Students Can Live Within Their Means
By Tiffany Patel Linda
Many students love shopping non-durable
and consumption goods like clothing,
makeup, alcohol, hair and so forth. The outcome of this might be endless debt
and financial crisis.
It can be hard at first, but with some
sacrifice and self-discipline, any student can learn to live within his/her
means and I will show you how.
Know your income and expenses
Income is money got from a certain
job. Knowing your income and expenses can be achieved by making a list of
preference. A list of preference in economics is the arrangement of the choice
of your needs from the most preferred, to the least. Then, look at all the
income you earn from your job, allowances and so forth. After balancing your
bills, make sure that they are in line with the scale of preference list and
when the list outweighs your bill, then buy the most preferred items and
forego the least preferred hence keeping yourself off debts.
Track your expenses
As a student, it’s important to have a diary
where you note your spending plan; it can
even be done online for those who are lazy to write. Keep track by checking your daily expenses
comparing the totals against your plan.
If a student wants to live within their
means and reach their goals without incurring debt, he or she has to track
where his or her money is going.
Separate wants and needs
Before you go shopping, differentiate
your ‘wants’ from your ‘needs’. This will keep you living within your
means because you will only buy the ‘must-haves’.
Needs will be the goods or services that
are required like food, clothing and so
on, whereas wants are goods and services that are not necessary but we desire
or wish to have.
Before you make a purchase, ask yourself
if you really need that particular good or if you just want it. This should be the basis of your buying
decision. If it’s so crucial and important,
then make up your mind quickly and buy it before another good thing comes into
Do not compete with your fellow students
In life, all of us can never be at the
same level, there exist the rich, moderate or poor
and all the three statuses have different needs according to their incomes.
Thus if your income is moderate, then do not desire to have something that is
beyond your income (something that is meant for
For instance, a student from a rich family has the ability to buy consumption as well as luxurious goods, and then here comes the student from a
moderate or humble family who also wants to have the same things. The result would
be to borrow money from colleagues to maintain
this lifestyle hence leading to a flood of debts. Be comfortable in who you are
and what you have, know your income and avoid
Learn the norm of saving
Save at least 5% of your daily income
and by the end of the semester, you will have saved some good money. This saved
money could help you start a small business which with time would grow. Saved money could also help you in times of
Look for a job to boost your income
Because we all know that the more you
spend, the more you will run out of money and if you have nothing to replace
what you’ve spent, then you will soon be broke.
Earn some extra income by getting something to do even if it’s a part
time job, where you will work for a few hours a day.