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Best Money Saving Tips for College Students

Money Saving Tips for College Students

The price of a college education is higher than ever, and it’s never been more important to obtain one—so families are finding ways to make it happen on a budget. Here are a few of the best money saving tips for college students to slash costs and minimize the debt they face at graduation.

1. Try a cooking exchange

Eating out several times a week is common among college students, and it’s an easy way to go broke—but you also don’t want to subsist on box macaroni and frozen burritos. The sticker price isn’t worth the medical bills when you’re piling on pounds and visiting the doctor every few months. A good way to save money and eat better is to organize a cooking exchange with friends. Everyone pitches in to buy the groceries, and you switch off cooking. I wasn’t much of a cook in my college days, so I contributed a bit more for the groceries, but it kept me eating healthy, and was much, much cheaper than eating out.

2. Start with an associate degree

Instead of paying full tuition at a four-year university, get an associate degree at an inexpensive, open-enrollment college nearby, and then transfer to your dream school. In most cases, the university will waive general education requirements and allow you to jump right in to your chosen field of study. You get to enter your chosen college with a GPA boost, and greater eligibility for scholarships if your grades weren’t great in high school. Especially if you want to attend a prestigious school, this can save tens of thousands of dollars on your overall college costs.

3. Be smart about textbooks

The average college student will pay over $1000 for textbooks this year—which means that any cost-cutting measure is worth considering. Apply for classes and check your book list as early as possible, so you have the flexibility to shop around before classes start. Obviously, shopping online is the way to go here—and it may even be useful to email professors to ask if older editions of the assigned text are usable. You also have the option to rent textbooks instead at Chegg or College Book Renter and similar websites since the prices there tend be lower.

When you’re done with a particular textbook, the best way to sell it is face-to-face with another student on campus. It helps to get a merchant account so you can accept credit or debit cards in person from a smartphone—most students seldom carry cash, so it’s easier to make a deal.

4. Be a resident assistant

Rent is the biggest living expense for most students, and it can also be the most difficult to reduce if you get stuck in an apartment that costs more than you can afford. If you are a good communicator and generally responsible, you can save hundreds of dollars a month by taking a position as a property manager or resident assistant. RAs have their room (and occasionally their board) covered, which frees up resources for other things.

5. Get a tablet

An even better way to defray the cost of your textbooks is to keep them on a cheap tablet. E-textbooks generally cost one-third to one-half the price of print textbooks, and they’re often much more convenient to bookmark, search, and annotate. Check ahead to make sure that your required textbooks have e-book versions, and then look into a cheap reader or tablet like a Kindle or Nook—they go for around $100, and they can save you twice that in a single semester.

Shawna Davies is a staff writer for Going Cellular. She has a talent for organization and helping people navigate new technology. She’s a confessed gadget freak, but when she gets out of the house, she loves spending time at the lake with her husband and young son. They live in Beaumont, Texas.

One Response

  • Posted by Maureen on Nov 13, 2012

    College education can get really pricey. Aside from the school fees and books, there are other expenses incurred for board and lodging expenses. Becoming an RA will certainly save you a lot of money.

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