The Difference Financial Awareness Makes

Last year at this time (mid-summer), I was completely broke, and had already run up an additional $1000 in credit card bills. This year, I have $2200 to spend in my checking account. Why such a dramatic difference? This has happened purely because I am more aware of my own financial situation now, and have been taking steps to prevent sinking to rock bottom like I did last year. Let me tell you why I was broke last year….

I am graduate student on a 9-month contract. Summer funding, usually in the form of teaching or research assistantships is extremely difficult to come by in my department, and even when it does, is terribly meager. Summer work even outside the department is extremely difficult to come by. There are a few reasons for this: I live in a college town, which reduces in size in the summer to about one-fourth its original population. This creates a dearth of employment opportunities. But also, because most of the people who do stay in town are usually looking for employment, including the high-school students and summer partiers looking to fund their weekend booze, there is increased demand for employment. The result of this depressing trend is that any job that I do land is usually not worth the money. This summer more than ever, I need to be aware of how I spend my time since I take my massive Ph.D. qualifying exams in mid-August and need to schedule intensive studying for as much time as I can. Last year, although I did land a summer research assistantship, it paid only $1300 after taxes for the whole summer. That is how I came to be broke, and running up credit card debt. This had been my story the past few years as well, but I was engaged at that time, and my fiancé who earned many times as much as I did usually covered my summer expenditure.

However, this has not been the case this summer. Let’s take a look:

What has not changed?
• Summer employment opportunities still remain pitiably low.
• I still don’t have any savings (greater than $100).

What has added on to the financial burden this year?
• I have an additional monthly payment of $210 for a newer car.
• In March I took a two-week long break from work and went on a long road trip that cost me almost $2000, which I could have used for summer money. However, I am glad I took this trip since it provided me with some much needed travel and relaxation, and has been pivotal in keeping me sane. It also was a period of self-exploration that turned out to be priceless.

What changed? Well, for one, over this past year, I have become very aware of my finances. This affected all the following points:
• I moved to a much smaller, much crappier (but still inhabitable) basement studio apartment in a dilapidated old house to save money – the savings are not much, but are just short of my monthly car loan installments, so I don’t place any additional strain on my wallet.
• I have stopped raking up additional credit card debt, and consequently my monthly payments are lower.
• I was as frugal as comfortably possible during the non-summer months and paid off a few credit cards with smaller balances.
• I transferred balances to low APR% credit cards to avoid finance charges.
• I negotiated with my landlady to do maintenance work around the house in lieu of $50 off monthly.
• I use public transport as much as possible to save on gas.
• I cook more at home to save on food expenses.
• I use more coupons and shop for deals (this doesn’t happen a great deal, but has definitely saved me about $10 over the past two months).
• I gave up my Netflix subscription, and began using the public library (always free), and Redbox (almost always free – see promo codes in the right-sidebar of this blog), saving me about $15/month ($17 Netflix subscription – Approx $2 for Redbox when I run out of promo codes).
• I began this blog (late in the year, but I had been journaling off and on before I began blogging) to keep me motivated and accountable.
• I made a budget each month, and tried to stick to it. I almost never succeeded, but the budgets saved me from going too over the top and definitely saved me a few hundred dollars.
• I made a separate summer budget knowing that my income each summer month would be different, so I ended up not spending everything in my checking account by the end of the month. The money I now have in my checking account has to be carefully used over the next three months when my monthly income will be much smaller than it has been these past two months.
• I have become more comfortable asking for discounts and jobs, and have been greatly amazed at how often I seem to get what I ask for when I do ask.
• I negotiated with my department, and competed with a lot of other students for a higher paying summer assistantship (approx. $1850 over the summer).
• Additional Income: I lobbied (read begged) for, and got additional summer funding with a different department (approx. $1200 over the summer).
• Additional Income: I sold books I no longer need on Amazon.
• Additional Income: I sold a few household objects off on Craigslist.
• Additional Income: I joined and completed online surveys for cash.
• Additional Income: I pet-sat for a nominal fee.

Isn't it wonderful what being financially aware and responsible can do? I don't think I am ever going back to the old me!