1) Don't Buy Textbooks
During my sophomore year at college I had a friend who sat in front of me in one of my political science classes. Before class he would borrow my book and read the section that we would have a quiz on once the professor showed up. My friend, a senior, let me know that he had not bought a textbook in 3 years and had 3.75 GPA.
The average cost of textbooks in a semester is anywhere from $300 - $500 dollars. So over the course of your education you can save about $2,800 to $4,000 dollars. The savings can add up, but it is unrealistic to go without purchasing textbooks.
However, you don’t have to buy every book brand new. Usually you can find used copies on websites like half.com. If you are even more adventurous you can buy the old edition of the book. These poor pieces of printed material are no longer relevant because their graphs are out of style, or the author had decided that he wanted to rewrite the introduction. This is usually a good idea for classes like economics. While the graphs may be updated to include more recent years, the basic principles of macro and micro haven't changed that much in the last fifty years.
2) Go Without A Cell Phone
For my first semester of school I did not have a cell phone, and I got one during Christmas break. This was a very hard time in my life because my friends could never get in touch with me. By not having a cell phone in those months I saved about $300 dollars, and if I had persisted and not had one at all during school I could have saved $3,360. That is a semesters worth of tuition!
Again, this is drastic, but if you are paying for your iPhone perhaps you should reconsider and go with a pay as you go phone with fewer features. If you can get your cell phone bill below $50 a month during school you can be accessible, and will be able to get by on less a month.
3) Only Eat For Free
This is a bit of an exaggeration, but there are plenty of student groups that offer free food at their weekly meetings. A lot of times university programs will give away food to raise awareness. These need to all be on your calendar. I'm not saying that joining 7 student groups to have free lunch 7 days a week is a commendable thing, or even something I recommend, but being aware of free food is a way to keep your day to day costs a little lower.
Also, it is hard when all of your friends are going out to lunch and dinner everyday, but there is no shame in heading home to eat, or brown bagging it. If you play your cards right you could even establish a weekly picnic with all your friends and that will lead to a great time and money saved.
4) Don't Own A Car
I did this. I do not recommend it for everyone. I lived walking distance from campus and my job was on campus. Not having a car probably saved my about $8000 during my time in school. Because I did not have a car I could also work a job that didn't pay as well because I didn't need as much money.
This did not always make me popular with my roommates, but I lived with 4 other guys, trips to Wal-Mart were frequent, and I was always able to catch a ride when I needed one.
The ability to do this will be determined by your personality type, the generosity of your friends, and the type of college town you live in. Mine was fairly small and for the most part I could walk anywhere I needed to go. Perhaps, to keep your gas costs down all you need is a bike, but don't be afraid to give up your car keys. It can be done.
5) Couchsurf
The boldest move you take to cut costs. Live on your friends’ couches.
One of my former roommates did this for a semester. He lived like a nomad and for some reason was allowed by my friends to live rent-free in their apartments.
Planning on this lifestyle is probably not realistic, but if you are able to try and live in a house or apartment with several roommates.
For two years I lived with five other guys and ended up paying about a fourth of what most of my friends paid for their whole apartments.
College is expensive, but there are ways to find savings. Even if some of the ones listed above are more humorous than realistic it is always good to find ways to save money while working towards that degree. Maybe living at home for two years and knocking out the basics at a community college is the way to go. The decisions you make while you go through school will be based on your own unique financial picture.
Some people have a college fund and will be able to live as they please and not worry about how to pay for their next semester, and others will out of necessity have to take out student loans to finish their degree. One isn’t better than the other, but in both situations it is always good to stop and take a look at what you are spending your money on and figure out if there are ways that you can make each dollar go further.
