College can be a difficult time for managing finances namely because there are so many currencies which we deal with on a daily basis: US dollars, Schillers, dining dollars, meals. This long list of currencies isn’t even considering some of the more transparent forms such as time. In order to dissect these various forms of currency and the income and expenses associated with each I will first outline the funds of each and then go into the meanings behind the data.
| Currency | Income | Distribution of finances |
| US Dollars | $185/bi-weekly | Restaurants, Booze, Personal Items |
| Schillers | Parents (own finances) | Books, Bookstore Items, Laundry |
| Dining Dollars | $350/term | Sayles Food… |
| Meals | 12/wk | Dining Hall Food |
| Guest Meals | 3/term | Dining Hall Food |
Now I will be the first to admit that I do not handle my finances appropriately, as most of my income goes directly into my restaurant/booze fund, however there is ultimately a method to the madness. Let’s work from the ground up. Nothing is more frustrating than running out of meals in a week and being forced to use one of your guest meals in order to eat sub-par cafeteria food. Eating meals in the dining hall is just an unfortunate reality of living at college. Ideally, twelve meals will be eaten every week in the dining hall, no more no less. This leaves many meals left to eat in a week that the dining hall cannot cover. More often than not is a combination of the week day breakfasts in combination with arbitrary weekend meals. Furthermore, there are many nights when meals are required after the closing of Sayles. While a quesadilla is fantastic for late night pigging out, it is terrible for promoting a productive evening. While yes, the system is designed to promote the use of Dining Dollars in Sayles, the hours that Sayles operates often does not accommodate the working Carleton student, or at least myself.
To enlighten the readers of this blog, you can often find me at either Tandem Bagels or Blue Monday Coffee House Monday-Friday from 6:30am – 9:00am. Unfortunately, Blue Mondays only takes US Dollars while Tandem takes either US Dollars or Schillers. With no naturally occurring income of Schillers, it does not make sense for me to put money into this arbitrary currency to purchase bagels when US currency is accepted. Regardless, I spend my own hard earned US Dollars on coffee and bagels. However, in an ideal world would not spend my own finances on these commodities. In fact, when my are incredibly stressed, these are the first to go. However, what is important to note here is that the dining dollars, which are provided in the form of a large subsidy on a termly basis, are not useful in the purchase of items which they are designed to purchase.
Ultimately, I have determined that my finances would be better distributed if Dining Dollars were distributed as Schillers rather than some arbitrary currency. We have talked a little about inferior goods over the course of this term, as college students we have to take these to heart, living on such meager incomes. However, it is important too to look at inferior currencies which are designed to provide Carleton students with guaranteed currencies for food, when in fact they only constrain the average student.