As a broke college student, learning how to save money in any way that you can is going to be the key to success and less stress. From tuition, rent, books, and meal plans, it can seem like everything wants some of your money. By cutting back on these few areas, you’ll be able to save money without limiting your college experience.
Textbooks
Textbooks are one of the biggest waste of money in college, at least in my opinion. For me, I don’t learn from just reading a textbook. I learn by actually listening and doing whatever I need to learn the material. So for me, I spent $600 on textbooks my freshmen year and I only used one of the books, that was required for lab. And that was only because the lab book was a workbook and I had to tear out pages to turn in for a grade. After that sorrow experience, I quickly learned that it is easier and cheaper to either rent textbooks or even better just go to the school library to rent for free. Yes, I said FREE. They have every textbook that is required for any classes offered on campus. It’s a great way to get the information that you need for class without spending any extra money.
Meal Plans
Only recently have I learned the freedom you have once you get out off the university’s meal plans. You can eat whatever you want whenever you want, instead of eating the same greasy food over and over again. With most meal plans, you have to use your meal swipe during a current time of the day and you have a limited amount of money to spend. Basically, it’s cheaper and healthier to buy your own groceries. If you are on a time crunch, you can do what I do, which is cook a big meal on Sundays that will last me four to five days or I use my crockpot during the week.
Coffee
While I am not a big coffee drinker, I love having a cup of hot chocolate on the go. But the problem is that if you spend $5 at Starbucks buying your favorite drink five times a week for a whole year, you are literally spending $1,300 on just coffee. That’s a lot of money that you could be spending elsewhere. For a broke college student, it’s totally worth spending the money to buy a basic coffee machine or a Keurig and k-cups to make your coffee at home. Plus you’ll also be saving the environment by using re-usable cups instead of throwing away paper cups.
Fraternities/ Sororities
Joining social groups and clubs are a great way to network in your community, meet lifelong friends, and have a social life in college. From keeping up with the fashion trends and being at every event hosted by your group, fraternities and sororities can take away a lot of cash and time. I don’t want to discourage you from joining one if it’s something you really are passionate about. By all means, go for it! But don’t just join because all of your friends are doing it or you want to be popular around campus.
Budget
I have to admit, I am still working on this aspect of saving money. But once you find a method that works, you can end up saving so much that you don’t even realize you’re doing it. I used to use Mint to set a budget. It’s an app on your phone that allows you to set a budget for each category, such as food and bills, and tracks where your money is being spent the most. I also enjoy using Qapital, which is another app, but it’s set up a little differently. You set your goals and rules that help you save money. The rules can be anything, such as save $5 if you want 5,000 steps in a day.
[bctt tweet=”Find a saving method that works for you and stick with it…” username=”uniquelymickie”]
Eating Out
This kind of goes along the lines of getting off the college meal plan, but it takes the idea in a different direction. If you love food and eating out, this might be the hardest item to cut back on. But if you can master the challenge, decreasing the number of times that you eat out once a week or by a certain dollar amount could save you a lot of money over time. I typically make myself only eat out once a week and it has to be less than $10. Another idea to cut back on dining out is to get a larger portion of your meal, cut it in half, and eat it later so you get more bang for your buck.
Coupons/ Discounts
If you know me in person, I love using coupons, discounts, and shopping at discount stores. Why pay full price when you don’t have to? That’s how I view shopping and you should to, if you want to save money without compromising on your favorite brands. For in-store shopping, I usually use the RetailMeNot app. Then for online shopping, I use Ebates.com, which is a website that gives you cash back for shopping online. Bonus! They even have their own coupon codes on the website for even more saving! I also love checking out Groupon for the awesome deals around my city, including events, parties, and concerts.
If you haven’t already signed up for Ebates,com, you can sign up through my referral code. It’ll give you $10, just for signing up and it’s totally free and easy to use! Click the link above if you want-which you know you do.
Cable TV
If you live in off-campus housing and cable isn’t included, I highly recommend forfeiting getting a cable package. It cost more money to have regular TV than to have a subscription to Hulu or Amazon Prime. Let’s be honest anyways, I’m always on Hulu when I have free time, plus I hate waiting for commercials to end. Plus if you get the app, you can watch TV anywhere, including class, but I’m not encouraging anybody to do this now. (:
[bctt tweet=”Save your coins by signing up to Netflix and Hulu for half the cost of cable TV” username=”uniquelymickie”]
Off-Campus Living
Living in a student apartment or renting a house with some friends will save you a lot of money in the long run. Student dorms are using price higher compared to off-campus housing due to the community and the distance to campus. If you live with more than one person, you can split all of your bills and cleaning duties. Enough said on this topic!
Scholarships
Moving along with the easiest way to save money, which is to keep applying for scholarships and anything that’ll earn you free money. Most college students stop or just for forget to keep applying for scholarships as they go through their college careers. Big mistake! The more scholarships money you can get, A) you don’t have to get as many student loans and B) if you have more than you need, the university will send you a refund check. That money can then be used for books, rent, or anything else that you need to excel in college.
Snacks
When I am doing an all-nighter in the library or have a long day of classes, I always carry an array of different snacks with me. This includes candy bars, cheez-it crackers, peanut butter cookies, or my favorite fruit snacks. Bringing your own snacks to class is going to help save you money because you won’t have to hit up the vending machine or pay for the overpriced snacks that every college campus offers.
Transportation
While everyone loves having their own car, cars can be quite expensive. When you think about gas, insurance, and parking passes, it really starts to add up. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a car in college, I would just say to utilize other transportations as a first resort. You can look into carpooling with friends, taking your apartment shuttle bus, or using the university buses that run across campus. Either way, you won’t be stuck and you’ll be saving cash.
Bills
If you have any recurring bills, make sure you pay them all on time to avoid late fees and extra charges. Most companies will also allow you to set up automatic billing so that way you never have to remember nor will you ever forget to pay one. I also highly recommend decreasing any bills that you can. Some areas that you can decrease in are cell phone bills, credit card bills, gym memberships fees, and etc.
Spring Break Trips
So you see all of these pretty Instagram models on their spring breaks in Miami or somewhere tropical, and you want to be just like them! I feel you man, but those trips can get quite expensive for a short amount of time. Most businesses that are located in those areas will spike up prices, which means you’ll spending more for the same quality of service. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a week long trip, get a group of friends and head to a local beach or mountain getaway to spend some quality time together and making memories. That’s the main point of going on spring break. It’s to have fun with the people you enjoy without breaking the bank!
Grades
This one is an easy one to keep up with. Make sure to pass all of your classes so you don’t have to retake them and spend even more money on college courses. If you are struggling in a course, don’t be afraid to ask for help from your teacher, the tutoring center on campus, or a former student that has passed the course. Everyone on campus wants you to succeed, but you just have to ask for help.
If you made it this far, hooray for you for sticking with me! I know this post was kind of long, but I hope it was helpful and was able to teach you the different ways to save money in college. If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or email me. But before you leave, I want to know what are some of your favorite ways to save money in college? And what are your favorite snacks to bring to class? I’m a curious cat so let me know!
You may also like: How I Saved $2,000 in College, The Ultimate List of Discounts for College Students, and How to Build Credit as a College Student
