King Sized Spending

As we transition out of college, there are things that are inevitable for many of us to put our money towards (if we haven't already in college). These things vary from paying your own rent for the first time, purchasing household necessities, insurance, retirement savings, and your own furniture. 

For my friend Julia, it was a mattress. Something we all need but it's not the most fun thing to buy. I had heard her talk about mattress numerous times on how difficult it was to find a mattress because you couldn't just find a cheap one online, but in store they are quite expensive.

This is something I won't have to worry about until I graduate. My previous mattress was purchased by my dad when he had an hour left on our rented U-Haul. When I asked how he picked it out he said the woman asked: "How comfortable do you want your daughter to be?" and he said "As comfortable as the cheapest mattress will be." (For the record I got a mattress topper and now it sleeps like a dream.) 
I was intrigued to hear Julia's answers after hearing so much about her purchase previously. 

1. How did you decide you wanted to go forth in this purchase?

I needed a new bed. This old bed was effecting my sleep with all of the lumps in it. I would wake up constantly. It took my about 6 months to pull the trigger.

2. Do you set a budget for spending on this type of stuff? Did you change your spending budget after this purchase?

I did set a budget before and then adjusted my budget a little after doing some more research.

3. Have you forgone participating in other activities or purchasing other items in order to purchase this/these item(s)?

Some ways yes, but I knew I would need a bed sooner than later so I would save money every month to prepare for the purchase. When it came time to buy it I paid for 75% of it and financed the rest in hopes of utilizing the free financing for 12 months.
4. How much would you say your spending habits changed while in college?
(1-Not at all, exactly the same as before college. 10- It has done a complete 180 and I spend much differently)
Why?

They've changed quite a bit. Coming home from my first semester of college I had a dollar left in my account. ( I also had no job). I learned about banking apps and downloaded spending trackers to see where my money was going. From there I set a budget one what I can spend and how to save. 
5. Do you think you will you continue to spend the same after college?

I hope too. I fear that once I have a full time job with a steady income I'll want more things that I don't really need. 

As something that was a necessary purchase, Julia budgeted her money. Was that simply because that was required of her finances? When we see something as a need that we require money for is it necessary to save money? 

In reference to last week this is in congruence with Maslow's hierarchy with needs this would be seen as need "safety," meaning it is for health and well-being. I am intrigued to see if the other more "adult," purchases that fall under these safety and physiological needs and if the others often save up money and budget as Julia did. 

More Biking & More Money

This is the final blog I will write pertaining to hobbies. As the roadmap suggested, there were interviews pertaining to interests and community then hobbies. I thought this would be an interesting one because it begins the cycle of larger purchases. 

Blaine is one of my good friends that is into a lot of fun activities: he mountain bikes, long boards, and skydives (as a hobby...), so he has a wide variety of adventurous interests. 

He is a talkative person so it is easy to know a lot about Blaine, so the other day when he came over to my apartment and began talking about his new road bike I was surprised I hadn't heard him say anything about it before. I hadn't heard him talk about it previously but he noted that he wanted one for awhile as he was recently getting more into biking. So I was quite intrigued to hear about how he decided to go forth with the purchase. 
I know I have done a biking interview previously but found an interesting difference because previously it was more about maintaining a hobby (Clayton), while Blaine has gone forth beginning a new hobby. 

1. How did you decide you wanted to go forth in this purchase?

I decided to go forth with buying a new mountain bike because I had slowly been getting more and more into biking. Another factor that helped me make the decision was that I worked all summer and had some money to spend.

2. Do you set a budget for spending on this type of stuff? Did you change your spending budget after this purchase?

No I didn't set a budget, I knew I had the money, and someone had already offered to sell me the bike.

3. Have you forgone participating in other activities or purchasing other items in order to purchase this/these item(s)?

I definitely had to buy less coffee for a while but for the most part I only spent out of savings so it worked out perfect.

4. How much would you say your spending habits changed while in college?
(1-Not at all, exactly the same as before college. 10- It has done a complete 180 and I spend much differently)
Why?

I would say a 6) I definitely spend less often on unnecessary items but I also still have to spend a lot for common household items and food etc.

5. Do you think you will you continue to spend the same after college?

After college, I plan to spend about the same or less so that the first few years of making more money, I will be able to establish a good savings and establish a good foundation. Then later on I will spend more when money gets less tight

So for Blaine he spent mostly out of savings because there was an opportunity for him. The way he behaved was triggered by someone offering it to him. Do you think the opportunity of a well-priced bike was enticing to him to make a purchase he might've waited to make otherwise? Or do you think since he had been thinking about it, he truly just had good luck finding it? 

I often wonder if my spending habits changed in college because my parents weren't here to watch. They might've heard that I was buying something after the fact and didn't really have much say in it. If I came home with a brand new bike in high school they'd probably be shocked, but now I can text them a picture and that's that. Is it our new freedom? Do they trust us more with our money? Or is that just how things play out? More questions I do not have the answer to but will continue to ponder. 

What's This All About?

We are more than halfway through this interview and I thought it'd be good to recap what this blog is about as well as the purpose of it and what I've learned so far.

A Roadmap of Where We've Been & Where We're Going:

-Introduction 

-Coffee

-Health Foods

-Spending on Clothes

-Food & Football 

-Community

-Fishing to Spend 

-Biking & Bucks

-What's this all about? <--You Are Here!

-Hobbies

-Driving Sales

-King Sized Spending

-Shiny & Spendy

-The End

In the beginning we saw a pattern on spending in community; from Lauryn's coffee with friends to Lucky buying meals as a friendship ritual, to Hanna spending on CRU events. We also began to see through Riley's spending on fishing and Clayton's biking habits were spending on hobbies, a change as to what we had seen before. The last couple of interviews will include one more hobby and then three more interviews that all involve big, seemingly "adult" purchases like cars, mattresses, and engagement rings. 

I chose this order of things because it shows the different needs that we may have and how college students choose to satisfy them. As I think through these, I wonder if this reflects Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, something we learn about early on in business school. 

When thinking through which needs are satisfied, each of the interviews meet a certain level. Coffee, Food & Football, and Community all fall under the social needs: a feeling of belonging. The Health Foods, Fishing to Spend, and Biking all fall under esteem needs: the need for self achievement and accomplishment. Now I am intrigued to see what the final few end up falling under? As more "adult purchases," where will these fall under the more essential needs such as safety needs and physiological needs? I'm intrigued to find out. 

Biking & Bucks

In the previous blog, I began my writing on spending on hobbies with an interview on Riley and his spending on fly fishing. After writing that blog on Riley's spending, I was intrigued to see the reasoning behind my other interviewees' spending habits on hobbies. After seeing a pattern of vying for community when it came to miscellaneous spending, I was hoping to find another pattern, and my interview with Clayton may have done that. 

While hanging out with my friend Clayton, it is easy to see that he likes bikes: from his funky biking hats, to the extra wheels, handlebars, and tools sitting all over his apartment, to the fact that he shows up at almost everything we do on a bike, it's pretty obvious he's a fan. To someone who rides a bike casually, I didn't understand what he needed to be constantly purchasing or fixing up on his bikes, but I just let it remain a mystery. But after hearing about the new things he purchased, I wondered why and how much he spent on this hobbies. 

How did you decide you wanted to go forth in this purchase?

I base my purchases mainly off of impulse decisions, or very little thought on practicality


Do you set a budget for spending on this type of stuff? Did you change your spending budget after this purchase?

I usually do not set a budget for spending money on bike equipment, but usually rethink my decision to have a budget once I have spent the money. 

Have you forgone participating in other activities or purchasing other items in order to purchase this/these item(s)?

Yes, If there is something that I feel I need and my resources are low, I will not participate in certain activities to fund my bike buying habits.


How much would you say your spending habits changed while in college?
(1-Not at all, exactly the same as before college. 10- It has done a complete 180 and I spend much differently)
Why?

My spending has gone up in college for biking and the associated costs of that activity is not school. Biking is my outlet from school so as the stress goes up, the spending also rises (10).


Do you think you will you continue to spend the same after college?

I feel once my income increases after college with a paying job, my spending will exponentially increase with it.


As an engineering student, it is no surprise that Clayton is stressed, but I found it so intriguing to hear that biking was an outlet from the stress of school. 

For him, there is no set budget on biking, yet the only thing that makes a difference is his stress level. Is this something that a lot of college students are struggling with? He does note that once he graduates and has a higher paying job, his spending will increase, as many students have also stated. 

This makes me wonder... is it our freedom of spending in college that allows us to use our emotions to play such a large part in our reasoning? I know for myself that if I am having a tough day, I'll buy myself a coffee or extra treat... and maybe for Clayton it is his spending on a bike. 

This correlation makes sense when considering earlier blogs that have to do with spending to be with friends, for example eating meals with friends to fit in and have the time in community. I am curious to find out if this could be a larger theme in our spending. 


I hope to learn more from my interviews on hobbies and eventually on less-recreational purchases if this reasoning for our spending in college continues.