Plan To Get My Spending Under Grips...

[chris_crunch]

Hello.

I'm a 21 year old Mathematics Undergraduate, just started at university. 
I'm taking student loans to pay for my accommodation and food etc, which just about keep me going.

So my pockets are a little thin while I educate myself about all the lovely maths in the world!

But I haven't been very good. I'm currently £1500 in debt, (which is just at the bottom of my overdraft limit), and catching my stuff spending it stupidly.
I bought around £70 worth of nuts at the start of term. Occasionally I'll go out with my friends, get drunk and end up spending up to £100 in a night out.
Sometimes I buy coffee from Starbucks or Caffe Nero. 
Sometimes if my friends are going out for food I'll go with them, despite having already bought food to cook, which then goes off...

Okay, so in short, I'm doing pretty badly. But I can't expect to be doing any better, because I have no system in place for how I'm spending my money (or lack of it).

I've managed to get by okay so far by advertising myself as a tutor online, and luckily I'm making around £50 a week with this.
But now, since it's the holidays, that income stream has ceased too. 

How should I develop a system to get this area of my life handled?
During end of term I was going through some emotional hardships with a girl which ended really terribly, which then made me spend all my savings to go out and get drunk...
How do I stop this from happening in the future?
Is there any books someone can point me towards to get my finances handled?

OR...

Should I be focusing on different ways to make money, now I'm at uni? I would like more money to enjoy a better lifestyle. I've came from a gap year, but I had spent all my savings on things I needed (laptop, clothes, driving lessons)... as well as things I didn't need (going out to much, drinking).

What I've tried

I've attended the Millionaire Mind Intensive in London, but I found myself not yet resonating with what was said at the seminar (it seemed like a scam to be honest, just to suck you in to paying for their courses) but I did take one thing: split your income into jars, one for play, one for savings, one for maintenance...

I've also tried to keep track of how much money I'm spending using an excel spreadsheet, but I find this too time consuming and tedious...
Perhaps I should work harder to develop this habit?

[MIARIVEL]

@chris_crunch First thing is first you need to make a realistic budget and stick to it. Say if earn $100 a week, I would highly suggest to put at least 10% of that into a saving account where you don't touch it (unless in an emergency) like if you have some medical issue arise or you break a leg or arm, you have money saved for an emergency. 

Next, work out necessary expenses - x amount on rent, x amount food, x amount on bills etx

Lastly if you have any money to spare then you can use this to go out with friends or if you don't have enough, save whatever money you have left over to maybe go out with friends once a fortnight or once a month instead of every weekend.

And, if in your budget you find you have more money to spare then you can go shopping or treat yourself.

This is very basic but if you follow this system, every time you get paid, it is a great start to learning how to handle and control your money better. It is all mindset. You can read 10 books on finance and how to handle money and what to do with your money but what these books are training you to do, is to change your perspective on money so you handle it better to work for you that is realistic. You need to know the basics and build a solid foundation before going crazy with money and being so careless with it. 

Leo has great videos on this subject to:

 

 

 

 

 

[reez]

An important thing is when you have made your budget, and you go to the bar or something. Only take cash with you, not any card or so.

This will make it pretty much impossible for you to go over the budget