As a college freshman, you find yourself with new freedom, independence, and opportunities. However, with this new freedom comes a ton of financial responsibilities. Learning to manage your finances during your early college years is going to be beneficial in the long run. You might be wondering, why does saving now make an impact? Well, this blog post will cover tips on how to maximize your savings and become financially responsible.
Understanding Your Financial Situation
Before we get into budgeting, it is important for you to make a mental note of your total savings and calculating your income from any part time jobs. Doing so will make budgeting ten times easier!
Creating Your Budget
- Setting Clear Goals: The first step is to determine what your budget will do. For example, it could mean saving up for a new phone or something as simple as covering the cost of your phone bills.
- Allocating Funds: After making a note of your income and expenses, be sure to plan out how much money you want to spend on different things. Make sure to place higher value on spending money on necessities such as food, textbooks, housing, and tuition. Limit the money spent on going out.
- Emergency Money: In case you are running low on money, definitely have some savings in an emergency fund.
- Following the 50/30/20 Method:
Tips and Tricks: Maximizing Budgets
- When should you splurge? Splurging every once in a while is totally ok- doing it everyday is not. If you can’t afford something right now, save for it!
- Meal Planning: Create a weekly groceries list for the store to avoid overspending. Follow something like the template below:
Additionally, limit eating out to only once or twice a week to save money. If your school offers a meal plan, definitely take advantage of that for discounted meals. - Student Discounts: Businesses nationwide offer student discounts on tech products, clothing, and transportation. Definitely ask if the store has one when shopping.
- Utilize Technology: There are tons of apps that can help you budget your finances with ease!
Review and Adjust Your Budget Monthly
Your budget is not set in stone- evaluate it monthly to see if anything in your income and expenses changes. Did your expenses increase? Have you been eating out too much? Did you get a raise at your job? Ask yourself these questions and see what needs to be adjusted!
Financial Resources on Campus
Universities provide resources such as financial workshops, counseling services, and advisors that give feedback on budgeting and financial planning. Additionally, looking into scholarships and jobs on campus is a good idea too.
Budgeting as a first year student at college is a fundamental skill that can tremendously guide your financial future. By creating a budgeting system to manage both expenses and income, you can navigate your time at college with worrying about financial instability. With the number of resources that are available at your fingertips, be sure to take advantage of them. Like you, I am going through the same financial burdens. That being said, start now to better your future!
After reading this, I realized that almost every freshman is going through this right now! I think its good that you are highlighting this and how to help us break bad spending habits because it can get really bad lol. Me personally, I haven’t had top much of an issue with this because I don’t really go out like that and splurge, but the spending for eating out every night do costs a lot overtime. And not to mention outfits for football games and the parties start to add too! I agree with you that it is good to put your top priority first and to utilize the meal plan, you can always food shop with your meal plan and save instead of eating at the hub everyday. Thank you for the highlighting of this issue!
This is a comprehensive guide! I think the phrase “broke college student” is tossed around frequently, but it’s something you don’t understand until you’re going through it firsthand. I’ve never seen/heard of the 50:30:20 plan before. I really like the way it allocates money in a budget. I think I’ve managed pretty well so far this semester, but as we creep into the holiday season, it becomes harder to budget. Also, I don’t spend much money here with the meal plan, but going home for just a week, I spent more than I should have because I needed to catch up on a variety of tasks after being gone for three months. I will follow these tips throughout December, the toughest month to stick to a budget.