Blog time again, my my, this time of the week certainly comes around quickly. I have found myself having a generally uninteresting, uneventful life for the last week or so, but I have decided to write about the reason why it has been so rubbish as I have nothing better to write about.
The bain of my life this week is ... money!! Surprise, surprise, a student with money problems.
During my job as a CRS ambassador I often go out to schools and colleges and give presentations about student finance and budgeting. The problem is, I am very bad at following the useful information I am disseminating to all of them. So my blog this week is to tell you about my shameful over-spending and to hope that you do not follow in my footsteps and end up with no money.
All new students LOVE that first day of term when you get to your bank account and see that loan/grant money sat there waiting for you to spend it. Some people may have best part of £3000 at their disposal and with the addition of a student overdraft this figure could be even higher. So obviously with that amount of money just sat there, it would be rude to not spend it, just a little, the money would feel insulted right? Wrong, start as you mean to go on. By all means treat yourself to a few moving in gifts for your flat, a few nights out with your new friends and some gorgeous stationary and folders for your new education. But also be sensible and think ... “how long will my money actually last like this?” The answer is, not long at all. During the first term you will have trips home, birthdays, Halloween, fresher’s events and the all important Christmas and all the costs that go with it.
So as dull as it sounds (unless you’re a bit of an organisation junkie like Emily) you need to make a rough budget plan of outgoings and incomings. It doesn’t mean you have to have every penny accounted for, but do yourself a favour and plan a little bit.
In my second year, you would think I would have learnt from my mistakes and with more money coming in from regular work, things should have been much easier. WRONG. The problem is, once you allow yourself to become an addict, you cannot stop yourself. I will make a confession to the world right here, right now ... “My name is Bryony and I am a shopaholic!”
A few of the people I work with here now know just what a sorry state my finances are in and several are trying to help me, but I cannot stop spending. I know as I write this that Laura is going to kill me, but even as I had the last few pounds left on my credit card last week, I found myself buying something on Play.com (sorry, sorry, sorry, bad person, doesn’t listen to good Laura lol). The most important thing though, is that I recognise I have a problem and have asked for help.
So my pledge to you fellow bloggers is that I will no longer spend my money on things I do not need and I will come back to you a success within the next month or two. Leave your messages of support by all means to help motivate me. I CAN beat my addiction!!
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It’s the day before payday and everyone is looking at sales and online shops in preparation to have money to spend ... this is hard already ... argh!!! :’(
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