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Constantly broke college student
Hi everyone! I really hope someone can help. I've been struggling with money for most of my life; I have never been able to save money or to budget properly.
I am a junior in college. I'm very lucky that I don't have to worry about loans or books. I live on campus, so my living expenses (aside from groceries) are covered, too. I work on campus, and am currently capped at 10 hrs a week, so I only make about $200 every paycheck (twice a month).
I'm ashamed to admit it, but I run out of money right before every paycheck. I'm lucky if I'm left with $10 in my bank account. I don't understand how my friends are able to go shopping or get their nails done or even go to Starbucks and are seemingly unconcerned about their finances.
Looking back at my bank account, there are no large purchases, just small things; toothpaste, a cup of coffee, Chapstick. I guess it all added up. On occasion I do treat myself by going out to the movies or going out to eat. Apparently, just going out once or twice is enough to put me in financial ruin. I've had to borrow money from my parents on several occasions; they always oblige but also understandably give me a lot of flack for it.
If it's not already clear, I don't have any savings, either. I have saved up for large things like a plane ticket and a laptop, but this was achieved over the course of nearly a year by sending half of my paycheck to my parents every time it came in - although sometimes, I had to take some of the money back because I just couldn't make it.
I'm the only person I know who regularly ends up with only a few dollars in their account before payday. What am I doing wrong? How can I prevent this?
Thank you!
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Just to make sure I have worked this out right (I was always bad with math) you make $200 every 2.5 weeks or so ($400 a month)?
Firstly that doesn't really sound like all that much but then I don't really know the situation where you are in terms of cost of living (food etc). The reason it may seem your friends have more is probably because they are getting external funding such as money from parents or they have a job where they are doing more hours. I am curious as to why you are capped at 10 hours a week? Is this simply because it's the only amount of time you are able to work or is that because of a legal restriction for students?
Short of looking for another job that perhaps pays better or offers more hours the first thing you can do is sit down and work out exactly where all your money is going and what you are spending on. For example when you buy food you may find it easier to buy in bulk the same item you find you buy every week because it'll work out cheaper. Switching brands may also help. Over here in the UK we have the popular brands but also the same product that are store brands and most times the differences in taste is extremely minor if any at all but the price differences are extremely huge. As an example, a can of Heinz baked beans costs £0.75p or you can buy the Tesco's own store brand which costs £0.24p - less than half the price. This is just an example (prices are taken from the Tesco web site so they are accurate prices I've not made up) but once you plan out what you need for a whole week lets say you may end up saying more because you can buy in bulk (same example as above but a 4-pack of Heinz costs £2.00 but spend same amount on cheaper brand and you get 8 cans instead). These are small ways that may help make a difference especially over the course of the whole month and hopefully you'll find you have more money in pocket to be able to enjoy yourself a little more and treat yourself because that's important too.
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