November is finally here. The month I’ve been dreading for the past 6 months. Why? Because my student loans are finally out of deferment. Over the past few months, I’ve been getting a variety of emails from Fedloan servicing and it’s slowly been making me cry and cringe from the simple fact that I don’t want to be a grown-up anymore. I’ve barely figured out how car loans, retirement and health insurance worked, and now I have to figure out student loans payments. Adulting is basically it’s own full time job!
I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how I’m going to add another bill on to my plate. Here are a few things I’ve been doing over the past month:
Track your expenses.
I had a supervisor last year who talked to me about tracking my spending. Heck, I even remember my dad talking to me about tracking my spending when I was growing up. Did either of those teach me to track my spending? Of course not, at least until now! I keep a monthly excel sheet which I found online. The spreadsheet allows me to input my income and estimate my expenses at the beginning of each month and then put the actual amount that I’ve spent. It’s been very helpful to not only see where my money goes but what part of my expenses I can get rid of and reallocate elsewhere.
Lay off the lattes.
Okay, while I don’t actually drink lattes, I do go out to eat on the regular. It’s something about not cooking and spending time with friends that I really enjoy. But I realize I have to sacrifice just a tad to be able to still love the lifestyle I want to live, while also making sure my bills will be paid. I’m sure limiting my time out to eat won’t hurt me too bad!
No impulse spending!
I know that I am an impulse spender! After a bad day I just want to swipe a little here and swipe a little there. But the swiping left and right is only hurting my pockets! Sticking to a budget is the only way to go!
Learn to say no.
By far this is the hardest thing for me to do. I have a lot of friends and coworkers who want to get off campus sometimes and go out to eat. I’m always quick to say yes but I’ve been working on saying no and not being embarrassed to say it’s not in my budget right now.
I’m starting to come to terms with having to pay my student loans. I realize it’s just a part of life! After all, I knew when I started college 6 years ago this day would come.
This post is part of the Emerging SA Pro series following 4 awesome people: Aracelis, Emalie, Felicia, and Patrick, as they blog monthly about 1 year of their journey as either a new SA Pro or SA grad student. We are proud to help them share their stories as they break into our field.
