On one hand, college is the most crucial educational experience you’ll ever have. It’s where you really set the groundwork for your future career, growing as a student and working harder than you ever have before in your life. But it’s also a crazy amount of fun. You’ll meet more people, have more experiences and yes, drink more beer than possibly during any other four year stretch you’ll experience. That’s an awful lot to balance, not only when it comes to time management, but also your financial budget. Simply affording the classes you need to graduate is a pretty tall order these days, and most people can’t even do that without taking on a mountain of student loan debt they’ll be paying off for years to come. If you’re on a tight budget each semester, you’ve got to watch every dollar. Hopefully that insures you can cover the basics and still have enough fun that you don’t feel like you’re missing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Here are a couple of tips to help you prevent frivolous spending in college.
First of all, think long and hard about your approach to eating. Most college students start out with a food plan, so ideally your major meals are covered. Yet it never seems to work out that way. At some point in the semester you’ll get tired of the choices laid out, and will end up going out to eat, calling for food delivery, snacking from vending machines or shoving down some late night grease bomb you barely remember in the morning. All of those meals out will add up in a hurry, and most of the time these meals just blend in with one another. Try to stick to your meal plan as much as possible, and go on periodic supermarket runs so you have snacks around that aren’t nearly as expensive as what you’d pick up in the convenience store.