This is a guest post from Josephine, who blogs at the College Coupon Girl. She shares tip on how to save money geared towards other college students like herself. She loves to help people save money!
Saving During College
College Students are known to be bad savers. Some of them use credit cards, their parents’ money, or loan money to buy unnecessary things. Other college students may think that they can’t save money, but good news, you can. The price to go to college goes up every year, and we have to start saving some money and not throw it all away.
I started off by saving about 10% of my paycheck every month. I eventually moved to using coupons. I had some friends that thought I was crazy when I started using coupons to buy things. Coupons can help save you some money that can go somewhere else that is important. I also use store sales to my advantage whenever I go shopping. I try not to buy things that are regular price unless I really want or need it. College students are already struggling to keep money, so why should you make it harder on yourself?
Tips for Saving While in College
• Try to buy used textbooks online or at your campus bookstore. Also, when it’s time to sell your textbooks, check and see what your campus bookstore is offering and then check online for a better deal.
• Start looking at sales papers from Wal-Mart, Target, your local grocery stores, and some of your favorite clothing stores. Why should you pay regular price for something when you can get it cheaper? This also comes in handy around back to school time. Stores will have plenty off deals that can help you save on school supplies.
• Start clipping coupons. There is nothing wrong with shopping with coupons in your hands. When people look at you funny, just know that they are spending more money than you are. You can find coupons for groceries online at places like Coupons.com, Redplum.com, Smartsource.com, and many others. You can find coupons for clothing stores by simply searching “xyz coupon” into a search engine. Also subscribe to your favorite stores’ emails.
• Start shopping at places like eBay, Craigslist, Hudson’s Dirt Cheap, yard sales, and thrift stores to find items that you need at cheaper prices. Sometimes when people are moving out, you can find some good items for FREE that they through out on the side of the road.
• Start shopping early for things you know you will need. It may seem a little silly, but if you find something that is really cheap, you should go on and get it. Why? Because it may not be there the next time at that good price. I started shopping for my apartment for the next year while I was still in my dorm that fall semester.
Don’t be embarrassed about being “frugal.” After those friends saw how much I was saving, they wanted in on it too. You can always use that extra money you saved to go on road trips, to parties, to restaurants, and sporting events. Saving now can also help you when you graduate from college and get a job. Since the economy is not at its best right now, it’s never too early to start saving because you never know what the future may hold. I hope these tips have helped you find ways to save more money while in college.
Are you in college? What are your best money saving tips?
when I was in college, I had to key practices that helped me save a TON on books.
1. I would check my books out of the library. You had to do this early in order to get a jump on everybody else. So, I would email the instructor to see what book we were using then head to the library. The campus library almost always had the book. If they didn’t, I would go to the public library in the town where my school was, or even the library in my home town.
2. I would purchase an older edition of the book. Many college textbooks have many editions, where very little is change. Usually it’s just a new cover and that’s it. It’s an easy way for the publisher to make more money. When you’re talking about a Literature book, you can be guaranteed that not much has changed and you can get a way with an older version. With other courses, it might be helpful to email the instructor to see if it really matters, while explaining that you’re on a tight budget and really need to save money. NOTE: I would not do this with instructors who are using their own text books…as they might get a little peeved.
This is often a excellent blog. I have been back many times within the last 7 days and want to subscribe to your rss feed implementing Google but cannot find out the best way to do it exactly. Would you know of any guides?
Actually during my time at college I just spent every penny available without thinking the long term effect. Yeah, of course those were scholarship funds and parent’s money. I just regretted what I did. After I graduated and came out to work, I learned the hard way on how difficult it is to earn money. Your post does offer very important tips on why college students should adopt the right attitude.
End of the semester dumpster-diving on big college campuses is great. You can get lots of stuff that is perfectly fine!
I never buy a text book from the campus store, they always mark up the price.
I try to find the cheapest one, always check with a prof. to see if you can get a later edition, most of the time there is no difference.
Always put them on half.com to sell after the semester to get the best price.
I also trade media like books, cds, and dvds online, so that the movies that I want I give up something that I don’t want anymore.
I also use netflixs so that I don’t go to moives we just make our own movie night, and that way I don’t buy the movie or rent it for $4
Hi Josephine – Well, I’m already finished with college, but I definitely have some tips and write for a college blog, like you do!
Budgeting is a rare skill these days. If you can learn to master it in college, it will make such a difference! The thing about budgeting is that you can see in writing exactly where your money is going – the $5 cup of coffee here and the $20 dinner there add up. I honestly believe seeing ourselves spend money we don’t have causes us to wake up and get real!
This is a great post. I look forward to reading your college coupon blog, too!
Cheers,
Tia