I have a project for a marketing class that requires me to work on my savings for six weeks. Each group got assigned a habit category to work on, and I was put in the finances group. Honestly, I’m grateful for it; I impulse buy a lot, but it’ll be nice to build up my savings this spring. I tried doing a “low-purchase” month in February, but it didn’t go well. I’m excited to try it out again, and the grade incentive will hopefully help. I’m obviously not an expert, and none of this is advice. This is just a fun challenge. In case anyone wants to join and save up some extra cash for the summer, I’ll outline what steps I’m taking.
Budget
I commute to campus every day, which is around 20 minutes round trip. Everything else I drive to is within 20 minutes, for the most part, so as long as I don’t need to do extra driving, a full tank of gas lasts me around a month. This challenge will last six weeks, but in case I need to do extra driving, I’ll budget for around two months of gas.
Next up is food. I live at home, so most meals are taken care of by my parents (thank you Mom and Dad!), but if you’re doing this challenge and live on campus, chances are you have a meal plan. I don’t, so if for some reason I need to grab lunch on campus, I need to make sure I have some money on hand. To be on the safe side, I’ll budget for about one on-campus meal a week, but I’m hoping to eat there less.
Can’t forget personal hygiene! I know I’ll probably be buying shampoo and conditioner during the next six weeks, but everything else should be stocked up enough to last the next month and a half.
I am going to put aside a little bit of money for fun things. Not too much but enough that if a friend I don’t see often wants to get a coffee or lunch, I can say yes and not feel guilty about spending outside of my budget.
All of the Rest
Outside of the budget, there will be some things that I have to change to really make this project work. I’ll have to postpone some projects I’ve been wanting to work on unless Joann’s sales get better because fabric is still expensive enough that I don’t want to mess up and have to buy more. I’m combatting this by just making coffee or some other treat at home instead of stopping at Tim Hortons or not going into stores when I don’t need anything. Luckily, I already have all of the seeds to plant a garden this summer, so I can start growing plants alongside my savings. They’re pretty minor changes, but I’m hoping they’ll make the challenge a little easier and help build better habits in general.
I know this isn’t a perfect plan, but it’ll work for the next six weeks. When I have the numbers figured out on a two-week basis, I’ll be putting the rest of my money into my savings account. Depending on how it goes, I can make small adjustments to the budget to make it fit my needs better. I know that I’ll have a couple of other expenses pop up, but I’m lucky enough to have some wiggle room. Like this week, I need to get my car repaired, but I have no idea how much that will cost, so I can’t factor that into my budget. Things like this happen, which is why it’s great to have some savings to dip into. Budgeting and saving are great skills to have, so I’m hoping some of you join me! Remember, being financially responsible is hot.