When I attended university I lived on a tight budget. Here are just a few of the things that I did to help me save money while studying:
1. I lived with roommates to share the rent and utility costs. Four of us girls all lived in a house and the rent was less than $200 each. Splitting the utility bills 4 ways made it a lot easier on the budget.
2. I did a lot of tutoring and then got a part time job that worked with my school schedule. Tutoring is great because when you are your own boss you can pick and choose when you work.
3. I took a bus rather than buying a car. Rather than spending money on gas, car maintenance, and insurance, I took advantage of the student rate for a monthly bus pass. Whenever possible, I also rode my bicycle or walked.
4. I packed my own lunches rather than buying food at the university cafeterias and shops. I also brought along snacks so I wouldn’t be tempted to buy junk food from the expensive vending machines.
5. For my English literature classes, rather than buying all of the required novels, I borrowed some of them from the library. Whenever possible I bought used textbooks from other students or from the Archive bookstore on campus. I also took as many full year classes as I could because it reduced the amount of textbooks I would have to purchase.
6. I informed my bank that I was a student and got great discounts, paying very few fees. I also took advantage of other student discounts at retail stores, etc. Students get a lot of great deals!
7. When we first moved into the house we were renting, we had almost no furniture. We went to a few yard sales and it didn’t take a lot of money to furnish our home. I still have the rocking chair I bought at a yard sale for $10!
8. I reused my binders and other supplies every year rather than buying new ones.
experiences with Macintosh computers because they never seem to give us any trouble. I can’t recall even one time that we had to restart it due to an error. They are more expensive than PCs and at first I wasn’t sure it was worth spending the extra money, but based on our positive experiences with our 
, I would highly recommend Apple computers to anyone. They are less likely to give you trouble with spyware or viruses and they will save you from a lot of grief and frustration.
So often when I go shopping I am tempted to buy clothes that are on sale, even if I am not sure I will ever actually wear them. At the time, it seems perfectly logical. The clothes are cheap!!! 🙂 What I have come to realize is that I still need to force myself to consider the same criteria for clearance items that I would use for regular priced items. I have to ask myself: Do I really like this item? Where would I wear it? What could I wear it with? Does the color suit me? Do I really need it? If I can satisfactorily answer all of the above, then it truly is a good deal. If not, then no matter how cheap the item is, it is actually expensive because it means I spent money on something I will never use.
I highly recommend buying a 
, as it will pay for itself in less than 2 months. These devices will save you a lot of money in both the winter and the summer. The first winter we spent in our home we decided not to buy one because we thought we wouldn’t save that much money and it might be complicated or time consuming to program. During the coldest winter months our heating bill was about $140 to $160. Our second winter, however, we decided to try out the