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Money Saving Tips for College Students: New Insights to Financial Freedom


Regardless of whether you receive college admission acceptance in your country or oversee, you’ll probably be happy and ready to open a new chapter of the book. Today, if you walk into a college in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, or any part of the world and ask students what excites or “pull factor” to choosing their campus, you’ll hear a lot of reasons. For example, some might say that the chance to explore the city, meet new people, and/or explore new opportunities were among the reasons for selecting the university.

Even with a lot of good experience in college, you’ll realize that many students are most likely to struggle with finances. This challenge limits their interactions and exploration. According to a 2021 journal published on SAGE Open Medicine, the probability of learners with money problems dropping out of school is higher than financially secured ones. 

However, despite your socio-economic background, you must be familiar with strategies for saving money in college.

Top Money-Saving Tips for College Students

Create a budget and stick to it

Before you joined college, you were probably in the hands of your parents and guardians. As such, when you wake up in the morning, you turn the Wi-Fi on your smartphone, take a shower, and head straight to the kitchen for breakfast. At this point, you might enjoy every privilege to the extent that you might forget that someone is footing the bills. 

When you start living alone or with a roommate(s) in college, you’ll realize that even lighting your room costs some bucks. So, before you get shocked by going broke at the start or middle of the semester, it will be best to consider creating a budget.

On your budget, you should be sure to differentiate fixed expenses, such as rent and utilities from variable ones. In this case, one of the money-saving tips for college students that you must consider entails clearing fixed assets first before planning with the remaining money.

Use your student ID beyond the school

Thanks to technological advancements in every aspect of life, many schools in the US and globally issue smart student IDs. As such, you should load some money onto the card and use it for shopping online and in brick-and-mortar stores. This strategy will help you pay less for some items and services. Whereas you’ll have a budget for every item you need in college, it’s an intelligent idea to even save on the money you were to spend. 

Learn to prepare your meals

Although many vendors sell discounted beverages and meals in universities, their meals can never be cheaper than preparing your own. For example, a cup of coffee or tea in US colleges costs approximately $3. Assuming that you might need to take three cups of coffee within a day. You’ll need to part with almost 10 dollars daily. In a month, it will cost you more than $300.

However, if you decide to purchase a coffee maker, you’ll save a lot throughout your college life. To save money as a college student, you need to do your calculations right. 

Untapped Money-Saving Tips for Students

Use digital books

If you want financial freedom, you must innovate to save money in college in every aspect. For example, you don’t need to buy or rent a hardcopy book to complete your assignments and homework. You can take advantage of your library’s e-learning materials. However, you might be residing far from your college. In such a case, the e-learning materials that might be accessible using the university’s network could be out of reach.

What’s more, purchasing a book from Amazon and other online stores for a one-time assignment might be expensive. Instead of spending almost $100 to purchase a book for 2-page homework, you can use only a small proportion to get your paper from college essay writing service CustomWritings, for instance. Hence, you’ll diligently save money as a student. 

Start a side hustle

You can’t highlight college students' saving money tips without touching on the aspect of getting an income-generating activity. When you’re in college, it’s advisable that you don’t stick to passing exams only. Actually, you can kick-start your entrepreneurship journey or capitalize on your talent to earn a living. 

You might start selling snacks to students or offer some IT solutions such as selling games. Similarly, you can join a sport in college to earn some allowances, and you might never know what holds in the future. It’s important to remember this untapped opportunity can be possible if you use essay writing help to supplement your academic workload.  

Other Tips You Can Use to Save Money as a Student

Use college amenities for recreation purposes

If you want to keep physically fit in college, you don’t have to break your pockets. You can sign up for the membership subscription in your school gym. However, if you’re on a budget, you can take advantage of the school field to exercise without equipment. 

Depending on your college, you might find out that using school swimming pools is free of charge as long as you belong to a certain club. So, within an academic year, you’ll only need to worry about paying a membership fee. 

Apply for scholarships and grants

When you look at your fee structure, you’ll notice that tuition expenses account for a large proportion of the amount you need to pay in college. As such, a money-saving tip you require to have at least some extra coins in your pocket is to apply for scholarships.

After you’ve joined a college to pursue an academic program of your choice, you should be on the lookout for scholarships and grants. Since sponsors use academic merit to award financial support, you should do your best to attain high grades. 

Substitute bottled water with water bottles

When you move from one lecture hall, laboratory, or workshop to another, you’ll definitely feel exhausted. For that reason, you might pop up to shop and buy bottled water. Even though someone might perceive you as a person who cares for his or her health, such behavior might undermine your efforts of money savings.

You should consider purchasing a nice water bottle to carry your water. Besides, some water bottles allow you to put in some snacks. In the long run, you’ll realize that this habit will save you money. 

Despite your money-saving strategies, you’ll agree that when you order essays and research papers from an online writing company, you’ll have a chance to take side hustles, participate in co-curricular activities, and save on stationery expenses. Choices are in your hands whether to practice these saving money tips or not!


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