4 Simple Tips To Save Money This Semester

By Uloop Guest Writer on August 26, 2014

Image from 401kcalculator.org via flickr.com

It’s hard sometimes to come up with money for tuition and cost of living. Be smart about how you spend your money this semester by following these money saving tips.

Buy Meal Plans

It can be tempting to eat out often when you live on campus, especially since friends like to go to dinner and hang out together.

Consider reasonable options, such as meal plans. There are a number of different options that work for different needs. Think about how much you expect to eat in the dorm, and how much you will need for food on-the-go on campus. You can choose anywhere from three to unlimited meals depending on the plan you choose.

Keep in mind that it is always cheapest to make your own food from the grocery store. Not everyone has the convenience or ability to do this, but if you have a mini-fridge and access to a microwave it can save a lot of money in the long run.

Rent Textbooks

There is already a textbook rental program on campus that allows students to rent textbooks. Just because there is a program already available doesn’t mean that all of your textbooks are covered.

Some books are available to rent at deep discount prices (for example a Biology book that costs $96 to buy could be $40 to rent). Despite the discounts, not everything is offered as a rental.

There are a number of reasons for that. One is that some books are too cheap to bother with renting (often literature books or pocket guides). Other books are updated too frequently for the school to invest money in using the same copy for several years.

Before you pay full price for new books, shop around. Textbooks that aren’t available for rental through the school may still be available through secondary rental companies.

If you still can’t find the book, check with the campus or public library. Sometimes you can check out the book you need if you only require it for a couple of weeks.

Find On-Campus Activities

Students often lose a significant amount of money on off-campus activities such as going to the movies, bowling, billiards and more.

Instead of taking your entertainment off-campus, keep up with the event calendar to find out what is going down on-campus. There are a number of student organizations whose sole purpose is to find ways to keep students entertained.

The organizations often hold fundraisers or get funds allocated to them by the school to pay for the events they host, so they are often super cheap or free.

Take some time to find out what happens on the campus before moving off and spending significantly more money.

Give Up the Car

This is often the hardest aspect for students to get used to because having access to the freedom to go wherever and do whatever you want when you want to. There are a couple of great reasons to give up the car to cut costs.

First of all, the freedom to go places also makes it more tempting to spend money when you get to wherever you wanted to go. Without a car, students are less likely to splurge on a night out.

Secondly, it costs money just to keep the car on campus. You have to pay for parking by semester or by year. Without a car on the campus you not only save that money, but you save on gas and insurance as well.

Third, you are likely to have friends on campus that have a car, so why not just tag along with them? If you don’t, there are public transportation services that you can use to get around town.

Take the time to think about what you spend your money on this semester and ask yourself if the cost is an investment in your future.

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