By MacKenzie Rogers, Lifestyle Editor
Talking about budgeting can be hard, but learning how to save money doesn’t have to be.
Attending a university is expensive enough without everything else college culture sends our way.From random flat tires to one-too-many trips to the local Cook Out, spending money shouldn’t be something to dread. Here are some tips on how to budget as a college student here at Murray State.
Set a weekly budget
The easiest way to begin managing your expenses is to look at it at a weekly rate. How much income do you have during the week? How many bills do you need to cover in the same week? Figure out how much you have to spend and how much you can put aside for later. Give yourself a small amount of money that you can use on nonessentials throughout the week, and strive to not go over this self-made allowance.
Hogan Fox, junior economics major, said he likes to use free online templates that help him organize his finances.
“I like doing (my finances) weekly, where I’ll set aside the bills,” Fox said. “I have rent, and then I have a weekly stipend that I give myself.”
Whether you use an app or an Excel spreadsheet to manage your finances, creating a system is the first step to nailing down a sustainable budget and taking control of your finances.
Separating needs from wants
This is another basic tip from a could-have-been compulsive spender. There are things that we college students need, from food to general technology. However, it is easy to convince ourselves that we cannot live without buying the newest game or that one shirt in a different color. While it is good to occasionally splurge on yourself from time to time, the wants should not come before the needs.
Haven Bradshaw, freshman wildlife biology major, said she has been trying her best to spend as little as possible.
“I tend to think through my decisions quite often,” Bradshaw said. “Like, do I really need this? Not will this make me happy for like five minutes.”
Figuring out meal plans
Each on-campus student is required to have a meal plan and is automatically slotted with the premium plan, but students can decide whether they want to remain on a meal-swipe-heavy plan or one that offers more flex, the on-campus currency. With the premium plans allotting only $75 worth of flex, figuring out a way to stretch the sum across the entire semester can be hard.
For some, the solution is switching from a meal-swipe heavy plan to one with more flex, but this can have draw backs for students completely reliant on the University for their meals, as those plans reduce the alloted amount of meal-swipes that only reload once a week.
Flex can be added onto student accounts, but that is not a feasible solution for students with wanting to save money.
Fox said he wished someone had warned him about managing his flex more carefully after he switched off a meal plan that had meal exchanges.
Given students’ different needs, there is no set answer to which meal plan is the best, so weigh the pros and cons of each plan to see which one you would likely utilize the most.
You can change your meal plan up early into the semester, but afterward, the plan you have is the one you keep until the next semester.
Trying to save money in college can be tough and keeping ourselves from splurging unnecessarily can be even tougher, but it doesn’t have to be.
College has to potential to be a very fulfilling experience and if you’re worrying about budgeting while attending college, consider these tips.