Career Prep 2009 Summer Blog

Daniel Patton from UPenn says it is important to appropriately budget living expenses during your internship. Much of the planning revolves around the location you’ll be working. If you are lucky enough to find housing with a kitchen, you may want to consider the feasibility of grocery shopping more so than eating out at establishments. You will also need to consider the costs of transportation to and from work. It may be cheaper to try and buy a weekly or monthly pass if you plan to regularly use public transportation. In the long run, you can expect to save a significant amount of money. While socializing at night is certainly a great part of the summer experience while interning, it is important to think about the costs associated with nightlife. You must remain cognizant of how much you’re spending or else it is likely to add up without you really noticing how much money you’re spending. You want to always leave some extra cash somewhere in case you’re ever in an emergency situation. It may be a good idea in the long term to putt half your money in savings and half your money in checking accounts to save money.

JB Monu of Harvard suggests making a list of all the potential expenses you might have this summer. Think about the essentials like housing and food, but be sure to include the non-essentials that you know you might buy anyways such as clothing. Once you have added up your expenses if it is too much you can cross off or potential cut back on the most expensive parts of your budget. It is also better to overestimate costs rather than underestimate. Food will especially be difficult to predict but it is better to overestimate so that you can have room in your budget for the unexpected. Also it will be a nice surprise when you have more money left in your account than you originally planned.

Similarly, Steven Batista, NYU adds make sure you give yourself a weekly budget and stick to it, you don't want to spend your senior year broke.