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What I Spend in a Week at College


After sharing my financial tips last week, I thought it could be interesting (and maybe helpful!) to see what I spend in a typical week at college. I've seen a few of my favorite YouTubers make videos on what they typically spend in a week at college, so I'm stealing the idea ;) I feel like I've been spending a lot more money this year than I have in the past, so hopefully reflecting on my spending will not only be interesting to all of you but also hopefully be eye-opening as to any crazy spending habits I've developed!

The majority of the money I spend is on food, coffee, clothing, and drinks. A few notes on each:

Food
I don't usually eat out too much (a typical week usually means eating out once, maybe more on the weekend), because I'm pretty good about grocery shopping and having all of my staples at home. I usually go out for a nice-ish dinner once a week, and then go grab food with my friends one or two other times, usually on the weekend.

Specifically on grocery shopping: I would say I go to the grocery store, on average, twice a week. About every other week I'll do a big, complete grocery shop, and then on the off weeks that I don't do that, I'll go once or twice to get produce or a few random things I'm needing. 

Drinks + Coffee
Similarly, I would say I go to the liquor store, on average, once a week. I really try to only buy wine when I'm at Trader Joe's, because everywhere else seems to be so overpriced! (Trader Joe's wine review video here ;) I always keep one bottle of wine and a six-pack of beer in the fridge. It's important to me to have options on hand at all times, haha. In terms of hard alcohol, I buy a bottle of whatever I'm in the mood for at the liquor store probably once every three weeks or something. I only drink hard liquor at home if I'm drinking before going out, (which I think is probably how most people are) so a bottle of something usually lasts me at least a couple of weeks!

We are really lucky that the bars in Madison have amazing deals and drinks are really cheap. We are talking $5 maximum for pretty much anything, which is insane considering next year living in a big city I know I'll be spending upwards of $17 on just one drink. Because we go out so late, our pregames are usually where most of the drinking happens, so once we are out, we don't (hopefully... depends on the night, lol) spend a ton of unnecessary money on drinks. The last couple of weeks we actually haven't been going out a ton, so that's been nice!

I spend a good amount of frivolous money on coffee, which is what it is. Even though I make coffee every day at home, I like to make coffee a social event a couple of times each week with friends, because it's fun and inexpensive. I also occasionally need a pick-me-up between classes!

Shopping
When it comes to ordering clothes, I really try to limit myself. I've gotten much, much better about this recently. I generally don't order anything unless it's something I've been wanting for a while, or really think it's going to be a staple in my wardrobe. I do have a bad habit of "bulk ordering" where I will buy like 10 things from one store, try them all on at home, and return whatever doesn't work. It used to be a very bad, frequent habit, but I haven't done this in a couple of months!

Just to note: I wanted to point out that I do spend my money on clothes, shoes, etc, but I'm not going to include that in my "weekly spending" for the sake of this post because I think shopping and material spending is very different for everyone... what I think might be an expensive item or a "steal" could be completely different for someone else if that makes sense. 

 So let's get into what I spent a couple of weeks ago!

SUNDAY, Feb 2
Superbowl Sunday! My roommates and I decided to make a little smorgasbord of Superbowl snacks, so we went to the grocery store and split the bill. It came out to $30 for my share because I also bought a few things I needed for myself at the store.

MONDAY, Feb 3
I was running low on Classpass credits, so I bought more for $20. My monthly Classpass bill is $49, but this month because I haven't been running outside, I've been going to more classes, which means I needed more credits! However, this particular week I wasn't charged the $49, so I'm only going to include the $20 in the total.

TUESDAY, Feb 4
I think I bought an iced coffee between classes, but it was on my school card, so I can't remember what it cost exactly. I'll say roughly $3.

WEDNESDAY, Feb 5
Elizabeth and I got coffee with one of our other girlfriends Wednesday morning, which was such a fun way to spend our morning! This was $3.69.

I actually went out on Wednesday, which was random and funny. Because it was a Wednesday, it wasn't a crazy night at all. It was just fun to hang out with friends and do something. I think I spent roughly $8 on a couple of drinks. 

THURSDAY, Feb 6
I went out to dinner with my new friend Natalie, who I met on Instagram! Dinner, including two rounds of cocktails, came out to $48, including the tip. After, we went to a different bar, which came out to $13.60.

FRIDAY, Feb 7
Elizabeth and I went on a little coffee date Friday morning to a cute coffee shop the capital. This was $3.58.

Friday night I hung out with friends at their apartment, so I stopped and bought a bottle of wine for $8.43. We got Poke for dinner, which was $9.49.

SATURDAY, Feb 8
A group of us went over to one of our friends' apartments to make homemade pizza for dinner before going out! It was super fun and I brought over a bottle of wine, which was $10.54.

When we went out I spent $9 on a drink at one of the bars, because it was a little bit of a nicer one, and then $6.50 on another drink at a different bar later that night!

The grand total...
$173.83

This seems.... normal? I would say this is a typical week for me. I went out to one big dinner, grabbed food, coffee, and drinks a few times... I didn't grocery shop a ton this week but the Superbowl kind of made up for that I think!

This is more money than I wish I spent in a week. I would love to see my grand total every week look closer to $100 than double that, but I think because I'm a second semester senior I keep treating every day like a special occasion... I'll try to work on it!

I hope you enjoyed this post!
xoxo

2 comments

  1. It's admirable that you're looking to lower your weekly total, but honestly, you SHOULD be treating every week like a special occasion! Once you go into post-grad life, you probably won't be spending as much because it's not as easy to make every night a social event. I was surprised by how much less I spent when I graduated because it's just harder to meet up with friends!

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