How to Budget?

Budgeting is easy if you have a clear understanding of how much money is coming in and how much money is going out. Much like balancing your checkbook, you can balance your money based on your needs. This is budgeting.

Working from a monthly budget tends to be the easiest. First, figure out how much money will come in (your income) during a month.

Then, think about what expenditures you will incur within that month. The typical college student lives on campus. This student will probably run into expenditures like: food outside of your meal plan, additional books, tools and supplies not covered through financial aid, car payment, insurances, entertainment, gas and travel costs, and required memberships.

For example: let’s say that your part-time job pays $200 every two weeks after taxes. That means you will add $400 to your account by month’s end.

Estimate your expenditures: let’s say you estimate that every month you will spend $100 for food outside of your meal plan, $50 for books and supplies, $25 for gas, $50 for entertainment and $25 for your cellphone. That means that you will spend $250 total from your available income of $400. That leaves the rest that can carry forward to the next month - Savings.

Plan ahead for those occasional surprise expenses that may crop up and be sure to have the savings to cover these costs.

Budgeting now, prepares you for the ability to budget the bigger picture later, when you have additions like rent, utilities and groceries.

Use our budget form and our example budget to help you get started.