Daily expenses.

How do you manage your daily expenses as a student on a day-to-day basis?

Original post by williamsmith2626

How do you manage your daily expenses as a student on a day-to-day basis?

I personally use a cash flow forecast to monitor my spending. I then decide on what's essential and what's not. Then accordingly allocate limits to my spending or knowing how much I can allow myself to spend for specific category of expense.
If I come close to a limit, I would hold off until the next period.
If I need to allocate savings, I would move the savings into a specific savings account before I work on the individual expenses.
I would also categorise the expenses and see everything in charts and graphs then compared the periods - because I am that meticulous.
I would also ensure that there is an adequate buffer (usually next's months expected expenses + whatever the minimum is e.g. emergencies) and to never to below that buffer.

The above system is pretty good keeping me afloat.

If I want to look into investments, then it gets more complicated, but I would still use something similar to what I use for my savings.