How to ‘Not’ Burn Your Wallet: NITT Edition

Finance Management. I thought I wouldn’t need it as long as my friends kept falling for “I don’t have change for 500Rs. I’ll pay you once I have spare change” or “I forgot to bring my wallet” moves. But alas, my bliss was short-lived as there came a day when everyone around me realized what a lying brat I was. I was found guilty and was about to be doomed. So I set out to learn some money management techniques.

Many of us handle money for the first time when we live away from our families, in college. So the chances of going broke are quite high. Being broke can be encapsulated in the situation when you treat your friends in Coke Station while they had given you a treat in CCD. Being broke is awful but being broke during birthdays or festivals is much worse. To get rid of this curse, you not only need to master how to spend money but also how to save money.

Here are some tips I found useful:

• Be informed of the discounts available. For example, how many are aware that being a student of NITT grants the privilege of accessing apps such as Office, Grammarly and Matlab for free?
• Try to pay in cash as much as possible. When you pay in cash, you process the amount you pay and the balance amount you have whereas while swiping a plastic card, it’s easy to forget that it equates to actual money.
• Stop impulsively buying things you want but don’t need. Determine what is essential carefully. You certainly don’t need crocodile skin umbrella or radioactive denim.
• Make a note of your daily expenses, and you’ll be surprised when you see how much money you have spent in a week. Hopefully, you then learn your lesson and prevent any further unnecessary expenses.
• You can also allocate specific budgets to regulate your expenses. If you spend most of your money eating, it’s high time you assign a food budget. Likewise, if you go out regularly make an entertainment budget.
• Try to save money whenever possible. The urge to splurge does rise at the beginning when you are tempted to buy new shoes that you don’t need from an online shopping website. But you will feel good once you resist it and it gets more comfortable with time.

With all that mind, it’s now your decision to spend wisely or to binge shop and buy yourself some gold plated staples and a luxury Frisbee.

This piece was written in collaboration with Nymphadora.