How the DSU president lives on $40,000 a year

To build confidence for her on-stage appearance at DalFest, Anjali Seshadri spent her Thursday nights at Oasis Pub’s karaoke night. Her go-to song is Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” she says, leaning against the cream-coloured wall of her living room.

The furniture largely consists of a grey sectional pushed to one side of the room. Her last roommate took a lot of the decorations with her when she moved out.

Since she was elected president of the Dalhousie Student Union in February, her job takes up most of her time. When the union is at its busiest, it’s not uncommon for her to put in 50 to 60 hours a week.

A fourth-year applied computer science student, she lives with one roommate in a west-end apartment that’s a 15-minute bus ride to campus. Seshadri says she likes the quiet neighbourhood.

She pays $895 per month in rent, including all utilities except power, which can range from a $300 to $1700 bill every three or four months depending on the season.

After taxes, the $40,000 a year she earns as president comes to $2,900 per month. The paycheque wasn’t the sole reason Seshadri ran for president, but it was “an incentive.”

Her meticulous personal budget sounds a lot like the DSU’s annual operating budget.

“I’ve broken it up into unrestricted funds and restricted funds,” she says, “I guess I’ve taken some notes from the union’s funding reports.”

The year before she became DSU president, she paid her tuition working at Arby’s in her hometown over the summer. She earned about $2,800 a month, and lived with her family to keep costs low.

“Honestly, I just lost my soul,” she says. She remembers the time a car drove into the restaurant, the 60 or 70-hour weeks, and the burnout of a food service job.

For clothes, she gravitates towards off-season sales at Winners, Dynamite, or Eclipse. She recently bought herself the new Resident Evil game, a self-care splurge which cost her $100.

One of the first things you notice about her room is the bass guitar and amp she keeps by her bed. She’s been playing for 13 years, since she was 11 or 12, and got the instrument at a steep discount from her bass teacher and neighbour in her hometown of Bridgewater, N.S. She’s also learned drums, saxophone, flute and violin, but bass and guitar stuck with her the most.

“It’s amazing. It’s like learning a little different language each time,” she says.

Twice a semester, she takes the Maritime Bus back to Bridgewater for around $25 each way.

Her fall and winter tuition is covered because she is one of 25 students in the High Performance Leadership cohort at Dalhousie’s Student Leadership Academy, which provides mentorship and training for student leaders.

Because of her job’s demands, Seshradi is only taking three courses per semester and will continue taking classes through the summer to advance her degree.

Her goal is to pay next summer’s tuition out of pocket, which she currently relies on her family’s support for. She planned to put away $300 per month, but was recently able to increase that to $600.

Due to her workload, she mostly eats at the Student Union Building, where the DSU offices are located. One of the perks of the presidency is a discount of up to $20 per day at all Chartwells-run vendors, including the Abstract Café, the Market and Burrito Loco.

Her go-to spot for takeout is Freshslice Pizza on Spring Garden Road. She budgets $300 a month for nights out, including pool and karaoke at Oasis and other leisure expenses.

Her most recent grocery bill led to some sticker shock. She mostly buys pre-made meals from Atlantic Superstore, and had budgeted $300 for that month’s groceries, but the final bill was closer to $600.

“It was a bit too idealistic to expect it to be $300,” Seshadri says. “I tried.”

She allocates $750 per month for debt repayments.

“I’m not doing great when it comes to debt,” she says. Expenses like replacing her laptop and phone for work have led her to accumulate around $4,000 in debt.

Including her student loans, she actually owes closer to $13,000.

“We won’t worry about that until after I graduate.”