5 Budget Friendly Tips for College Students
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College is full of new and exciting experiences for every student. Amidst the classes you take, you can join extra-curricular activities, make new friends, fall in love, go to the gym, et cetera. There is something for just about everyone!
With all of these new experiences, however, it is important to consider finances. You have tuition to worry about, as well as books, food, housing, and more. Even if you are receiving help from family or financial aid, it is essential to manages your finances so you know how much you are spending and where you are spending it. This will help prevent any unpleasant surprises later on. To help ensure you are in a solid financial position, here are six budget friendly tips for college students!
Needs vs. Wants
Do you need those boots or do you simply want them? Is that new video game a necessity? Differentiating between your needs and your wants is a great tool to help you budget your money. Maybe your current winter boots are almost worn out, so you need a new pair. Something like that would take precedence over buying a new video game, just like money for groceries would come before going to the movies.
Live with Friends
Rent and utilities can get very expensive. In fact, they often take up the largest line on a budget, aside from tuition expenses for students. To help manage these costs, consider renting an apartment with a couple friends. This way, you can split the cost of rent and utilities so all of you have more money to allocate elsewhere.
Use Flyers
The grocery store flyer is your budgeting best friend. Each week new products are on sale. Designing your meals around sale items can save you quite a bit of the money when it adds up. In addition, grabbing a special you know you can freeze and use in the future, like ground beef, is a great way to plan and save at the same time. You can get the flyers sent to your home, however you can also view most grocery flyers online. Just search for the grocery store you want to go to and make your shopping list!
Use Telehop to Call Home
Calling home, even only once in a while, is a necessity for most students. However, calling home can get expensive, especially when the call is a long-distance one. Luckily, Telehop offers a simple solution to your problems! Telehop services offer affordable rates to make calls?even overseas, so international students are covered. This way, calling home can simply be a form of comfort and keeping in touch rather than a source of financial worry.
Make Coffee at Home
It may surprise you, but purchasing a coffee from a coffee shop every day can get quite expensive, particularly if you go for the fancier drinks. It actually is not the big purchases that break our budget?the frequent, smaller purchases do. The best option, of course, would be to never buy coffee at a coffee shop, however even reducing the number of times you go to a couple drinks a month can help your budget. Instead, aim to make your coffee at home. This may start out as simple, no frills beverages, but you can eventually invest in appliances to help make those fancier drinks. Just make sure those purchases fall within your budget!
Finances are a large source of stress for many college students. Following the budget friendly tips in this article, however, can help lessen this stress and allow you to embrace the other aspects of the college experience.