KELSEY MAYS
Living Editor
Unexpectedly large bills have a way of instantly derailing pursuits that were going on moments before. For those few seconds, a mounting sense of disbelief — perhaps it’s a defense mechanism — overtakes everything else.
My episode came late last week, when one of my roommates walked in with the monthly electric bill for our six-person apartment. Having all moved in after last month’s cycle, this was one shoe that had yet to drop on us.
“Two-hundred and sixty dollars,” he announced. After 30 seconds of disbelief, the blame game kicked off.
My targets included the dishwasher, the ceiling fan and the clothes dryer. One of my roommates mentioned my computer staying on late into the night.
This might be an average-size bill for six people. But as of this writing, we haven’t addressed that — or how we’ll reduce next month’s bill — yet.
It brings me to a bigger point, though. College is really the first time many students budget their lives. For many, budgets stem from parental stipends or paychecks and how to prolong them until the next infusion. For a few, budgets represent the management of personal businesses earnings and stock dividends. Stay in touch with this second group, because they’re likely to be very wealthy someday.
Either way, the budget has one purpose: to help an individual live on today’s money, so it lasts until tomorrow’s income. Saving toward long-term expenses (or even retirement) is just an advanced way of considering tomorrow’s income in light of its expenses.
I am not a budgeter. Upon receiving my first debit card in high school, I bounced my bank account six times in one week and, considering the $22 charged for each overdraft, probably made my bank’s “most valuable customer” list once I paid it all back.
College brought renewed enthusiasm as I armed myself with a computerized personal budget program. Now I could track all my expenses: groceries, dining, movies and gas all played out into neat little pie charts every month.
It never quite worked, though. The charts reminded me I spent too much every weekend, while countless negative subtotals forecasted an empty bank account.
I realized there is a second part to this budget: actually carrying it out. It’s one thing to graph expenditures and estimate next semester’s earnings behind a computer screen on Sunday, but entirely another to stick within those goals come Monday. Budgeting for a semester is about deciding to eat at home rather than stop on the way back from class. It’s about buying cheaper brands, working extra hours and making ends meet. It is not about an elaborate monthly plan — it’s about the small decisions every day that make that plan work.
I struck gold four months ago by deciding to withdraw a set amount of cash each week. For me, money in the wallet is a much better indicator of how things are going than a wad of credit card receipts. With cash in hand, I’m far more likely to hit up the grocery store before a restaurant.
But things still get hairy when unexpected bills come. I’m not sure my system really has contingencies to deal with those situations, so I concede there is some retooling needed.
Things are getting better, though. In earlier days, I may have shrugged off my $45 share of the electric bill, preferring to watch those budget graphs predict future doom rather than do anything about it.
Today, there’s due response. And for now, that means I’ll be eating plenty of cereal at home until next week.
09-29-2005
