Honestly, I’m slowly realizing now that I’m the idiot who thought she made a million dollars while working over the summer and had lots of money to spend during the school year. However, I am sadly mistaken. I’ll admit that for the past few months I have been pretty careless with my money. I’ve gone out to eat with my friends more than I should, and I’ve made a few too many online purchases. I didn’t think I had much to worry about, but after checking my accounts on my online banking app, I realize that I need to make some changes in my life, fast. Maybe you are smarter than me so you have been doing some of these already, but if it so happens that you are in the same place as me, here are some new money saving tips that I am going to be implementing into my life.
- Buy Reusable Things
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Not only is it better for the environment, but buying reusable things allows you to save money as well. I’m someone who tends to lose things easily, so buying plastic water bottles or paper plates has always been the way to go for me. However, buying a reusable water bottle (and keeping track of it) could honestly save me so much money. Instead of buying a package of Poland Springs water bottles every few weeks, I can spend money once on a water bottle and have it for a super long time! In addition, I went to target the other day and picked up a few plates and utensils so that when I want to make food in my dorm room, I can use those instead of paper or plastic products.
- Always Say Yes to To-go Boxes
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I’ve always been one to say no to left overs. If I sit down and have a good meal at a restaurant, I know it won’t taste as good heated up so I always just say no. However, I’ve realized that if I have a whole half of a pizza left, I need to say yes to that to go box and eat leftover pizza for dinner the next night. If I am going to spend money on a $15 dollar pizza at a restaurant and only eat half of it, I’m literally wasting almost $8. Even if the pizza warmed up in the microwave doesn’t taste as good as right out form the brick oven, I need to get over it and eat it. It saves me a trip to our horrible dining hall, and I’m not wasting money.
- Use Public Transportation
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The other night I went to Boston for my roommates birthday dinner. She offered to drive in, and at the time, a nice car with heat and an aux cord and just me and my friends sounded really nice. Until we got there and realized it was almost $50 to park in the garage. Although we split it, it still would have been cheaper to take the train. There is already a student discount, and we would not have had to pay for gas or parking. Next time, I am going to suggest we take the train in because it will be much cheaper.
- Buy Used or Pick up Rental Textbooks
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Now this one seems like a no brainer to some people. Many people never ever buy new text books. I enjoy buying brand new textbooks, 1. because I love the feel and the look of a brand new crisp textbook and 2. because I like to highlight and annotate when I read. The first reason is stupid so I just need to face the fact that it’s cheaper to buy used textbooks. If I rent the textbooks then I need to start annotating on sticky notes, but there’s always the option of buying a used textbook as well. That way I can write directly on the page.
- Ask for Student Discounts
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I’ve honestly never thought to do this until yesterday. I ran into my friend at the mall and noticed that he had a big The North Face bag with a nice new winter jacket in it. Apparently, there is a 10% off student discount at The North Face. Who knew?? Not me! I never knew that name brand stores like The North Face offer student discounts. I’m going to be doing some research on other stores that do this as well.
- Buy Things in Bulk
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This is one thing that I actually used to do a fair amount, but I guess I kind of forgot about it. When I was growing up, my parents had a membership to Costco, so they would always buy things in bulk. At Costco you can buy things in bulk and they will be cheaper than if you bought a lot of smaller boxes from a normal grocery store. Since I am a decently picky eater, I stick to the same few snacks, so I should start using my parents Costco membership to buy these snacks.
You’ll become a money saving expert in no time!