KEEP YOUR BUDGET ALIVE WITHOUT SPENDING YOUR LIFE DOING ACCOUNTS

A budget does not need to predict the month perfectly. It needs to show you early enough when reality is moving away from the plan.

YOUR 10-MINUTE CHECK-IN

Once a week, ask yourself:

• How much have I spent?
• What surprised me?
• What still needs to be paid?
• At my current pace, will the numbers work until the end of the month?

Then choose the right diagnosis.

1. MY LIFE DOES NOT LOOK LIKE MY PLAN

You expected to cook more, walk more often or go home every weekend. Your real life says otherwise. Adjust the budget: it has simply received better information.

2. I FORGOT AN EXPENSE

Add it, then ask whether it is one-off or should be provided for regularly.

3. THE NUMBERS DO NOT WORK

If your resources are CHF 2,000 and genuinely necessary expenses reach CHF 2,200, this is no longer primarily a problem of small pleasures. You have a structural gap of CHF 200.

Look at housing, insurance, transport, tuition fees, available resources and possible support. If your 'yours to choose' margin is already close to zero, cancelling one outing will not be enough.

WHEN SHOULD YOU ASK FOR HELP?

As soon as you see that the numbers cannot work sustainably — not only when the account reaches zero.

Help may be information, a scholarship, a social fund, emergency assistance or simply guidance towards the right service. You do not need to know the exact name of the scheme before asking.

ASKING FOR HELP DOES NOT REMOVE YOUR OWN PART OF THE PREPARATION.

Some support schemes examine the cause of the difficulty, the resources available and the other solutions already sought. At EPFL, poor budget planning is not in itself sufficient grounds for a social scholarship: study funding should normally have been prepared, and this last-resort support is intended for a genuine difficulty caused by a sudden, unforeseen change.

The right approach has two parts: plan ahead and keep your figures up to date; then, if a genuine problem still occurs, ask for help early enough.

The purpose of the budget comes down to three sentences:

'That is already committed.' 'That is what I need for day-to-day living.' 'And that is mine to choose.'

When these become clear, money takes up less space in your mind.

You probably will not know your real budget on the day you arrive.

And that is normal.

Your schedule will change. Your habits will develop. You will discover the cafeterias, shops, journeys and rhythm of your real life.

Your budget therefore needs to evolve with you.

The good news is that you do not need to wait three months to understand what is happening.

A few reference points are enough:

• what you have;
• what is already committed;
• what you need for day-to-day living;
• what is yours to choose;
• the expenses that will arrive later;
• the risks for which insurance or support exists.

Your first budget does not need to be right. It needs to become more accurate each week.

Ten minutes. Once a week. For four weeks.

No more than that.

WEEK 1 — OBSERVE

This week, you do not need to optimise anything.

Simply look at:

• what you spend;
• what is already committed;
• what surprises you;
• what you still cannot estimate.

Your goal: collect reference points.

WEEK 2 — NOTICE PATTERNS

Look at what is beginning to repeat.

Which days do you eat on campus? How often do you really cook? Which transport do you use? Which small expenses recur?

Your goal: discover your real rhythm.

WEEK 3 — ADJUST

Turn your observations into a budget.

Sort them into:

• Already Committed;
• Living Essentials;
• Yours to Choose.

Also add expenses that do not arrive every month.

Your goal: build a budget that resembles your real life.

WEEK 4 — DECIDE

Look back at your first month.

What cost more than expected? What cost less? What room for choice do you actually have left? What do you want to change next month?

Your goal: build your first real budget from real data.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

You can keep exactly the same ritual: ten minutes once a week.

Or space it out once your budget becomes stable.

The goal is never to spend your life doing accounts.

The goal is to know where you stand early enough to make choices.

You can also formalise this check-in with 'My 10-minute commitment — four weeks to start finding my bearings'. Participation is voluntary. You can keep the sheet to yourself; you are under no obligation to share it, and it is not sent to SEEC.

I commit to looking, understanding and adjusting. My budget does not need to be perfect: it can evolve as I learn.