Say what you want about frugality tips and personal finance issues facing college students today, I believe there are still many small ways that college students can save money.
Simply put, there are places & ways that college students should never spend their money, and I’m here to outline a few of them.
1. College book store. You guys know my thoughts on the college book store. There are so many ways to save money on textbooks that it makes no sense to walk into your college book store to shell out up to a couple hundred dollars on a textbook.
2. Library. Your local library or school library is meant to be a free resource for you and the community. Don’t be one of those fools that returns the books late and racks up late fees. Not only could the fees add up but you will definitely annoy a few people.
3. Your bank. Everyone knows the deal by now- find a bank that won’t charge you all kinds of ridiculous monthly and usage fees.
4. Local fast food restaurant. You’re in your 20s, its about time you learned how to prepare your own food. Not only will you save money but you will eat healthier (and no I don’t want to hear the argument about how McDonald’s has healthier options now).
5. Gym membership you won‘t use. I have a gym membership that I try to use as often as possible but let’s be honest many college students will sign up for gym memberships that they will never use.
6. High gas prices. Gas prices can get very steep at times and it just adds to your debt if you are already struggling to cover your college tuition costs. I know some people think riding a bicycle to school is lame but you can always take public transportation to save money.
7. Expensive drinks at clubs. You can always save money by pre drinking before you go out, going out on odd nights, or by hitting the local college pubs where they host student nights.
8. Maxing out your cell phone package. You would have to pry my iPhone off my dead body so I can’t judge others for spending money on a cell phone package but I can tell you that you’re insane if you manage to max out your minutes or text messages. You got the package for a reason, once you start going over I don’t even want to see your cell phone bill.
Time for some ideas from the readers and Twitter followers:
9. Check cashing places- @stephonee.
10. The guys in charge of picking up the keg- @The_Weakonomist.
11. The college of course! And the guy at the dorm party who keeps asking for beer money. And friends who never pay you back- @prosperousfool.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the mention. Keg parties are like a small business, make sure you trust people to manage the cash.
I totally recommend #2, I’ve been a victim of late fines like you wouldn’t believe… the problem is thinking “I wont’ buy this book, I’ll just use it from the library for free” and then you end up needing it all term and forgetting about it or just being in the middle of paper-writing month and too busy to return it. Moral of story: sometimes it is a better choice to buy it used online if you know you’re going to need the book a lot!
Totally agree with number one! Seriously it makes no sense for kid this day in age to use a book store to purchase their college textbooks. The internet hold so many more great resources for finding your text that leaving your home to shop for them is ridiculous. I like using this site called http://www.bigwords.com to find my textbooks. It is a retail search engine that is geared towards college textbooks and searches reliable retailers to find you the cheapest price for your textbooks.