Briefly, what stage of life do you consider yourself to be in? Did you come to grad school straight from undergrad? Did you work between undergrad and grad school? You may also include your age here if you wish.

I'm in my 30s and I consider 2022 to be a year of transition for me, both professionally and personally. I'm excited to finally graduate and start working full-time. The last 10 years of my life has been non-stop schooling, and I have never worked between my degrees. Now I feel more than ready to be independent and say goodbye to my student identity.

Do you receive an annual stipend? If yes, approximately how much do you receive per month? 
I'm no longer receiving an annual stipend. My sources of income include a small monthly fellowship and a part-time, hourly paid library assistantship. My monthly income is around $700 at the moment.

What are your monthly housing costs?
$760.

Do you have any monthly loan payments? If so, how much are they?
Monthly payment for my laptop: $110.

Do you have any other fixed monthly expenses? (think: Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix, car insurance, child care, etc.)

Phone $50; Gym $26; Dropbox $10; YouTube $6; CVS $6

How much do you typically set aside for savings every month?

In the past I typically put around 1/4 of my income into savings.
Give us a brief snapshot of your financial picture at the moment.

Thanks to the public university system in China, I was able to start my PhD debt-free. I invest in index funds. My partner and I manage our bank accounts separately. I currently have around $15,000 in cash, including $5,000 in checking and $10,000 in savings, the latter being my emergency fund. I'm not currently saving for any upcoming big purchases.
Describe your money mindset.

As an international student, maintaining a personal emergency fund is very important to me because it is my only safety net. I also found out from very early on that most international PhDs from my program ran out of stipend during DCE. This prompted me to set a saving goal in preparation for my final year of PhD. Having achieved that goal by the end of my fifth year, I felt less anxious about my financial standing and became less strict about budgeting for a while. Currently, my main money goal is to not exhaust my savings before I transition to a stable job. For that, I tried to cut down my food costs by cooking a lot at home and, when I'm on campus, keeping my eyes open for free foods around me. I grew up in a middle-class Chinese family, and learned about the importance of budgeting and saving for rainy days from my risk-averse parents. As for the specific knowledge of personal finance in the US, I got them from online blogs and conversations with peers.

Tiger Cents Chronicle

Day One

9:00am: Woke up.

9:30am: Made breakfast at home.

10:30am: Paid event registration fee in cash. $3.00.

11:30am: Had an energy bar that I brought from home for lunch.

12:00pm: Started my shift at the East Asian Library: mostly studying on my own at the front desk, occasionally helping patrons pick up, check out, or return books.

5:00pm: Library shift ended. Picked up dinner at the dining hall (free Wintersession swipe) on my way home.

Daily Total: $3.00

Day Two

9:00am: Woke up.

9:30am: Participated in a Wintersession workshop (day 1).

10:30am: Made brunch at home.

1:00pm: Participated in Wintersession workshops.

5:00pm: Ordered a family photo book on Google. $89.06.

6:00pm: Dropped my Covid test kit at GC and picked up free dinner at the GC dining hall.

Daily Total: $89.06

Day Three

8:00am: Woke up.

9:00am: Wintersession workshop (day 2).

10:00am: Made breakfast at home.

11:30am: Purchased laptop stand and moisturizers on Amazon. $42.78.

1:00pm: Take out for lunch. $9.00.

1:30pm: Worked on my dissertation.

6:00pm: Walked to Whitman College to pick up free dinner.

10:30pm: Grocery shopping at ShopRite. $42.17.

Daily Total: $93.95

Day Four

9:30am: Woke up.

10:00am: Wintersession workshop (day 3).

11:00pm: Made brunch at home.
 
2:30pm: Wintersession workshop ended. Returned to dissertation work.

5:00pm: Made dinner at home.

7:30pm: Almost made some online purchases.

Daily Total: $0

Day Five

9:30am: Woke up.

11:00am: Quick breakfast: frozen food.

1:00pm: Ordered a new keyboard from the Apple Store. $89.05

1:30pm: Made lunch at home.

2:00pm: Dissertation writing.

6:00pm: Made dinner at home.

Daily Total: $89.05

Day Six

9:00am: Woke up.

11:00am: Made brunch at home.

1:30pm: Arrived at the office to work on my dissertation.

5:30pm: Dropped my Covid test kit and then picked up a free meal at GC dining hall for dinner.

11:30pm: Bought a small retro game console while swiping on my phone in bed. $11.12.

Daily Total: $11.12

Day Seven

9:00am: Woke up.

10:00am: Zoom meeting.

11:00am: Made brunch at home.

11:30am: Dissertation writing.

5:30pm: Made dinner (frozen pizza) at home.

6:00pm: More writing…

10:10pm: Grocery shopping at ShopRite. $65.44.

Daily Total: $65.44

______________________________________________________________________________

WEEKLY TOTAL:  $351.62

REFLECTIONS: I think this past week represents a fairly typical week for me. Although there were some ad hoc purchases (photo book and keyboard), the total amount is not far from what I spend in an average week. I found that tracking it actually helped me avoid unnecessary spendings in a way: before I pressed the “order” button, it made me think twice about whether this is an item I truly need.