Keeping a Tight Budget

A life of a college student can be quite stressful sometimes. With the increase of tuition going up, students are finding it difficult to find ways to save money. It’s becoming a struggle for most college students because everything consist of money when it comes to purchasing textbooks every semester, gas prices, and food purchases. Here are some tips to find better ways to save in a life of a college student:

1.) Save money by purchasing used textbooks, purchase textbooks online for a cheaper price – It’s ridiculous on how much the price of a new textbook can be. Usually new textbooks cost around ~$200. Imagine spending $200 each semester on a new textbook?! However, we can solve this issue by saving and cutting back. With the help of websites such as amazon.com and half.com, it’s much easier to purchase your textbooks online because it’s much cheaper and students can save a lot of money that way. Sometimes, there are student discounts when it comes to purchasing the textbooks online. Sometimes, there are some really good deals. The purchase of new textbooks online can even be cheaper than buying them at the campus bookstore. Students can also save by purchasing used textbooks. Most college bookstores should have used textbooks that are still in good condition. With the purchase of used textbooks, students save a lot because there's usually a good deal when it comes to purchasing the book.

2.) Saving gas by use of transportation – With the increase of gas prices going up, students are finding better solutions to get to campus such as: walking, taking the VTA, and riding their bikes. Depending on the distance of your location to the school campus, in order to save money on gas, you can easily walk to campus. Not only does this help you save money but you can also find it more of a daily exercise and a way for you to stay in shape. The public transportation such as the VTA is another great transportation to use for students. The use of VTA for us students is free from our tuition. A lot of students usually take the VTA to get to school because they don’t want to waste a lot of gas to get to school especially to those who have classes two days a week. Riding a bike to school is another great transportation technique and a great way to save money. I see some students around campus riding their bikes. It seems much easier to ride your bike and not only does it help you save but it’s another way for you to stay active in shape!

3.) Stay on a budget when it comes to eating out – When it comes to college students, we are usually the ones that prefer to go out to eat instead of staying at home and saving money. Going out to eat is the easiest way for students because they don’t have to stay at home and cook themselves a meal. However, eating out can be quite pricey depending on where the students go. Another way to students to save money and not leave a whole in their wallet is to find sale items at super markets. They are cheaper and students can easily cook themselves an easy and healthy meal for the morning, lunch and dinner.