10 Money-Saving Tips for the Broke College Student

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Most college students find it hard to get along with campus life due to the gradual increase in tuition fees and living expenses, which hinder them from staying within the budget. The rising cost of living has affected most students, rendering them broke. If you are in college and have pressure doing your assignment, you can opt to buy dissertations to beat deadlines, but you need to learn the art of saving to get the money to buy the dissertations. Here are some money-saving tips that can help students manage their expenses to prevent them from going broke and making ends meet.

1.    Shopping off Season

You would often want to purchase stuff like clothing, food, and stationery to start your semester. At the beginning of the semester, many people are buying, and most things are in demand at that period causing an increase in the market price due to high demand. To avoid being overcharged, you should opt-in shopping during the off-season when most goods are not in demand; this will enable you to save some cash to use for other expenses.

2.    Choose Housing Wisely

Most off-campus housing costs are because they serve the general population. Therefore, to cut costs on housing, you should reconsider living in the college’s hostels, which costs much less than off-campus houses. But to save even more money, you may choose to live with a roommate where you’d share the housing cost.

3.    Track Expenses

In everything you do on campus, you require to spend some cash but to pinch a few of your pennies; you need to examine every single expenditure that you make to track where your money goes. Consider making a list of your expense every month from clothing, food, movie shops, evening coffee from the cafeteria, transport fee, rent, bills, and stationery. After that, you can check where most of your money goes and the unnecessary expenses you would scrutinize to help you save some cash.

4.    Don’t Buy New Textbooks

Most textbooks are always expensive. As a student, before settling on purchasing your books from a campus bookstore, you may obtain most of your notes from digital textbooks that are available from online sites. You can borrow the textbooks from your campus friends or visit the campus library to get the books. This will help you save on the cost of buying textbooks.

5.    Cook at Home

Instead of buying takeouts or fast foods from restaurants, you may save that money by making food on your own at home, which costs way lesser. Preparing your dinner at home will help you cut costs for lunch if you had some leftovers.  At the coffee house, a cup of coffee cost higher as compared to when you make your own at the comfort of your home. At the end of the month, when you calculate your expenditure, you’ll have saved much.

6.    Walk or Ride a Bike

Planning to walk to the campus or using a bike will help you save on transportation costs when you’d opt for a taxi. Riding or walking to campus will zero your expenditure, allowing you to cut on pennies at the end of the month. Walking is also a healthy exercise which guarantees you fresh air besides saving you extra cost on your pocket.

7.    Use Cashback or Reward Programs

Cashback programs can help you save some money back when you perform certain purchases from online stores or local marts. These reward programs may be eligible if you purchase food items or personal items, which would help you save on cash. Hence consider using reward programs like payce and ibotta.

8.    Open Savings Account

This is a challenging habit which most people struggle with, but as a student, if you want to save some cash to avoid running broke while at campus, ponder into creating a savings account. Every dollar you find hanging after making your monthly purchases and paying your bills deposits them into the savings account, leaving some small cash for yourself. Write down your monthly budget, note down areas where you’ll spend less, and direct the rest of the money to your saving account. You main consider diverting your meal plan to a less expensive option, by that you’ll have extra cash that will increase your savings balance.

9.    Start Investing.

While in college, there are ways you can use your leftover cash after spending on your budget and paying your bills. You may inquire advice from your parents to help you choose on investments tips you may indulge in that will delegate you to use your extra cash to help you make and save more money, preventing you from going broke. The earlier you start investing will grant more period for your interest to grow.

10 Create an Emergency Fund.

To become an independent person, you should have a financial safety plug to help you in times of emergencies. Having an emergency fund is a suitable plug where you can obtain some cash if you have some unexpected demanding emergencies and debt. Therefore you should set aside money from your pocket to deposit into your emergency fund account.

One of the best options to have your emergency account remain inflated with cash is to automatically set particular money, which will come from your normal personal account.

Conclusion

Success is always a gradual process that doesn’t just happen at a go overnight, it requires much commitment, and that’s why for you as a college student to help you break even in your expenditures and pocket money, you should adopt these money-saving tips that will help you have extra cash and avoid running broke.

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