Every Monday from April to June, the GATA Network will be sharing advice on how to make your summer productive. This week we look at tips for living on a GA/TA’s budget.

The poverty stricken student is as popular an image as the starving artist. Some of that is for good reason. It’s not easy budgeting for life on a student budget, and nothing much changes when you become a GA/TA. Luckily, there are a lot of people who have travelled that road and learned the hard way how to make the most of a student teacher/student researcher’s earnings.

It Starts With a Budget

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Of course it starts with a budget, and of course you knew that, but do you actually have a budget? Ideally you should have two budgets: one that tracks your yearly/semester funds and expenses and another that tracks your month-to-month.

For the long-term/big picture plan, you can start with the Study Period Budget provided by Student Awards and Financial Aid. The form is specifically for determining student eligibility for financial aid, but it does provide a framework for thinking about the expenses you’ll have for each study period. Remember that there are usually large, one-time expenses at the beginning of semesters (e.g., books, software, memberships, etc.).

You can use just about any budget to break down your month-to-month. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) provides an interactive student budget worksheet that itemizes expenses monthly. The important thing is to make this budget as accurate to your real finances as possible. Keep receipts for a month. Review your transactions on your bank statements. This will help you catch the “little costs” that don’t always fit into your budget categories and can add up quickly. It’s also a good idea to regularly set aside emergency money.

More on budgeting:

• 6 Tips for Budgeting in College
• 25 Smart Budget Tips for College Students
• Connecting4Success: Budgeting for Students

Getting Creative

If making a budget drives home just how tight of a rope student finances can be to walk, there are ways to ease the strain. Used textbooks have been the frugal student’s best friend since forever. When possible, though, it can be just as cheap or cheaper to buy e-books for the titles on your reading lists.

There are also always research projects on campus looking for willing student subjects to study, especially in the Psychology department. These projects don’t always pay for your participation, but some of them do, and others offer free food. If you can find one that pays and feeds, well then aren’t you just the luckiest. Keep an eye open in the Daily News for announcements from researchers looking for study participants.

This comes with a caution: be careful not to make yourself a clinical guinea pig. Writers at the Student Room warn that you should always know exactly what you’re getting into before agreeing to any kind of test or study. That warning goes for those studies that seem benign or minimally invasive too.

Looking for Help?

There are resources on campus to help you navigate the budgeting process. Campus Lifeline offers one-on-one consultations with students seeking financial advice. Review their presentation, “Making Your Money Work for You: Budgeting for Students“, or contact the Student Success Centre to book a consultation.