Becoming good at saving or budgeting your money can take tons of stress off your back. Personally, I am not one of the best students at saving money, but since I’m getting older I’d like to become more responsible with my money and stop being such a shopaholic.
The main reason I am bad at saving money is because I love to shop. I can always find an excuse to buy something I like, even if I do not have the money for it at that particular time. Now that I am living off campus, starting a new job and paying more bills I have thought of new ways that I can become better at saving money and realize how important it really is to save.
To earn money, I waitress at the Freehouse on North Wayne Ave. Also, I am a student ambassador and give tours of Cabrini for the admissions office. I have a pet peeve of buying things with change, so I have a change jar that I cash in once it becomes full. Change adds up to be a lot of money, so everytime I throw a handful in I feel that I am saving a little more. With the semester at a start, it is hard for me to work a lot.
Having a credit card is one of the main reasons why I am not so good at saving money. Recently, I have stopped using my credit card and I now feel much better about saving and my spending habits. I try to share books with friends whenever it is possible, to avoid spending hundreds of dollars on a book you may not even use.
Living off campus, I do not overuse appliances and I’m always turning off lights. I try to only use the air when necessary and my roommates and I go grocery shopping every week or so to avoid eating out regularly. Eating out regularly makes saving money extremely hard.
Also, my roommates and I try to carpool to class when we can, which helps to save gas considering gas prices are so high.
I have a checking and savings account, but I only use my checking account. I want to start using my savings account, because you can’t access the money in the account with your visa card.
Over the summer, I work five days a week to put away money for the upcoming year, so that I don’t have trouble trying to balance classes, homework, and a job too many nights a week. Also, I try to work as much as I can over semester breaks.
