This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UC Riverside chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.
- Buy in Bulk! (Use your parents Costco membership card to your advantage. Free Samples!)
- Get a Target Credit Card! You get 5% off purchases and when you bring your own bag you save 5 cents! So many savings! It’s a college students dream! But then again for those of you who can’t handle a credit card or Target and its many useless wonders please disregard this.
- Go to the Park.
- Go to events hosted by your school. They always have free food.
- Join a club.
- Attend all Rush Events. Everything’s free! You get to check out the many sororities/fraternities without having the pressure to join. Just go for the fun of it.
- Befriend the cafeteria workers. At this point you’re so broke and hungry that you don’t mind eating others leftovers!
- Rent a cheap apartment with a bunch of your friends. The more people the less space there is, but the cheaper the rent! And according to California law you can have up to 10 people in a residential house. Look it up! Well unless you go to UCR because in Riverside living with more than six girls is prohibited because it’s considered to be a brothel. Yikes!
- Go into hermit mode. Turn off your phone. Avoid posting/liking things on Facebook and other social networking sites. Although this does go against maintaining a social life.
On a side note*
When you’re trying to avoid spending money but don’t want to tell your friends that you’re too cheap/broke to hang out, use one of the following excuses:
- I have an 8 page paper I need to write!
- I have so much reading I need to catch up on.
- I’m really tired. Gonna call it a night. Too many all nighters can kill you ya know!
- I need to do my laundry. URGH I smell! I have no clean clothes!!
- You: “I have a midterm I’ve got to cram for!” Your friend: “But midterms are over…”   You: “Yeah but my teacher is really weird.”
So good luck my fellow college students! And remember to find the balance between studying and having a social life.Â