The first part of budgeting is having money to save. There are so many potential opportunities to make some money even with a crazy high school schedule. You can apply for a job, babysit, or sell clothes on a site like Poshmark. Your budgeting style will depend on the ways you choose to make a profit for yourself. For example, when I am not in a sports season I pick up shifts at my mom store and work a second job. The strategy behind working two jobs is picking one that will be your source of spending money and one that you will use for your savings. I think babysitting is also a very great savings job because it’s a quick gig that you can randomly pick up. With this strategy, I believe it is best to set up an automatic deposit of your paycheck from the job you want to put toward your savings. When you don’t see the money you don’t know what you could be spending.

Another budgeting tip is to keep an envelope or organizer of some type which you put your cash into. When I began this I wrote the amount I was starting with on the front. Then, monthly I will recount and see how much I spent. Depending on how much money is missing from the starting amount, I will have to either save up more cash or buy something fun for myself. This helps me stay conscientious of how much I am spending monthly.

My last tip is to find your weaknesses and set a budget boundary. My weaknesses are QT and Chick-fil-A. I am very cheap and rarely buy stuff, but when it’s food or a drink I think to myself, ‘It’s like $5 and I deserve this energy drink or number one meal.’ After my mom sat me down and showed me my debit card statements are an absurd amount of QT drinks and fast food, I realized I needed to create a budgeting strategy to combat my weak spot. I now limit myself to a certain number of snack trips in a week and try to match the amount I spend by picking up a shift of babysitting or Addie Rose.

College is in the near future for all high schoolers, and it is so nice to have a stable amount of money in your name as you begin your life as an adult. Being able to buy yourself gas and groceries without having to give up dinner dates or nights out is a great goal to have. Finding what budgeting works for you now will also benefit you greatly as you transition into living independently.