How To Make A Weekly Budget In College (And Stick To It)

Long story short, college is expensive. And not just the tuition either. I’m talking about paying for books, food, transportation, clothes and even just something fun once in a while. It’s especially wallet-draining when you go to school in Boston, where everything is seemingly at least twice as expensive as it is in suburban Massachusetts, where I’m originally from. This is why it’s important to make a weekly budget in college.

Once you get on campus, you might be looking for a job either as work-study or outside of the college entirely. Or, maybe you saved up money to use as “spending money” while away at school and have no need for a job right now. In either scenario, it’s important to plan out your costs and act accordingly to avoid overspending or draining your bank account.

I worked two jobs my first year on campus and I made about $200 a week, which was roughly comparable to what I was making at my job in my hometown. The only difference was that I got paid biweekly at school and weekly at home. Instead of the steady stream of income I was used to, every two weeks my bank account would be hit with a huge deposit of $400. Every Friday when I got paid, all my worries about money and budgeting seemed to disappear because of this newfound wealth. I would spend and spend the first few days after receiving my paycheck with no regard to future expenses. I realized I was blowing through my paycheck and dipping into my savings account weekly about halfway through the semester, so I decided to be smarter with my money.

If you have a job, it’s easy to create a budget for yourself. I started a biweekly budget to keep myself on track.

Creating the budget

When creating this budget, Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel are your friends. I kept all my spreadsheets in the same document in my Google Drive so I could easily look back to track my savings, finances, and spending. Online or mobile banking is also super helpful when keeping track of how much money you spent and where. This is one reason I prefer to use my debit card over cash when keeping a record of expenses. This will make it much easier to keep a weekly budget in college.

Weekly income

The first step is figuring out how much money you have to work with. For me, this was $400 for every two weeks. If you don’t have a job with a generally consistent income, set a goal for how much you really should spend every week. If you came to school with a savings account full of spending money, divide it up to roughly to give yourself the equivalent of a weekly “income.” For example, if you started the semester with $1,500 you had saved to spend, you would divide that by the fifteen weeks in the semester and come out with about $100 a week in spending money thanks to your weekly budget in college.

Spending points

After you figure out how much you have, make a list of priority spending points that you would need money for each week. My categories were savings, loan payment, food, and transportation. I knew that I wanted to save a substantial portion of the money I was making, so I transferred $100 to my savings account every payday. Additionally, I paid $100 toward my FAFSA loan every two weeks, which brought the money that I had left to work with down to $200.

I then allocated a set amount to each category, basing my estimation on past spending habits. For example, I don’t eat out a lot, but I use Lyft pretty frequently, so I designated $35 for food every two weeks and $70 for transportation.

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After subtracting food and transportation costs, I was left with $95 dollars. I allocated $60 to “extra” spending; this could be anything from an unexpected trip to CVS when I was sick or a gift for a friend’s birthday. Basically, any cost that wasn’t typical of a normal weekly expense. After subtracting the “extra” spendings, I was left with $35 dollars. I used this as overflow cash basically, where if I overspent in one category I would have some cushion so I wouldn’t have to withdraw from my savings account to make up for it. Sometimes I used all of the leftover money; sometimes I used none of it. Whatever was left at the end of the two weeks I transferred into my savings account.

At the end of the of the two-week period, I highlighted each time I went over budget in a certain category in red so I could avoid the same mistakes and not overspend again. However, I noticed that I was going over my initial transportation budget of $50 every week, so I upped it to $70 to accommodate for that, taking some money from the “extra” category. Making necessary changes and adapting your budget to your lifestyle is important to sticking to it. This will keep you on track for keeping a weekly budget in college.

Sticking to it

I kept the spreadsheet document as a living doc, where I added up my expenses throughout the two-week period instead of having to sort through my bank records at the end. That made it a lot easier to stick to the budget I set for myself.

Everyone has different sources of income and different needs, but a unique budget can be incorporated into anyone’s daily life to promote organization and dissuade overspending.