This guide supports and supplements the curriculum of Adulting 101: Ballin' on a Budget, a financial literacy workshop put on by the Robert B. House Undergraduate Library in partnership with the UNC Financial Literacy Consortium, the Office of the Dean of Students, and the Carolina Covenant. The workshop guides participants as they create their own personalized budgets and learn tips and tricks to spend and save more efficiently.
The Federal Student Aid Office of the U.S. Department of Education provides a variety of resources to help students create, manage, and sustain a healthy, personalized budget. This website provides useful information for those who are starting to select a budgeting tool and create a budget, as well as those who are looking for tips to save money and stay on track with your existing budget. Whether you prefer a spreadsheet, an app, or the more traditional envelope method to keep track of your money, it is most important to pick the system that works best for your needs and then stick to it! For inspiration, follow some of the blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels recommended in this guide, and read this article from NerdWallet about people who overcame debt and achieved their financial goals.
Farnoosh Torabi is a personal finance expert, journalist, and the author of several books about how to spend and save money more efficiently. In "8 Ways to Navigate the Student Loan Waters," a blog post and video for Mint.com, she writes about the student loan crisis and how students can strategize to start paying off their loans in a timely, consistent manner. If you want more content like this, Mint.com has a series of blogs written by experts on "Student Finances" topics. Torabi also hosts Financially Fit, a personal finance series on Yahoo! Finance.