Being a student is rough at times because of certain limitations I have in terms of finances. So, currently, I essentially am broke. This month, I had to pay some bills, my rent, and buy some books for my studies and before I knew it, I practically had no money because I’m very bad at management. I think my main issue is that I set up plans with a fixed budget for foodstuff and other things each week but in the end, I then might have to buy this book or that thing. Either way, finance aside, today I wanted to talk about what I’ll do when I have money again! I figured it’d be an interesting prompt especially as payday is in a week.
Number one priority will be to pay other bills and calculate how much money I’ll have left after rent payments and after paying back friends that paid stuff for me because of me being broke right now. I mean, they still wanted to invite me so there’s that but I still would like to return the favour by paying them back or at least buying them a drink. That’s why I wrote everything down that I owe people. I’m not usually one of those people that think too much about the “I paid last time” scenario but if people paid for me, I really wanna pay them back because I’m weird. Similarly, when I paid for the meal last time or the time before that, I don’t really count it or write notes on it or whatever but I try to keep it in mind just so that I won’t get abused. I had this one friend who had a job at the time and still always wanted me and other people to pay for him which is… just no. I can’t do it all the time. So, some people exploit your kindness but luckily, I now have friends that also do the same thing as me – keeping it in mind who paid for drinks or whatever and for how many times.
Number two priority is… Once everything’s paid, I’ll set up a weekly budget for food and see to it that I try to limit certain purchases. For instance, when I realised that I’m practically broke, I used up my last few bucks to buy a lot of pasta and rice and eggs. Hence, I won’t have to spend as much on pasta, rice and eggs next month. Duh! I mean, it sounds obvious but I sometimes forget what’s still in storage and what’s not, so I want to do an inventory list and see what’s gonna expire eventually, what’s still good, what’s missing, etc. and basically sort it out that way. Also, I gotta limit how often I order food. I did order a calzone last month and it was huge, so I could eat it on two days, but when you order stuff like that multiple times, it weighs down on your budget. That’s especially true when you consider that spending 20 bucks on some menu with drinks, food and a dessert or something is fine and all… but for twenty bucks, I could also get enough food for the whole week and maybe some soda.
Number three priority goes in line with the previous point… kinda? But I wanna buy fewer fresh veggies. Vegetables have gotten really pricey lately and while I love cooking with fresh mushrooms and fresh spinach and that sorta stuff, it can increase the expenses quite a bit, especially since winter is coming. Long story short, I will probably see to it that I’ll buy more canned vegetables and cook using that – as well as some frozen stuff. I still have half a butternut pumpkin in the fridge, so I’ll probably make another pot of pumpkin soup soon. Meanwhile, I could also make another pot of chilli eventually which requires mostly canned beans. I mean, I don’t eat much meat either way, but I want to at least have it once per week – but even meat can be purchased in a frozen variant and while it may not necessarily be the tastiest, it often does the trick of adding texture, flavour or just proteins to dishes. Hence, more frozen or canned food, more soups, stews, and chillis, fewer fresh things.
Number four priority is to not get back into smoking. I’m currently smoke-free for… a while? Either way, it’s incredibly hard to not get back into it. When you buy groceries, you pass the place with the cigarettes at the cashier and it’s incredibly hard to resist it. I don’t know why but I still am craving the nicotine and it’s killing me. I’m glad that I can’t afford them right now. I mean, if you pay 20 bucks for the food for a week, you can add another twenty to get the packs of cigarettes for that week. It’s ridiculous. So, would I rather go back to smoking or would I rather want to not starve? Rhetoric question btw. Instead, I wanna see to it that I maybe get more hard candy or anything really to keep the mouth busy. I mean, I’ve got a sweet tooth and satisfying that urge is better than scratching the itch for nicotine.
Number five is gonna be fun stuff: I wanna eat some super good food. At least once. Like, instead of ordering out, I’d love to go to Little Tokyo and have some ramen again because I fucking loved it the last time I was there and it was really filling and I wanna have more eggs in it this time around. I’ll most likely go with my better half again or with a friend of mine that I haven’t seen in a while… and it’s most likely gonna be the Torikara Ramen for me again as it was incredible. I’ll keep it tight throughout the month but I wanna spend money on some good ramen at least once in December. I mean, it could even be my reward for staying smoke-free in the previous month. Similarly, games… I doubt I’ll buy all that many games during the Winter sale unless I see an incredibly good deal. Depending on the quality of it, I may pick up December’s Humble Choice, although I already have a lot of games that I never have time for… I may have to first try to play and review games from previous months before I end up picking up a new one.
All in all, I want to plan more and effectively manage my budget for food and the like a lot better. My mother said that if I have to save money somewhere, do it everywhere but food… but even then, I don’t think I need to buy more rice, pasta or soy sauce considering how much I have here already. I could see myself maybe buying more eggs depending on how fast I go through the stuff I have in the fridge already but it really depends. Ideally, I’d love to start saving up money again. After all, I’ll have to pay tuition soon and that tuition is gonna cost half the “pay” I get. Apart from that, I also originally planned on getting the Steam Deck but considering the state of finances that I’m at, that will probably have to wait until I either donate a lot of Plasma… or until I have a proper job. A proper job, however, is not really possible due to other circumstances. It’d be a different story if I could start taking commissions for emote stuff… I mean, it’d be great if I could finance hobbies with that additional income + Twitch but currently, I don’t think I’d be able to do so, considering how much time my studies take up.
Usually, I don’t like talking about money all that much but I figured it’d be a fun idea especially as I have that craving for some good food. I mean, for the past few days, I’ve been skipping meals a lot and I had times where I essentially ended up eating the same meal over and over again, which gets stale quite quickly. I mean, try eating the same stirfry recipe five days in a row… Yeah. So, the craving for some really good food is getting bigger and bigger and I can’t think of anything else right now. So, I’m looking forward to that Ramen next week and I really wanna try and manage my finances better from now on. Hope you enjoyed this post.
Cheers!
This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well. If you find this post on a website other than Indiecator.org, please write an e-mail to me. Thank you!
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