Sometimes, we may decide to pursue our education someplace else and alone either because certain academic institutions provide the course we specifically want to take that not most universities can offer or that we believe that we can find the quality education that will guarantee us a decent job in the future far from home. Most times though, it’s really just because we want to be far away from what we have always known to gain new experiences in a new environment with people from various cultures and backgrounds and most importantly, to experience the kind of freedom we cannot always have with our family so close to us 24/7.
A problem we are most likely to encounter though when we want to study away from home is having to stick to a budget. Well, you’re in for a good treat because we might just have what you need to overcome this problem that you can actually afford to be independent.
With independence come great responsibilities, one of which are the expenses you have to stay on top of. This is why before you even think of wanting to live alone, you must have a budget system with you regardless if it’s expert approved and recommended or something you have just developed on your own.
A student budget worksheet aids you in managing your money and organizing your expenses so that by the end of the month you’re still able to afford your education while having spare money to renew your Netflix subscription so you can stay up-to-date with the latest episodes of that feel-good, guilty pleasure TV series of yours.
Budgeting is an essential life-skill that one must master. Especially for students aspiring to live alone, it’s important that we know how to budget our money as studying on its own is already expensive even if education is supposed to be our innate human right. If you notice your parents are hesitant to trust your decision about wanting to leave to study, it most probably has to do with how you handle your money and from a parents view point, it’s understandable if they are unsure of entrusting a hefty amount of money to someone they have witnessed to be bad at handling it.
For college students, budgeting may already be a concept familiar to you, in fact it should be. Before even entering the phase of your life that is indicative of where you’ll be situated in the future, you might want to create a college budget plan of your own. However, budgeting is not only limited to college students who are a few knocks away to adulthood because even kids as young as 3 or children with the basic concepts of money still living under their parents supervision not having to worry about when the next rent is due can start learning how to budget money, developing a budgeting strategy or at least its importance and one way to do so can maybe involve them in the home budget in the way that they can easily digest.
For students entirely new to the concept of budgeting, we list simple ways to start creating your budget
List Monthly Expenses: This includes groceries, school supplies, dorm rent, utility fees and the like. This must also include your personal expenses that you’ve noticed to habitually purchase. Keeping a record of your weekly expenses can prove to help you track where your money goes and that way, you can allocate a corresponding budget for each. Realistic financial goals: Aside from the obvious reason that we want to cover all our expenses while having enough for emergencies and unplanned purchases, we want to budget because we want to keep track of a goal in mind that we want to achieve. Indicating your financial plans for the future that are of course in accordance with your financial capacity can motivate you to be determined in sticking to your budget and diligently updating as soon as it is absolutely necessary. Indicate your allowance and income: If you are gaining from other sources of income, it’s best to include that in your budget to know how much money you have and if it’s enough to cover the month’s expenses. Budget Methods: There are countless budgeting methods online that you can adopt. Although it all boils down to how religiously you stick to it, we would suggest the 70-20-10 rule. 70% of your allowance goes to living expenses (ie., rent, groceries, utilities, books, tuition), 20% goes to the savings or money that can potentially be used for emergencies or events that you do not anticipate and 10% goes to loans
Like most integral life skills, budgeting is hard to maintain. It’s assumed to take up a lot of work or that it is a hovering reminder of how your bank account is close to plummeting the red zone. It also exposes how badly you are at managing your money which, if you’re already stressed out from having to work on that essay you believe will not benefit you and your career in the long run, is not something we need. As cited by Kristin Wong from The Cut, Brad Klontz, psychologist and financial planner, likens budgeting to the agonizing aspect of dieting in the sense that to diet would suggest having to limit yourself access from what used to make you happy. He suggests reframing the budget to a spending plan as that way, we respond more positively to it as it loses the negative connotations attached to budget.
As previously stated, we fear budgeting because of what it implies and to mess it up would seem like the worst thing one could possibly do with how grave its impacts could be and these overpower our determination to stick to it. However, even if we wobble, that should not make us completely give up on our budget plans as there are always ways to pick up from where we left off and make it work. Remember, if there’s a will, there is always a way.
Contrary to your pre-existing negative connotations, being effective with your personal budget is actually easy for as long as you develop the needed values and skills related to it.
Keeping a student budget worksheet produces long-lasting benefits that should outweigh our intimidation of keeping it.
The average student budget varies from one place to another and takes into consideration a lot of factors especially concerning one’s socio-economic status. In the United Kingdom for example, student living costs amount to a staggering £795 as recorded by National Student Money Survey.
A college student need only to list their expenses and track religiously their spending keeping in mind that they should only spend within the limits of their allocated budget and nothing more. A college student may also opt to reach out for professional opinions from financial experts if they want to really discipline themselves from maintaining their budgets.
You won’t have to when you download any of our printable worksheets that only awaits your documenting of your monthly expenses.
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