Freshman year of college was a completely new and foreign experience. Aside from having the ability to do virtually whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, I actually had responsibilities. No one made sure I did my homework, or even went to class for that matter. And laundry certainly didn’t wash itself. At first I had so much free time I didn’t know what to do with myself. But soon enough I felt like I had zero time. Not even enough to sleep. All of those things just took some getting used to, well, maybe a lot of getting used to. But eventually I learned to get by, and take care of myself and all of my responsibilities- or at least most of them.
I am not quite sure where it started: whether it was the online shopping, the countless nights of ordering Domino’s, the tanning packages or the infamous trips to BK and Panera Bread, I do not know. But before I knew it, I had a negative balance in my account after the first half of the semester. I had received a scholarship to pay for my books, so this debt did not even include my expensive schoolbooks! Now you are probably thinking, what was the initial balance? Well friends, I went into first semester of freshman year with $2,000.
The first thing you must understand, especially if you have not experienced freshman year of college yet, is the amount of money you spend depends on two things: your school, and how well (or how awful) you are at managing your finances. The bad part is, my school has a suburban campus, and we never really go into a city or to the bars. Everything you need is pretty much on campus, except for a few fraternity houses. Anyways, the depletion of my funds was entirely due to my obliviousness. I put no thought into how many times we ordered Domino’s, how much I was spending on online clothes stores, or how much those monthly tanning packages really were. Sure, there is no harm in spending money, it’s a lot of fun and you can get some great stuff! The harm comes from carelessly spending money. The little things add up. For me, they added up to $2,000 in 5 weeks.
So if you are in charge of your own money in college, a word from the wise: Keep track of your balance. Don’t make the same mistake I did. It was stressful for me because I did not have online banking, and had to physically go home (stressful for my parents) to rejuvenate my account. What’s worse was that I had to take out the money I saved for second semester and use it for the second half of my first semester. This meant I had to be EXTRA careful during second semester, and I didn’t have as much money to spend on things I actually needed, like books! So, do yourself and your parents a favor by being smart with your money, and always keeping track of your finances. Thanks for reading! You deserve a code. Here it is: “MODINERO”
Yours truly,
Sally Scholar
