Week 2- The 168 Budget
Great job plowing through our time together last night. I was especially impressed with some of the work you did digging through the primary sources to come to some conclusions that were- for the most part- right on the money.
This week- take a look at the "168 Budget" assignment and post a response here. Be as thorough as you can. What budget cuts have you had to make since starting college? What activities are too important to cut? Which "non-essential" obligations can be trimmed to make college fit in your 168 hours. Remember...there are only 168 hours in your budget!
This week- take a look at the "168 Budget" assignment and post a response here. Be as thorough as you can. What budget cuts have you had to make since starting college? What activities are too important to cut? Which "non-essential" obligations can be trimmed to make college fit in your 168 hours. Remember...there are only 168 hours in your budget!
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ReplyDeleteI don't have much experience with money / BUDGETING, I am hoping I will learn more in the course this semester. I have a debit card but my mom holds on too it. I fell like I can have my own debit card, especially cause I want to buy things on my own at college like food and stuff at the bookstore. I really hoping to learn about finances in the course. I add money to campus card but I really want my own debit card. I am out without my own debit , my friends have debit cards. so I would like to get my own. I will hopefully learn more about 168 budget its really hard to answer questions when I don't know the 168 budget and budgeting itself. I have used Uber with my debit card.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting calculating my 168 budget. I found a very helpful spreadsheet online that did all the calculations for me once I tried to accurately reflect on how I spend my time. The final numbers on my budget make complete sense to me. When I first calculated my budget it appeared I was probably being modest with my numbers, arriving at 155 hours but when I re-evaluated I was able to get my budget up to 167 hours. To me, this means I have 1 hour in my "savings account" or emergency time fund. I have known for some time I am at the bottom of my friends and family's emergency contact list, if even on it at all. This also explains why I can't figure any time to get my car fixed, because I am commuting and running errands for a combined 17 percent of my time, which generally requires my vehicle.
ReplyDeleteSince starting school this semester I have made great cuts in the time I spend with my friends. I find it is so easy to spend a good amount of time together when we had the same schedule and were always around to slack off. If I had calculated my budget before I started this semester, I cut time with my friends by 12 percent. That has definitely affected my life because now my best friends of 17 years and I are experiencing tension. However, I try to keep a level head on this because I am thriving in my classes and at my incredibly challenging and time consuming job in the fine dining industry. Currently my job takes up 22 percent of my time, not including the time spent learning new menus on a weekly basis. Before I decided to start school my previous "career" managing a restaurant took up 20 percent of my time, working 70 hour weeks on average. I am incredibly happy to have made these changes because with my growth I have become more successful. I am much more motivated as a student to improve my life.
I believe at the moment I have reached a somewhat consistent balance in my 168 Budget between my schedule and my productivity. I have noticed I feel as if I am always doing something but I have been able to enjoy my time pursuing new endeavors. My short term budget goals are to spend more time cooking and preparing meals and walking my dog and less time reading Facebook click bait articles that claim I won a $1000 Amazon gift card.
Thanks for reading!
I keep jumping browsers to try to avoid that $1000 offer. Well done.
DeleteWhen I was writing out my 168 budget, I was surprised with the results. It never really occured to me how much time I spend during the day until I actually wrote it down on paper. On paper, it showed that I don't have time to do everything that I actually do. I can't speak for everyone but I did realize something new after seeing my daily activates on paper. In my everyday life before school, I wasn't as overwhelmed with learning how to properly manage my time. Although when I calculated all my weekly activities and came up with 185 hours a week, I found that realistically, I had to overlap some activities.
ReplyDeleteCollege is something that's extremely new to me. I've been out of school for a while, so getting back into the routine, along with managing the work and stress at school is a lot for anyone to handle. I made my 168 budget on my current school schedule life and I couldn't make any adjustments to my schedule. I'm convinced that budget doesn't account accurately for everything. According to my budget, if you take media and commuting for example, they are both happening at the same time. So, by strictly sticking to the 168 budget and following the directions to count them all individually instead of combined, I ultimately came up with 185 hours of activities a week. However, reflecting on my old schedule before starting school, I realized that I had a lot more time to myself, which was an adjustment all in itself
In order to keep up with these changes, I had to start a strict studying schedule in order to try and get myself use to the new changes in my life. That ultimately meant cutting out going out and doing a lot less personal time. In the future, hopefully I can learn how to manage my time better by splitting my study and class time throughout the day instead of overwhelming myself and trying to do it all at once. This strategy should also help me improve on my procrastination problems. This may all be new to me but I know it will this class and this budget will be a new, very resourceful tool when it comes to managing my school and person life.
Excellent post. It looks like you have done some good planning and thinking on this topic. Remember it is important to be realistic and to not abandon your "4's"
DeleteWhen writing my 168 budget, I found myself shocked at the results. For years it felt like there was all the time in the world every day, but once I got to college, I realized that there are truly a set amount of time to do what you have to do and what you love to do. I found myself spending most of my time not being productive on things that could lead me to great success both academically and artistically. I've spent so much time watching TV or on my phone instead of working on schoolwork and acting. Since the beginning of my semester, I've came to a reality where working as hard as I can will ultimately make me the happiest. I've cut down on personal time exponentially. I've began to spend more and more time doing schoolwork, studying, working, and exercising which has made me a lot happier as a result. Now, I'm learning how to balance my schoolwork with my passion for the arts and working on stepping stones so that I can have a successful career in the arts. I've learned that I will always have time for myself, but budgeting those hours along with school will help me become more responsible of my life. Using this tool will be invaluable and help me stay on track and make the best decisions I can.
ReplyDeleteBudgeting my time is stressful in its own. I found that I had very little time to spare. There are things in my day to day that are non-negotiable. For instance, being in class every day, driving my children to and from school, bringing them to their sporting events, and most importantly, sleeping. These things take up most of my time factoring in commute time and getting my children fed and dressed. What I cannot do as often now is watching television, cooking and cleaning. What I plan on doing now is having my children chip in more with the chores. I am also cooking a lot at a time, so that I can have enough for 2 or 3 days instead of cooking daily. While at my children's practice, I will try to do some reading and homework so that I make that time useful. I am usually at a practice or a game 5 days a week for 2 hours each time. That is a lot of time I can learn how to use better. I will see how this works for this semester. Next semester I will budget my time based on how I did in this semester.
ReplyDeleteSeeing my 168 budget makes me realize how much time I spend doing things that I don't like. Most of my time is spent on things that make me unhappy, things that are pointless. Over the summer my 168 budget was probably a lot different than it is now because I had the time to do things that I actually like. Since school has started, my time is mostly spent at school, doing homework, or working. The time of year definitely matters when calculating my 168 budget, because I have more responsibility during the school year. Additionally, there are things I do, like spend a lot of time on my phone watching videos, or going to fires with my boyfriend and his friends for hours, whereas I could be doing something more productive. For me, time management is something I always struggle with, which is why I am literally always late to things. I always say I will try to plan things out, but it's impossible to always stick to a plan. What I can do is cut down on things that are minor and insignificant.
ReplyDeletewhile this semester I made plenty of cuts to my time and within those 168 house I realized I was using a lot of that time for useless things or things that are not as important as other activities that deserve more of my time. While yes I do spend some time at RIC , most of my time is normally spend either at work or Im just doing something I dont enjoy doing very much but still have to do.While I have made budget cuts for activities such as spending time with my friends, girlfriend and just doing things I enjoy doing but could be much more productive and while I understand those things are fun I fee like there are more important things to do then to have fun, sometimes you just have to do things you do not enjoy but they are just things you have to does you must cut out some "fun" activities.-Isaac Guerra
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