A typical phrase heard coming from the students here at NSA is, “gosh I am so broke”. Ever wonder why it seems like that?
At NSA students spend an average amount of 4 dollars a trip when traveling to the local gas station called Stewards. Students go there an average of 3-4 times a week that ranges from 12-16 dollars a week meaning 48-64 dollars a month. That is to say that the average student in their 9 months attending NSA spends 432-576 dollars at just that one gas station.
Other money suckers to consider are favorite restaurants downtown. Ever gone to simply? The pub? How about subway or even price chopper? These favorite food spots also suck good amounts of money from our students. Even though they may only visit them once or twice a month, the restaurants cost 10-15 dollars a visit for just a meal and maybe a drink not including a tip for dinning out. Is this spending a problem here at NSA? In this case it really depends on personal views, “I don’t think it is a problem,” said English teacher Peter Fish. “As long as the people who spend the money are happy with how they spend it!”
Others think that anything more than 5-8 dollars a week solely at that one place is a problem, “I think students should not be spending that kind of money,” said NSA post graduate Celeste Brown. “It could go toward such better causes like donating to the Tsunami relief or even saving for the future like collecting interest in a bank.”
The pull can be either way on whether spending that much on recreational dinning and munchy runs is a bad thing. From my own personal perspective it is ridiculous to spend that kind of money in the duration of the school year on candy, fancy food and ice cream when it could, as Brown said earlier, be spent on way better causes.
Not only does this habit of uncontrollable spending hurt your nutrition (junk food from Stew’s) it also teaches poor money managing skills. Good money managing Skills are crucial to learn as young adolescents growing up heading into college because there are no parents to watch over how and when you spent your money where ever.
What can NSA do to change these problems? When it comes to money management its tough because there is not a lot NSA itself can do, they can’t take all our money and hang on to it because its our money and also a lot of people have debit and credit cards. They can’t restrict the times we visit places because then they take away the little freedom students have.
The only real way to suppress this so called “spending problem” among our students is for students themselves to take action of their own lives and just become more responsible with their money.
Maybe there are some students who are okay with spending that sort of money but the majority of them don’t realize the amount they spend and hopefully once they do they want to take action to changing their habits and their friend’s habits. Helping one at a time change the ways of our community here at NSA.
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