Finances for Broke Boys™ (2024)

We know that this is the most common suggestion, but budgets are very effective if used correctly. In order to be successful with a budget, it must be followed and created with realistic spending habits in mind. We suggest visiting your budget on a monthly basis.

Begin creating your budget by looking at your recent (last three months) spending habits and how much money you actually have to work with. The main categories we recommend you include in your budget are tuition/ books, rent, utilities, food, fun and misc. Misc, being school supplies, household items you didn’t realize you needed until now, clothing, etc. Don’t lowball how much each area of your budget will cost you monthly, aim for the average or even a bit above. You can put all the leftover money that you didn’t spend into your savings account to begin saving for the future. For misc, have an allotted monthly budget, almost like an emergency fund for buying a spatula you desperately need or replacing pants that rip.

As a student, if you are barely covering your expenses, please don’t worry about sending a chunk of your money to a savings account each month, but do try to stay within your allotted budget. Also, you need to expect that your total funds will decrease throughout the school year, it is very rare that you will be earning enough income while in school to maintain a cash flow equilibrium between your spending and your earnings, and that is fully alright.

We noted that you shouldn’t be putting a huge chunk of money into a savings account each month, as you likely will be spending almost as much as you earn, but there are ways to shrink your actual spending and have some financially stable.

Food costs a lot of money, especially if you consistently eat takeout. For one portion of ordered food, it costs approximately $7 on average. For home cooked meals, it is on average $3 dollars per portion, and often people cook several portions of food at once. It is substantially cheaper to cook, especially if you like to meal prep, as it takes about 3 hours to cook a whole week’s worth of meals at once while costing a fraction of the price.

For your fun budget, ensure that you are spending it on things you actually want to do for fun. A lot of students I know spend a fair amount of their money on things they don’t really need or clothing they don’t often wear. If you choose to buy items with your fun money, ensure that you absolutely need them or that the item will be useful to you regularly. You probably don’t need that 3rd pen jar for your desk or another pair of essentially the same jeans. Spend your money wisely. For instance, alcohol at the bar is much more expensive per drink than a bulk purchase at the LCBO. On average, a drink at the bar costs $6, whereas a drink made with your own alcohol from the LCBO costs you about $1.5 made with lower end hard liquor.

Consider getting a credit card with cash back or reward options. Several students pay for everything on their credit cards (while paying it off almost immediately of course) because they are going to spend that money anyway, so why not get some benefits? Some common rewards are cash back, air/rewards miles, and gift cards to restaurants. This allows you to create more wiggle room in your budget, such as creating opportunities for you to treat yourself to a meal out with friends without stressing on the spending, or in the simplest form, create more cash for you to save.

Okay, so you made a budget that you’re sticking to, and you’re making smarter choices with your money, but you still don’t have enough to make it through the year. Unfortunately, you may have to get a loan from somewhere. We recommend that you apply for scholarships first, then government loans, and finally bank loans if you are unsuccessful with either previous option.

The reason we suggest this order is that often scholarships are grants - with no payback or interest - and there are so many potential scholarships to apply for out there. Don’t be afraid to apply to scholarships that don’t completely apply to you, as hundreds of scholarships go unclaimed each year.

Government loans tend to have smaller interest rates compared to bank loans, and are often comprised of a grant along with a loan. Bank loans have high interest rates, and often they expect you to pay them back starting a mere year after applying.

Do you have any tips for sustainable living on a small budget? Let us know in the comments below!

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