Episode 1: Budgeting

         

 Hey everyone, welcome to episode 1 of A Millennial’s Guide to College. Today we’ll be talking about a very important skill that all college students should know, how to create a budget. Budgeting in college is a bit different than budgeting outside of school because during the semester a lot of your income is made up of financial aid and scholarships. I’m going to help you budget for the months that you are in school. Let’s get started!

          There are many types of budgets to fit your needs. You can make a pen and paper budget, like the PDF I provided below, an app like Mint or Penny, which sends you notifications when you submit a deposit or go over your expense account, and you can use your banks online services like PNC Virtual Wallet to track your spending. You can use any of these or any combination these budget making tools to create your budget.

          Now that you have your budget template, you can start to create your budget. The first thing that you need to do is to calculate how much money you make in an average month. You should include things like how much you usually make at your job, if you have one, how much you usually get for financial aid during that specific month, and how much money you usually receive from family and friends during that specific month.

          After you add together how much you make in a month, you can figure out how much you should spend in a given month. A good rule to follow when calculating, is the 50/30/20 rule, which means that 50% of your income is meant for living expenses like groceries and organization fees, 30% is meant for fun stuff like shopping and going out with friends, and 20% of your income is meant to be saved.

          Once you have filled out your expected monthly income and expenses, it is time to try and keep to your budget while tracking your actual income and expenses for the month. Good luck and happy spending!!

    Click here for a free printable budget to help you get started.