1. Give yourself a weekly spending budget.
Giving yourself that challenge to stay within a certain amount actually really helps you put in more effort and thought to stay within the budget. Be sure to give yourself a reasonable and realistic amount for the week, not too little where you have to starve and not too high where you’re allowing yourself to buy a surplus of unnecessary things. Finding the right number for you may take a couple weeks for some trial and error.
2. Be sure to ask for college discounts.
Many places these days are offering discounts for us broke college students because even they understand! Take advantage of these discounts even if it’s 10% it can all add up, every penny counts, it could be an extra coffee for you during your finals week!
3. Sell your clothes that you don’t wear anymore.
This is something that is so underrated. If you’re anything like me, I have tons of clothes that I find myself wearing only a couple times then abandon in my closet, I recently sold many of my clothes on Poshmark and Plato’s Closet. It’s a nice way to bring in some cash on things that are simply just taking up space. It’s especially successful when selling shoes, bags, and fancier outfits that can only be worn once or twice. Many people don’t want to spend a lot of money on an outfit for an event that can’t be worn again.
4. Try to use your debit card/cash instead of your credit card.
Ever since I got my credit card I found myself spending so much more money on unnecessary things because with a credit card, it doesn’t deduct from an available balance that you can check up on and limit yourself like with a debit card. If you’re a college student who doesn’t many necessary expenses I would avoid getting a credit card at all, but if you’re someone who does pay for bills and have consistent expenses, I would suggest you limit yourself to only using your credit card unless you absolutley have to. I’ve started leaving my credit card home when going out to the mall, to eat, or the bars so I don’t make any impulsive and stupid decisions. It sounds like a very simple and obvious concept, but it’s hard to implement.