Not many students can say they woke up this morning with their bills paid, a full bank account or extra spending money in their pocket, but they can relate to one thing and that is being broke.
Budgeting seems almost impossible for some students when spending money on fast food, and weekend adventures with friends seems to come natural for so many.
But without it, many students at the University of Memphis said they wouldn’t be able to make a living.
This leads to more hours being clocked in at work and leaves less time for studying.
Junior accounting major Megan Neely, 20, from Oakland, Tennessee said that despite studying a financial field, money management is one of her hardest tasks.
Neely has found herself working job after job all while being enrolled as a full-time student.
“I’m a junior and I still haven’t gotten used to being an adult,” Neely said. “It’s way easier going broke than maintaining your money, and that’s something they never taught us in school.”
Neely said that she had to teach herself the fundamentals of money management. While she has developed a monthly plan to keep up with her expenses, she said the struggle of spending responsibly hasn’t gotten any easier.
Neely sticks to a specific monthly plan while writing out all of her monthly expenses and then calculates how many hours she plans to work.
She said that she always tries to estimate a little under her normal amount to leave room for the unexpected such as sick days and emergencies.
Sophomore nursing major Shekela Walker, 20, from Memphis, Tennessee, said before she learned how to spend wisely, going broke was a monthly routine.
At the start of her freshman year, she was employed at Kroger which helped her to spend less on fast food and rely more on home-cooked meals.
“Fast food will literally eat all of your pockets,” Walker said. “Learning how to keep groceries in my dorm was a big step for me. Before I knew it I was saving more money than expected, and had more money available for not only necessities but other wants also.”
Walker said she has two separate bank accounts, and uses one to hide money from herself to avoid excessive spending.
She deposits money into both accounts every paycheck, but only withdraws from one while the other accrues over time.
“Not going broke is really all about maturity when you think about it,” Walker said. “We’re not babies anymore, and our parents aren’t going to always be there to bail us out of financial trouble.”
Sophomore nursing student Moginique Smith, 19, from Memphis, Tennessee said relying on financial support from her parents was never an option.
She said she’s had to manage being a full-time nursing student at The Loewenberg College of Nursing while working two jobs to make a living.
“I’m big on shopping, a little too big.” Smith said. “I would find myself spending my last on a cute pair of heels, but when it was time to pay rent at my apartment, I wouldn’t have enough money in my account.”
Smith said she had to learn how to say no to shopping in order to save more money.. When she does reward herself with new goodies, she focuses less on name brands to get the ‘best bang for her buck’.
“Budgeting is a big part of making it in the real world,” Smith said. “Although, it’s easy for us as college students to waste our money on so many other distractions presented daily, in my case hourly, we have to become more responsible and focus on saving for the future.”
