Whether you want to stay in control of your finances as a new college student or a penultimate college student who wants to be more prudent with money, these essential money-saving tips for students will come in handy.
Saving money as a student can feel daunting as many things are screaming for attention. From paying for your apartment to buying handouts for school, food, and other essential needs, the idea of saving money as a student sometimes feels like an insurmountable mountain.
You’re not alone. There are students with similar struggles, however, there are great money-saving tips for students that if you implement them judiciously, you’d be better at managing your money as a student even after graduation.
Also Read: How To Reduce Monthly Expenses
10 Money Saving Tips For Student
These money-saving tips are all you need as a student to master your money game and stay at the top of your finances. It doesn’t matter what level you are or how bad you have been with money in the past, these ten simple tips will save your life:
Have A Monthly Budget
You can’t be thinking about money and just be swinging your finances as they come. That’s not a good money habit. To able to save money, you need to have a monthly budget that makes provisions to account for how you send and receive money.
Having a budget is necessary for tracking expenses, managing expenses and optimizing your expenses so you don’t overspend on understand spend.
For starters, you can use the 50-30-20 rule to create a monthly expense tracker to help you understand how you spend and receive money.
Contrary to popular belief that having a budget is challenging, we think having a budget will make you financially disciplined and prudent. You can use Google Sheets to split your money into your different activities for the money.
For example, 50% of your allowance can go into savings while the remaining 50% is divided amongst basic needs and miscellaneous.
Use Public Transport
As a student looking to save money, this is not the time to use taxi-hailing services like Uber to commute to and from school or any other places you visit. You should utilize the use of public transportation to save costs. You can also use this opportunity to network with others that you may not naturally have the opportunity to meet outside of school.
Apply For Scholarships
Scholarships are a great way of funding your education as they come with other benefits aside from being tuition-free. Some scholarships offer a weekly allowance to the shortlisted candidates while others cover costs such as flight tickets, accommodations and other school expenses.
As a student who wishes to save money, applying for scholarships can be one of the most guaranteed ways of funding your education without breaking the bank.
Use Coupons
One of the benefits of being a student is that many companies and stores offer special coupons just for students to ease the burden of having to spend too much on a particular item. This is one of the money-saving tips for students that should not be overlooked if you are looking to save money as a student.
Ensure to use available coupons for students each time you purchase to spend less while shopping for your favourite item.
Buy In Bulk
Buying in bulk is one of the best money-saving tips for students. It allows you the opportunity to ask for a discount, save cost on delivery and save time.
Apart from these benefits, buying a bulk truly saves you money because items have hidden economic effects as opposed to buying a tin-sized or bigger size of the same quantity. You don’t want to be penny-wise and pound-foolish, so start bulk to save a little cash.
Sharing Apartment
Another trusted money-saving tip for students is the idea of sharing an apartment with fellow students. If you are living off campus, it may be wise to get a flat mate to share the apartment so that you can save a little cash and also save yourself the struggles of paying for it.
Apart from the monetary benefits of sharing an apartment, you also get to have a companion and someone to share ideas with especially in regards to assignments and other school-related activities.
Resist Impulse Buying
Impulse buying is one of the ways to get your money spent unnecessarily especially if you’re a student looking to save money. You don’t want to spend money meant for important things on frivolities just because you can’t control your impulses.
This is why it’s an urgent situation that you create a budget that allows you to allocate money for certain items at certain times. It’s also not enough to create a budget but consistently and constantly try to stick to the budget.
Ask For Discount
Asking for a discount is one of the great money-saving tips for students you can adopt in your finances to stay afloat. A little more money wouldn’t hurt, right and asking for discount is no crime. No one has ever been reported to die from asking for a discount so why shouldn’t you?
You can leverage black Friday and the holiday sales season to do your shopping, that way, you have the discount handy without having to ask for it.
Unsubscribe From Unnecessary Subscriptions
One of the things that take the bulk of your money as a student is subscribing to lots of premium services that you may not necessarily need or not at this time. This could be music and movie streaming platforms, academic software games, and other platforms that you may not be using.
To solve this, you must go over through bank statements of each money to carefully scrutinise what’s taking your money and inscribe from them.
Get A Part-Time Job
Let’s face the truth, it’s not that you’re irresponsible with money, you just don’t have enough at your disposal. For this reason, getting a part-time job while you attend school might be like a billion-dollar idea you need to consider if you are hoping to save money as a student.
You can find part-time jobs online, in your school or apply to the stores near you where you don’t have to jeopardize your study time for work. The goal is to find something suitable for you as a student, not something that will harm your grades in the course of looking for money.
How To Develop A Money-Saving Habit As A Student
As a student, getting your money game in the bag might be a challenging one considering the limited time and resources, however, with these pro tips, we guarantee that not only will you be better with money as a student but it’ll be useful even after your education.
Acknowledge Your Financial Status
Ignorance they say is bliss but the type of ignorance that is hurting your future. If you are owing a loan as a student, this is not the time to play the ignorance is bliss card as this may hurt your finances in the future in ways you may not expect.
So it is important that you acknowledge where you are in your finances and take calculated steps to improve them for the better.
Start Small
After you have acknowledged your finances, the next step on the money-saving track is to start small. Start by creating a budget. Train your mind to rest from an impulse purchase. Start by taking your savings a little seriously. Pay off your student loan in bits.
All these actions might feel daunting at first but the whole idea is to make your first move and all other steps will be as easy as possible.
Set Reminders
If you have started saving a portion of your allowance or salary from your part-time job, you don’t want to wake up the next day and forget about your obligations. Hence, it is important that you set reminders either daily, or weekly to keep you in check of your commitment.
Seek Help
If you are feeling overwhelmed or lost, you may have to contact your school advisor or someone older to seek professional counselling. You can either make your friend or roommate an accountability partner so you have someone that will keep you on your toes on your bad days.
Be Easy On Yourself
It is very unfair to yourself to take that you will get everything correct on your first trial. That’s a distracting belief to have as no one has it figured out, not even graduates or working professionals.
So it’s pertinent that you are kind to yourself. Allow yourself the right to experience the process of financial transformation with so much grace and kindness. Don’t be in a hurry to quit when you haven’t seen a surge in your finances despite how much you have tried.
It’s compounding and will make sense sooner than you think. Just give it time and enjoy the process of getting your finances together.
Conclusion
Saving money as a student is not rocket science, it even gets simpler as you go and has a long-term benefit if done the right way. We hope you find these money-saving tips for students helpful and insightful as you embark on the journey of mastering your finances as a student.
