College students aren’t rich and when you’re living on campus for the first time or even if it’s your third year, you’ve probably have found out that it’s pretty hard to buy the things you need everyday on an appropriate budget.  While most students don’t stick with a budget and just spend freely, it’s important to think down the road because you won’t want to get your degree and find yourself with more than just student loan debt.

Anyone in this world can live on a cheap budget.  As long as you don’t care what you wear, drive, or eat, you can live on a few bucks a day after you pay your bills.  Most people generally want to keep up with the Jones and buy everything so that society perceives that they are “wealthy”.

Start off with a list - The first thing you want to do when planning your budget is by writing down everything you spend your money on month after month.  For example, this is what my list might look like as a college student –

• Cellphone bill - $50
• Fast food - $100 ($25/week)
• Gas - $75
• Car Payment - $200
• Books - $150 ($400ish per semester)

Now depending on who you are is going to depend on where your money is going.  If you’re staying on campus, your room and board is probably included in your tuition.  If you’re staying off campus, you’re probably paying rent.  Sometimes its cheaper to stay on campus and sometimes it’s not.  It all depends on your campus and area.

Cut the stupid spending - If you look at my example budget, we can already knock off the fast food spending or at least cut it by 75%.  A cell phone can be turned into a prepaid plan, so you’re only using the minutes you need.  As for gas, try and carpool or watch your driving habits.  The same goes with your car payment, see if you can buy used and get rid of that payment completely.  Don’t drive a new car while you’re in college, this is dumb!

Let’s be cheap- Using the example I have above, let’s look at how we can be cheaper with a lot of those expenses.  When you’re looking college textbooks, check out websites online such as Amazon.com or Ebay.  Just by doing this, you can cut your textbook expenses in half!  Instead of eating out, start buying fresh at the grocery store.  It’s not only going to be healthier but you’ll get more food for your dollar.  Be creative.  It’s not hard to save when you try.  Remember, coupons are also your friend.

Stop going out! - Instead of eating out and shopping every night, try and find things you can do with your friends.  By either playing video games or reading a book or watching TV.  You can save a lot just by staying at home with your friends chatting over a TV show.  A frozen pizza only costs you $6 compared to Pizza Hut, where you’re going to pay close to $20.  This is how you save money as a college student.

Saving money as a student isn’t hard.  Take action and condition yourself to buy things on sale and try to make yourself feel guilty when you make that purchase you don’t need.  Just think about it.  When you graduate from college, you can get that high paying job and from there, you can get all the toys you want.  For now, study and save your money for the future.

As a college student, it’s often hard to save up money for anything let alone travel.  Some students may find that they need to make travel arrangements to either meet family or for simple pleasure.  Since you only live once, it’s sometimes fun to get out and explore the world while still in college. 

Did you know that there are actual places that will give you a discount just for being a student?  Yes, just like a senior citizen discount, you’ll be able to get a certain amount off compared to those average Joes that have to pay full price.  I’m going to show you how you can exactly get those discounts and where you can find them.

Start with the big name websites - When I think of student travel deals, you should instantly think of StaTravel.  Websites like this will allow you to search for airfare, hotels, and much more.  Simply do a search and compare it to other sites.  Sometimes you’ll be amazed at how much you can save just for being a college student.  NEVER pay full price when you’re attending college, you don’t have to!

Go back in time - When I say go back in time, I mean go to a travel agency and actually speak with a travel agent.  Yes, travel agencies still do exist.  To find one in your area, either do a quick search or check your local yellow pages.  Travel agents don’t charge anything if you just want to simply chat.  I’ve found that some travel agencies actually have lower rates than those online.

Compare- If a website like StaTravel doesn’t fit your needs, try the mainstream websites like Orbitz.com or Travelocity.com.  See what kind of deals they currently have running.  Most of these mainstream websites do have a student section.  Be sure to look for them when you’re booking your flight or hotel room, they are out there.

Ask your college - No matter what college you’re attending, it never huts to walk into your counseling office to ask a simple question.  A lot of the times you may find that your college has partnered either with a travel service or they know of places that can help you with travel.  See if you can get an exclusive discount for attending your college.  It never hurts to ask!

The best way to generally find the best travel deals is by simply doing your research online or seeing someone in person.  Give a few websites a shot such as StaTravel when looking for your airfare.  You can always put in where you want to go and it’ll give you a price.  If you like it, book it.  If not, keep comparing and you can always come back.

Attending and saving for college can be a very confusing process.  There are so many plans out there that they function in many different ways.  One of the terms you’ll come across is a “529 Plan”.  If you’re confused on how the process works or exactly what this plan is, let’s look at exactly what a 529 plan is.

What is a 529 Plan?

A 529 plan is a savings plan ran by the state or your college that is there to help families set aside money for college costs that occur in the future.  The reason it got it’s name is because it was named after section 529 of the IRS (Internal Revenue Service)

Why should I look into a 529?

There are a few reasons you should look into a 529 when it comes to saving for college.  One of the main reasons is because of the income tax breaks but there are a few more you should be aware of –

• You’re going to pay no taxes on the money you earn in the account.
• The parent will only have control of the account, the child won’t.
• Any person can contribute to the plan.
• There are no limitations when it comes to income.
• Many states have no age limit on when the earnings can be used.

As a parent, it’s never to early to start saving for college.  The earlier you start, the better you are.  The 529 plan is one of the many savings programs on the market that can help your child’s future.  Every plan you come across, you’re going to find the plus sides and downsides.  As long as you do your research, any plan is a great plan when it comes to saving for your child’s future.

If you do decide to go with a 529 plan, the plans are going to vary state to state.  Using web resources such as savingforcollege.com will help you with your findings.  On this type of website, you’re going to be able to see what plans are available in your state along with a rating.

For more information and resources, visit the following websites as well –

• Introduction to 529 plans
• Wikipedia’s 529 plan page

Are you thinking about either moving off campus or you already live on campus and want to move to an apartment?  You’re not alone and while each one has it’s own upside and downside, there are some tips you should follow when you want to live off campus for a very cheap price. 

Get roommates.

The biggest mistake that most college students make when they move off campus is that they want to either live by themselves or they pick a roommate that’s pretty bad with money, etc.  Make sure that you know your roommate before you sign a lease.  There are so many bums out there, you don’t want your roommate to be one of them.

Go small.

There’s no reason to get a spacious 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment when it’s going to be just two people.  Try and go as small as possible.  The smaller the apartment you get, the less you’re potentially going to pay.  If you find that you can’t get a roommate, I would recommend you try and find a studio apartment.  Depending on what part of the world you live in, these can be pretty cheap.

Do your research.

Applying for an apartment shouldn’t take you two minutes, instead you should use all of your resources and take a take to find the perfect apartment.  Use resources online such as apartments.com to find an apartment.  Always make sure that you take a tour before you sign any papers.

Have less bills.

All apartments vary when it comes to bills.  Some apartments will include things like gas and water but some apartment complexes will make you pay for everything.  The best option for a college student is generally to find a place that combines everything into one payment, this way it involves less stress for you when you have to pay ten bills instead of one.

Don’t overdo the decorating.

Being in college isn’t anything fancy.  You should be going to college so that you can live a nice lifestyle later.  For now, you’ll want to stick with cheap decorating.  Don’t overdo yourself and purchase nice sofas, tables, etc.  Instead, go out and buy a cheap futon and table.  In the end, you’ll probably be getting rid of it anyways.  Or if you want to take a different route, you can always try to find a furnished apartment, where they supply the furniture for you.

Living on your own isn’t expensive.  It’s only a lot of money if you make it that way.  Make sure that you’re frugal with your spending and you watch your electric bill.  The less electric you use like your air conditioning and TV, the less you’re going to spend.  You’re probably already in a lot of debt because of student loans, you won’t want to get in even more with an apartment.

As a college student, saving money is important and with what the Internet is today, it’s really easy to find the cheapest item on the market just by using the computer.  As a student, we need everything from college textbooks to backpacks and with the Internet, there are some sites out there that you can simply place in the item you want and it’ll show you the cheapest place you can buy it at.  Here are a few sites you can use to comparison shop, so that you can find the item you want for the lowest price.

Froogle- Froogle is a page owned by Google and is a great tool to use when you’re looking for the cheapest price.  With Froogle, you’ll simply pop in what you want to find and Google will find all of the stores that are selling the products.  The cool thing about this is that you’re able to sort it by the lowest price.  Once you find a store you like, you can then view the reviews about the site on Froogle.  If they have a good review, you can feel certain that you’re going to get your product.

PriceGrabber - PriceGrabber.com is another favorite of mine that is just like Google’s.  The only thing I don’t really like about this site is that it limits you to a few retailers but the retailers on there are usually pretty reasonablecompared to most stores online.  The thing I like about this website is that you’re able to pick out the exact product you want and PriceGrabber will give you a final price after the shipping and all of that, so you’ll know exactly what you’re going to pay.

BizRate - BizRate is probably one of the best on the net.  Simply put in the search what you want and BizRate will come back with a ton of retailers that carry the product you’re looking for.  The only downfall with BizRate is that they don’t offer as many stores and sometimes you can find a better price on some of the other comparison sites.

No matter what you buy online, I would always make it a habit to comparison shop.  You’ll be amazed at how much you can save when using these sites.  Never buy from a site without looking at these sites.  I guarantee you you’ll be able to save some money.  Saving money is easy with the Internet and as long as you take a few minutes out of your day to find the best price, you’ll be saving money in no time!