When starting out in college, most of us do not have a whole lot of money to spend or save, so what little we do have has to go pretty far. Between books, tuition, basic living expenses, and a little spending money, most of us do not have a lot left over. How can you maximize the amount of money you have while you are going to college? Here are a few ideas.
When it comes to checking and savings accounts, do your best to find a free one of both. A lot of checking and savings accounts will charge you money to use them and these amounts can be anywhere from $3 to $10 and up per month.
If you have to have a credit card, make sure you get one that offers you some kind of reward for using it. Depending on what you like to spend money on the most, you may want to get one card over another. Choose wisely and never be late on your payments.
Like to use your debit card instead? Be careful with these, too, since most debit cards these days will continue to work even after you have become overdrawn at the bank. Overdraft fees can really start to add up, so if you have a problem keeping track of how much money you are spending from day to day, use cash instead.
Take the change that you have left over when you do use cash and put it into a container of some kind in your room. You can get free coin rollers at the bank and if you count and roll the change yourself instead of using those machines at grocery stores, you can save a lot, since these machines will charge you a fee. That is why they are there.
If you do not need one of your textbooks anymore, the best thing for you to do with it is sell it to another student for a little less than you paid for it. At least when you do this, you will get most of your money back.
When it comes to eating cheap, try not to eat too much fast food or ramen noodles. Ramen noodles are really, really cheap, but they're also really, really bad for you. Try not to waste the food that you do purchase by making solid use of Ziploc bags.
If you live off campus in your own apartment, you are paying your own bills, so try to keep the cost of the A/C and heat down by keeping it off as much as possible. This will help keep your bill down quite a bit.
Try to take showers instead of baths, since they will tend to use a lot less water.
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