Its September. In other words, millions of students are anxiously waiting for that student finance text to drop and the wave of ecstasy afterwards seeing  2 digits to a nice old 4. If you struggle with handling your money, wondering where your paycheck flew off to, or a shopaholic student then this post is for you, because if anyone knows the despair of bankruptcy ITS ME!

Now i’ve been trying to figure out how to budget and being aware of where my money is going. I’ve had lectures from parents, ive read countless blogs and youtube videos but through my experience of working full time and now being a student i feel i have a taste of both worlds to figure out what budget plan works for me and to share some of my tips that i hope you find useful.

Working out a budget plan

Over the summer, I’ve had to completely stop my excessive spending and focus on bare necessities, and this meant I had to ignore every sale, every email, every special offer and it made me realise how much promotional material we’re exposed to every day. Its crazy. In one day I must have received about 10 to 20 emails from different beauty/clothing/footwear brands clawing at my purse and we’re exposed to that every single day. Fear not, there’s a solution.

A monthly budget plan is your new bestie from now on. It must sound a little overwhelming and something you would do when you have kids and a mortgage to consider, but a budget plan makes it clear what your spending on and how much you need to save, (which really is going to benefit you in the long run). Its not a long list of decimals and pie charts and diagrams (I’ve left that in school thank you very much). I’m going to tell you guys how I’ve drew up my budget plan, based on my spending habits, my social life (LOL) and my expenses. I can proudly say I don’t own a single designer item and I don’t really see the point of fine dining. Therefore, your budget plan needs to consider YOUR expenses and likes.

I’ve written down my budget plan both in my diary and my phone and I’ve memorised it a million times so I stick to it (if only I sticked to it in first year!). Taking into my loan from student finance into consideration and money from my part time ish job, I’ve set aside £100 for every category to spend on every month. I’ve set aside money for savings and money for expenses I need to cover too. For example, my blogging expenses, the odd food shopping and bill. I’ve also calculated how much I would have left at the end of each month if I were to spend £100 on a category, for example makeup (This is a maximum amount that i probably wont go over but if I were to go over, I would cut back the next month).

You can go down or increase it, but it has to be a set amount so you can control exactly how much you pay for categories like food, clothing, travel etc. Keep a set amount for each category every month. It also helps to plan what you will buy over the next few months so you can keep track. For example I’ve planned out key items I need to get, keeping in with my monthly £100 budget. With a category like food, it really depends how many times you go out to eat and its difficult to keep track of it, so its something you have to consider. Learning how to cook a little, reward cards to save some money by earning points and packed lunches here and there are a great way to cut back on eating out all the time.

Also, another little trick I’ve learnt is to always have cash on you. I feel like whenever I pay for something, using cash and physically handing it over, it registers as more important in my mind than using my card. It might sound crazy but I feel like I’ve actually spent money when I’ve given notes to someone. That’s one of the reasons why I haven’t set up contactless, I would be swiping my account away one Selfridges at a time.

Budgeting may sound impossible especially in a time where breathing is expensive, but it can be done by growing up a bit and recognising your wants and needs. For example, i havent experienced living on my own yet but if you are, then you need to recognise how much money you have coming in, work out exactly what you need to pay for and still have enough for personal use. Its only possible with a clear budget.

Financing for makeup artists, beauty bloggers

Knowing how to control your expenses when your a beauty blogger or a makeup artist is so so important. I completely understand the struggle scrolling through a makeup fanatic’s feed seeing highlighters cover their entire floor and thinking I need it all.

NO YOU DONT!

In fact one of the reasons I was skeptical of blogging was thinking i needed every lipstick, every foundation, every limited edition, every brand and showcase it to the point where i have to live off peanuts. No girl. You don’t know someone’s situation behind your phone screen. They could be the most broke person on the planet, they could be working day and night or they could be quite well off. My point is, if its wanting to make you buy unnecessary things, then take a step back, breathe and think about how it will affect your budget.

The beauty of beauty blogging is that there’s so many of us so we all don’t need to have exactly the same products and tastes, so you don’t have to feel pressured in owning everything. Remember, you have a life and commitments outside of blogging too. For makeup artists and aspiring artists I would give the same advice. Its the quality and skill of your work that determines your demand from clients and not your kit. You could have 15 high end palettes but if you cant blend out eye shadow, I’m not booking you girl. So don’t feel pressured, building a freelance kit takes time. I’ll be posting advice soon for aspiring makeup artists and bloggers so STAY TUNED!

To wrap up this insanely long post, figure out what you spend most on, keep to a set amount, don’t ignore necessary expenses and keep checking your account. Small little shocks along the way is better than one huge depressing blow to the face. And finally dont worry too much, once you’ve worked out your expenses and your keeping in line with a budget then life’s good!

Hope this helped, See you in my next post!

Love from Sahibah x