"As a student I was always broke!" Carol dishes on student trend
Saving money wasn't really a thing on campus in our day...
Campus days were filled with lots of things to do.
Over and above studying, there were the day-to-day expenses from your new-found freedom in wearing civvies and to textbooks, whilst also making time for social events.
All the above have one common denominator - cash money. Seeking a weekend or after-class job was essential.
After seeing some students participate in a bank balance trend on TikTok, we asked Carol Ofori about her student days and what her bank balance looked like.
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Our Daytime Diva had the following to say: "As a student, I was always broke, but I never ate on anybody's bill or was like a problem. I don't how I made it work. I know my mum used to give me money for petrol, she gave me a little petrol card when I was young because she bought me a little Conquest, a 1989 Conquest with red seatbelts. I used to call it the 'Ferrari'.
"But one day I gave her an attitude and she cut that card up... my life was gutted because now there was no access to petrol. I used to get an allowance, I think I had an allowance of R1,000 or R1,500, and then I would also bank on my granny giving me R1,000 every year for my birthday, because everybody was looking after her here and there, so she always had a little bit of money on her.
"My bank balance was shocking, it was very unusual to see more than two zeros in my bank account. But somehow I made it work, but I also never showed my friends my bank balances, that's weird.
"So, these kids of the ama2000s are very transparent. I don't know if that's going to be to their betterment or to their detriment?"
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Most people were surprised to see that at least two out of the group of students had healthy sums of money in their accounts.
One showed over R4,000 while another showed an even healthier balance of R7,300.
Of course, there were a good few who had zero balance, and for them, we feel.
Check out the video below, courtesy of TikTok.
@njabulohope_ saved the best for last 😭 #fypシ ♬ original sound - Tyler ICU
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It was interesting to note that many of them had extra savings accounts on their Capitec cellphone banking apps.
We even saw one with fixed-term savings, which is great for students. It teaches them how to be responsible with their finances and hopefully that prepares them for their future.
Image Courtesy of TikTok