Do u have any money tips for college students pls help im sick of being broke
Tea can be resteeped for basically an entire day, honestly.
Cook your own food as much as humanly possible. How much that’s possible will depend on your cooking know-how, your dorm/living space set-up, and timing, but… as much as you can. Cooking is generally cheaper than eating out (just… y’know, harder.)
A few spices go a long way. Add some powered garlic and ginger to instant noodles and suddenly it’s a whole new dish. Crack an egg in there and chop up some green onions to throw into the broth with the noodles and you’ve got yourself a college-fancy meal. I used to keep my kitchen stocked with ginger, garlic powder, onion powder, and italian seasoning (and basil, chives, and rosemary when I could).
Dollar stores have a surprising selection of food. It’s just as good as the stuff at Kroger, I promise – especially the spices and instant noodles. Some of them are probably the same brands.
Check to see if your college has a food bank. A lot of them do, funded/run by the student union/council/whatever. There is zero shame in using a food bank if you need to.
Rice is surprisingly cheap and filling, especially if you buy it in bulk. Again, some cheap spices and maybe an egg or some vegetables can go a long way.
Buy those bags of frozen veggies, if you have freezer space. They can go in fried rice, on their own, in canned soup, in instant vegetables…
A can of condensed cream of mushroom soup makes surprisingly good pasta sauce for considerably less than a jar of alfredo sauce (especially if you hate red sauce like I do). It’s even better if you have milk and some cheese to add to it.
If you’re using a meal plan/eating out fairly often, honestly, I found my life on campus noticeably cheaper when I was a vegetarian. Veggie meals are often the cheapest ones and just as filling, if not more so. (Dietary fibre helps fill you up, and veggies are the easiest source of that.)
Don’t go to bars to drink. Get your friends over to your place and buy your booze beforehand. It’s a fraction of the price and you can still have that part of the College Experience™. (Alternately, don’t feel like you need to drink to be a part of the College Experience™.)
Also, sake is delicious and cheap as all hell. If you buy the cheapest sake available, throw it in the microwave for just long enough to warm it. I promise, it’s tasty and will still get you drunk.
Your college library very well might have copies of all your textbooks on hand. They might be reserved for the course, or not check-out-able, but if you can study at the library and take notes, and you’re diligent with your time, you might be able to avoid a couple hundred dollars in textbook fees.
Bring a refillable water bottle. Honestly, I went back to class for the first time in five years today, didn’t bring one, and kicked myself both times I bought something to drink instead. Water is one of my least favourite things to drink, but honestly it helps satiate you.
Actually, gonna highlight that point: water helps satiate you. It’s not as good as food, but when money is tight, drink a bunch of water and see if that takes the edge off. (I grew up dirt poor, and my mother always told us to have some water and ‘see if we were just thirsty’ first. Not quite how it works, but it serves the same effect.)
Actually do a damned budget. Look at what you’ve spent money on for the last month, and – being completely honest with yourself – see where most of your money is going towards. If there are things you can easily reduce that won’t bring your quality of life down, do that. I cut out pop completely in college because it just wasn’t worth it. That brought my quality of life down in some ways (it took a few weeks to adjust) but way up in others (having money). When I did this in college, most of my money went to food, which is why practically all of this is about bringing food costs down. (Actually, honestly, I still spend most of my money on food.)
Talk to your student representatives. They might be a student council or a student union or… probably some other names at some schools… but you’re far from the only broke college student, and they’ll have more resources and advice that’s specific to you! There’s a super-cheap grocery store a 15-minute walk from my campus that I had no idea about until I talked to someone who found out about it from the student council. They’ll have some tips as well!
A few other things that I recently wrote in my post for The Financial Diet:
Stop meeting people for coffee. A decent tin of coffee or a box of tea bags will run you only a few dollars each. Create a sense of occasion and invite someone over — you can talk more loudly, save money and take your shoes off. Seriously, meeting people for coffee is one of those “harmless” things that adds up into a total waste of mnoney.
(This depends on what city/campus you live in) Don’t be drawn to the closest apartment possible to campus. While this isn’t true of some big-city universities, many college and university campuses in mid-sized cities and small towns tend to have designated “student neighbourhoods” within a several-block radius of the campus(es). The thing is? These places are usually shitty with landlords who knowingly take advantage of young, naive students. They’re overpriced and under-sized. Consider, especially if you go to a campus that subsidizes your bus pass (mine was 100% included in my student fees, unfortunately if you go to school in a city like Toronto you’re not as lucky) getting a place that’s a short bus ride from campus. Ours was still only a 20 minute bus ride away and cost $750 all-in for a decently sized two-bedroom basement apartment. I will literally never have that cheap of rent again, and it makes me want to cry when I see the price.
Stop going to thrift stores just because. Going to a thrift store or discount store only works as a money saver if you’re actually going as an alternative to something else. Almost every one of my trips to Value Village and Goodwill either began or ended with an idea to get something I didn’t need, whether it was an ironic William Shatner cassette or a T-shirt from an old 80s show that I didn’t need. Seriously, if you actually need a toaster or new shoes or something, sure, hit the thrift store, but stay away from places like this otherwise.
You do not need posters. I know, I know, having a bare room can be a bummer, but try not to go nuts with posters (I know many campuses have regular poster sales). They will not last in terms of quality, you probably won’t be into half the stuff you get posters for within the next 12 months, and they’re just ridiculously expensive.
You can get all of the following at the Dollar store and should never ever ever get these from your campus bookstore: notebooks, paper, post-its, pens and pencils, highlighters, mugs, some plates and bowls and cutlery, cleaning products, soup and broth, food staples, some actual food (be careful though — I used to work at Dollarama and some of the food they have there actually isn’t a good deal. For example, you can get boxes of pasta for $1 when the exact same brand at the grocery store is available for $0.66).
You probably don’t subscribe to a print newspaper, but hit up newsstands in your community for grocery flyers. Finding the key discounts on food and cleaning supplies will help you save a little bit every time. It’s one of those “long run” benefits.
Talk to your bank about student benefits. I was able to get an extremely low interest rate on my credit card and no debit fees on my chequing account for more than the length of my university career (my bank was stupid enough to not remove the “student” benefit after I’d presumably graduated and only caught their mistake years later when I applied for a new credit card). Even if you can’t get zero debit fees, make sure you talk to your bank about what their policy is. Debit fees crushed me before I got the zero-fee plan — as much as 60 cents each purchase (and I purchased everything on my credit card). Some banks will offer a flat fee for unlimited purchases which will be more worth it in the long run.
“Express” cleaning products like toilet bowl cleaners, daily shower sprays, fabric odour spray and Swiffers are a fucking waste of money. The reality is, these products exist because most people don’t know that they’re supposed to clean your shower, toilet and sink, vacuum and sweep a lot more often than they actually do (or they do know but they make excuses not to do it that often). There’s not only a hygienic case for cleaning every few days, there’s a financial case for it too). I used to spend my summers as a hotel housekeeper. A toilet, bathtub and sink should be cleaned once every few days. The good news is, all it takes is some cream cleanser and some rags, both of which can be purchased at the dollar store, to clean all three (cleaning a toilet is not gross unless your toilet is already too far gone, seriously, get over your fear of cleaning a toilet) and when done regularly only takes about 15 minutes. Vacuuming/dusting even once a week also makes the task easier every time and then you’re not wasting money on things like Fabreeze and Swiffers.
If you pay for utilities/heat, do not turn it off or turn it too low. This may sound like bad financial advice, but anyone who tells you “just turn the heat down and wear a sweater” either doesn’t have your best interest in mind or has zero common sense. Or both. First of all, most cities have bylaws in place that set a legally required minimum temperature that whoever controls the heat (for some, like myself in my current apartment, it’s the building, but for others it’s the tenant). This isn’t some scam to get your money. For one thing, it’s bad for your health to have too cold a room. But more importantly, it’s bad for your apartment. Low head can lead to problems with the air, walls and floors and cause damage that you’ll be responsible to pay for. The worst damage you could cause? Your pipes freezing. I actually wrote a story about this for my student paper back when I was a wee student journalist — a group of students decided to turn their heat off entirely when they headed home for the Christmas break. The result? Their pipes froze and burst, leaving their basement flooded and them having to find new homes (they tried to sue the housing group for the damages to their personal things, but I’m not sure how that worked out; the housing group also placed them in new homes). Your heat/utility bills will usually have a “minimum” fee regardless of consumption so for the love of god don’t think you can just turn your heat off and save money.
This has been brought to you by your friendly neighbourhood old person.
