Moving out of the comfort zone of your own house is hard, and starting a new phase of your life in a whole new country is even harder, no matter what level of study, research, or professional career you are at. And one thing that adds to the complexities is managing your finances. Subtle frugality is one of the best but not the easiest methods to accentuate your savings. It not only includes being within a budget or managing finances but is more intrinsically connected to your habits and everyday choices. In this blog, I will share some of the practices that helped me manage my finances better as a graduate student in the United States.
Student Discount & Coupons
First, make the best use of all the offers and coupons available to you as a UofM student with the MCard services. We often miss out on so many good deals just because we don’t check for the offers available. For shopping deals about almost anything ranging from travel, and accommodation to apparel, accessories, and more, it is best to check the sites like Unidays, StudentUniverse, StudentBeans. These sites provide a really good picture of all the discounts you can make use of as a student.
Focusing on maximizing your income
Part-time jobs are the most common ways of earning while being at school and apply to as many positions as you can for on-campus employment to get a shot at the best compensation. In order to excel in most of the interviews, brush up or learn some basic skills like data entry, event management (virtual or in-person), virtual assistance, and most importantly, your interpersonal skills! UofM offers a lot of research positions across many departments as part-time positions too. Approaching the professors or administrative departments of your school can help you find GSI, GSRA, or GSSA positions as well, which covers partial to a total waiver of tuition fees for that term alongside a competitive hourly pay.
Scholarships and Fellowships
At UofM, the university funds are broadly separated into numerous financial aid options which are available to students of all levels of study based on the eligibility criteria of the funds, with mostly rolling application deadlines. These can also be classified on the basis of merit, diversity, socio-economic background and other criteria. So, be sure to look out for any of these scholarship /fellowship options. The more you apply to, more are your chances of actually scoring a hit. Other websites that provide relevant external sponsor/scholarship options are: Bold and Scholarships.com.
Cashbacks, Referrals, and Preferred Rewards
If possible, use credit cards (responsibly) over debit cards to pay your bills. Be a little selective about the choice of your student credit cards because you can get a lot of rewards and cashback based on those. So compare the options and then decide on which credit card will be the best for you. Another trick is splitting your paycheck between your checking and savings accounts from the very beginning in a 60-40 or 70-30 ratio. This helps in building your savings consistently over time, which you can either use as emergency funds (ideally should be 3 times your mandatory monthly expenses) or for paying off student loans. Speaking of student loans, some of the low APR private loan providers are listed here.
Now that you have figured out how to make the best-informed purchase/expense-related decisions as a student, budgeting is all about just managing your money in the most effective way possible. The easiest practice that I have started off with is portrayed in the picture below:
To get a better understanding of your expenses and ideal budget plan, you can either use digital finance management apps like Mint, TrueBill, EveryDollar, or you can use the old-school technique of a detailed budget plan that looks something like this:
Having said all of that, I wanted to address the fact that the take on financial planning is most likely to vary from person to person, mostly depending on their situations. In my opinion, I don’t believe in the idea of cutting off expenses in every “want” sector of your life, and I would rather figure out a way to accommodate my wants, even with all the limitations. For you, you might think about it in a completely different way. This is where prioritizing options by gauging their impact in the near future, helps in making the choices that are in your best interests.
These are some of the things that worked out well for me, so far. And like I mentioned before, getting started with these pointers actually helps one in building habits that can gradually lead them to financial freedom.
Written by Pritha Pal
Summer Orientation Peer Advisor
Graduate Student
India
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