The Women’s Business Leadership Center (WBLC) and the Student Investment Club hosted a workshop on budgeting aimed to help students understand the importance of financial management. 

Esther Canales, a graduate student from Mexico, helped organize the event. She said the workshop will teach students how to budget, save money and invest to achieve their financial goals.

The origin of the name “girl math” comes from an online trend that rationalizes irresponsible spending habits often made by young women. 

“They (people who participate in this internet trend) don’t actually know the value of things and how much they are going to cost themselves in the future. I think sometimes people overspend because they think money is unlimited,” Canales said.

She said the event will raise students’ awareness of their finances, enabling them to budget their money more efficiently. 

“There are a lot of students who graduate with debt. So this definitely can create an impact on students to learn how they can graduate without any financial debt, but also help them to prepare so that they can learn how better they can achieve their financial goals quicker if they plan out their entire monthly budget,” Canales said.

Jordan Cairer, a sophomore accounting major from St. James, Missouri, said that on a deeper level, the event is about financial literacy among college students.

“College is a time when a lot of people rack up debt, and that’s just something that is accepted and it’s unavoidable in a lot of situations,” Cairer said. “Our goal with this is to not only equip people to be able to manage their finances after college, but to get a hold on that while we’re in college.”

Cairer said it is important to track spending to become aware of financial habits to avoid overspending. She said students often overspend due to fear of missing out on time with their friends.

“I think it’s just easy to go through the motions of life and busyness of life and not realize how much money you’re actually spending. So I think it’s good to be aware of your habits and all those things before graduating college, because then it’s just amplified,” Cairer said.

Arissa Rose Farmer, a graduate student from Trumann, Arkansas, said setting up automatic savings deposits with banks could encourage better spending habits.

“Every time you get cash in, they can take a percentage of the deposit and shove it directly into a savings account and you’ll never miss it, because they do it automatically, so you don’t even see it on your side. Which is really nice, because then that 800 bucks becomes 600 and you didn’t even realize the 200 was savings. Which is fantastic for people like me who love new purses,” Farmer said.

She said many students focus on how to spend their money rather than saving or paying bills. Farmer said various budgeting techniques, including the “pay yourself first” method, can help students strike a balance.

“I think that a lot of college students have very much so just glossed over the idea of budgeting. They’re like, ‘Oh, later. We can save later. We can meet goals later,’” Farmer said. “Right now we’re all broke but sometimes boujee on a budget is the best way to go, and to do that you have to know how to budget.”

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