Why I Budget Like I’m Rich….While Living With My Parents

I’ll be honest, sometimes my life feels like a contradiction with manicured nails. 

I’m sitting at a café sipping a ₹600 iced latte, texting my friend about my new nail appointment that cost me ₹2500, browsing outfits on Zara. I don’t drive, I take Ubers or walk if I’m romanticizing my day, and I still live at home with my parents. In the same home, where I covered the walls with One Direction posters, where I stuck glow-in-the-dark stars to the ceiling. Where I sleep under the same floral bedsheets, next to a vanity that now holds my skin care essentials and existential dread. 

I am not financially “established”. I live with my parents. I’m still figuring out my career. But I’m also budgeting like I have a second income and secret trust fund. I track my expenses on apps, watch finance videos at 2 am, and still somehow find a way to justify buying a tinted lip balm I absolutely do not need. 

I budget like I’m rich, because this is the only way I know how to feel like I have control in a world that constantly reminds me I don’t. 

Little Luxuries, Big Feelings

In your mid 20s, nothing feels solid. Your job is still figuring itself out. Your plans change every few months. One day I want to work my way up the corporate ladder, other days I just want to own a tiny bookstore cafes and host bookclubs. You’re evolving, shedding old selves, but not quite sure who you’re becoming yet. 

So sometimes, you look for stability in a ₹2000 korean facial or a well ideated mirror selfie. These little luxuries are more than vanity, they’re ritual. They’re identity. 

• A gel manicure, because you’re clinging to any sense of routine and polish, literally and emotionally. 

• A ₹5000 bottle of perfume, because scent is memory, and you want to remember who you are right now. 

• That one overpriced coffeeshop that feels like a treat, even though you’re just responding to emails in silence. 

These indulgences aren’t aesthetics, these are small rituals. Anchors. Reminders that you still have taste, agency, and a sense of you, even when everything else is up in the air. 

The Paradox of Living at Home

Now let’s talk about this, living at home as an adult. 

Yes, I live with my parents, I do not pay for rent,  I do not pay for groceries, and I’m well aware that’s a massive privilege. It allows me to save more than I otherwise could. But it comes with an emotional tax. There’s a unique kind of dissonance that comes with eating dinner with your parents after a long day, then retreating to your bedroom with a new lease on self-awareness and a 12 step skincare regimen.

It’s cozy, it’s humbling, and complicated. 

Society makes it sound like moving out is a badge of becoming a “real adult”. And sure that independence has value, but living at home feels like a pause button you didn’t fully agree to press. It can bring up the endless cycle of questions: Am I behind? Shouldn’t I be further by now? And yet, it can also be a reset. A smooth landing. A wise choice in a world where rent is robbery and peace is expensive 

So I stay home. I save. I breathe. I get my nails done. I budget like I’m rich, not because I’m reckless, but because I’m trying to build a life where joy isn’t postponed. 

Girl Math

We joke about girl math, but it’s deeply rooted in real emotional logic. 

It’s not just about spending. It’s about feeling control over something. Anything.

• If I didn’t move out, I technically saved ₹30,000/month. That’s technically ₹3.6 Lakhs a year. Girl math. 

• If I skip dinner plans and stay home with my sheet masks and Maggi. I’ve saved ₹1500 and my social battery. Girl math. 

• If I return my expensive dress and buy 2 tops for cheap, I’ve upgraded my wardrobe and wisdom. Girl math.

• If I walk instead of booking an uber, that’s ₹300 saved and 4000 steps walked. I call that health + wealth. Girl math. 

This math isn’t about numbers. It’s about validating feelings we aren’t taught to take seriously. It says, yes “you’re still figuring it out, but you’re allowed to feel okay right now.”

And sometimes that feeling comes from a fresh set of nails. Or a uniqlo order. Or the ability to buy a planner and pretend your life is organized. 

Budgeting Isn’t Just About Money

What I’ve realized overtime is that budgeting in your 20s isn’t just financial, it’s philosophical. 

It’s about figuring out what matters to you when you don’t have unlimited options. It’s about choosing softness in a world that equates struggle with value. It’s about learning to say: 

• “No, I won’t move out just to prove something.”

• “Yes, I will buy that thing that makes me feel a bit more alive.”

Sometimes, being smart with money means not spending at all. And sometimes, it means buying that dumb sparkly thing just because you wanted to.

We’re not meant to defer all joy, until we’ve “made it.” Because let’s be real, what even is “making it”? 

What I’m Learning (And Maybe You Are Too)

• Budgeting doesn’t have to feel like punishment. It can be a way of staying grounded.

• Living at home doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It might mean you’ve paused to breathe. And that’s brave. 

• You don’t need to earn softness. It’s your birthright. 

• Not every penny needs to be optimized. Some can be spent just to feel something good. 

• And girl math? It isn’t irrational. It’s just a reminder that feeling okay is sometimes more important than being perfectly correct. 

So no, life isn’t figured out yet. I’m not in a swanky apartment. I certainly do not have 5 income streams. But I have a fresh manicure, an idea  of how I want my gallery wall to look, and enough clarity to know this middle space I’m in? It matters too. 

P.S: If you’re also budgeting like you have a secret trust fund while secretly living in your childhood bedroom, I see you. You’re not behind, you’re just building slowly, quietly, and maybe with sparkly nails too,and honestly…..slay twin. 💅