Budgeting is an important life lesson for college students. One of the aspects of a budget that you need to consider is your rent.
When you’re in college, choosing where you live is an important consideration every single year.
It’s always important to separate reality from desire. When it comes to picking an apartment, that can be hard to do.
Reality is basically your situation: you need a place to live. What does that entail? You need a place where you can sleep, cook, eat and ideally study. You want it to be convenient to your job or school.
The “desire” part of you might also think you need the common courtyard area, the swimming pool and the cool security guy at the front gate. You envision weekend parties and the time of your life.
The deciding factor often becomes money. Where can you afford to live?
Budgeting Basics: Paying Rent
Budgeting is the process of knowing how much money you have coming in, how much is going out and where the money is going. When you’re deciding where to live, you’re making a decision about a large item in your budget.
That’s why it makes a difference whether your share of the rent is $200, $400, $500 or more.
For example, if you only have a total monthly budget of $800, that $500 rent is going to leave you extremely tapped, with only $300 to cover food, entertainment, phone and internet. At $200, you’re giving yourself twice as much money to live on. It’s an important decision.
When you’re making your budget, do what you can to not use up every dollar you have coming in. The idea is surplus. Pick an apartment with a rent level that makes it affordable and not stressful for you. Your budget will thank you.
How do you setup your budget to account for the monthly rent. Let us know about your budget in the comment section below.
Equal Housing Opportunity
7 Comments. Leave new
Budgeting is very stressful, especially during the first year of college, but having read this advice it reminds me to keep my priorities in line. Thanks for the great advice!
Great time to learn how a budget works, my advise is to keep all your receipts. Then at the end of the month you can see where your money is being spent and where adjustments can be made. Corporate American use budgets to run lean and mean these days. Something we will all need to get use to.
[…] Includes the unfortunate responsibility of paying monthly bills. Previously, we looked at how to account for your rent. While saving money toward your rent is important, you also need to save money to pay your […]
[…] – How much can you afford to pay? If your budget is $300 a month, you’re limited to finding an apartment that is $300 or […]
[…] way to make sure you have the money to pay your rent is to budget for it on a weekly basis. If your share of the rent is $200, you need to put aside $50 a week to pay the […]
[…] Obviously, this is not how it works in an off-campus living situation as you’re required to pay rent every […]
[…] to establish a rental history. Once you graduate from college, you will appreciate having created a rental history, which will help you when you are searching for your first post-college apartment or home. Even if […]