Would’ve been under budget, but I had to put a deposit down for my spring break trip. This was a book.Ĭame in under budget, which is usually the case as long as I’m not getting my hair cut. This was always a little different because you rarely buy the same home supplies every month.īeyond the first month of a semester, school expenses were fairly rare. The colder it is, the harder it is to resist getting a car. There’s really no excuse other than I was never home. Lower than usual from eating out more, but I didn’t really save money because I spent more eating out. This always varied by a few dollars, but it rarely went over $20. Her budget was $1,500, which included $1,000 from her parents and $500 from her off-campus job. This was a typical month of spending without too many unexpected costs, with the exception of a deposit for spring break, which she planned for. She also had her $3,000 savings account.īelow is her budget from February of her senior year in college. She earned about $500–$600 per month (after taxes) working 10–15 hours per week in a restaurant. Each month, they gave her $1,000 - all of which came from savings and their income - to cover basic expenses like rent, utilities and food. Since her parents initially paid for her room and board in the dorm, they agreed to continue helping her once she moved off campus. She estimates she saved about $300 per month once she moved. In Newark, Delaware, living off campus and buying her own food wound up being less expensive than living in campus housing and eating her meals in the dining hall. Those costs were paid by:īy the time Jessica started tracking her finances and making a monthly budget, she was no longer living in the dorms. As an out-of-state student, her yearly tuition and fees were $34,580. “I spent $1,300 of my savings.” Annual Tuitionįirst, here’s how Jessica paid for her tuition. “March, April and May were uncharacteristically high due to spring break and graduation,” Jessica said. This is February - the last month of college where her spending was typical. Here, she shares a breakdown of her annual tuition spending and a snapshot of one month of expenses from her senior year. She’s been diligent about tracking her expenses ever since. “When you overspend, there’s an urge to tune out - to not look at account balances, to stop tracking expenses - but eventually that just gets more stressful,” Jessica realized. “Every month is a little different and there are always unexpected expenses, but I’ve forced myself to keep track of everything,” she says. After that, she started tracking her expenses through the Mint ® app. Her savings account was her back up plan when she went over budget.īudgeting admittedly did not come easily to Jessica, who accumulated nearly $1,500 in credit card debt her freshman year. By second semester senior year, she also had her “life savings,” which was $3,000 she earned from a summer job and working as much as possible over winter break. paid for her time at the University of Delaware through a combination of scholarships, student loans, a part-time job and help from her parents. To give you an idea of what college actually costs and how a student affords everything, we asked a college graduate for her budget while in school. Yet each year students find a way to make it work through an individualized mix of savings, scholarships, grants, student loans and hard work. It’s books, housing, supplies, food and extracurriculars. College, you may have heard, is expensive.
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