Budget

Made a budget today.  Especially since the Quarry is so freakin' expensive I'm going to need to buckle down and budget like crazy.

Tuition: 11,310/year
Parking pass: 250/year
Books and Supplies: 1,600/year
Apartment (Rent, water, gas, electric, internet): 8,500/year
Food: 3,600/year
Gas/Fuel: 1,200/year or so
Other: 1200/year
TOTAL:$$$$27,660/year$$$$$
                   =2,305/month

So essentially for 9 months I will be around 24k. because school is only for 9 months my expenses are calculated differently.

Note to self: Ok, so lets say I just have tuition/books/supplies/parking paid right away (theoretically) at the beginning of the school year.  That is 13,160.  Ok so I have $10,872 of living and stuff during school (9months) so my budget of actual spending (including rent) is $$1,208/month.  (TRY TO KEEP IT UNDER THIS) That is a number I can keep in mind when I am actually looking at my bank account in terms of cost for living.

Other will probably be basic things like toiletetries, toilet paper, stuff that comes up...basic stuff.

This isn't including the cost of furnishing the apartment from the ground up either.  Who knows what else is going to come up. What if the car dies, what if my laptop breaks, what if I get really sick...I mean these are things I cannot anticipate.

I'm probably never eating out. Not going to spend money on stuff like concerts and stuff probably. I don't know how I can. I've already been spending too much lately, not very responsibly.  I can't continue as if I just have these "unlimited" resources.  I don't want to take out loans until I have to.  My parents are generous enough to fund up to a certain amount but that'd get me through maybe a year and half.  If my budget doesn't work or financial circumstances make it so my parents can no longer help, then more loans.  I want to avoid it as much as I can.  Signing up to live at such a place pretty much means I need to forgo the other stuff that I don't actually need.  I don't know if I should get a part time job.  If I do my weekends will probably be totally gone.  So much for seeing anybody or going home if that happens.  I don't want to take out loans just to live "comfortably" because I've been comfortable enough so far but I can't be spending money like this. Because I'm not going to expect anybody to help... I need to learn to just take care of myself because I need to learn and before long I won't have any help at all.  Trying to budget this out makes me feel a little bit better but it still is stressful.

Although the calculations cannot be totally accurate because there are expenses I may not have in the summer or expenses I may have more of. I just don't know.  Because my lease is a whole year I'm going to just live in Columbus for the summer and work full time (this is the plan).  Although I think I may have to do a practicum and/or study abroad for a short period of time to fulfill requirements for school.  I am hoping that working will make a significant difference and put off student loans and hopefully not use them at all.  I mean if I accumulated 1k a month I could literally just barely survive summer on my own financially. I don't know if I could even do That.

I'm also a little anxious about some of the courses I'm going to be taking once I switch departments because I know 3 of them are goin to be very challenging for me because I don't care much for numbers.  Although I would like to maybe have a small work study, I don't know if I could actually handle it.  As and Bs are crucial because you aren't really even ALLOWED to get a C, its a requirement of the program, or of any masters/doctorate program really from what I can tell. Knowing that just sorta stresses me out regardin courses I know I won't be that great at.