Accepting Financial Aid Award/1L Budget Forum

[Caesar Salad]

I tried to search the forum for a sample budget for first year students, but wasn't able to find anything. I anticipate this is due to my poor searching skills, so if this is redundant please direct me to previous posts. I am trying to work out a budget for my first year in order to see whether or not I should accept the package as it stands, or reduce the amount of loans I am being offered. So here is my budget as it stands, if anyone sees areas that I havn't afforded for, please and thank you for pointing them out. I'm going to be attending Seton Hall in Newark, NJ. This is just for the first semester, I figure it will be the same or very similar for the spring as well.

Budget
Tuition+fees 24,597
Books+supplies 750
Rent+utilities 3,500 (700 per month)
Food+alcohol 3,000 (600 per month)
Transportation 200 (40 per month)

I am moving into my apartment August 1st, the utilities are shared by the house and I've been told I can expect a flat fee which I added to my rent. I looked up my courses at the bookstore and, though one doesn't have books listed yet, I extrapolated from the ones that had books listed. I lived the last year at school on a $100 a week food budget, I think I will be able to contract that quite a bit and eat less richly (my parents were paying for groceries), additionally I have a lot of family in the area and expect to be going to meals with them, being taken to the grocery store etc which will mitigate food costs further (as well as free food at school which I've heard is a thing). I looked up the cost of a bus pass, which I will be taking to school, as well. Now, as that stands I have budgeted through December at a little more than $32k. The school is giving me $20k in scholarship, $10.5k in Stafford, and $6k in Gradplus. I have the ability to decrease the gradplus amount, my question is should I or should I take that additional $4k and have it as buffer? As it is I feel like my budget has buffer worked in but I'd love to hear thoughts from people who have gone through 1L and know where all of that money goes. Thanks!

[despina]

Other factors to take into account:

Clothing. If you already have a professional wardrobe including a good suit, shoes, bag etc, then you are all set, but a lot of people have to make some purchases to be ready for interviews and formal events. Or if your entire wardrobe is business casual because you've been working for a few years, you'll want to buy a few pairs of jeans and informal sweaters, etc. If you're new to the northeast, you'll need to invest in a good winter coat and boots... and so on.

Entertainment. Depends on your lifestyle and what you like to do, but you'll want to have some cash for fun activities like going see a concert, or rent a kayak, or whatever.

Travel. How often do you plan to travel to see your family, and how much does it cost you to get there? How many weddings do you anticipate attending this year?

Emergency fund. How are you going to cover that surprise $300 dental appointment, replacing your glasses when they break, buying a last-minute flight to visit your sister when she has a crisis, or whatever?

Regular medical expenses. With your new insurance, what's your copay on your regular prescriptions, an annual checkup, specialty visits for whatever ongoing issues you have, etc?

Health insurance. Hopefully this is already covered in your tuition + fees amount, but it might not be -- double check.

Rental / personal liability insurance. It's only like $10-15 per month if you're already paying car insurance, and it's totally worth the peace of mind (especially once you have a friend without insurance who has their apartment flooded... or once your torts class starts to give you nightmares about getting sued).

Household goods. Even if you have everything you need to move into your apartment, little things like shampoo, toilet paper, windex, etc add up over time.

Cell phone, if that's not included in your "utilities."

If you're lucky enough to have parents who can easily give you a short-term no-interest loan of $5,000 to cover emergencies, keep your budget conservative and lower your loans. If not, better to take out more loans to give yourself a safety cushion so you can handle emergencies yourself.

[Caesar Salad]

Other factors to take into account:

Clothing. If you already have a professional wardrobe including a good suit, shoes, bag etc, then you are all set, but a lot of people have to make some purchases to be ready for interviews and formal events. Or if your entire wardrobe is business casual because you've been working for a few years, you'll want to buy a few pairs of jeans and informal sweaters, etc. If you're new to the northeast, you'll need to invest in a good winter coat and boots... and so on.

Entertainment. Depends on your lifestyle and what you like to do, but you'll want to have some cash for fun activities like going see a concert, or rent a kayak, or whatever.

Travel. How often do you plan to travel to see your family, and how much does it cost you to get there? How many weddings do you anticipate attending this year?

Emergency fund. How are you going to cover that surprise $300 dental appointment, replacing your glasses when they break, buying a last-minute flight to visit your sister when she has a crisis, or whatever?

Regular medical expenses. With your new insurance, what's your copay on your regular prescriptions, an annual checkup, specialty visits for whatever ongoing issues you have, etc?

Health insurance. Hopefully this is already covered in your tuition + fees amount, but it might not be -- double check.

Rental / personal liability insurance. It's only like $10-15 per month if you're already paying car insurance, and it's totally worth the peace of mind (especially once you have a friend without insurance who has their apartment flooded... or once your torts class starts to give you nightmares about getting sued).

Household goods. Even if you have everything you need to move into your apartment, little things like shampoo, toilet paper, windex, etc add up over time.

Cell phone, if that's not included in your "utilities."

If you're lucky enough to have parents who can easily give you a short-term no-interest loan of $5,000 to cover emergencies, keep your budget conservative and lower your loans. If not, better to take out more loans to give yourself a safety cushion so you can handle emergencies yourself.

Thanks for the response. I am still a dependent of my parents and they will be covering insurance/cell phone/emergencies. I don't anticipate any weddings and travel fees to see my parents/family would likely be covered by them, if not it would be pretty inexpensive, they are close. My wardrobe is, I think, set. I have a lot of business casual as well as casual casual, and have a nice suit/shoes. I didn't factor in household goods, that is a good point. Do you think that would run more than say $50 a week? Recreation is a good point, I just feel like I would be too guilty shelling out money to go to a concert/sporting event when I can't afford it and am going into high interest debt to do so. I'm pretty cheap/stingy thanks to my cheap/stingy parents (actually though, thanks).

[despina]

$50 / week should be more than enough for household goods, though only you know how much you typically spend (do you buy a 64 oz bottle of store brand shampoo for $3 that lasts you a year, or do have a cabinet full of salon products?).

I definitely hear and respect you about not wanting to spend lavishly on hobbies or outings. I would just say that in law school it's important to feel like you can get out and have some fun sometimes. I'm guessing the "alcohol" in your food budget accounts for some of that for you, so if that's what makes you happiest maybe that covers it. For me, sometimes I'd rather go to a $40 concert than have an equivalent bar tab or top-shelf bottle of liquor. Not knocking drinking and socializing with friends at all, but it's nice to have a modest fund set aside so that you can say "yes" when you get invited to do X fun activity with friends or feel the need to do something fun outside of your school circle. If you say you can eat on less than $100 / week then you've designated over $200 / month for alcohol. That's realistic if you go out to bars several nights per week or if you have a high tolerance and prefer expensive cocktails to beer, but otherwise you can probably afford to move some of that into a "fun fund."

[Caesar Salad]

$50 / week should be more than enough for household goods, though only you know how much you typically spend (do you buy a 64 oz bottle of store brand shampoo for $3 that lasts you a year, or do have a cabinet full of salon products?).

I definitely hear and respect you about not wanting to spend lavishly on hobbies or outings. I would just say that in law school it's important to feel like you can get out and have some fun sometimes. I'm guessing the "alcohol" in your food budget accounts for some of that for you, so if that's what makes you happiest maybe that covers it. For me, sometimes I'd rather go to a $40 concert than have an equivalent bar tab or top-shelf bottle of liquor. Not knocking drinking and socializing with friends at all, but it's nice to have a modest fund set aside so that you can say "yes" when you get invited to do X fun activity with friends or feel the need to do something fun outside of your school circle. If you say you can eat on less than $100 / week then you've designated over $200 / month for alcohol. That's realistic if you go out to bars several nights per week or if you have a high tolerance and prefer expensive cocktails to beer, but otherwise you can probably afford to move some of that into a "fun fund."

Yeah I go for that Suave 3-in-1 shampoo/conditioner/body wash mega tube, so that usually keeps me for quite a while. Very good point though. As I was typing about feeling guilty shelling out money for recreation, it was sort of predicated on the fact that I'm already going to be spending quite a bit on booze. I love bars, haha. I think $50 a week at the bar is very doable, I will need to be careful to keep it that low I think (I'm a big guy and I drink quite a bit). Ok cool, I think I am going to decrease the grad plus money and shoot for like 33k total, thanks for your input!