Good day, people of Hive! Welcome to my blog. Today’s topic is from Hive Student Connect which says: Managing Money As A Student. So let’s dive in.
Managing money as a student is one of the hardest things ever. No matter how much we have or they give us, it always feels like the money is not enough. Immediately we get money, we start spending it on food, transport, and handouts, and sometimes we remove some to buy data and airtime. Anytime our sisters send me and my brother money for food, transport, and other things, after about two weeks we usually notice that the money is no longer much in our hands. Then we start asking ourselves: How come this money is reducing so fast, after all they sent it not quite long ago?
For me, I don’t have any budgeting app. I’ve noticed that some people use it to track their expenses, but I don’t have anything like that. I just try to use my sense to cut down on things that I know will quietly consume my money. For example, in school we were ask us to buy handbooks, but because some of them are too expensive, I don’t buy them. I only buy the handbooks I know are important, and for the ones I can’t buy, I borrow from my coursemates, snap the important pages, or photocopy them.
Another way I manage money is food. The food they sell in school is very expensive, and if I depend on buying it every day, I will be broke before I even realize it. Personally, I don’t buy food in school. What I usually do is cook at home when I still have time before going to school. But if I'm feeling hungry suddenly in school and I can’t wait to get home, I just buy doughnuts or buns with cold water. It doesn’t satisfy me completely, but it helps me hold my stomach until I get home. That alone has saved me from going completely broke many times.
Honestly, I’ve made plenty of mistakes with money. There was a time our sisters sent us money for food and transport, and also gifted us some extra to buy whatever we wanted for ourselves. I was happy because I thought I could use it to buy things in school or buy sugar and groundnut to drink with garri. Every day in school, I was buying doughnuts, buns, and biscuits just because I had that extra money. Before I knew it, I had finished more than the gifted money and even spent from my transport money. That period, I was drinking only garri without anything. Even when the garri was sour, I still drank it because I was paying for my mistakes. It wasn’t funny at all, but it taught me a big lesson, that small careless spending can really affect more than big expenses.
Transportation is another thing that consumes money. I try to manage my transport money so that it will last long. Anytime we have only one lecture in school, I don’t bother to go, though not every time and I keep that transport money. Or if there’s a free day in school, I keep the money too. Those little amounts I save always add up.
Sometimes I try to save, but it’s not always easy. Still, whenever I manage to save a little, it always helps me later in times of emergency.
In conclusion, student life is not easy, but we need to discipline ourselves in how we spend and always try to manage money.
This is my entry for the Hive Student Connect New Prompt, Week 10
Thanks for reading💞💞💞💞💞.
Images are mine.