At this point in the semester, most of my friends are either dangerously close to running out of dine-in dollars or have more money than they know what to do with. I’m somewhere in the middle with around $150 dine-in dollars out of $300. 

Even though I drink copious amounts of coffee and have trouble resisting the urge to grab peanut M&M’s every time I pass Kins Market, I limit myself to a weekly budget.

Here are my tips for creating and sticking to a budget so you can ration your dine-in dollars to last all semester.

First things first: determine where you typically spend all of your money. For example, I spend most of my dine-in dollars at the different Starbucks locations around campus. 

I could easily see myself grabbing a coffee before classes in the morning and another one to keep me motivated during my afternoon study sessions. However, I try to limit myself to three coffees a week. That puts me at 15 dine-in dollars a week. With about 15 weeks of classes in the semester, I spend about $225 on coffee each semester. 

That leaves me with $75  of non-coffee money. I can use this to grab an energy drink from Kins Market or fries and lemonade from the Union Chick-Fil-A on my way to class. I can also usually sneak in an extra coffee every other week and the occasional chocolate croissant.

This budgeting tactic can apply to any amount of dine-in dollars you have left. So Whether you have $50  or $450, figure out one place where you do/can spend most of your money and budget it out every week. This’s the easiest way to both save your money if you’re running low or use it up if you’ve got cash to spend!

Featured Image By Liliana Garcia