In high school, I always heard about the horror stories of college kids living off of no sleep and ramen noodles as a main food group. As much as I refused to believe this scenario would ever happen to me, I quickly learned that without a consistent income, graduation and babysitting money would only get me so far.

My first mistake happened before I even got to school. Going into my first semester of college, I thought I just had to have a whole new wardrobe for every event imaginable and spent entirely too much money on game day outfits and dresses for sorority recruitment. Little did I know, when you're at a campus with thousands of other girls living within 5 minutes of you, borrowing each other's clothes becomes a frequent occasion, and one tube top with your school's name on it will definitely suffice.

Once I actually got to school, I thought that I could go out to eat whenever I wanted with all of my new friends and that paying nine-dollars for French toast and making multiple trips to Starbucks every day for overpriced coffee wouldn't eventually add up. Wrong.

As painful as it is, sometimes, you just have to settle for your meal swipes and pass up on a breakfast date with all of your newfound besties, and if you do go, probably don't get the most expensive thing on the menu.

I thought that since I wasn't bringing my car to college, I'd be able to save lots of money on transportation since I didn't have to pay for gas, and if I ever needed to get somewhere, Uber wouldn't be too expensive. If you've ever been to a college town when remotely any event is taking place, you know that getting down the street and around the corner costs at least ten-dollars, sometimes much more. Don't be like me and always offer to pay for the Uber. Even if you split it with other people, don't put it on your card unless you know them well enough to hold them accountable because more times than not, the promised Venmo payments will never come.

About two or three months into school, people begin to plan their trips for the long-awaited college spring break. Obviously, you immediately jump on board and unthinkingly hand over six-hundred-dollars for the hotel all of your friends are staying in and a flight to Florida. I had budgeted it out though, and if everything went as planned, I'd have more than enough money to get me through the rest of the year! Unfortunately, though, things don't always go as planned, and you have to pay five-hundred-dollars over Christmas break to fix your laptop that conveniently decides to break!

Now, here I am, in my second semester of college, succumbing to the ramen noodle budget lifestyle, applying for jobs everywhere on campus to try to scrape up some spending money to get me through the semester. Even though passing up on doing some things that require spending money is frustrating, I now know how important it is to only spend on things that I really need, and as much as it kills me to say it, my parents were right when they nagged me about budgeting.

Have fun your first semester of college, but before you make impulse purchases, remember that every dollar counts, and being fiscally responsible will truly make your life a lot less stressful.