2008 was a good year in the sense that I entered the workforce full time and managed to hold on to jobs during the school year. 2008 was a bad year in the sense that I spent money frivolously on non-essentials such as clothing and food. Textbooks are also huge drains from my savings.
Note: Always wanted to use the word “fiscal”… it makes everything sound so official! Oh and this entry is all about money, so stay away if financial talk isn’t your thing. I pay for all of my own stuff except groceries and around one meal a day (lovingly supplied by my parents, fyi i still live at home).
EXPENSES PIE GRAPH
I tried to keep as an accurate account as possible (…have the habit of spending cash/debit instead of credit… ah well). As you can see, UBC textbooks took a ridiculously huge chunk out of my wallet. I’m quite happy that my university tuition was only a few hundred bucks.
EXPENSES PIE GRAPH – “WALLET” ACCOUNT
The above graph takes out all the “major expenses”. Ever since univ started I’ve been lavishly spending money on fastfood at lunch, a habit I hope to drop this year. Clothings expenses were up there as well – averages to about $30 a month which isn’t too bad.
EXPENSE BAR GRAPH – “WALLET” ACCOUNT
It’s skyrocketing towards the end of the year haha… blame Boxing Day.
INCOME/EXPENSE BAR GRAPH
Green bar = income, red = expenses. Got a job in July. Pulled in a deficit for September, but otherwise I’m in the green!
BALANCE LINE GRAPH
This doesn’t represent the actual balance (give or take a few grand), but I love having visual representation!
Now isn’t dealing with finances fun?! Coming up next: where are Phoebe’s incomes coming from? AKA Making money at UBC =D On a sidenote, for those of you looking for cheap textbooks, refer to my buying textbooks at UBC post back in September. Hope it helps!
QOTW: What do you spend the most money on? What about non-essential items?
This is WAY too funny. I’m guessing you used excel to keep track of your revenue/expenses? Any tips? I’ve been meaning to write up my own budget/keeping track of my expenses as well.
What do you do to make money at UBC? 😛
I spend the most money on food since I don’t have to pay for my entire tuition on my own or anything. Food probably can easily take 20 bucks out of my pocket everyday.
Woah. So this is what a Sauder student can do. XD
I haven’t been keeping track… …but I haven’t been spending too much.
Most of “my” money went to textbooks. Though, food has been the real only place my money has actually ran away from me (but not much; most was $40 in one month approx).
I looked at your graphs thinking, “She’s got to be a Commerce student, hasn’t she?” 😛
Clothes. Duh. Both essential + non-essential.
oh. my. god.
that is why I am not in commerce. I have absolutely no idea where my money goes. Well, except for when I shed a few tears a tuitions time. Oh, and at the bookstore. I had to pay 70 dollars the other day for a pack of black and white photocopies. They weren’t even bound or anything. And I know for a fact that copies at staples cost ten cents. so ten bucks for 100 pages. Where did the other 60$ come from? the bookstore is just legal thievery. Unfortunately, we are a captive audience and they can charge whatever they want.
Oh my god, I am terrible with non-essentials. Working at Indigo, I employee-discount my way through a good $200 worth of books each month. I just like to pretend they’re essential. I mean, everyone needs plays and complete Allan Ginsberg’s collections, RIGHT? haha.
I spend less money on food than I do on books :O
And TRAVEL! I don’t spend most of my money – it goes into a giant travel fund for the summer.
and that is the story of why Mary has two jobs.
@Jayne:
Just a note, the extra money may go towards paying copyright fees. My ENGL 112 prof had to include that in her package’s cost last term.
That’s mind-blowing. Though I am in Commerce, I keep absolutely no track of my finances except for a rough mental image of what-paid-for-what.
Another new theme? Hmm I suspect that there’s been some procrastination going on 😛 (header looks great, by the way — how UBC!)
Nice graphs. 😀 What did you produce them in?
As for an answer to your question: either food or textbooks, I think; they came pretty close (especially with a $250 chem text, which was like…half my meal plan). I bought a couple of books at the bookstore and a calendar along with some notebooks, but that was about it for nonessentials.
@Andrew and TWD – I use a lovely service called Buxfer
Pingback: How to Make Money at UBC Part 1 » UBC Years - Phoebe Yu