College years are easily the best time of your life. You get to meet a lot of different people and learn many things. Although it’s the best time in a person’s life, there are some things they have to do for the first time, like managing finances on their own.
Most students that enter college have never even thought about managing money because their parents do it for them. But in college, when a student is alone, the concept of managing money can seem daunting if they don’t know some essential tips.
Because of that, we’ll talk about 6 tips that can help you save money during the college years.
Make A Budget
We want all you students to know that you must not underestimate the power of making a budget. The word Budget may sound boring, but it is of utmost importance for managing your finances.
When you make a budget, you get a clear picture of which activities will consume how much of your money. And knowing where your money will go during a month, you’ll be able to spend without having to worry whether you’ll have any money left by the end of a month or not.
So, make a budget ASAP.
Keep Track Of Your Expenses
Once you’ve made a budget for a month, it’s time to check whether you’re spending according to it or not. It is necessary to keep track because you can easily spend more than you’ve assigned for something. And if you do that, it will affect the entire budget.
While spending money, you must always know that you’ve carefully made a budget, and messing it would mean creating the whole budget again.
If having a mental image of budget in your mind is not working, you can use applications that help you keep track of your finances.
Start Cooking More
As students, we know you love eating tasty food from fancy restaurants or the canteen. But is eating outside food every day a wise choice for managing money? No, it isn’t. Besides expensive outside food, you can have health problems because restaurants and canteens hardly care about your health. All they care about is taste.
So, the best option you have is to start cooking food yourself. Doing this will help you save a ton of money. And you’ll be able to cook different things every day because you won’t have to eat the same things for several days in a row.
There is no end to recipes you can find on YouTube. Pick your favorite ones or the ones you’ve never tried before.
Apart from saving money, you’ll also become better at cooking, which is a significant advantage when living alone or organizing a dinner at your home.
Be On The Lookout For Student Discounts
Student discounts can help you lead college life comfortably and on a budget. In your everyday life, you may have seen places that have special discounts for students. But most students don’t use these discounts to their advantage. If you haven’t used them till now, now’s the right time.
With student discounts, you’ll get discounts on movie tickets, public transportation, entry to museums, and many other places. When you start showing your Student ID card to claim discounts, you’ll immediately start seeing the difference in the money you save now and when you didn’t use them.
If you don’t see student discounts, you can always ask the people working there. There’s no harm in asking because they might just have discounts for you. So, throw that hesitation away and ask.
Don’t Hesitate Buying Second-hand Goods
Ok, so you want to buy a table and chair for studying, but the prices go way beyond what you can afford. But you cannot delay buying them because they would help you study and make assignments efficiently.
At that time, the best option would be to buy a second-hand table and chair. Now don’t think second-hand means inferior quality. You can get excellent second-hand goods at almost half the price, or even less than that in some cases.
Buying a second-hand table and chair is just one example. You can purchase anything during your college years. Saving money this way is underrated, and many people don’t prefer it. But if you’re on a tight budget, then it’s the best option for you.
Sell Stuff You Don’t Need
Most students bring a lot of stuff from their homes to the college because they think they need everything. But that’s not true. Most of the things that students bring are unnecessary, and they’d rarely ever use them.
Those things simply lay dormant in your dorm room. They don’t serve any purpose, but they consume a lot of space. But the question is, “What can be done?”. The stuff you don’t need can be sold to others who might actually need it. When you sell them, you’ll have extra money with you, and your room will look bigger because of the unnecessary stuff that will be no more present.
These days, the selling process has become straightforward, thanks to several applications that connect buyers and sellers. All you have to do is create an account on such applications and post your ad. The ad will only require you to upload the images, write a title and a short description. Doing these things isn’t too hard.
Ditch The Credit Card
When you’re in college, you may feel like buying something because of its hype or because all your friends are buying it. Most students compare themselves with others, and some even go to the extent of getting a Credit card.
Having a credit card during your college years is not a wise decision to make. If you’re from a well-off family, it can benefit you as your family will be paying the monthly fees. But if your financial background is not that strong, you have to avoid getting a credit card.
It is mainly because of two reasons. One is the habit of impulsive buying that young people often indulge in. The other is the fees that banks charge for credit cards at the end of a month. Combine these two, and you’re in for a financial disaster.
So, if you’re already on a tight budget, there’s no point in getting a credit card. If you do, you would have to live your entire college life under the burden of paying credit card fees. We advise you get a Debit card because it would only allow you to buy things that you can actually pay for.
Don’t Buy A Car
Everyone loves hanging out with friends and going on road trips in college. After all, you find like-minded people and want to spend more time with them to have fun. To do these things, some students buy a car.
But is that a wise decision?
It definitely isn’t when you’re looking to save money. The insurance you’ll have to pay monthly for the car will consume a considerable amount from your budget. The money you earn by going to work and managing studies is going into something that you don’t actually even need. There are better options available than buying a car. And the best one is to use public transportation.
The buses, trams, and local trains are cost-efficient, and they reach the destinations on time. Moreover, they’re pretty comfortable and regularly leave the stop throughout the day. So, there’s no need to waste your money on a car, especially in college. You can always buy one when you’ve graduated and earned a good amount with a full-time job.
Buy Used Books
When in college, you can’t do without textbooks. No matter how many ebooks you have access to, the essence of physical books can never be beaten. You also have to know that textbooks in college are not cheap.
In the process of buying textbooks, most students have to cut down on other essential costs. But there’s another option of having access to textbooks and still not paying too much for them. The solution is to buy used books from your seniors. Most of your seniors will have textbooks in good condition after their studies are over.
The textbooks are not serving them any purpose. So, the person who needs them most (you) should use them. You can easily expect a 50 % reduction in price. And if you find a generous senior, they might even give you the textbooks for free.
Other than borrowing books for a semester, you can also get them issued from the library. The library may not issue you books for an entire semester, but you can always get them issued multiple times throughout the semester. You can also get alternative textbooks, which will be just as good.
Conclusion
The money you earn by working part-time is not enough to sustain a luxurious lifestyle during your college years. It’s common for most students to cut down on costs in even the simplest of things. Even if you earn more than most students, it is still essential to save money.
With the 9 tips we discussed in this article, you will save more money than you ever did with the things you did in the past. So, start using these ways in your college life now. If you ever feel you want to remind yourself of the information, you can bookmark this blog.
