As the title of this post suggests, it's November and I am running out of money, fast! With over a month until my next student loan enters my bank account and with no job, I am lucky enough to have amazing parents who give me a weekly allowance.
Every student knows that as soon as their student loan is put into their bank account, it is time to go crazy with money. Partying, takeaways and buying useless things you'll never end up using is all part of the experience.
As a first year last year, I managed my money well. Although I didn't see a single penny of my student loan (because it all went on halls which is a total rip off!) my parents again gave me a weekly allowance which I was (and still am) eternally grateful for. Living on pasta allowed me to enjoy the party life every first year expects to have, I was sometimes out three nights a week! (I don't think I have the stomach for that volume of alcohol anymore though!)
Before my first year of University, I had very little experience of managing money. Even during first year, all I had to do was split my money between food and going out (as well as the odd shopping spree of course) due to all my loan money going into a separate bank account to pay off my student accommodation. Now that I'm in second year and have moved out of halls into a house, my student loan now goes into my main bank account along with my other money. The ease of access to all of this money makes it so tempting to go crazy with spending money, however, this must and should not be done as it means entering the danger zone that is the overdraft (even though it is inevitably going to happen to me at some point anyway but in this case the later the better).
Not only do I have rent to pay but I have gas and electricity bills, water bills as well as internet bills (and it all adds up trust me!) However, this year I have found that living in a house is slightly cheaper than living in halls, I actually have some loan money to myself after all the money for my rent and bills has been taken out. To say how well I managed my money last year, this year has taken a turn for the worse, oops.
One thing I have learnt since September is that I need to learn how to budget. It's pointless for me to even attempt to stick to a budget this late in the semester with the amount of money I have (or lack of money) especially with Christmas coming up so over Christmas, I am determined to create an appropriate budget for when I get my next loan (hopefully I will stick to it!) that may even allow me to use some of my loan money for savings which I should really start to build up.
Do you try and budget? Have you had much experience with managing money?