Student life is a time when most of the youth faces the problem of cash crunch. Very often they are broke and are totally clueless about how to stop that from happening. One reason for this could be that it is the first time when the youth is actually handling their funds themselves, the youth moves away from home and tries to manage things on their own and this could be really difficult for the first few years, yes, that is how long it takes to get it right.
Budgeting could be quite a task for somebody who is fairly new at it and hence, things could fall apart more than often. Here are a few Budgeting tips or Money saving that one could consider while trying to set a monthly budget or while keeping expenses in control-
Maintain a dairy – Maintaining a dairy and writing your every expense in it could act like a savior. Firstly, you will have an account of every penny that you ever spent and secondly knowing that you have already spent a lot, you will try and keep your expenditure minimum for the rest of the days. The diary often helps people keep their expenses in check and thus, helps you avoid that last week regret of having gone overboard with expenses.
Asking for money in installments – If you are not very good at budgeting for the entire month at once, ask for money in installments. This will give you the impression that you don’t have a lot of money so you will automatically spend less and this will also help you in making sure that you don’t blow up all your money in the initial few days of the month. Ask for three installments, one per ten days and try to save and carry over the money left from the last installment.
Allocating funds to different expenses – If possible, allocate the funds the moment you get the money. Divide the money according to the kind of expense like food, travelling, rent etc, this will make sure that you don’t go overboard while spending on extra things because you will know that only allocated amount can be used for that particular purpose.
Pay up your dues first – Paying your dues is your first and foremost responsibility and that is exactly what should be done the moment you receive your monthly allowance. Once you have paid your rent, your tuition fee, your tiffin bill, you can go about looking for ways to spend the rest of your money. Spending sensibly will never pinch you so always go for the cheapest option or go Dutch!
Set a daily budget – Setting a daily budget of a couple of hundreds will help you knowing if you are on track or not. Keep it at the maximum that you can afford like around 300-500 rupees per day but you don’t necessarily have to spend it all. There will be days when you will spend only say 200 rupees and the rest of the 300 can be used as buffer money for days when you accidentally go overboard or for emergencies.
Budgeting is a very simple mathematical and logical concept. You know that you cannot afford to go broke during that last week of the month, so you need to spend sensibly in the first few days of the month. Also, budgeting goes a long way, it is not only a part of your student life, but will carry on even when you start earning, when you get married and when you have kids. It just helps you in getting a clear picture of your finances and you can determine if your lifestyle is in accordance with your earning or surpassing it.
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Maintaining the budget in the student life is one of the toughest jobs I have ever faced. With time, I learned to accommodate which is something we all learn from experience. How I wish I came across this piece of work before, trust me, life had been much easier. Maintaining the diary and allocating the budget to different needs is a good idea. At the same time, paying the dues before over spending is also helpful.