Personal Budget Guide

Many students experience financial concerns while attending college, and like 41% of Americans, they likely do not use a budget. Having a budget can help you save money, reduce financial emergencies, and monitor expenses. Learning how to create and maintain a personal budget in college will also set you up for financial success later in life.

Criminal justice students in particular may experience financial challenges since they are often required to complete internships, which are unpaid or which pay little.

Criminal justice students in particular may experience financial challenges since they are often required to complete internships, which are unpaid or which pay little. Additionally, criminal justice students and professionals often work long hours, which can leave little time for budgeting and other healthy financial habits. Still, establishing a budget is critical for all students and non-students alike.

This guide includes budgeting terminology and resources, as well as information about tracking your spending, maintaining your budget, and cutting your costs in college. Finally, the guide offers several additional resources for criminal justice students on a budget.

Getting Started

Budgeting Terminology

Total Income

This term refers to your total amount of available funds (e.g., money you have when beginning your degree, financial aid, and job income).

Monthly Income

A monthly income is the amount of money you receive from a job or multiple jobs each month. This income may be fixed or may vary depending on the number of hours you work.

Discretionary Income

Discretionary income refers to any extra spending money you have after paying for set expenses such as food, utilities, and rent.

Essentials

Essentials include the daily necessities for living and succeeding in school, such as food, rent, textbooks, and transportation costs.

Nonessentials

Nonessentials are goods and services one can live without (e.g., non-school-related books and entertainment).

Fixed Expenses

Fixed expenses include rent, health insurance, tuition payments, and car insurance. They generally cost the same each month.

Variable Expenses

Variable expenses, like utility bills, change each month. They include costs of nonessentials like shopping, eating out, or going to the movies.

Emergency Funds

Emergency funds are the money you save for unexpected events and expenses. Individuals typically use these funds for car maintenance, periods of illness and injury, job changes, and other unforeseen events.

Track Your Spending

1. Assess Current Financial Spending

The first step to tracking your spending is assessing your current financial situation. Start by looking up recent bank or credit union statements. Then, make a list of all of your fixed and variable monthly expenses.

2. Categorize Expenses

While assessing your spending, categorize expenses according to whether they are essentials or nonessentials. Your essentials list should include fixed expenses like rent, mortgage, insurance, tuition, and student loan repayments, as well as necessary variable expenses like utilities and groceries. Be sure to include education-related expenses such as books and printing costs on your essentials list.

3. Do the Math

After assessing and categorizing your expenses, add up the items on the essentials list. Subtract this number from your monthly income. The resulting number is your monthly discretionary income.

4. Create your Budget

The discretionary income you calculated is the amount of money you can spend on extra, nonessential items each month. If your calculations resulted in a negative number, you are most likely spending more than you earn each month. This problem is particularly common among students who rely on student loans. In order to decrease spending, consider ways to cut your essential costs. For example, you might choose to rent, borrow, or buy used school books rather than buy new ones. You might also choose a cheaper phone plan or commit to carpooling to school. The “Tips for Cutting Costs” section below offers more information on reducing your monthly spending.

Experts typically recommend a 50/20/30 rule. According to this rule, designate 50% of your budget for essentials, 20% for savings, and 30% for nonessentials. Keep in mind that while the 50/20/30 rule is a useful framework, these percentages will vary each month. Many students may struggle to stick to these proportions exactly, especially when it comes to saving 20% of their income each month. You may need to adjust the rule and save only 10% or less per month while in school.

Maintaining Your Budget

Maintaining your budget is as important as creating one. Regularly reviewing and updating your finances will help you avoid spending blindly and impulsively, which can result in accumulating more student and credit card debt or overdrafting your checking accounts. Luckily, several apps are available for easy budget tracking; see our “Budgeting Tools” section below for more information about these resources.

Many experts recommend you spend a few minutes reviewing your spending each day, even if it’s just a quick glance at your checking account. Additionally, update your budget once a month or whenever you experience significant financial changes. Students may want to update their budgets at the beginning of each term to account for class, financial aid, or tuition changes.

Budgeting Tools

Left to Spend This app helps you keep track of discretionary income. Users can set up a daily budget for nonessential personal expenses and log each expense. The app automatically calculates how much of your discretionary income you have left.
Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets such as Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel are classic methods for budget organizing. With spreadsheets, you can log your income and expenses in order to gain a clear picture of your budget. You can create several columns or individual sheets to organize nonessentials, essentials, savings, and other financial categories. The Balance offers several free spreadsheet templates for budgeting.
Mint Mint organizes your bills and expenses in one place. Not only does the app help you create a budget, but it also sends you credit card payment and bill alerts, as well as generates a free credit score. The app is designed for smartphones so you can easily access your budget from anywhere.
Personal Capital Personal Capital helps you establish long-term investment goals and financial plans. This tool links all of your financial accounts and displays their information on one dashboard. It also calculates your net worth and sets a personalized budget with categories for different expenses.
Simple.com This bank is completely mobile; through the website or an app, you can set up a checking account and budget and make payments. Simple also helps you establish and set aside money for specific goals related to school, travel, and other expenses.
Wally Available for iPhones and Androids, Wally calculates your discretionary income and provides a clear picture of where your money goes each month. It also helps you log and organize the details of where, when, and how you spend money.
YNAB YNAB is software designed to set, maintain, and update budgets. It focuses on helping you set spending categories, plan for long-term expenses such as tuition and insurance payments, and avoid impulsive spending. The software also prepares you to manage occasional overspending or unexpected expenses.

Tips for Cutting Costs in College

Adopt Healthy Spending Habits

Learning healthy spending habits in college is key to managing your finances later in life. While this practice looks different for every individual, it includes a few basic actions. For example, in order to build credit, use your credit card responsibly for expenses you know you can pay off by the end of the month. Track spending through useful resources such as Spending Tracker, Habitica, and Slice.

Prepare Meals at Home

While spending $10 on lunch every day may not seem like much, this adds up to about $2,500 a year. Bringing your lunch reduces your daily lunch cost to about $6.30 per meal. Busy students can prep meals at the beginning of each week; this step will help you avoid impulsively buying breakfast or lunch while you’re on the go. Meal planning apps can help save time and money. Additionally, when you do eat out with friends and family, CheckPlease Lite is a helpful app for splitting the bill and calculating tips.

Use Student Discounts

Many schools offer excellent student perks: public transportation passes, free gym memberships, counseling and mental health services, and other inexpensive or free activities and resources. Also, many local businesses and organizations such as museums, restaurants, coffee shops, and off-campus gyms offer student discounts.

Find Cheap Textbooks

Textbooks, especially new ones, can be expensive. But many websites offer used books or e-books for sale. Campus bookstores and libraries also often offer rental services. Finally, StudentRate Textbooks is an excellent resource for finding cheap or free textbooks.

Graduate Earlier

This option can help you save thousands of dollars on tuition. If you are still in high school, find a way to earn college credit now through AP or IB classes, community college, or other programs. Then, choose a college that has a strong record of helping students graduate on time. Completing more than the minimum 12 credits per term will also help you complete your degree requirements more quickly. Finally, focus on choosing the right major for your goals and stick to this course of study.

Additional Resources

StudentLoans.gov Part of the U.S. Department of Education, this website is home to FAFSA, the free application for student financial aid. Other resources include budgeting tips for students and detailed information about student loans.
Indeed.com This job search website is an excellent resource when it comes to generating extra income and finding jobs after graduating. The website allows you to search and apply for paid internships, as well as part-time and full-time work related to criminal justice.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The CFPB is affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education. This website’s financial aid shopping sheet allows students to compare financial aid offers. Online financial guides offer advice regarding student banking and loans.
LifeHacker This website’s list of student discounts includes tips for finding cheap books, school supplies, clothing, and furniture. It also recommends businesses and organizations such as Amazon, Geico, and Verizon that offer significant student rates.
WayUp This job search website is designed specifically for students, helping them launch careers by finding internships and entry-level positions.
NerdWallet NerdWallet’s user-friendly website offers several articles and lists related to student budgeting and healthy financial habits. The website also offers a free budget calculator.