Ballin on a Budget

Surviving on your own in college has to be one of the toughest challenges for a student to encounter. For freshmen who are making the transition from high school and are still adjusting to being on their own and not having their parents telling them what to do, it is even more of a responsibility to keep their behavior under control.

Students who are unemployed while in school are automatically put in a predicament to manage their money more wisely than others. With no steady income, it makes it extremely difficult for one with no job to “ball on a budget.” The only options an unemployed student has to stay ballin’ throughout the school year (if their parents don’t give them money on a regular basis) are to work the previous summer and save money or stack up on scholarships.

Even though the process for some scholarships is lengthy and there is no guarantee that you will receive the scholarship, the money that you can obtain is worth one’s time and effort. Scholarships are a great way to pay for books and they can lift a burden off of one’s pockets so they won’t have to spend their own personal savings.

It’s much easier for a student who has a job to ball on a budget compared to a student who is unemployed. Depending on what type of job one works it provides more flexibility to spend money wisely and still have money saved for times of desperate needs. What separates an employed student from an unemployed student is that the employed student can afford to spend but doesn’t want their budget to be lowered, while an unemployed student has such limited amount of money to ration with and can’t afford to spend what they have.

Getting a job while in college would be one of the smartest ways to ball on a budget. Employers who are courteous to students who are committed to working and going to school give students the option of scheduling hours they are available to work. Being employed with a flexible job that fits into one’s daily schedule gives one the opportunity to have an income and get their education at the same time.

College shouldn’t be the time for one to be focused on ballin’ unless they play a sport. It’s a time to gain useful knowledge that will help one learn how to actually ball financially once finishing college and starting a career. Another way for a college student to ball on a budget is learn how to get rid of unnecessary spending habits. Spending money on irrelevant accessories and going out every weekend and overspending on food is the quickest way for a college student to put themselves in a financial hole.

Limiting the necessities one buys can provide one with a foundation to start saving money. It’s hard not to spend money in college because there are constantly activities going on, whether it’s going to eat with friends or extra food needing to be provided for one’s dorm room when they get hungry and the café isn’t open. Ballin’ on a budget isn’t easy, but the simplest way for a college student to ball and survive is to create a spending budget of their own with the money they already have.