1. Take advantage of your Campus Card: Limit the money on your card for emergency food and coffee, and it is incredible handy when you need to do some last-minute print jobs. Also if you use your card at the bookstore you can get 5%. The cost of food can really add up, especially if you need to buy it on a daily basis, so with the limit it’ll make you think twice about buying that bagel and cream cheese. Try to make most of your lunches at home.
2. Explore financial advising sites like mint.com: This website is specifically made to help you with organizing and managing your finances. It is free and now can be accessed by Canadians, which is a huge plus. The website has the ability to store all of your financial information and accounts into one place which makes it a lot easier to look up specific details of your spending.
3. Debt free forever: Gail Vaz-Oxlade is a Canadian financial writer and host of Til Debt do us Part who created a brilliant website where she writes her own articles on and many resources that have to do with managing finances and debt. Under the tab “resources” on her website there is a worksheet that helps university students with handling money. The worksheet is called the “student cash flow” worksheet which organizes your time, monthly expenses, irregular expenses and net income.
4. A word on credit cards: Use your credit cards with caution, maxing them out can be an easy thing to do if you don’t pay attention. Go to your bank and set a limit on how much you can take out, and make sure to always pay your fees at the end of the month. Simply put, don’t spend what you don’t have.
5. Set goals: Make sure to always set financials goals for yourself that realistic and are achievable.
Happy savings!