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Making A College Budget
There are two key parts to a college budget- your needs and your wants. It is vital to know the difference between these two categories when making up your college budget.
You also need to know how much money you have to play with. If youwill be working your way through college, you should put together a money budget for the semester based on the pay check that you plan to receive.
If you are living on a lump sum of money for the semester like a student loan , itis important to divide that money up evenly so you can spread it out over the number of months in the semester.
To truly set up a college budget, you must write down on paper where your money is going to go for the month. The key here; write it down! Chances are, if you don't write down where you plan on spending your money, youwill get to the end of the month and wonder where all of your money went.
Before you can write down where you plan to spend your dough, you must decide what is needs and what is wants, you must fund your needs before your wants.
Your four basic needs are food, shelter, transportation, and clothing. Ladies, before you get too excited about clothing being categorized as a need, read on and let me explain myself.
It is more important to pay your rent, keep your lights on, and eat, than it is to pay a Visa bill or grab a drink with friends. The first category you should allocate your money to should be your rent. This is followed by all the needs that come with shelter, which includes your electric, water, trash, and sewer.
Next, itis important to set up a grocery or food budget. Figure out how much it will cost you to eat in your home every week and multiply that by four. That will be your grocery budget for the month.
Transportation costs should include gas, tolls, car payment, insurance, and oil changes. Itis always good to budget a little extra in this category every month. You never know when your car will need a repair or new tires.
Lastly, yes, clothing is a need. You can't go to class naked, right?
Basic clothing needs require that you have enough shirts and pants as well as shoes on your feet.
You can allocate as much or as little money as you want in this category.
Keep in mind that once you finish this part of your college budge, it should remain pretty much the same for the rest of your college career.
Now here comes the fun part. You get to budget for all of your wants.
You'll notice these categories will fluctuate from month to month.
Some categories to include; your cell phone, doctor bills, hair care, tuition and school supplies, gifts, entertainment, restaurants, miscellaneous, and blow money.
Did the mention of your cell phone as a want and not a need catch your eye? The truth is, this is an expense that you can control and live without if you had to. Cell phone plans range from $80 per month for phones with all the internet bells and whistles to $30 per month for prepaid phones.
If you don't have a lot of money in your college budget, you can try a prepaid cell phone and only pay for the minutes when you have money in that months budget.
Doctor's bills shouldn't occur too frequently for college students so it might not be a part of every months college budget. How much money you budget for your hair will help you decide whether you'll be able to go to a salon or a barber to get your hair cut.
Tuition and school supplies are usually only burdens at the beginning of the semester. In those months, you'll have to cut back on your other expenses such as your entertainment and restaurant budget.
Gifts are an important item to budget for. There are always birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays throughout the year. Also, it's a good idea to put away a few bucks every month for Christmas. That way you won't be as broke when December rolls around.
The entertainment and restaurant part of your college budget is up to you. These areas are totally dependent on your college habits, whether you study all the time, or whether you go out every night.
Your miscellaneous category is the catch-all. You'd be surprised how much of daily life falls into this category. Stamps/postage, dry cleaning and other random purchases will fall into this category.
Lastly, you have blow money. Think of this as your allowance. It's a bit of cash to keep in your wallet weekly. Want a snack from the vending machine between classes? Use your blow money.
Once you have determined how much money you can spend in each category, add up the total amount of money allocated. This should be equal to the amount of income you have each month.
If you find you're under budget, and you have left over money that isn't allocated, create a category called savings and put that money in the bank. If you find you've over allocated and spend more than your monthly income, take the time to reduce some of your wants categories. Again, the total amount of money allocated on paper should equal the total amount of monthly income.
The first month you put your college budget together, you'll have to make a guess at how much money youwill need in each category. Donnot get discouraged when you find out at the end of the month that you were completely wrong.
The second month you do your budget, you'll be a lot closer to your target, but still wrong. With a few tweaks, you should expect to have your budget on target by the third month. By keeping track of your college budget each month, you'll graduate debt free! Well, except for the student loans you took out.
Just keep up your budget and remember this site is full of tricks and tips to help you make it in under budget.
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