How to Save Money and Minimalize Expenses in College_Part 2

By Arys Handono / 1st Year Student

One of the important needs in order to survive living alone is food. Students in college are unlike high school students, who can eat anytime and anything they want. While living in college dormitories, there is actually no one to ensure the students’ meal time. Students in college are required to make the most of meal plan. Certain universities may offer discounts for students in their cafetarias, so be sure to make the most of it. It is advised to not necessarily spend money by having meals in restaurants since they can be too expensive for students, despite of the nutrition and quality of the meal they serve. Living college times frequently means living as efficient and cheap as possible. A number of students are known to take the opportunity of living alone in practice cooking. Frank (2014) mentioned that cooking own food is the best way to minimalize food cost since it is cheaper than meal plan. In addition, it is more healthy.

It is recommended to learn some light and easier recipes before start leaving for college. It also suggested to shop for the required ingredients all at once; better in early of the month, it’ll end up wasting less food and time. Normally, students only eat one or two meals per day.
Textbooks are necessary for studying process. In order to save some money, it is recommended to look for textbooks as cheap as possible, either by borrowing the students’ seniors who no longer use the textbooks for certain subjects or by the used ones. Check the class and book list as early as possible. There is no difference or importance with the new or old books, as long as they are the same textbooks used by the professors or lecturers.

Students have option to save certain amount of money once a month. It is recommended to be done at the early of the month, before spending the money for other needs. While this usually means as savings to other larger private accounts for future needs or as a hobby, this can be useful as some sort of assurance, especially in emergency situations since people can never know when money requiring unexpected situations occur. It is also recommended to not borrow money to other students to avoid debt, unless if there are no savings left and extremely urgent.

And finally, saving money in terms of transportation and living place. College students are usually well informed about their campus locations, and as such, they should get acknowledged immediately where to live. In order to minimize and avoiding cost of transportation, college may have two options; first, they can board room at the universities’ dormitories, so that they wouldn’t have to travel far to campus, or second, they look for somewhere cheaper, but is still considerably close to their campus. Students who live at the university dormitories are usually provided with shuttle buses as a means of transportation from the dormitories to universities back and forth, and it is free, while the non-dormitory living students can simply walk to the universities on foot, should they live close by. In addition to no cost, it is good for their health. However, if transportation very required, look for cheapest public transportation that travels directly to thedirection of the university, avoid taking them more than once due to certain public transportation may only go to certain direction and won’t travel in the same route to the campus. Avoid using private vehicle, as it runs on gas, and gas are expensive lately. Plus, it helps in traffic jam minimalization as well as decreasing polution rate.

As previously stated, saving money is crucial and affects people in good way. This particular habit is best taught and started at early age. By saving money, students’ campus lives are more guaranted financially and beneficial for their future. In general, saving money also teach people the value of money and appreciate the way how they are achieved; by hard work. With these methods, students are expected to no longer struggle financially in college, since a slightest problem in college financially, it may hinders students’ grades and prevent them from graduate in time. Money may be not be able to buy happiness, but it is a livesafer, fulfill people needs and serves as warranty throughout their lives, should it be saved and used properly.

The End