Get your finances in order. Make sure that you already have a food budget and an entertainment budget. You can make these by gathering your finances and deciding how much you are going to spend on those two things. The money that is left over will be your merchandise budget.
Include your student loan refund, any money that you know you will be making while working and in school, and any money that your parents are giving to you. Once you have subtracted the money that you will be spending per semester on food, and the money that you will be spending per semester on entertainment, you will have the amount of money that you can spend on merchandise.
Take the total amount that you have for merchandise for your semester of school. Divide that amount by the six months that are in your semester. You now have a six-month, monthly merchandise budget.
Within your monthly merchandise budget, decide how much of that should be spent on clothes, objects like DVDs and music, and other things for your dorm room.
Spend only your merchandise budget per month. Don't go over it.