wk) : $2,100/month

Total Income: $5,700/month

Yeah. That makes it a bit easier to breathe.

So at this point I was able to actually save more than I could in the beginning ($2,024/month). And once my father went back to work, my budget changed even more dramatically. If you want to read about my time management style and how I keep track of everything, go to my profile.

Tell me about your budgeting tips! I want to know what works best for you. Leave a like and a tip if this in anyway inspired or astounded you, and I hope to see you around! Good luck on your journeys my friends!

KadEmily

December 2020