Take Advantage Of Your Student Discount
One of the greatest perks of being a student? Your student ID. Not only does this card entitle you to discounts in a wide variety of retail stores, restaurants, and cultural institutions, it can also get you big reductions on tech products from Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft. Use your discounts wisely and you can make some big savings.
How To Save Money On Unnecessary Costs
You will be surprised at how much you can save when you cut out some of your habits. For example, you can save money when you dont buy on impulse. Avoid giving in when you are walking by stores, seeing a dress you love so much that you spend all the money you have in your pocket, and buying it without previous plan of doing so. Ask yourself if the item is worth it first. To cut down costs, you may need to walk or take public transportation instead of driving your own car. You should buy clothes during festive seasons when discounts are at their peak. These small things would greatly help you save money.
Stop Paying For Friends Splurges
Even if youre keeping your restaurant tab downskipping the drinks and dessert, maybe ordering an appetizer instead of an entreeyou can still go over your budget if you go out with a group that simply splits the bill. If you dont want to pay for friends splurges, then tell them and ask the waiter for separate bills before ordering.
From personal experience, its better to get it all out before you order. That way, friends can decide if their restaurant food spree actually fits within their own budgets.
You and your friends like a drink with dinner? Assuming youre all of legal drinking age, suggest a BYOB restaurant. A beverage purchased from the local wine and spirits store will always be cheaper than one purchased at a restaurant. Its not a BYOB? Theres always pregaming.
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Why Should I Start Saving Now
Even if you think you’re too young to worry about savings, “you just have to take the plunge,” Jill Steinberg, managing director and partner at Beacon Pointe Advisors, says.
Saving early gives you a major leg up, especially due to the power of compound interest . Even with a low interest rate, your money grows over time. Someone who begins saving at 22 is in a much better position than someone who starts saving at 32 and tries to play catch-up.
“The earlier you start, the more financially successful you will be in the long term,” Steinberg says.
Sell Your Crafts On Etsy
If youre more into crafts than graphic design, you might give Etsy a try. Etsy is a global, online marketplace for hand-crafted goods. People with all sorts of skills and ideas can succeed on this platform, from painters to jewelry makers to knitters . Selling crafts can be a great way to make money in college.
As with many areas of small business and online freelancing, one of the tricks to making an excellent living on markets like Etsy is to find an underserved niche and give the clients in that niche what they want at a premium price. While you dont want to narrow your offerings unnecessarily, you do want to niche down to a point where you can outcompete other crafters and effectively market to your clients.
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Become A Resident Assistant
The resident assistant assists students in adjusting to the social and academic world of university or college. As this transition is frequently a difficult one, RAs must be empathetic, friendly, and supportive.
While it helps to be a socially extroverted type in this sort of role, introverts arent necessarily disqualified. A willingness to lend an ear to a student whos having a hard time and needs some support is more important than making tons of friends and connections around campus.
This job might be ideal for someone going into one of the helping fields that require an ability to facilitate the wellbeing of others.
What’s A Budget It’s Time To Learn
Work with your parents to set a budget before school starts. Stick to it. And don’t forget to include travel expenses between school and home.
“I definitely think that if your parents are sending you money, you should budget it with them,” said Makenna Lenover, a junior at Bryn Mawr College.
Teresa Mahler, a first-year student at the University of Pennsylvania‘s school of Social Policy and Practice, agreed.
“My mom makes me save my receipts and looks at my bank statement monthly, so if she sees I’m spending a lot on a certain category, like food or entertainment, she’ll mention it to me and tell me to watch myself,” she said.
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Use Your Student Id For Discounts
Many stores and restaurants allow a student discount on their products and services with a valid student ID. This is an easy way to save money on the items that you were going to purchase anyway, like your school laptop or tickets to an art museum. Make sure you always carry your student ID to receive student discounts in college.
Manage Your Debt Don’t Let It Manage You
- Use credit cards only in an emergency.
- Don’t buy anything on credit that you do not absolutely need. Remember, want does not equal need.
- Pay the balance each month.
- Pay on time, every time.
- Keep a low credit limit.
- Avoid impulse buys at all costs.
It is certainly possible to save money while you are in college. Consider your monthly expenses, and look for small ways to cut back. Every little bit adds up. If it helps, save your receipts for a month, and analyze your expenses. You’re bound to find ways to cut corners, and stretch your college budget without having to endure too many hardships. Remember, every other student on campus is doing the exact same thing, trying to save money wherever possible.
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Good Ways To Save Money In College
If youre finding it hard to make ends meet in college, youre not alone. Rising tuition costs and living expenses make it increasingly challenging for students to stay on a budget. That doesnt mean you have to be a starving student there are plenty of great ways to save money in college. Weve gathered some dos and donts for smart spending in school and beyond. Read our best tips for saving money in college below.
Ask For Practical Gifts On Your Birthday And Holidays
This isnt the most fun money-saving tip. But it is effective! Because you can save a lot of money by telling your friends and family youd prefer practical gifts for your birthday and holidays.
Whats a practical gift? Its any gift that saves you from spending money on a necessary expense. For example, it could be a gift card to your favorite grocery store, a new piece of software you need for your studies, or an appliance like a coffee machine so you can stop spending money at the coffee shop down the street.
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Make A Monthly Budget
Creating a budget is a smart way to see how much money you have and what you’re spending it on every month. It’s also a good way to prioritize funds for things that are important to you. For example, you may enjoy running and want to participate in local running competitions. You will need to set aside the money to pay entrance fees for races and buy quality running shoes. That will mean prioritizing a hobby that’s important to you over other expenses, such as going out to eat in restaurants.
Once you have a budget, it’s easy to track expenses to make sure you have enough to pay for the things you need, and have something left over to pay for fun extras you’ll enjoy.
Get A Job That Has A Tuition Reimbursement Program
If youre going to work while in school, consider getting a job that has a tuition reimbursement program. Whats that? A tuition reimbursement program is an employee benefit offered by companies who want to support their employees who pursue higher education.
By taking advantage of this employee benefit, you can get some of your education expenses reimbursed by your employer. Not sure how to find a job that offers this type of education assistance? Check out our list of50 companies that offer tuition reimbursement programs!
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Best Ways To Make Money In College
Of all the items on this list, the strategies in this section will help you make the most money. In the right hands, all of these approaches are real money-makers. While theyll all take some effort to get up and running, these hustles can turn into lengthy careers with tons of opportunities for advancement if you play your cards right.
No Shame In Buying Used
Buy only used books and classroom materials when possible. Most campuses have on-line sites for sale and exchange of used books.
Get all your school supplies off campus, too from big box stores stores such as Wal-Mart and Target.
Lenover said she always rents her books or buys them used. She suggests comparing prices on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chegg, and other sites before making a purchase.
Arijit Nerurkar and John Wojciehowski, juniors at Swarthmore College, said they usually find free PDFs of their textbooks online instead of purchasing them.
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Utilize Your Free Resources
As a college student, its easy to forget about all the luxuries and resources at your disposal at times. These resources can be a great way to save a couple of extra bucks here and there. For example, using your colleges fitness center can save an egregious amount you would normally be spending on an external gym monthly fee.
The same applies to on-campus dining halls. Although youre technically paying for the meals you eat at the dining hall all semester, its not something you will see directly coming out of your bank account after each meal. Cutting down on eating out and limiting yourself to how many times you venture outside the dining hall can free up a lot of the money you may be spending weekly.
A college health center is a great place to visit as well should you get sick. As opposed to going to an off-campus doctor, they may be able to save you some money on medicine or appointment fees.
Can You Save Money By Making A Budget
Yes, you can easily save money if you make a genuine budget and spend according to that.
Saving money is not easy but once you start saving money for yourself it becomes your habit and it also becomes easy for you to save cash.
You just need to start saving on small things like food, transportation, clothes. Start making a budget, write where you spend your cash keep a journal for that and you will see the changes in a month or two.
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Buy Used When You Can
With the exception of rare books, used books are pretty much always going to be cheaper than a new book.
Unless you need to buy the most recent edition of a book and the most recent edition was only published a month ago, you can pretty much always get by with a secondhand copy.
Used textbooks are all over the place. Your schools bookstore is likely to have a few copies scattered in with the new editions. You can also look online at websites that specialize in selling textbooks or that sell books in general.
The list of sites that sell used textbooks is long, but some popular examples include:
One thing to pay attention to when buying a used book is the condition.
If youre shopping online for your books, pay attention to the notes included by the seller. Some used books have a lot of highlighting, underlining, or notes scribbled in the margins. If that bothers you or will interfere with your use of the book, try to get a copy that is as clean as possible.
Another thing worth noting is that you often dont get access to bonus material, such as online content when you buy a secondhand textbook.
For the most part, you should be fine without the additional content. But its worth checking with your professor to see if they expect you to use the online material.
Strategize To Save On Books
One of my most memorable mistakes my freshman year of college was purchasing my books for class at the schools bookstore. The cost was higher than I could ever have anticipated. But by the end of my four years I had learned the value of shopping around at brick-and-mortars, online and even just using the school library.
Heres the library story: One semester I lucked out and was able to check out a book I needed for my class. Yes, I had to return it by a certain date, but I photocopied the pages I needed to read. I wasnt the only student who had that ideaI always saw other students frantically copying away at the library. Is this legal? Under the Copyright Act, you certainly cant copy a whole book and sell the copies. But you should be okay if youre just copying a chapter or excerpt for the purposes of private study.
There are other options. If you and a roommate or good friend are taking the same class you can offer to share one book between the two of you. Its not foolproof, though. During finals, you might find that you and your friend are pressed for time. An even better strategy: Buy the textbook used from a friend who took the class last year or last semester.
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Try To Reduce Your Drinking And Smoking
Bad habits die hard, indeed. And it is tough to refrain from drinking once youre all into that college life. However, if you set your priorities straight , you will understand how significantly you can save by reducing either drinking, smoking, or both. It takes effort, but you could invest all that money in something more relevant, say, a trip on the weekend
Start A Youtube Channel
A successful YouTube channel can bring in loads of cash. The top operators on YouTube are, quite literally, multi-millionaires, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad revenue and sponsorships for each video.
Of course, you wont start out being one of these top YouTube stars. Youll need to begin at the bottom, with zero subscribers.
There are several keys to building a lucrative YouTube channel. Youll need to choose a profitable niche thats specific enough to lend itself well to marketing, but not so narrow that you limit the number of subscribers you can get.
Youll also need to establish authority and credibility on a subject you know well. Since youre a student, you may want to choose something related to school or your field of study. If you have an extrovert personality, this can be an amazing way to make money in college.
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Evaluate Your Cell Phone Plan
Having a cell phone in college is seen as a necessity, but you may be paying for a larger plan than you really need. Since much of your time is spent on campus, you can utilize your colleges wifi instead of cell phone data. Check into the details of your plan, and compare it to your actual usage habits to see if there is a smaller plan that will satisfy your needs.
Attend On Campus Events With Free Food
One of the best things about college life is that there are practically always events with free food happening on campus. Whether its a club meeting or a departmental seminar, take advantage of these opportunities to save money on your food budget and learn more about whats going on at your college.
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Nine Easy Ways To Cut Cost Of College
Its best to limit student loans at all cost. Start by creating a budget that is realistic. Then, devise a game-plan to save money on each budget item. Here are some tips college kids use to save money.
Choice of school Tuition and fees account for the bulk of a college students budget. Cost of attendance should factor into your choice of college. The average cost of an in-state public university was $9,410 in 2015-16. Compare that to $23,893 for out-of-state universities and $32,405 for private universities. Grants and scholarships can help cover some costs, but dont rely on student loans to pay for tuition. Go to an in-state school and save at least 150% on tuition and fees.
Textbooks Renting used textbooks will save you money and ease the headache of shopping around for books after the semester. In high school, its common to purchase textbooks and sell them to classmates a year below you. In college, it isnt as easy. Not everyone takes the same courses, and finding a buyer can be difficult before the book becomes obsolete. The best place to go is Chegg.com where you can either rent or buy textbooks cheaper than shopping at your university bookstore. The textbook Microbiology: An Introduction 12th Edition, one of the most popular textbooks on Chegg.com , costs $156 to buy used. Youll only get $49 to sell the same book to Amazon. Thats a loss of $107 for a book that only costs $30 to rent.