#gradlbr

I tried to create my first budget in 2018. I had just gone to college and I had thousands of dollars in savings to be used (sparingly) over the course of my first year.  

Long story short I blew through my savings within the first two months of college. This isn’t uncommon, but what made it even more depressing is that I had created a budget and yet I still overspent.

That gave me a good lesson that I didn't know I needed. A budget SHOULDN’T be a wish.

I wrote my budget wishing that I would stay in line but not knowing that without will power and some serious habit change that budget wasn't doing anything for me.

So many of us were taught that if we think real hard and come up with some number that’s what a budget is, but it’s not. Far from it!

A budget should be an informed decision meaning you need to understand yourself, your needs, and what motivates you. The point of the budget isn’t to limit your spending but to make sure you're allocating your spending to things that matter to you and that have the most impact in your life.

It took me 2 years of failed budgeting to figure out the biggest mistakes I made when creating my first budget and by fixing these five things I was able to go from constant overdrafts to finally build my savings back up to a $1000

Here are the budget mistakes I made when I created my first budget and what you should actually do with your budget instead

Mistake #1: Choosing super conservative numbers

The biggest budgeting mistake that most people make and most certainly one I did for an embarrassingly long time was pretending like the cost of living did not exist?!

While my budget may say i’m only spending $50 on transportation, Atlanta transportation prices would definitely disagree.

We don’t get to pick what the prices of things and we can only make informed decisions using those prices. By pretending that things don’t cost as much you’re only setting our budget up for failure because we can’t will things to be cheaper.

By using the info you have to decide just how much you can afford then you can use your budget to decide when you've actually spent more than you can afford. It’s better to overestimate than underestimate because constantly underestimating how much things will cost will eat into your budget until its all gone and you’re wondering how you spent so much.

How to fix this:

Starting taking note of what you actually spend in a month by going over your transactions and doing some quick calculation. You can do this with apps such as Mint or Clarity money (they help you group your transactions!). If you don’t feel like going the app route you can also just go through your bank transactions with a calculator and do that bad boy yourself.

While the numbers you calculate may hurt, it only after you see the FACTS can you reasonably decide what you can actually cut down on!

Mistake #2: Pulled random numbers with no data to back it up

When I created my first college budget and I sat down in front of that google sheet I just started pulling numbers out of my ass.

Oh yeah, suuuuuure I’ll spend $50 on clothes because how many new clothes do I need anyway? Oh and an emergency fund? Who needs that!

Needless to say, don’t be like freshman year me.

All the things you think you don’t need/ won’t use/never buy anyway NEWSFLASH ya do.

It goes back to my first point of your budget should actually reflect your lifestyle. You will need clothes, you will need small luxuries and you will buy them whether they are in your budget or not.

How to fix it:

The key is to decide what is the minimum you need to sustain your variable purchases ( the things you don’t spend a set $ amount on) and once you decide what is the least you can actually spend on those things without going broke/ compromising your lifestyle that will be your sweet spot.

When picking budget numbers remember to factor in things like where you usually shop, how often you actually go out and the type of places you like to eat at. After you have all those facts you can reassess your lifestyle and decide if those lifestyle choices are worth the money you pay for them and start looking for an inexpensive alternative to your usual choices.

week 8 || Oct. 2019

Grad school is hard!! But I’m loving every minute of it?? It’s nice to be surrounded by people who are as interested and committed to psychology as you are. Plus it’s nice to have the same classes as everyone - people are always helping each other and eating lunch together. No cut-throats here.

I’m still trying to come up with a dissertation topic. You would think it would be easy since I’m so set on my research interests but each research article leads to another project idea. So we’ll see. I’ll be meeting with a professor soon to try to develop a specific project. Ah!!!!

Result? 

This morning a friend sent me a link that was so on point I had to pass it forward. 

If you’re someone who feels like they are CONSTANTLY working but not making any progress on the things that really count, read this. 

23rd August - Have you ever been really badly sunburnt? LOOK. So first of all, I just got back from visiting my parents in North Carolina and was so careful with sunscreen, never got burnt even on the beach in a high UV index. I returned home in the middle of my mother in law's visit from across the country, and we thought we'd take her to float the river for a nice, relaxing time. Not only was it not a nice, relaxing time (I have never seen anyone more stressed by floating down a river in an inner tube I stg), I have the worst sunburn of my life and feel like a horrible lizard. Quite literally crawling out of my own skin rn.