College Students and Mid-Month Eating Adjustments: Balancing Budgets Through Low Food Secure Behavior

Financial planning as an affluent college student has its challenges, but the consequences are ameliorated by familial support that is usually responsive to any sudden financial need. For low-income students struggling to meet basic needs, the stakes are higher and resources are far more limited. Budgeting becomes intellectually and emotionally strenuous when revenue fluctuates (e.g., erratic work hours or the seasonality of financial aid disbursements) and expenses seesaw (e.g., beginning of semester costs, car repairs, medical issues, etc.). With nearly two-thirds of college students in the Trellis Fall 2018 Student Financial Wellness Survey responding that they would have trouble getting $500 in cash or credit to meet an emergency within the next month, the margin for error appears slim (Klepfer et al., 2019). In the Trellis report, Studying on Empty: A Qualitative Study of Low Food Security Among College Students (Fernandez et al., 2019), we found that many students used food purchases as an indirect way to keep their budgets balanced, resulting in chaotic, unbalanced eating that jeopardized their success in school.