It’s that time of year again, when the semester’s beginning and we have a lot of money left over from the holidays and loan refunds. But we all know that, as the semester goes on, that money gets a lot tighter. Here are a five key tips on how to save money early on to have more money when it comes time for Bar Crawl at the end of the year!
1.Change from shopping at Wegman’s to Weis
If you take the bus to Target and then go across the street to Weis, you’ll find that it’s a lot cheaper than shopping at Wegman’s. Of course Wegman’s has all of those pre-made foods and everything and that’s brilliant, but you may not have noticed just how much you’re spending at Wegmans in the first place. Maybe next time, take a trip over to Weis and get a Weis card, I’ll guarantee that your pockets will appreciate you buying your produce their instead.
2.Buy clothes at Plato’s
We all love buying clothes at Oakdale – it’s one of the few ‘interesting’ places that the busses drop us off at. But find a friend who drives and have them take you to Plato’s where you can buy gently worn clothing at a pretty good price – I ended up buying quite a few cardigans in fall for $12 at most. And if you’re really in need of a bit of cash, clean out your closets and sell some of the stuff you don’t wear as much.
3.Stop buying books
Try and find someone in a class with you that you’re close with and can trust and split the price of buying or renting a book at the bookstore. And if you can’t do that, see if your teacher has the book on reserve first. Especially in English classes the professor might just have your book on reserve in the Newcomb Reading Room. What might also be the best piece of information in the world, the library has scanners that scan all your documents straight into PDF so you can email it to yourself. Maybe saving money on books can be just as easy as pressing ‘Scan’ and ‘Save’.
4.Stop Using the M&T ATMs if it’s not your bank
They’re convenient, I know. And they can give you your money in increments as low as $5, it’s nice. But if you’re not with M&T you can be racking up more charges than you’re aware of. Try and find the easiest way to get to your actual bank’s ATM if you’re with a different bank in the area. And if you don’t have one nearby, maybe it’s time to open up an M&T account and just transfer over some money into that account. Not having to deal with extra fees is totally worth it.
5.Check for Student Discounts
When you go to stores check for student discounts. When you go to eat, check for student discounts. It may embarrassing always being that kid who wants to know if there’s a discount, but it pays off every time you get a 10% or 20% off. And on the same note, check Pipe Dream for discounts and keep those little coupon books they give you when you buy your books at the beginning of the semester, you never know when you’ll end up at one of those restaurants.