For many college students, the best things in life come without a price tag. After all, who doesn’t love going to a school event just for the complimentary buffet? Why would anybody apply for scholarships without the free funds offered? Some students, on the other hand, derive a special satisfaction from spending their own money. What better way to feel like you earned your possessions than by spending the money you personally made at your job? Katlynn Rosenberry, a senior at Penn State University, has the satisfaction of enjoying both.
For the semester, she works as Resident Assistant, living in a dorm amongst dozens of students. Her job involves primarily building a community and helping residents out when needed. While she does not make a formal salary, Penn State completely covers the cost of her room and board, as well as giving her a free meal plan. Keep in mind, a single-person room at Penn State costs roughly $5,000 per semester, with a level three meal plan going for about $2,800. Additionally, Katlynn works three days a week at a Starbucks on campus. What does all this work mean for her finances? Let’s find out.
Major: Digital & Print Journalism
Age: 21
Year: Senior
College: Penn State University
How do you pay your monthly tuition and fee?
I’m lucky enough to have my mom, who pays for my tuition and has for the past four years. [For] monthly fees, I have a job. My credit card statement and [other] stuff, [they’re] all things that I pay for. Using my [free] meal plan I’ll buy food. Usually, it’s either breakfast or dinner or lunch and dinner. I really don’t spend my personal money per se. If I do that, it’s usually when I go downtown, or like on the weekends I’ll go out North Atherton way and spend stuff. But I try not to spend my own money; [it’s] usually just food that I spend money on.
What are your monthly expenses?
Most of it is gas expenses or streaming services, so like Spotify, Hulu, HBO, things like that. I get the student discount. Gas alone, I’d say [is] about $30 a month. Every couple of weeks, I don’t do it much anymore because I have a meal plan and we don’t have kitchens, but every couple of weeks I go [to Wegman’s] for groceries like breakfast items. I’ll usually get Pop Tarts or cereal, stuff like that. I go downtown to the bar and I vary whether I’m gonna use my cards or my cash, [though] usually use cash because it’s easier. Every once in a while, I will go to Starbucks and use my own money for it.
How do you pay these expenses?
Pretty much the only [personal] money I spend is the money that I earn working… and the money that I work [for] over the summer as well. I work at a small little concession stand in my hometown in the state park; it’s like five minutes from my house. I don’t really have a monthly budget. I [just] try not to spend too much. If I’m spending over $200 on my credit card statement, it makes me sad because I’m like, “What was I buying?” But I don’t really have a set budget. I will say, in the past couple months, my spending habits have went down because I had a lot of trips planned this past summer. I spent so much money going on trips. So right now, I’m trying to be very careful [about] what I’m spending.
Spending breakdowns:
Sunday:
Usually [I go to] Edge. I don’t really like the breakfast food [at the Commons] to be honest. Bagels are my go-to. I won’t eat really the rest of the day until dinner, so I go to the commons again for [that]. So that’s like $5.
$3 Bagel and coffee from Edge
$5 Dinner at the Commons Cafeteria
Monday:
Mondays, I don’t eat breakfast. I just go straight to lunch in the commons, usually. And then again, I won’t eat until like 10:30ish on Monday nights. I get the late night [dinner].
$5 Lunch at the Commons
$5 Commons Dinner
Tuesday:
Tuesdays I don’t eat until dinner. To be honest, that sounds bad. I work [from] 9 AM to 1 PM. I literally wake up, shower, go to work, go to class and then I eat. It’s so bad. It’s one of the things [where] I’m hungry in the morning, and then once that hunger passes, my body is fine. I just kind of forget until dinner.
$5 Commons Dinner
Wednesday:
Wednesday, same as Mondays. I usually get lunch and then the dinner at the Commons.
$5 Commons Lunch
$5 Commons Dinner
Thursday:
Thursdays, I usually get breakfast at Edge. I don’t get lunch; I then get dinner at [the] Commons.
$3 Edge Breakfast
$5 Commons Dinner
Friday:
Fridays? It varies. I don’t have class on Friday. Sometimes I wake up early enough in the morning that I go get breakfast. But again, I really don’t like the breakfast [at the commons], so if I do it’s Edge or I just wait till lunch to get food. Then usually in the evening it varies because I’ll either go out and get food from downtown [at] Chipotle or something, or I’ll eat food in the commons. I’d say I more [likely] eat the food in the commons on Fridays.
$3 Edge Breakfast
$5 Commons Dinner
Saturday:
Saturday’s I definitely eat out at like, Chipotle. [Usually] like $10 or $11 worth. I [also] usually do Edge again, because like I said, I try to avoid the breakfast upstairs. It’s just so, it makes me feel disgusting when I eat it. It’s such heavy food too. I feel like, this sounds horrible, you almost have to be hungover to really eat a full meal [there].”
$3 Edge Breakfast
$11 Chipotle Dinner
Spending Breakdowns
Total: $63
Money spent from Free Meal Plan: $52
Money spent from personal funds: $11
How has your spending changed since freshman year?
When I was a freshman, I spent so much money, not gonna lie. It was [during] the first time I had a real job, and I had real money coming in. I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m gonna spend all this money.” I literally would go out to eat every single weekend. [My roommate and I] would always order in like, once a month. [We’d] order Domino’s, and Domino’s is expensive, then [having] it delivered is even more expensive. Clothes is a big one, clothes and shoes. I have a shopping addiction. See, part of my problem is, I’ll go downtown to Family Clothesline or something and l buy like the $10 t-shirts and turn them into cute game day shirts. [Then] I have all these shirts and I’m like, “Oh my God, I need to stop spending money. I would also buy stupid random things. It was a lot of money. I feel like I grew out of the phase. I have so much Penn State stuff now that I’m like, “I don’t need anything else.” Like what else could I add? So, I definitely try not to spend as much as of my money. I try to spend like the money that I’m given for free, cause you know, it’s free.
While acquiring a job on campus can lead to many new experiences, friends and skills, at the end of the day it undeniably helps to offset the hefty cost of college. Additionally, becoming an RA allows you to make the most of your life in a dorm! For some, the pros of living on campus far outweigh those of living off-campus, so why not sleep and eat on the university’s dime? Through ambition and the willingness to take on the work, you too can maximize your income and reduce costs. College already gives you plenty to worry about every day with its ever-evolving curricula, so why let the cost get you down?