Going to college provides you with a lot of great opportunities: making life-long friends, learning exciting new things and preparing for a rewarding career. But getting a college degree can be expensive. Creating a budget helps to make college more affordable—and a little less stressful. And with a little help from technology, managing your money won’t feel like extra homework.
You don’t have to be a business major to draft a useful budget. Start by tracking your actual expenses. Record how much you spend on everything: tuition, housing, food, transportation costs, your cell phone, going out with friends, and anything else you buy on a regular basis. Don’t forget to include a little extra for emergencies, too. Then calculate your income, including financial aid, and add your bank account balances. Compare the two categories. If more money is going out than coming in, take a look at what you can cut or how you can bring in more income.
College Financial Aid
One way to add to the plus column in your budget is to apply for financial aid. Check with the Financial Aid Department to see if you’re eligible for scholarships, grants, loans or a work-study program to get extra cash to pay for school expenses. Both East-West University and other organizations award many scholarships based on merit or financial need, and the federal and state governments offer loans and grants. The first step to find out if you qualify for most forms of financial aid is to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Online tools for budgeting
If you’re struggling to create a budget, there are plenty of online tools that can help. Bankrate.com hosts a student budget calculator that lets you track all of your expenses, including tuition, meal plans, rent, entertainment, clothes, car payments and toiletries. Once you add your income—from a job, financial aid or even what Mom and Dad send—you can see whether you’re overspending and decide what to cut. Also check with your bank. Most have online tools or apps that let you monitor your spending, create a savings plan or receive alerts when you’re balances drop too low.
For more help, do a quick search of your app store; you’ll find hundreds of apps that can help you stick to your budget, save money and pay your bills, right from your pocket. Here are some of the best (free!) money management apps:
LearnVest (for iOS and Android): After you decide on a budget for things like food, rent and textbooks, this app lets you set up separate folders for each budget category. It syncs with your bank accounts to automatically input your expenses and tells you how much you have left to spend. LearnVest also helps you save up for big purchases.
Level Money (for iOS and Android): This money managing app is perfect for the busy college student who doesn’t want to take the time to calculate a budget each month. Just link the app to your bank accounts and credit cards, and it does the rest. Level Money figures out your income and gives you daily, weekly and monthly budgets.
Mint (for iOS and Android): This is one of the most detailed budgeting apps. Once linked with your accounts, the app automatically inputs your expenses into preset budget categories and tracks your progress with charts and graphs. Mint also offers bill payment reminders, low bank balance alerts, savings planning tools and a spending trend feature.
MintBills (for iOS and Android): From the makers of Mint, this app focuses on keeping you on top of your bill payments. It stores all of your due dates and lets you pay by clicking a button inside the app itself.
Debt Payoff Planner (for Android): This app assists you in scheduling payments on student loans and credit cards. Based on how much you pay toward your balances each month, Debt Payoff Planner calculates the date you can expect to be debt-free.
TextbookMe (for iOS and Android): Textbooks can eat up a big portion of your budget, but this app helps you find the best deals on them. Search by ISBN, title or author, or scan a book’s barcode, and TextbookMe compares the lowest online prices.
Creating—and following—a budget is one of the best ways to manage money and help you pay for college. And by letting an online tool or app do some of the work for you, you can focus on what’s really important: earning your degree.
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