Being in college is undeniably hard. In between tough classes, harsh professors and trying to maintain an active social life, it becomes nearly impossible to maintain a balanced lifestyle. One of the most important habits that helps relieve college-induced stress is learning how to budget. If you are a student at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, here are some pretty helpful tips on how to save some money on campus.
- Don’t pay for your copies
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Although copies are basically the cheapest service on campus, spending a few dollars every time you need to print an assignment can make a dent in your pocket by the end of the semester. What many UPR students are unaware of is that there is a way to get free copies on campus. Some computer centers, such as the one in Humanidades, located in room P 105, will print your work free of cost if you bring your own paper!
- Avoid buying books
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As we all know, brand new college books tend to be super expensive. When you have required readings and can’t seem to find it online, there are still free— -or fairly cheap—- options out there. Across campus, you will sometimes see bookcases labeled as Libros Libres. The concept is: take a book, leave a book. Through this book-swap, not only can you find some books you need for classes, but also something to read for fun. Another tip is to always check the facebook group Venta y Compra de Libros UPRRP. Students sell their used books on this group and they’re usually not expensive at all; so although this option isn’t entirely free, you can still save a lot of cash.
- Take advantage of free food
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The one thing we can probably agree on that we all miss the most from high school is having free food. Buying lunch every day is probably what we spend the most money on throughout the semester. However, in honor of the school- cafeteria- days we so often mourn, UPRRP has several options for eating for free. The most popular one on campus is El Comedor Social, also known as El Comicomi. They’re located by the College of Social Sciences Mondays through Thursdays and you can have lunch here in exchange for donations! For dinner, there’s El Mesón de Amor, a non-profit organization founded by a local church. El mesón, as it is often called, serves dinner Mondays through Thursdays at 5:00 pm and it is completely free! Both El Comicomi and El Meson serve delicious food and have vegetarian-friendly meals. We encourage you to not only take advantage of these services but to also encourage these local initiatives in any way you can.
College on it’s own is already stressful enough and figuring out how to budget only makes it worse. We hope that these tips are useful for you throughout your time at UPRRP