Money in college is a very strange thing. Everyone likes to talk about the stereotype of poor college kids. But with student loan interests going up and tuition costs rising as well, it makes sense that college kids would have no money. When college kids do get money, they have to pay bills, buy food, buy books, and for some college students, buy beer for the party this weekend. While there are a lot of factors to being a poor college kid, I find myself in a very different situation than many students.
I don't come from a rich family, so I don't have my parents paying for everything. My first year at WSU, I barely got any scholarships, so I did need to take out a lot of loans just to live in the dorms on campus. Since I was forced by the university, I wasn't able to live in an apartment my first year, which would have been advantageous in the long run. Needing money to pay for school, I looked for part time jobs and found one. It wasn't great, but I was able to have a little pocket money. After that, I found an opportunity that would save me a lot of money. I applied to be a Resident Assistant in the dorms on campus and I got hired a semester early. The RA position gives me a room to myself in a door for free and also give me around 1200 dollars a semester in RDA for food. With that, I also was hired for a different part time job this year with work study. So with room and board paid for, all that was left was tuition. Again, I got very lucky and I received enough grants and scholarships that I didn't need to take out loans at all this year.
After all that, I have looked at money in a very different way. Even though I don't have a lot of things I need to pay for right now, I still make money on the side and try and save it for the future. I don't have to think about paying electric bills or anything like that. I rarely have to budget to make money for food last the whole semester. I don't drink so I spend my extra money on going bowling with friends and buying video games.
Obviously, I can't go out and buy myself a car, or look at buying a house. There are just some things that a college kid just can't buy because it's no impractical. I don't even really spend that much money on myself. I don't go out and buy a bunch of clothes or go out to dinner every night. My minimum wage job doesn't give me the same money a salary of a professor would.
I look at money as something I need to save, not so,etching I need to spend. If I need to spend it, it's going to be on something practical or something I can really justify buying. Sometimes, I'll make a little extra and go out to dinner or buy myself something nice. But all in all, I feel my view on money and the way I gain and spend money differs from many other students on campus and people living in Pullman.
With that, I leave you with the one song I couldn't stop thinking about while writing this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUARYYhBFdM
My blog comments: Comment 1, Comment 2
I'm glad you found a job that can ease the burden and hope you do end up moving down to Chinook. Its afforable and can come pre-furnished so you don't have to go through the struggle of moving furniture you may have to part with eventually.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's true that us as students can't afford to buy a car or a house at this point. I mean we COULD and be more in debt and take out more loans, but that's not a primary necessity to us. Not to mention we pay to take care of ourself rather than professors who I imagine are paying for not only themselves but a significant other and/or child.
Money is something we need to save. It's almost a distinguishing factor in which students are meant to spend the money to go to college while professors are spending money as well, but are self-sufficient and have the potential of saving money.