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Summer spending
Summer is gone; the savings could disappear just as quickly!
Sadly summer is officially over. Even those of you at university are now trudging back to class. I know that there are many reasons to despair with summer coming to a close - an end to the pool parties, BBQs, long days at the beach and much much more - but on top of all this there is one thing that catches me out every time summer ends…. the wages stop, but the spending doesn’t!
It’s a deceivingly simple concept. During the summer a lot of you would have been working, and getting quite a few hours as well. However, as school starts up again and as the summer retail peak begins to fade you will find that the amount of hours you’ll be working will drop off quite rapidly. This means that your weekly income will also start to feel quite deflated. And for those of you beginning university you’ll also find the cost of living going up with summer now over (paying the rent, bills, textbooks etc).
Unfortunately for me and my friends, we made the same mistake virtually every year that we were at school, and for our first two years at university (fingers crossed I do alright this year) - We didn’t slow down our spending. We still went out for lunches and shopping most weekends, we still went to the movies and to concerts like we were actually earning money. From what I can understand this is the case with most of my peers, so don’t think you’re immune to it! Most people’s summer savings seem to run out in about April or May. This is terrible because then you’re left scrounging for cash to cover essentials like the ball season (tickets, hair + makeup, and of course the dress and shoes), friends’ birthday parties, and winter clothing. This is not fun, and while hopefully your parents will help you with some of this, I can almost guarantee you that they aren’t going to be happy footing the bill for everything!
You’ve got to plan your year.
Make a Budget so your savings don’t run out in April (or so you can create some savings during the year).
- Make a list of all the money coming in each week, and add up the amounts to find your total weekly earnings - e.g. pocket money + part time work etc.
- Plan how much money you should be spending each week. Break this up into categories - entertainment, food and transport.
Some weeks you will break your plan, so for these weeks you’ll need to minimise the damage. Do this by setting a limit or maximum amount that you can spend in the above categories on a crazy week. This should prevent you from destroying your savings in one go.
Go get a diary and put in the following things so you can budget for them and set aside money for later:
- Friends birthdays - you’ll need to budget some $$ for presents etc
- Balls - put in any balls you are planning to attend. Your school’s one, your boyfriend’s, and any others you think you’ll end up going to.
- Any big concerts or events that you really really want to go to later in the year
- It’s also a good idea to put a date (or a week or weekend) in your diary where you are going to do your big winter clothes shop, so you can plan and budget for it!
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I can never stick to a diary thing where it helps you budget. Any other tips? Posted by POWERBALLIN25 "on" 08/12 "at"11:19 PM |
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Need to get job hunting! really badly! Posted by Xxc0rtxX "on" 08/12 "at"02:51 PM |
Best of the rest
Summer is THEE hardest time of the whole year to TRY save..
Hot out fits, holidays, lunches, beach trips , dates .
Doesnt make it much better that its SO hard to find a job :/