I bought an iPad to save money

In the spirit of Hemingway, I’ve often found as a student that one runs out of money in two ways: gradually, and then suddenly. My money gets lost in the Albert Heijn baskets on my semi-weekly grocery trips, in drinks during the night, and in the hundreds of other expenses that somehow add up to a significant amount at the end of each month. It is a difficulty that stems from a mismatch between effortless, technology-enabled spending and the expectation of having disciplined financial restraint.

For this purpose, I will categorise my spending into two self-imposed categories: the thoughtful and the thoughtless. Thoughtful spending undergoes a process of intensive reflection and online research, making it easier to track. Thoughtless spending, however, is the much more common variant. It is ostensibly invisible, and I usually have little recollection of it mere minutes after. I blame the simple tap-to-pay functionality of my phone. It needs me only to double-click, scan my face, and I am ready to spend. 

The "thoughtless" aspect comes from the high likelihood that the facial recognition data my phone probably stores each time it scans my face, more often than not, will show very little thought happening behind those eyes. Thoughtless spending happens on a night out, a quick AH-to-go, offering to get the next round, etc. And it is this spending that I find very difficult to keep track of. Individually, these transactions rarely exceed five euros; when compounded over a month, however, they become quite substantial. 

Here, supposedly, lies the key to my financial freedom, but how does one keep track? Last week, I explored a rabbit hole of student budgeting tips, delivered almost entirely by techno-optimistic influencers who swear to understand students' budgeting needs. They propose an elegantly simple framework: buy the device (they're sponsored by) and let it become your ultimate productivity machine. Not only could its apps and interface help keep track of pesky expenses, but the added hundred-euro pencil could benefit note-taking greatly and streamline studying. Indeed, the promise of financial competency and, in part, my recent decline in grades, coerced me into buying an iPad. 

Would I suggest others follow my example? Outsourcing manual expense tracking to technology is in itself not a bad idea, but it edges toward a slippery slope of additional spending to save. As injections of AI turn budgeting apps into increasingly sophisticated assistants, financial literacy will risk becoming either obsolete or a precious commodity held only by technophobes and the "offgridders". However, managing is not only about keeping track, but it also involves determining where and how one spends their money. The agency of allocation will seemingly remain the individual's responsibility and will resist outsourcing. After all, however refined the software becomes, it cannot assume the bearer’s burden of desire, impulse, or the felt social pressure. 

Perhaps the real issue is not my own delinquency in budgeting, but that I am expected to exercise constraint in an economy organised to eliminate it. And so, despite my improved financial overview provided by my iPad, it could not help in preventing the purchase of said iPad.

On Students' Viewpoint, UU students share their views with the rest of the university community. Connor, a Master's student in Media & Culture, is one of the columnists invited for this space. You can also read the perspectives of staff members on Staff's Viewpoint and click here to check out the columns by students and staff in Dutch.