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Saving Money: College Edition

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at KU chapter.

Who could turn down taking a trip to the beach, especially when you live in land-locked Kansas? The trip itself would be a blast, but what would make it even better is the fact that you paid for it like a real adult. There are simple ways to save up money for post-grad trips, or if you’re a responsible individual, you can start paying off your dreadful student loans; the beauty is that you don’t have to completely change your lifestyle to keep up with these tips.

1). Make a list for the store: And don’t grocery shop on an empty stomach! After you write down everything that you need from the store, go back through it and see what you desperately need right in that moment, for example: if you’re out of toilet paper, you’re going to have to buy some. On the other hand, if you have candy/soda on the list you can probably cross it off.

2). Cut back on coffee: When it comes to Starbucks we all get a little weak in the knees. Coffee is the only way we’ve made it past the countless all-nighters we’ve pulled. If you think about how much that coffee you get is, you’ll start to question if they were all worth it. The average coffee is about $3.50, which is a small amount for the time that you’re drinking your coffee, but if you add that up, buying a latte 5 times a week gets pricey- in one year you’ll have spent $910 on your precious drinks. You can always buy a coffee maker! 

3). Plan your nights out: You can totally still go out for drinks at the bar while budgeting, just with a little bit more control! As ladies, we don’t need to bring much money with us to go out for drinks because that makes for a rough night as well as a struggling day after. Leave your plastics at home and bring cash, I usually just bring a $20 bill, when it’s gone I can’t be tempted to whip out my credit card to buy drinks for all of the cute guys I might run into. You don’t need more than $20 of drinks in your system after one night, anyway! You’ll thank me later.

Spanish major at the University of Kansas & Harry Potter enthusiast, writer, teaching counselor for CLO.