Budgeting like a Pro: Simple Tips for College Students
Budgeting – you've probably heard of it! Maybe your friends are talking about it, or your parents have told you that you should start. Either way, starting a budget can be a helpful way to manage your expenses as a student – but it can be confusing to know where to start!
Let’s jump in with some basic budgeting tips to get you budgeting like a pro.
Find a time and place to get started
It’s okay to start small to make the process less stressful; maybe you work on your budget for one hour a week on Sunday nights, until you feel more confident about it.
Finding a place that is comfortable, private, and quiet will make the process easier. This could be your dorm room, the kitchen table, or maybe a booked room in the library – whatever works best for you!
Helpful free resources
You’re going to need a system to track everything, and possibly more advice from experts. Finding free resources will help you to level up without adding another expense to your budget. This could be using a google doc or outlook spreadsheet to keep track of things, researching on your own, and watching YouTube videos for how to format your documents or hear advice from experts.
Document your expenses and income
It’s a good idea to take account of what money you have coming in and where it’s from, as well as where it’s going and when. Sometimes the hardest part of making a budget is not knowing exactly what you’re working with!
Try breaking things into a few categories:
- Regular necessary expenses: things that stay the same month to month, like rent, car payments, your phone bill, or even your Netflix subscription
- Income: any money you receive from a part-time job, help from parents, student loans or scholarships
- Unnecessary expenses: anything outside the first two categories – like going to the movies, shopping for new clothes, or going to concerts! It could vary month to month, and this is a great way to be aware of just how much you’re spending on everyday things
Time to make some decisions!
Now that you know where your money is coming from and going, how do you feel about it? This is where you can make spending decisions, goals, and test out some adjustments. Maybe you noticed some trends and want to allocate specific amounts of money that change month to month – it's your budget, so you can take it wherever you want to go and see what works for you.
Have a regular check-in
Keep a monthly or bi-monthly check-in with yourself to see where you are with your budget. Maybe you’re right on track, or maybe you had something unexpected come up that you want to factor in as you go forward. Either way, things can change, and it’s okay to modify your budget as you need!
You can also level up your budget – it's totally up to you how intricate, detailed, or intense you want to get. But hopefully these tips will help you to get started with understanding the process!