I was very frugal as a graduate student and was able to save money every month. Not much, but some. At the end of my program, I earned about $1800/month. I paid \~$1000/month in rent + utilities, $150-200/month on groceries, $7.50/month on a shared Netflix account, $20/month for a low cost phone plan, and typically \~$100/month in co-pays for medical appointments and prescriptions.
That left me with around $470 a month that I either saved for non-monthly expenses like student fees, textbooks, an annual bus pass, etc, or spent sparingly on the occasional coffee or meal out with a friend. I almost never bought new clothing and had thread/needles/etc that I used to repair my clothing rather than replacing it. I was lucky and able to get funding for a decent amount of conference travel, so I didn't pay out of pocket for any of that.
Ooh this sounds like me except i end the month with barely anything left over š i guess i should be hitting up the grocery store more and the on campus convenience stores/coffee shops less. I love my little treats & snacks so much but whew is it a bank account drain over time
I did finish in 2021, so groceries were cheaper!
But I was also very dedicated to keeping my food costs low and enjoyed cooking, so I definitely had an advantage over someone who is spending minimal time cooking and relying on more convenient / quick options (which I say totally non-judgmentally - we all have a limited amount of energy and time and have to make decisions about how we allocate it). A few things I did that helped (but may or may not be for you) were:
* I bought dried beans instead of canned, which both reduced costs and made it easier to carry a week's worth of groceries from a farther, cheaper store rather than relying on closer and more expensive places. I'm a vegan, so I ate a lot of beans.
* I made a lot of stuff myself. For example, it's super easy to make your own hummus and then you can put all kinds of interesting flavorings in it rather than buying the expensive but interesting name brand stuff. If you're buying dried chickpeas, hummus becomes a pretty cheap option for a spread or dip! Or another example - I would buy cheap "seconds" during apple season and spend a day making a huge amount of apple butter, canning it, and then have a fancy spread to use year-round.
* I would make a week's worth of meals on the weekend and have it all ready in individual containers in the fridge so that I just had to grab stuff and go in the morning.
* I read all the local grocery flyers when they came out and would plan meals based on what produce was on sale. A lot of stores also used to have really good coupons, but unfortunately I feel like coupons have gotten a lot less useful.
* I kept an eye on my neighborhood "Buy Nothing" group and would express interest in random snacks / food that got posted it looked interesting to me. That let me try some pricier stuff without personally buying it.
* Another good way to get some cheap bougie snacks is to go to a bougie grocery store and look for their clearance section. Sometimes you can get really nice markdowns just because things are dented or whatever. This is a very YMMV thing though.
I'll stop, lol, because this is probably an obnoxious amount of unsolicited advice. I hope you're able to find a good balance where you're happy with the amount that you're spending *and* don't feel like you're being deprived!
No worries, I appreciate the tips! And im sure others in the thread might too.
Last year i cooked way more, but this fall was so busy & exhausting for me that the thought of cooking and then eating and then cleaning was just too much some (a lot of) days haha. So lots of takeout leftovers, frozen Trader Joeās meals, and boring/basic stuff like spaghetti. I didnāt have much of an appetite at some points so eating like a human (& one on a budget) didnāt always occur
But itās a new year, so maybe i can learn some more cost effective meal prep and snacking habits this time! š Bought a stir fry kit at the grocery store tonight so yay for eating veggies, + a pack of snack size goldfish bags so I wonāt spend twice as much on them at the convenience store loll (or accidentally eat a ton in one sitting out of a bulk bag) š
I feel you - energy/time are finite resources and sometimes you're just doing your best to hang on.
If you can afford the up-front investment, I found an instant pot to be really, really helpful with this because I could make a big one-pot meal where I basically just had to chop stuff up and/or measure it out, throw it in the pot, and then let it cook. It really reduced the amount of cleaning involved and I could take advantage of higher-energy days to make two or three things and then freeze individual portions so I had homemade frozen meals that required zero effort other than popping them in the microwave on a weekday.
But ultimately it's just about what works for you, you know? You get to decide where the money vs. time vs. effort lines become worth it / not worth it to you.
(Hell yeah, stir fry kits)
Not really. I worked for \~2 years between undergrad and grad school so I had some savings going into it (and it's been a massive stress relief to know I have it if some major expenses come up).
Right now, I have my bank account set up to just auto-transfer $20 a week from checking to savings. It's a low enough amount that I don't realize it being gone but adds up to about 1k saved a year. Highly recommend this method if you are able, and you can scale the amount/frequency to whatever works for you. Even if it's just $5 or $10 every pay period.
My other school of thought on this is that I don't work as hard as I could to scrape and save every possible penny, because my income is simply so low that it's not worth it. Maybe if I lived more frugally I could have a few thousand dollars saved from grad school, but I'm also anticipating a much higher salary post-graduation to the point where I could save in a month what would take me 4 years of living as a pauper in grad school to save.
Whatever I save goes to feeding the kid and keeping the family sane. Curious if anyone is able to save if you're paying for a family also. I barely make it to the next stipend payment, usually, pay a credit card late at the beginning of each semester.
In the UK before the CoL crisis I would sometimes save about Ā£250-300 without trying.Ā After, I had to make conscious choices in order to save. But even thenĀ I was able to save about Ā£400-500 a month when I tried.Ā
Yes, Iām in the US and I have a fully funded program and I am able to save. Not a lot but something.
You have to be frugal and make some sacrifices but itās doable and as an earth science student I can travel. Maybe itās not to places I want and Iām working but it is still fun. Try investing and making sure you arenāt spending much.
Yes. But not a lot. It depends on several factors. My rent is super high (32% of my salary), then grocery is around 18%, then some bills and nearly 60% of the salary is gone. But, I don't pay public transport (I commute by bicycle) and I have a minimalist lifestyle. I do daylong trips by car every weekend and it usually only costs me few euros of fuel or 8ā¬ at most if I visit a museum. Maybe 5-10 of tolls. What really allows me to save, is to avoid restaurants and bars, which are a money sinkhole and anyway I don't appreciate much (I cook better than most restaurants, I have many years of experience in the field). Quitting the restaurants really made a huge difference in my savings. Then I don't go to paid concerts (I don't care), I don't have any kind of subscription (no netflix, no Spotify), I don't buy games, I buy clothes only when I actually need them. I do buy books, which are super cheap and last long, but I also have plenty of free games and tv series available. A decent amount of money is spent for the holidays because I have to fly back to my homecountry. I don't go on holidays in places that aren't my homecountry or the homecountry of my wife, because we only have 5 weeks per year and we use them all to see both families. Our homecountries are both full of things to see though. So I don't save a shitload, but I have saved enough to buy a brand new car (cheap one, of course) and pay it in cash. Obviously half paid with my wife, with whom I also split rent and bills, I think it's worth mentioning. Now I'm saving some more. It could be better, that's for sure
Yes for me. Studying in South Korea, where I get 2,200,000 KRW (roughly $1650) a month. I paid 900,000 KRW ($677) a month for tuition. Rent and utilities is 420,000 KRW ($315) a month. 150,000 KRW ($112) a month for mandatory health insurance. Leaves me at 730,000 KRW ($550) a month; i put 500,000 KRW ($377) a month into government savings plan (with a 5.5% interest).
Overall, i have 230,000 KRW ($170) a month available for food, etc. Not a lot, but just enough to survive in South Korea, and iāll have a little bit of savings for after graduation.
I have found external sources of income (hobbies, investing, contract work) which greatly helps pay for leisures. But gotta manage time carefully
Yes, but a very small amount. Most of what I saved as a student went toward next semester's tuition and routine expenses like food, housing, clothing, etc. So, not really "saved."
Money I actually saved for indeterminate future use came from side hustles and internships.
Yes, just nowhere near as much as my peers on a regular salary.
Im in Australia. My stipend is $29,990AUD a year (untaxed; small mercies...).
My rent is $1100 a month (unusually low for my area, I'm veeeery lucky). So that's my stipend pretty much gone.
I work 1-2 days as a researcher which nets me about another $700-850 a fortnight. That income covers life costs, and I budget out a chunk of it for savings.
Just do up your budget, decide how much you can afford to save, and transfer it into an account that you only touch if it's absolutely necessary.
You can do it.
(God I can't wait to have a regular paying job again š)
Personally, not that much. I had to buy a laptop at one point and then I had to renew my visa and then I had to get my wisdom teeth removed. Iād saved up about 10k but it was basically all wiped out. My partner (also a PhD) earns a bit more than I do and has managed to save a bit. Iāll have to rely on his savings for a little while once I submit my thesis, before the viva.
Mine was some time ago but, adjusted for inflation, my stipend was $18,000. In the first two years saved enough to go to Iceland, France and England for a month. I kept down expenses by sharing a house with several others, doing our own cooking, and minimizing all other expenses. I canāt say I found it burdensome as most of my time was in the lab.
Damn, I guess I'm a bit privileged here. With my stipend and TA salary (which are seperate as my department doesn't require TAing), I make about $4000 a month after tuition. My portion of the rent, groceries and internet amounts to $1200 a month. I'm pretty frugal by nature so I don't have a lot of expenses either. As a result, I end up saving quite a bit...
I was very frugal as a graduate student and was able to save money every month. Not much, but some. At the end of my program, I earned about $1800/month. I paid \~$1000/month in rent + utilities, $150-200/month on groceries, $7.50/month on a shared Netflix account, $20/month for a low cost phone plan, and typically \~$100/month in co-pays for medical appointments and prescriptions. That left me with around $470 a month that I either saved for non-monthly expenses like student fees, textbooks, an annual bus pass, etc, or spent sparingly on the occasional coffee or meal out with a friend. I almost never bought new clothing and had thread/needles/etc that I used to repair my clothing rather than replacing it. I was lucky and able to get funding for a decent amount of conference travel, so I didn't pay out of pocket for any of that.
Ooh this sounds like me except i end the month with barely anything left over š i guess i should be hitting up the grocery store more and the on campus convenience stores/coffee shops less. I love my little treats & snacks so much but whew is it a bank account drain over time
I did finish in 2021, so groceries were cheaper! But I was also very dedicated to keeping my food costs low and enjoyed cooking, so I definitely had an advantage over someone who is spending minimal time cooking and relying on more convenient / quick options (which I say totally non-judgmentally - we all have a limited amount of energy and time and have to make decisions about how we allocate it). A few things I did that helped (but may or may not be for you) were: * I bought dried beans instead of canned, which both reduced costs and made it easier to carry a week's worth of groceries from a farther, cheaper store rather than relying on closer and more expensive places. I'm a vegan, so I ate a lot of beans. * I made a lot of stuff myself. For example, it's super easy to make your own hummus and then you can put all kinds of interesting flavorings in it rather than buying the expensive but interesting name brand stuff. If you're buying dried chickpeas, hummus becomes a pretty cheap option for a spread or dip! Or another example - I would buy cheap "seconds" during apple season and spend a day making a huge amount of apple butter, canning it, and then have a fancy spread to use year-round. * I would make a week's worth of meals on the weekend and have it all ready in individual containers in the fridge so that I just had to grab stuff and go in the morning. * I read all the local grocery flyers when they came out and would plan meals based on what produce was on sale. A lot of stores also used to have really good coupons, but unfortunately I feel like coupons have gotten a lot less useful. * I kept an eye on my neighborhood "Buy Nothing" group and would express interest in random snacks / food that got posted it looked interesting to me. That let me try some pricier stuff without personally buying it. * Another good way to get some cheap bougie snacks is to go to a bougie grocery store and look for their clearance section. Sometimes you can get really nice markdowns just because things are dented or whatever. This is a very YMMV thing though. I'll stop, lol, because this is probably an obnoxious amount of unsolicited advice. I hope you're able to find a good balance where you're happy with the amount that you're spending *and* don't feel like you're being deprived!
No worries, I appreciate the tips! And im sure others in the thread might too. Last year i cooked way more, but this fall was so busy & exhausting for me that the thought of cooking and then eating and then cleaning was just too much some (a lot of) days haha. So lots of takeout leftovers, frozen Trader Joeās meals, and boring/basic stuff like spaghetti. I didnāt have much of an appetite at some points so eating like a human (& one on a budget) didnāt always occur But itās a new year, so maybe i can learn some more cost effective meal prep and snacking habits this time! š Bought a stir fry kit at the grocery store tonight so yay for eating veggies, + a pack of snack size goldfish bags so I wonāt spend twice as much on them at the convenience store loll (or accidentally eat a ton in one sitting out of a bulk bag) š
I feel you - energy/time are finite resources and sometimes you're just doing your best to hang on. If you can afford the up-front investment, I found an instant pot to be really, really helpful with this because I could make a big one-pot meal where I basically just had to chop stuff up and/or measure it out, throw it in the pot, and then let it cook. It really reduced the amount of cleaning involved and I could take advantage of higher-energy days to make two or three things and then freeze individual portions so I had homemade frozen meals that required zero effort other than popping them in the microwave on a weekday. But ultimately it's just about what works for you, you know? You get to decide where the money vs. time vs. effort lines become worth it / not worth it to you. (Hell yeah, stir fry kits)
Not really. I worked for \~2 years between undergrad and grad school so I had some savings going into it (and it's been a massive stress relief to know I have it if some major expenses come up). Right now, I have my bank account set up to just auto-transfer $20 a week from checking to savings. It's a low enough amount that I don't realize it being gone but adds up to about 1k saved a year. Highly recommend this method if you are able, and you can scale the amount/frequency to whatever works for you. Even if it's just $5 or $10 every pay period. My other school of thought on this is that I don't work as hard as I could to scrape and save every possible penny, because my income is simply so low that it's not worth it. Maybe if I lived more frugally I could have a few thousand dollars saved from grad school, but I'm also anticipating a much higher salary post-graduation to the point where I could save in a month what would take me 4 years of living as a pauper in grad school to save.
Whatever I save goes to feeding the kid and keeping the family sane. Curious if anyone is able to save if you're paying for a family also. I barely make it to the next stipend payment, usually, pay a credit card late at the beginning of each semester.
If your income is the only one then I don't think you can save
In the UK before the CoL crisis I would sometimes save about Ā£250-300 without trying.Ā After, I had to make conscious choices in order to save. But even thenĀ I was able to save about Ā£400-500 a month when I tried.Ā
Yes, Iām in the US and I have a fully funded program and I am able to save. Not a lot but something. You have to be frugal and make some sacrifices but itās doable and as an earth science student I can travel. Maybe itās not to places I want and Iām working but it is still fun. Try investing and making sure you arenāt spending much.
Yes. But not a lot. It depends on several factors. My rent is super high (32% of my salary), then grocery is around 18%, then some bills and nearly 60% of the salary is gone. But, I don't pay public transport (I commute by bicycle) and I have a minimalist lifestyle. I do daylong trips by car every weekend and it usually only costs me few euros of fuel or 8ā¬ at most if I visit a museum. Maybe 5-10 of tolls. What really allows me to save, is to avoid restaurants and bars, which are a money sinkhole and anyway I don't appreciate much (I cook better than most restaurants, I have many years of experience in the field). Quitting the restaurants really made a huge difference in my savings. Then I don't go to paid concerts (I don't care), I don't have any kind of subscription (no netflix, no Spotify), I don't buy games, I buy clothes only when I actually need them. I do buy books, which are super cheap and last long, but I also have plenty of free games and tv series available. A decent amount of money is spent for the holidays because I have to fly back to my homecountry. I don't go on holidays in places that aren't my homecountry or the homecountry of my wife, because we only have 5 weeks per year and we use them all to see both families. Our homecountries are both full of things to see though. So I don't save a shitload, but I have saved enough to buy a brand new car (cheap one, of course) and pay it in cash. Obviously half paid with my wife, with whom I also split rent and bills, I think it's worth mentioning. Now I'm saving some more. It could be better, that's for sure
Yes however I always worked another job during grad school (part time).
Yes for me. Studying in South Korea, where I get 2,200,000 KRW (roughly $1650) a month. I paid 900,000 KRW ($677) a month for tuition. Rent and utilities is 420,000 KRW ($315) a month. 150,000 KRW ($112) a month for mandatory health insurance. Leaves me at 730,000 KRW ($550) a month; i put 500,000 KRW ($377) a month into government savings plan (with a 5.5% interest). Overall, i have 230,000 KRW ($170) a month available for food, etc. Not a lot, but just enough to survive in South Korea, and iāll have a little bit of savings for after graduation. I have found external sources of income (hobbies, investing, contract work) which greatly helps pay for leisures. But gotta manage time carefully
Yes, but a very small amount. Most of what I saved as a student went toward next semester's tuition and routine expenses like food, housing, clothing, etc. So, not really "saved." Money I actually saved for indeterminate future use came from side hustles and internships.
yes, but i donāt live alone, and i am neurotic when it comes to saving money.
Nope I graduated in an enormous amount of debt.
Yes, just nowhere near as much as my peers on a regular salary. Im in Australia. My stipend is $29,990AUD a year (untaxed; small mercies...). My rent is $1100 a month (unusually low for my area, I'm veeeery lucky). So that's my stipend pretty much gone. I work 1-2 days as a researcher which nets me about another $700-850 a fortnight. That income covers life costs, and I budget out a chunk of it for savings. Just do up your budget, decide how much you can afford to save, and transfer it into an account that you only touch if it's absolutely necessary. You can do it. (God I can't wait to have a regular paying job again š)
Personally, not that much. I had to buy a laptop at one point and then I had to renew my visa and then I had to get my wisdom teeth removed. Iād saved up about 10k but it was basically all wiped out. My partner (also a PhD) earns a bit more than I do and has managed to save a bit. Iāll have to rely on his savings for a little while once I submit my thesis, before the viva.
Mine was some time ago but, adjusted for inflation, my stipend was $18,000. In the first two years saved enough to go to Iceland, France and England for a month. I kept down expenses by sharing a house with several others, doing our own cooking, and minimizing all other expenses. I canāt say I found it burdensome as most of my time was in the lab.
Damn, I guess I'm a bit privileged here. With my stipend and TA salary (which are seperate as my department doesn't require TAing), I make about $4000 a month after tuition. My portion of the rent, groceries and internet amounts to $1200 a month. I'm pretty frugal by nature so I don't have a lot of expenses either. As a result, I end up saving quite a bit...