College is an experience but also an expensive phase of our lives. Somehow, most college students end up getting in debts and just passing those exams is not the only challenge that they actually face.
With some lame and unnecessary expenses that most college students indulge in, they should ideally be taking a crash course in finance, literally. During your college days, it is not just important to lay emphasis on physical and emotional well-being but also learn about ‘fiscal’ fitness, to say the least. Especially if you really don’t want to run out of luck and end up with numerous bad debts by the time you finish college, please, please make informed decisions and be aware of how you can draw the line with your expenses and still manage to make the most of your college life.
Before you hit the books, start learning more about how you as a college student can handle your finances, without stressing yourself too much. We bring to you some basic finance tips that can help you get through your college days and can help you prevent bad debts and unwanted expenses.
Know your options
Knowing your options is usually the best key to determining the answers and solutions. Colleges try their best to help students who aren’t financially well, and you will have to make the most of it. Scholarships, student loans, tuition assistance programs, and the like are considered to be some of the most popular financial aid options for college students. College finance is more important that you think.
Budget be your world
Budget! Budget! Budget! That’s exactly what your college life must revolve around, for most of the times. How do you think about preparing some sort of calendar or agenda, to track your monthly expenses? For me, it sounds like a perfectly great idea that can help college student’s track of what’s coming in and what’s going out from their pocket every month. Getting the exact estimates is not really required. Ballpark figures on how much you spend on utilities, groceries, rent, household items, etc. should be the way you must do your monthly budgeting, right?!
Avoid credit cards, please?
Don’t sign up for those interesting bank offers that you receive in your emails. If you really think that credit cards can actually solve your credit situation, oh boy, you really need to give it another thought. Most college students would perhaps believe that owning a credit card could be the best thing of your life. But trust me, you will be mind-boggled with these organized debts that charge you super-high interests and drop a bomb at the end or beginning of the month. Try not inculcating the habit of a credit card because that might just lead to deeper and bigger financial troubles.
Play with those student discounts!
One of the best perks of being a college student was the amazing and profitable discounts that we used to receive, and I miss it! Call it concerts, purchasing college essentials such as books or a laptop, and popular hangout places for college students, you can actually play up your student discounts. Why don’t you try saving money wherever and whenever you can by utilizing the perks that you are actually entitled to? College definitely isn’t cheap, and using those attractive student discounts can surely be a sure-shot way of enjoying those simpler things in life and making your college time worthwhile.
Why the high life?
Don’t you love frugality, at times? Like having simple ramen noodles and not wanting anything else in the middle of the night in your hostel is simply the best experience you will have in your college days. Try saving the high life exclusively for the weekends and learn to live simple and frugal with minimalistic expenses, and then see the transformation in the way you would enjoy and look at your college life.
Try enveloping your money
Try out the ‘envelope’ system, where you can actually set and store your monthly or weekly budget, and do not touch them unless you really need to!! You can label them according to groceries, household items, other utilities, tuition fees, and such. You can pay for your monthly expenses out of those envelopes so that you know that once you’re out of money, you’re out of it, and that’s it. This system will keep you from over-spending and hassle your parents for extra money every month. Seriously, try it!
These tips can only try and help you see the bad side of your college finances. But otherwise, go ahead and use those mad student perks! Enjoy every bit of experience that comes your way, because believe me when I say this, being broke is a normal part of college life. These tips might not guarantee you an entirely broke-free college life, but the eventual payoffs of managing your finances during college will definitely be worthwhile.