Everyone’s college experience varies: some of us get everything paid for, while the rest of us have to work and count pennies to get by. Even scholarship recipients, though, are rarely rolling in the dough. Here are some easy “cheats” to help stretch your paycheck (or allowance?) so you won’t stress too much about money. Some advice for living on Your Own, Eating, and Dressing yourself for success:
Living on Your Own
With whatever source of income you have, I assume you are doing a great job cutting your rent and utilities out of it. Excellent. Everything that isn’t a fixed bill, will be what you have to “play” with. Pay attention as you’ll be using some of these cheapskate ways of life from now, until you die on your mattress filled with money sewn in the hems. You recession influenced freak, you.
Groceries
- Coupons are your friends. If you are lazy like me and don’t want to pick up the sunday paper then do what I did and live off of frozen veggies from Dollar General, eggs, and tons of pasta/rice/beans. This isn’t exactly a tasty diet, but I also avoided gaining stress weight through my apartment days. It’s hard to binge eat stir-fry broccoli. If you decide to go this route, covering everything with soy sauce helped. That way when you pass by McDonald’s and get a whiff of their grease slicked paradise, you can lick up your dangerously high sodium tears and pretend they are the dollar fries you aren’t willing to buy.
Furnishing
- Goodwill and Craigslist have always been my favorite places to get affordable apartment apparel, besides hand-me-downs, Freecycle, and side of the road finds.Fortunately, college years are the only years in which it’s completely acceptable to pick up abandoned furniture, so stake out those dumpsters!
- REMEMBER: BE MINDFUL OF SCABIES & BEDBUGS ONE IS AN STD, AND BOTH ARE BAD NEWS. Check yourself, before you completely destroy your living environment.
School Supplies
- Seriously, ONLY BUY USED BOOKS. EVER.
- Or rent. Everything else, bulk order online with a friend or if it’s specific to your department, ask around and see if any upper level classmen have some old supplies they don’t need anymore; assuming they don’t just hand it to you, this will be the most discounted price you can find.
Eating
Food will be the most flexible category of your budget. Invest in foods that are cheap in bulk and can keep well. Pasta, bread, rice, canned foods, beans and peanut butter are great for this. Opt to bring your lunch instead of stopping by the Agora or Subway between classes. Saving every little bit adds up.
Some other tips:
- Dropping eggs in your ramen also makes your soup a bit more filling, and lets it taste as though you aren’t directly injecting an entire salt dome into your bloodstream.
- Simmering Chef Boyardee in a skillet makes it taste better than the microwave.
- Slow cookers can change your life.
Dressing Yourself for a Great Job
Goodwill chic and Hudson’s should successfully move you through your early years of college. Towards the end of it, you’ll probably want to gain a professional look. While Hattiesburg does have an amazing TJ Maxx, get yourself a fabric measuring tape and bring your business online. My personal favorites are Twice and the sales on Modcloth. One of my friends buys and sells most of her wardrobe off of Ebay though I wouldn’t suggest selling unless you have name brand items. If you have some stores you like the look of, be sure to add yourself to their mailing list, you get tons of sale memos and special discount codes from these things. Also look into joining online groups of frugal ladies, it could help. Hopefully this article gave you a few pointers on how to survive being broke through college. Spend smart, save, and hate the cost of living just a little less.