February is almost over, so while I have some free time, I will wrap up the month’s goals: February was mainly about fitness, and I feel pretty proud of myself for starting and continuing a new activity – running. Earlier this month I mentioned that I ran my first 5K, and this past weekend I ran my second race, dropping my mile time by over two minutes. Granted, I didn’t train at all for the first race, but it is amazing to see the difference in race results with only two weeks of training.
For March, I plan on focusing on money and finances. I have always struggled with impulse spending and never really made an effort to find out how much of my income is spent frivolously. I recently found out about Mint.com which has garnered raving reviews from sites such as CNN, Lifehacker, and Newsweek. Essentially, you are about to link all of your accounts into one place and Mint spits out gorgeous graphics and pie charts analyzing the who, what, when, where of your finances. Many banks already provide a service similar to this, but I find it empowering to see my student loan debt nearby, as this provides a humble reminder of my real new worth, despite the amount I may have recently received from federal tax returns.
One of the first things I found out was how poorly I managed my food budget. Not only do I buy groceries every month, but I also buy lunch and dinner multiple times per week on campus. Even though the campus food is heavily subsidized (probably by the hefty tuition price tag), small food purchases add up. A hot chocolate here and a grilled cheese sandwich there added up to over $150 spent on campus in the month of January. Tisk, tisk! During the next month I hope to formulate a firm budget that reflects my true financial standing…that of a struggling law student. While many of my fixed expenses such as rent and insurance are already as low as they can be, I know I have some work to do when it comes to the food, clothing, and entertainment budgets.
