Have I Given Up On Travelling?

Honestly, this post was so hard to write. My thoughts are all over the place and I apologise.

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I’ve had this blog post idea for a long time now. It’s been on my list of ‘topics to write on’ for months.

The original title was “I gave up on travelling.” But I decided to change it. Why?

Who I was months ago had a different perspective and mindset when she wrote that title. Who I am now has gone through a lot of post-graduation thoughts about the future… and some kind of epiphany about who, where, how I want to be.

Back then, even though I didn’t seem like it, I was against travelling as a student, unless you could afford it, i.e. your parents are freaking tolerant about you spending their money (mine aren’t).

How I Make Full Use of My Wardrobe to Save Money on Clothes

When I was young, I didn’t think about it. Some days were shopping days with mom and I could buy one or two pieces of clothing here and there. If I went out once a week, it could easily amount to 4-8 clothes a month! But, as children, you don’t really think about it. All clothes were mostly discounted or were considered the best deals we could get, and we often went to thrift stores.

Nevertheless, when I became a university student and had to live on my own with a very limited budget, I realised that buying things other than food and other essentials were life-and-death situations. And since spending time out with my friend were more valuable to me, shopping for clothes became a luxury, an occasional wimp, an accessory to kill boredom.

After almost 3 years, I finally have a bit more freedom on my spending, since I’ve been saving up, but habits die hard; so here are 3 things I did to make full use of what I had in my closet, so that I didn’t feel the urge to buy more clothes:

6 Ways To NOT Overspend—As A Student

Although the title specifies that the following methods to prevent overspending apply only to students, I actually believe that anyone can make use of the incoming advice. It’s just that it’s all coming from a student’s perspective, with a low allowance and who has only dealt with savings accounts her whole life. I’ve never even used a credit card although people my age or even younger already started to do so. Therefore, the advice might be limited… (and probably too extreme if you are earning a monthly full-time job salary) but it’s still worth a read 😉

And here we go:

1. Record your transactions.

A classic.

The first thing that my father told me before he left me to be on my own in Malaysia was to note down my expenses thoroughly in a notebook. To sit down every night and put everything in ink. Then, review the total amount of money spent at the end of each week and compare it to the already set budget that my parents had advised me to keep.

I believe this is a great way to control keep track of what you spend on and how much you spend. I did do it… for a semester. Unfortunately it does require quite a lot of effort and often I would just forget.

‘Where Did My Money Go?’ How I Track My Finances With Monefy

*Nope, this post has not been sponsored by Monefy or anything (unfortunately? haha); this is just my personal opinion.*

For many university students, living on your own is the first big step to adulthood, which comes with being independent, learning to enjoy your sole company, taking into account mundane tasks such as doing the laundry… and managing your finances. And unless you have been well-educated about the subject, this can be quite a challenge especially with such a small allowance, which ends up mostly in rent, utilities and food. And sometimes,  even that RM1 daily coffee can accumulate to a lot at the end of the month, which will make you wonder: “Where did my money go?”

If you have no choice but to learn the art of budgeting on your own, by trial and error, like me, the dexterity of dividing your allowance, however small, effectively, then I’d strongly recommend you to try out Monefy! 🙂  It’s a simple and colourful money-tracking app that I’ve been in love with and been using for the past few months.

There is a much better app in the US called Mint, which is a money-tracking app which connects to your bank accounts, but I’m unfortunately in Malaysia, so every night, I sit down on my bed, receipts of the day around me, manually keying the information of my expenses in the app.

Start Saving For Your Future Even Before You Graduate

In a little more than a year, I will (hopefully) have my first full-time job. In a little more than a year, I will be earning my very first ‘adult’ paycheck. The realization hit me when I came back to Malaysia, after a long 3-month summer holiday in my native island, Mauritius. I was done with half of my degree, and unless I was given a full scholarship to pursue further studies after my Bachelor, I would be entering the workforce very soon. And believe me, time flies.

At that moment, I was also a very religious fan of The Financial Diet, first as a YouTube channel, produced by my favourite nerd vloggers, the Vlogbrothers, and soon discovered that they had an amazing blog, with articles to literally STALK for and with a beautiful design. As someone who has never been financially educated and who is just barely starting out living as an adult, the videos and articles were very enlightening and helpful.