budgeting on a grad student stipend
i got a question about this today & thought i’d make it a separate post. everyone’s financial situation is different to start with & changes in different ways once you embark upon a graduate degree, so i’m not going to give situation-specific advice. i’m also not going to tell you how to save money; there are a million incredible resource posts about that already. instead, here are some budgeting tips that i’ve found specifically useful to me as a graduate student.
know your pay schedule. this is 100% the biggest, most important tip. know when you will be paid, and how much. if you get $2000 on the first of each month, which months? september to june means you need to stretch that june paycheck for three months, not just one.
categorize your savings. any budget you make will require you to group your expenses under headings like “car payments” and “house stuff.” but i’ve found that doing the same thing for my savings has also been really useful. you probably won’t want to partition your account, but even just mentally keeping track of how much you’ve got in reserve, and for what, is a good plan. for example, i know that i’ll be spending my summers traveling for conferences and archival work for the foreseeable future. that means that i have a certain amount of money that gets put aside for airfare and airbnbs all year, so that when june comes around, i don’t have to worry about stretching my usual monthly budget to cover those things.
similarly–plan ahead. fees for things like academic memberships and conference registration are often stable, so you can plan for those in your budget before they happen. i think of my membership fees as recurring subscriptions, like my spotify and hulu payments. and for the love of god, make sure you’re checking for grad student rates.
know your financial resources. this is kind of a how-to-save-money tip, i suppose, but make sure that you know what your school, department, and program will pay for, and how much. then look for external funding sources. many professional organizations and sometimes even conferences themselves offer bursaries to offset travel costs. your department may pay for publications. those feel like small things but they add up, and can help you build up a little cushion.
know what you’re spending, and what things you’re willing to spend on. budgeting isn’t about denying yourself things until you die. it’s about making sure you have the money for the things that you need, and then deciding how much you can spend on the things you want. this is where a money-tracking app like mint or clarity might come in handy. having the exact numbers can help you decide: is this something that i want (or need) to cut back on? the answer may be no! embarrassing truth time: i spend probably $30 a week at my local coffee shop. that felt high when i finally looked at the numbers! but actually, $6 for an iced tea and pastry is absolutely worth it for me, because what i’m really purchasing is 5 hours of productive, focused work time that i can’t get for free at home. accept the fact that the things you spend money on might seem frivolous, but if they’re valuable to your sanity/mental health/personal survival, they’re not.
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