Students Attempt to Budget Their Spending

By Broadside Correspondents Cathi Acosta & Anna Rogers.

The purpose of these two articles is to make students aware of their spending habits and to show just how much money can be spent in a week. Creating a budget can be helpful when trying to save money. Of course this only works when the budget is followed. Two students, one resident and one commuter, were asked to spend freely for three days and then budget their spending for the next three days. Below are their accounts of this experiment. We have also included an account of the resident student’s spending during the week. The articles are in first person and show the voice of each student. To learn more about budgets see tips included below.

Resident - Cathi Acosta

College is not cheap. Coupled with the state of today’s economy, it is no surprise that virtually every college student is seeking ways to save money. For a few days, I was given the task to live economically as a resident student. As I did so, I discovered a few tips while also realizing the difficulty of budgeting my money.

One issue I had with this task was that I have a meal plan. I have 15 meals a week that do not roll over to the next week. Basically, it is use it or lose it. For the purpose of this article, I recorded my meal plan use as its dollar value, as if I had just purchased the item with a debit card. Most of my purchases were food from campus since I needed to use my meals.

Despite my meal plan status, I picked up a tip that students on meal plans or Freedom can both use: when it comes to food, I found that splitting and storing some for later ended up saving some meals.

As an on-campus resident, budgeting became more of an issue when going off-campus. At some point, I needed to run errands. As I ran my errands on Saturday, I tried to keep budgeting in mind, opting for the cheaper way to obtain what I needed. I needed a new pair of jeans and found some for $12.50 at Forever 21. Being aware of what brands and stores I use to obtain my items was key in conserving cash. It was important to remember that not everything is worth a splurge.

Perhaps a greater challenge during the weekend was going out. I went to the movies to watch Saw V and headed to IHOP afterwards. I ended up spending about $25 altogether. Admittedly, I slipped; it was a challenge to conserve cash while I was out with my friends.

Nevertheless, going through this task was helpful in that I was able to pinpoint areas where I, and surely many other college students, tend to spend frivolously. It was eye opening to discover how much I really spend.

Commuter - Anna Rogers

When I first began recording my purchases on Wednesday, I was a little bit anxious about subjecting my spending habits to the scrutiny of my fellow students at George Mason University. During the week, I was forever conscious that how I spent my money may not reflect the average off-campus spender’s habits. From Thursday to Saturday I spent freely, then Sunday to Wednesday I budgeted my spending. This was easy for me considering that Saturday is pay-day and I often spend the remainder of last week’s paycheck since I know I will have money in a few days.

Thursday morning, I had been up for a whole half an hour, when, on my commute to school, I stopped at Starbucks and bought not only coffee, but a breakfast panini as well. I had never tried one before and it was pretty disgusting. Nonetheless, I spent $7.36 on breakfast.

For lunch, I had thought ahead enough to pack a granola bar and a drink. I bought a sub sandwich in the Johnson Center. At the end of the day, I had to stop to fill up the car with gas so I could make the 45-minute drive home to Warrenton. It came to $39.26.

Friday is my workday. Being that day starts at the unholy hour of 10 a.m., I never have the foresight to pack a lunch. But for today, that was okay because I was supposed to spend freely. I went to the nearby grocery store on my lunch break and bought a veggie wrap, a Kit Kat and some Vitamin Water, coming to a grand total of $8.57. Fortunately, for dinner that evening my Dad and I ordered in pizza on his tab.
Saturday, I bought a small cup of coffee at Borders for $3.25 to get me going. I ate lunch at home. For dinner, I went out with my sister to Bonefish and spent a whopping $18. My total for the three days comes to $80.44. Not bad for “spending freely,” eh?

Here is a doozy. On Sunday, I spent zero dollars. It is, after all, a day of rest. On Monday, I had about a trillion things due. Despite this, I was really proud of myself for making my own coffee at home in a traveler’s mug for the commute. No Starbucks today. I bought Vitamin Water, (those things are addictive, I swear) a granola bar and a little bag of Ritz Bitz for a delicious and nutritious lunch. I realize that here, I really sacrificed my health and insulted my appetite for the sake of saving a few bucks.

The bummer is it still came out to around $4. For those of you who have seen the commercials, that is four junior bacon cheeseburgers. Although the day started well, I came home feeling like I suck at saving money.

Tuesday, I bought a coffee, a deliciously frothy caramel macchiato for $3.25. For lunch, I had a granola bar. What is this, some kind of starvation diet? Really spending freely equals eating freely. Spending frugally equals starving yourself.

Wednesday, I only have one evening class, so I did not spend any money because I ate all my meals at home.

Now, it’s time for the portion of the article where we talk about what I learned. First off, I learned that as far as spending goes, I am pretty frugal to begin with. I try to never spend more than what I need. However, that coffee addiction has got to go. I have a genetic predisposition to love coffee. There is always coffee at home. I could definitely save a few bucks by mooching off my parents more. Therefore, my resounding commuter student mantra will forever be “Three Cheers for Mooching.”

Want to budget your spending?

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