27. Budget Living

“Ten days left to end this month and my account balance is nil”. I guess, this is a common story of every student who is living away from their home. If anyone thinks that it is easy to live away from home, then let me tell you, it’s not. It is very difficult to maintain your monthly budget especially if you are living in an expensive place like ‘Mumbai’.

It’s been almost 3 months and I am still struggling to manage my expenses. I am not a party lover, I don’t go for shopping since I am here, neither I choose costly foods to eat. Still I am not getting where I am losing my budget. The main problem is we cannot stick on a particular plan to maintain the budget but we have to. For example, I am a foodie person and I cannot control myself when I am surrounded by foods, even the good smell attracts me a lot that I cannot focus on my work till I have something good to eat. Today, I had a group meeting in a food court of a mall for some NGO work. I knew that I don’t have much amount of money and I have to manage the whole month in that much money only. But the food and their smell, Oh God! Only I know how I controlled myself from not ordering anything from there.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice some small things and likes, wishes if you have a bigger thing to achieve. This is what life is all about. So, basically you just need to have a track of where you are spending your money. Try to go for the cheapest solutions possible. But don’t always compromise with the quality because it will lead to more expenses then. The most important thing is keep some amount of money in your account for any emergency and don’t withdraw it for small reasons. If you can skip few things then please do because at the end of the day, no one is going to help you.