Students always finds themselves in a little bit of a pickle when they are faced with having to leave the nest and are no longer basking in the comforts and benefits of living with mom and dad.
When you live with your parents all costs are covered and when you move out you realise just how difficult budgeting actually is.
Here are a few ways to help you budget:
1. Carpool
Gas is very expensive, so if you’re going home to visit family see if you can catch a lift with some friends. That way everybody can chip in on gas money and you save yourself a whole lot of cash by not having to solely buy gas.
2. Share a meal
At this point sharing is caring and believe me you are better off sharing. So to make sure you save some cash, do a bit of meal planning by getting your friends and roommate/s together.
Allocate ingredients to each person, so that you have a meal every night without having to buy everything yourself and this way everybody saves money.
3. Buy in bulk
This might sound crazy but we know this, if you buy in bulk you save more. So look at the things you and your friends or roommate/s use everyday like toilet paper, paper towels, etc and have everyone chip in so that you get it cheaper if you buy it in bulk. This way you are living a more cost effective lifestyle.
4. Become coupon savvy
Look I am not saying become coupon crazy but it won’t hurt to collect them and store them for those days when the budget is really tight and you need the essentials.
It can make all the difference so when you go out shopping, keep an eye out for printable coupons and even when you do online shopping, you’ll find them right there.
5. Look at your savings as an expense
Let’s use this moment to be honest. We all know that when we have savings we don’t necessarily see it as savings. We just see it as some cash we can spend when we run out. So in actual fact we don’t really think long term.
So here are two ideas you can use to leave your savings where they belong:
a) See your savings as another expense, because let’s face it, once your expenses are paid you can’t go get the money back just because you simply changed your mind.
b) Have an envelope for all your different debt so when you have a spending money envelope and you use the money in it and the money is used up it’s gone.
Same thing with your savings envelope, once the money is in there you cannot touch it. This would also be a good way to test your willpower.
6. Emergency cash
Anything can happen and you’re not living with mom and dad anymore where a little bit of cash is always stored away whenever there was an emergency.
Now i’m sure we have all heard our parents refer to their “stash” or “emergency savings” so you should consider that too. One month you might be running low on something because you didn’t shop ahead or you get sick and have no cash to go see a doctor; the emergency cash will be there to help you out.
7. Needs and Wants
This can be a bit of an issue when you start to justify your wants. However, if you know you don’t need it, then let it go.
Tip : Save where you can and buy ahead where possible.
