Did you know that almost 7 out of 10 graduates from public colleges have loans when they leave school? Yep, that’s the hard truth according to studentloanhero.com’s student loan statistics found here.
They state that 66% percent of graduates have loans, borrowing an average of $26,900 dollars or more to finish their degree.
More statistics here on educationdata.org show that the average student loan payment is $460 dollars and the average borrower takes 20 years to repay their student loans. That’s pure insanity!
Don’t let anybody tell you that those numbers are normal. They might be average, but they’re absolutely ridiculous and you shouldn’t settle for two decades of stress.
I didn’t. When I finally graduated in 2014, I had already started paying on my debt. From 2013 to 2016, I spent 40 months crushing my student loans. I sacrificed and knocked them out. But it still set me back years.
So don’t let student loan debt crush you. Now’s the time to start making the right financial decisions and learning how to save money while you’re in college.
That’s why I wrote this post. In it, I’ve written out every single thing you can do to save money on college – 127 of them to be exact. And now you stand to benefit. If you use all of these tips, you can do more than just save a little a little money. You can go to college and graduate DEBT-FREE.
But be ready to put in the work. Alright, let’s go!
Why it’s important to save money while in college
College expenses are rising
Everything about college is expensive. From the inflated cost of tuition to the room and board, fees, textbooks, supplies, food, and miscellaneous other costs. College can almost become unaffordable if you don’t control the process and learn about ALL of the costs associated. So as college expenses continue to rise, it’s important that we know what everything costs and how to save wherever we can. This list can help.
Student loans SUCK
It’s important to save so that you get through college completely debt-free. Student loans can ruin your life and this post can help you get through college without them…or at least with as little student loan debt as possible. Then you can crush it quick after you graduate.
Learn how to do it now
It’s important that you start learning how to save money while in college, because this can set you up for the rest of you life. If you make your way through college with no concept of managing money or personal finance knowledge, you’ll carry this over into your working life and continue making terrible financial choices.
But if you learn how to save, manage your money, and control your college spending, you’re going to do great once you graduate and head out into the real world.
A note for parents and high schoolers
If you’re a parent or a high school student, I highly encourage you to check out this post here – “37 Ways to Save Money for College (Tips for Kids and Parents)” – it’s simply how to save up as much money as you can before you get to college.
But if you are in college, let’s check out the list. This is everything I wish I knew about saving money while I was in college.
127 simple ways to save money as a broke college student!
Learn about personal finance
1. Start assessing your personal finance situation: this can be pretty simple considering you’re in college and you haven’t had time to completely wreck your finances just yet. All you have to do for this tip is to start getting a handle on your personal finances.
Do you have any debt? Any money saved? Are you working and making money? If so, how much? How are you paying for college? This is a big one and can mean the difference between how you behave through the rest of your years in college.
If you have your college completely paid for with scholarships or by parents, you can work and make money to spend. You can afford to have more fun since you won’t be stressing too much about paying tuition. But if you’re only getting some help or you’re paying for college yourself, you need to take your personal finances extremely serious or you’re going to end up in some serious student loan debt.
2. Debt is dumb: start learning about why debt is dumb. You’re going to learn sooner or later. So you might as well learn why before you make a bunch of financial mistakes and borrow too much.
I hate debt because it robs you of your hard-earned money and doesn’t allow you to save more money. Debt just takes money away from you. And student leans are notorious for that.
For more on why I believe you shouldn’t have debt, check out this post, “20 Reasons Why Debt is Bad: The 10,000+ Word Complete Guide“
3. Get on a budget: if you haven’t already started living on a budget, it’s time. You might be against using them because they’re “restrictive” or they don’t let you spend money. Not true at all.
Budgets allow YOU to control your money so that it doesn’t control you. They also give you permission to spend your money. Just put your spending in the budget and you’re good. But don’t let it get out of control.
When budgeting, you’re going to use a “zero-based budget” because it helps you track every single dollar, doesn’t allow for any waste, and it can help you reach your financial goals much faster (if used correctly).
For more on the zero-based budget and budgeting, check out this post – “7 Ways a Zero-Based Budget is the Best Budget for Your Money.”
4. Learn how to live frugally: learning how to be frugal can be one of the best financial lessons you ever learn. If you simply stay frugal through college and don’t borrow any money, you’ll easily come out with no student loans.
Here are “17 Financial Lessons You (Really) Need to Learn This Year.”
5. Live like a financial minimalist: this tip is similar to the last tip but is more minimalistic. A financial minimalist is someone that doesn’t need much stuff, or to buy many things, in order to live a happy and fulfilled life. I’m not saying that you have to be a financial minimalist after school, but while you’re in college, you should live a minimalistic lifestyle. Focus on the experience and not the stuff you can buy.
For more on financial minimalism, check out this 7 step guide here on atozenlife.com.
6. Learn how to say, “NO!”: this can be yet another awesome thing to learn while in college. Why? Well, the average adult these days in their 30s and 40s can’t even tell themselves, “NO!” Most people are just completely undisciplined today. That leads to major debt and always being broke. Don’t be that person. Learn how to tell yourself, “NO!” and your life can be awesome. Disciplined people succeed way more often than undisciplined people. So which person are you?
7. Skip the impulse purchases: while you’re in college, impulse purchases have gotta’ go. An impulse purchase is an unplanned – and usually expensive – purchase of something that’s made on impulse without thinking about it or considering the repercussions of the purchase. To put it simply – you see it, you want it, you buy it. That’s incredibly shortsighted and undisciplined. These purchases can crush you.
For example: you go to a car dealership, see a brand new Toyota Camry and you buy it that day. A $30,000 dollar decision made on impulse that will set you back years in your finances.
Don’t buy things on impulse. Consider the costs and how it’s going to affect you over the next year or few years.
8. Cut your expenses to the bone: we discussed financial minimalism in tip #5. So this is kind of similar. While you’re going to school, I want you to cut back on as many expenses as you can. Cut anything and everything back – food, clothing, subscriptions, and whatever else you can think of. We’ll talk about more things later in this post, but until then, check out this post – “101 Ways of Creatively Cutting Expenses to Save a Ton of Money.”
9. Budget limits: next up, if you’re using a budget already, but still having trouble with spending uncertain categories, I recommend setting a budget limit. The budget limit is just a set amount of money that you give yourself each month for whatever you’re trying to cut back on.
For example, my wife has a budget limit on coffee. She only allows herself $50 bucks a month to buy coffee out. If she hits that limit, she doesn’t spend any more on coffee and makes it at home until the month turns over. We usually set $50 dollars for my Chik Fil-A budget for the month. If I hit that $50 mark, I don’t buy any more Chik Fil-A until the new month starts.
Find what you’re spending too much on and set a budget limit for it!
10. Get out of debt: if you have any debt at this point, I want you to try and get rid of it. We already talked about why debt is dumb, so do whatever you can to crush it before it gets out of control. If you can’t get rid of it, I want you to simply put it to the side, make minimum payments if you have to, and focus on not going any further into debt.
11. Stop borrowing money: in order to stay out of all kinds of debt, you have to stop borrowing money completely. Now this might be foreign to you and you might be completely against this concept, but I challenge you to try and do things differently. I challenge you to spend an entire month not borrowing ANY money. No credit cards, no loans, and no financing. Use your debit card or cash to buy everything you spend money on.
You’ll find that it’s much easier than you think. And you’ll also make decisions differently. You might even like it and want to continue doing it. That’s my hope for you.
12. Don’t invest while in college: if you start learning a little about personal finance and investing in college, you might be tempted to start investing. But you shouldn’t. You need to make sure you use every dollar you have to get through school completely debt-free. When you do that, you can then max out your investments when you start working after graduation. If you don’t have any debt, you can build wealth very quickly. Plus, you’ll have 40+ years to invest after college so you’re fine.
Your education
13. Total cost estimate: hopefully you’ve been able to already do this BEFORE you’ve started college. Because you could be hit with a huge and terrible surprise when you do this.
I want you to create a “total cost estimate” of approximately how much your schooling is going to cost you over the total number of years you’re going to school.
Like this: total cost for everything in one year is $18,400 dollars. The next three years will probably go up each year so it’s safe to say $20,000 per year for 4 years. That means you’ll need about $80,000 dollars total for college. That’s a lot but let’s break it down in the next couple of sections.
14. Know how much your parents are helping/paying: this is pretty simple. Ask your parents how much they plan to help out with your schooling per year or total. Hopefully, they’ve saved a decent chunk and can really help you out. But let’s assume not. Let’s go based off the average family like mine when I went to college. My parents didn’t have the money to send me to college. But my grandparents were about to help out with a couple thousand per year.
Let’s assume your parents can help out with $5,000 per year, whether in 529 plan money or actual cash money.
15. Debt free plan: with those last two things done, it’s time to get your debt-free plan together. With your total cost, the amount of money your parents are going to contribute, any state grants, and any scholarships you’ve gotten to date, subtract money towards costs from the actual tuition costs.
Example for year 1:
- Total cost for the year: $20,000 dollars
- Parents’ contribution: $5,000 dollars
- State pell grant $4,000 dollars
- Scholarships $2,000 dollars
Add up all contributions – $5,000 + $4,000 + $2,000 = $11,000 dollars
So take $20,000 dollars minus $11,000 dollars = $9,000 dollars left to fund for the year. You now have to find a way to pay the rest of that money. How can you offset $9,000 per year? Let’s take a look.
Plan to pay the remaining owed:
Break it down into an easier equation. $9,000 dollars over 12 months is only $750 dollars per month. Here are a couple of things you’re going to do to to offset that amount:
- Work enough to make $1,000 dollars per month.
- Try to win more scholarships
- Try to get more grants
- Use the remaining tips to cut costs and save money.
The next 3 years:
I want you to continue working to make money to pay on what you owe, work hard to get more scholarships, and do your best to get those college costs down from $20,000 to maybe $17,000-18,000 dollars. If you use that plan for all 4 years, you’ll surely graduate debt free.
16. Go to a cheaper university: if you find out that you’re going to a college that costs $30,000 dollars per year or more (like Duke University in North Carolina – $60,000+ dollars per year!), you might want to transfer to a public college that costs $20,000-25,000 dollars per year or less. Less cost for the same degree.
17. Go to a community college: if you’re going to a school that is too expensive and you’re going to have to start taking out student loans, it’s time to start thinking about community college. Community college can help you get 2 years of course credit for a fraction of the cost of most universities.
18. Take winter/summer community college courses: if you’re not interested in leaving your university, try simply taking a few community college classes during the summer or a class over the winter to help you save money on tuition. This can be a great way to save around $1,000-2,000 bucks per year on overall tuition. But be ready…because these classes are tough. They’re an entire semester of work packed into one summer or into just a few weeks over the winter.
19. Apply yearly for free grants/FAFSA: always, always, always fill out the FAFSA every year. Now listen – the government is going to offer you a bunch of money as student loans. DO NOT TAKE THEM under ANY circumstances. You don’t want loans. But they may also offer you FREE grants. Take everything that they offer. Grants are free and can help you offset a lot of your college costs per year.
Side note: if you attend a community college, these grants can make your first two years of college free or almost free.
20. Continue applying for scholarships while in school: most college students get to college and stop applying for scholarships. That’s what I did and never earned any more scholarship money. But there are still millions of dollars in scholarship money to be earned when you’re making your way through school. So keep looking and applying for scholarships so you don’t lose out on free money!
21. Set a BHAG: when you go off to college, I want you to set a BHAG – a Big Hairy Audacious Goal – for going to college, getting your degree, and graduating with ZERO student loan debt. Set yourself at least those BHAGs for your college career and aim to shatter those goals when you graduate. Set more if you’d like. But you need to aim at smashing those BHAGs and graduating college completely debt free.
22. Take debt off the table: so here’s my plea – PLEASE don’t borrow money for your college education. This is a huge mistake and will take you years to fix. My $30,000 dollars that I borrowed took me years to pay off and wasted valuable time that could’ve been spent building wealth.
So do anything and everything that you can to get through college with no debt – cut expenses, work as much as possible, apply for scholarships, and finish as quickly as you can. Lastly, I want you to take debt off the table. Tell yourself, “I’m not borrowing money for school. Now how can I pay for this?” Then use every tip on this list to do that. Find every possible way to pay for your expenses so that you can go to college completely debt-free.
23. If you have to borrow for school: do anything and everything you can not to borrow money for school. But if you absolutely have to borrow money, borrow as little as possible. I want you to know that I’m NOT telling you to borrow money for school. I’m just telling you to borrow as little as possible to avoid having to pay back a ton of money in student loans. If you end up with a couple thousand bucks, but have secured a college degree, that’s okay. However, the first thing you need to do is get it all paid off as soon as possible.
24. Have a plan to graduate on time: you’ve already made your debt-free plan. Now make sure you have a course plan set up so that you graduate in time, in 4 years or less. Most colleges have academic advisors for each major, but if they don’t, be sure to set up an appointment with a general academic advisor at your school to get your course plan set. This way, you graduate on time and don’t have to spend extra money on more courses.
25. Study up: making sure to get decent grades is also important. If you fail classes, that means you have to take them again. Doing that a few times could mean you don’t graduate in time and can cost you more money in extra courses!
26. Use the library!: the campus library is usually a treasure trove of resources AND can be the spot to hang out with friends while studying. It’s fun, free, and can be a good use of time if you’re actually studying.
27. Print on campus: the library also offers you super cheap printing services. Skip the printer and just print what you need at the library to save a few dollars.
28. Use the school’s gym!: some universities have an incredible gym facility (or multiple gym facilities). Included in your tuition and fees is the miscellaneous fee you pay for your entrance into the gym. So don’t waste that money. Take advantage of the gym facility and get some much needed exercise.
29. Other campus amenities: the campus you’re on probably has a bunch of other great amenities to take advantage of including:
- Wellness clinics
- Counseling services
- Tutoring center
- Career center
- Academic center
- And many other amenities.
You pay for all of those when going to college, so you might as well take advantage of them.
30. Cheap, used textbooks: some students think that brand new textbooks are the only way that they’ll learn in each class. Wrong. You think you NEED new textbooks because you might really WANT new textbooks. You don’t need new books. As long as books are readable and not torn or destroyed, the used versions will work just fine. You’ll find the exact same material and writing in both copies, with the used version being WAY cheaper. Buy used and save A LOT on your textbooks.
31. Sell your textbooks: once you’re done with your textbooks, sell them for a small amount so that you can get money toward your next semester of books. You may not get much for it, or even as close to what you paid, but anything is better than that textbook taking up space for no reason. Why not get a few bucks out of your books and put it toward the next set of books?
32. Rent textbooks: if you just need books for a single semester, like for general prerequisite classes like history or math, just rent them! That way, you can save anywhere from 50% to 90% percent off the price of buying them. All of that savings can be used to cover your other college costs.
33. Only buy school supplies that are actually NEEDED: this is simple. Try to find a list of what school supplies you’ll actually need for each class and only buy those supplies. Most classes will tell you if you need anything extra but the majority are just simple things like – your bookbag, a binder, a notebook, and stuff to write with.
Check out this list of 21 college school supplies every freshman needs here on collegeraptor.com.
34. Education discounts on EVERYTHING!: a lot of companies offer student discounts when you’re in college. If you plan on buying the stuff anyways, make sure to get the discounts you deserve. Check out CNBC’s list of places that offer a college discount here.
35. Live on campus or close to campus: find out what’s cheapest – living on campus or off-campus. Most of the time, a student dorm will be more expensive, but will cover utilities. Living off-campus can be cheaper but may require you to sign up for utilities that make the cost close to dorm living. Do your own research on at least 3 places off-campus versus what it costs in a dorm and determine which will be cheaper overall.
36. Get as many roommates as possible: one way to lower off-campus housing is to get as many roommates as possible. The more people you can squeeze into a house or apartment, the less you’ll be paying.
37. Save on utilities: if you do live off-campus, do everything you can to save money on your utilities. Check out this ultimate list of ways to save on utilities – “The Complete Guide to Saving Money on Your Utility Bills: 57 Easy Tips.”
38. Become an RA: if you decide to continue staying in the dorms while you’re in school, you can always apply to become a resident advisor, resident assistant, or RA. RA’s receive free housing, big discounts on campus costs, and a small stipend (they get paid, too). But don’t do this job just for the discounts because it can be a lot of work according to most articles that I’ve read on the subject.
39. Live at home (if possible): if you’re really trying to save the most money, living at home while you’re in college can save you thousands per year. It might not be the most exciting, but if you’re just trying to get your degree and get to work, living at home is by far the best option.
Working and making money
40. Work as much as possible: this is a simple concept – get a job and work as many hours as possible to make money for your college education. Working will not kill you, especially while in school, so go find somewhere to work at. And then bust out as many hours as you can without sacrificing your grades.
I worked 36 hours a week while I finished my last year in school so I promise you, it can be done.
41. Pay yourself first: once you start working, I want you to utilize the financial principal of “paying yourself first.” What this principal means is that when you get paid from working, the first little bit of money taken out goes toward your financial goals and not immediately to bills and debt. In your case, you pay yourself first by having money go immediately toward saving for college.
As the famous investor Warren Buffett once said, “don’t save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.” That way, you’ll always have money saved and have some money for spending, too.
42. Overtime: if you can, work full-time AND get overtime, too. Most places offer at least a little bit of overtime and it can mean extra money going toward your college expenses.
43. 2nd job: if one job isn’t enough, try getting another easy part-time job. I’m telling you, if you can work hard and get school completely paid for, you’ll thank yourself when you get out into the real world.
44. Side hustle: college kids love a good side hustle. They’re a little bit tougher to start up than just getting a 2nd job, but you have the potential of making $30-40 dollars an hour or more!
Here are a couple of great side hustles:
- Lawn care
- House cleaning
- Dog walking
- Power/pressure washing
- Handyman work
- Whatever skill you’re good at that can make you money
For more ways to make money, check out this post here on my site.
45. Sell stuff: just like I suggested parents do when saving for kids’ college, you can also do – sell as much stuff as possible. Now I do understand that college kids really don’t have that much stuff. But if you’ve got stuff to sell, sell it online through EBay, Mercari, and Facebook Marketplace. Or try the next tip…
46. Yard sale flipping: my wife and I love yard sale flipping. It’s something that we’ve been doing for a couple of years now and can be an amazing way for college students to make money. All you have to do is hit local yard sales, find stuff that might sell for more online (EBay/Mercari), buy it for cheap, and sell it for a profit.
If you’d like to see a really good mini series on yard sale flipping, I HIGHLY recommend Gary Varnerchuck’s YouTube series called “Trash Talk” that you can check out here. I love this series. And Gary V is pretty motivational on top of that if you need some inspiration and motivation in your life.
47. Start a blog: this isn’t a quick way to make a buck, but why not try starting a blog as a ridiculously cheap hobby to save money and potentially make money in the future. A blog only costs about $100-200 bucks to start and can potentially make you thousands of dollars if you build it correctly. And a lot of college kids are getting into the blogging business with websites and the vlogging business with YouTube these days.
On top of my full-time income, my blogs are making me a second full-time income. So I can tell you from experience that this can be insanely lucrative. However, if you try to make money this way, be ready to work!
For more on this, check out Income School here on YouTube. They helped me learn how to build a blog and monetize it to make money.
48. Start a band and play shows!: if you and your friends have any musical talent or desire to learn, you all can all start a band and play shows for money. The downside is that you need instruments for this. But if you have them, practice up.
49. Make saving money your job: if your coursework isn’t allowing you to work much, I would focus on making saving money your “job.” Find any and every way to save money while in college and keep track of your finances like a hawk. That’s easy to do right from your dorm.
Save on gas
50. Sell your car: if you don’t really use a car much, why not just sell it and use the extra cash for you college tuition? This could net you a couple thousand bucks to help you get farther into your degree without any debt. Plus, you can always get another car down the line. However, discuss with parents first if they got the car for you.
Getting rid of your car can save you on gas, registration fees, property taxes, insurance costs, college parking pass fees, and maintenance costs for 4 years or more!
51. DON’T drive as often as possible: if you don’t want to sell your car, just keep it parked the majority of the time and try not to use it if at all possible. Gas savings right there.
52. Get a more fuel-efficient car: a more fuel-efficient car is yet another way to save on gas. Get yourself a Honda Accord, Honda Civic, or Toyota Camry at a similar price point as the car you’re getting rid of.
53. Use gas apps: gas apps, like Upside (formerly GetUpside), offer cash back on fill ups. To date, I’ve earned over $400 dollars in cash back. That’s FREE cash for just getting gas like you normally do. You can also use the GasBuddy app to locate the station with the best price of gas per gallon nearby.
54. Fuel rewards: there are A LOT OF fuel rewards programs these days through almost every gas station and grocery store. And they all offer a decent amount of cash back on each gallon (from ¢.5-10 cents a gallon). We used to use these but ended up switching to using primarily Upside due to making more money in cash back. But these can be an awesome way to save extra money at the pump!
55. Compare prices/prices in the area: every area has good gas prices and bad gas prices. It just depends on where you are. Learn your area and where the cheaper gas station locations are.
56. Don’t buy gas on the weekend: if you’re planning on going out this weekend or driving home, make sure to fill up your car earlier in the week. Because stations know that Thursday through Sunday are heavy travel days. So they jack up prices to make more money on these days. Monday through Wednesday are best.
57. Premium gas (only if required): if you are driving while you’re in school, and your car requires premium gas, you want might to think about something that only requires regular gas. Premium is insanely expensive.
58. Tire pressure: making sure to keep your tires properly inflated over time can help save you a few cents on each gallon of gas. You probably won’t notice the savings in college but this can be a great life hack for saving on gas over time.
59. Vehicle maintenance: making sure to keep up with regular vehicle maintenance can help save on gas and help you keep your vehicle for longer (because you’re taking care of it properly). It’s also good to learn this in college so you continue taking care of your future vehicles properly.
60. Lighten your car: if you’ve got a bunch of stuff in your vehicle, take it out. Every pound added on decreases your vehicles gas mileage.
61. Driving habits: if your driving habits are erratic, you’re definitely wasting gas and could be unnecessarily causing stress to your engine, brakes, and other parts of your vehicle. In the end, it will all cost you more.
62. Use local transportation: instead of using a car or biking around town, just use the local college transportation system. Most universities have at least a bus system that can get them around the area.
Some places, like Greensboro, North Carolina, have a college bus system and a city bus transportation system. So there’s really no need for a car if you’re in college. My wife went to UNC Greensboro and didn’t have a car for her entire first year of college.
63. Get a bike: a bike can be perfect for maneuvering around your college campus and can also be an excellent way to get in some exercise while you’re at it. Bikes are pretty inexpensive and you can even spring for an electric bike if you’d rather move a little faster to class!
Save on groceries
64. Compare meal plan vs. cooking: so here’s the thing – normally, cooking at your residence or in your dorm is going to be cheaper than the college meal plan. At the rate a college student eats, it will probably cost you about $300-400 per month for groceries. Over 10 months, that comes out to $3,000 to $4,000 dollars. According to this post here on affordablecollegesonline.org, the average college meal plan per year is around $4,500 dollars! So you need to compare the two and see what will be cheaper. Normally, cooking will be. But if your meal plan is around $3,500-$4,000 for the whole year (for unlimited meals), that could be the best option. If it’s more, just stick with cooking.
65. Cook your own food: if the meal plan is too much money – like the outrageous $9,000 dollar meal plan at Syracuse University – just buy groceries and cook at your residence. This can be an easy way to save money toward other required college expenses.
66. Learn how to cook better: if you don’t like cooking, it’s probably because you don’t know how. Preparing good food is half the battle so you’ve got to make it taste good. This cooking 101 guide from oxo.com here can help you start learning some basics and then you can YouTube it from there.
67. Simplify your cooking: another easy way to save money on cooking is to simplify your cooking. Don’t try to make expensive dinners with multiple sides and 12 different spices. Make an easy meal with 1-2 sides that only needs like a single spice. Check out the next tip for 10 cheap and easy meals for college students.
68. Cheap meals: when cooking in college, go as cheap as possible. It doesn’t have to taste that great. You just need some sustenance to keep you going. Scrambled eggs for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly for lunch, chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner. Simple and easy. Or you can check out bestcolleges.com’s post here on 10 cheap and easy meals for college students.
69. Meal prep: meal prepping is another great way to save money as a college student. You’re simply preparing a bunch of food at one time and making into a bunch of meals that you can eat over the next week or so. I’d highly encourage this if you’re cooking your own food while in school. This can be something easy to do in just a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon and you’ll have meals ready during the school week.
70. Freeze your meals: after a few days, you need to freeze those prepped meals so that they don’t go bad. This helps you get more time out of each meal prep. You can also prep A LOT of food and immediately put it in the freezer. This way, you could prep food for 2 weeks or more and have it ready to go in the freezer. You just need a quick heat up in the microwave and you’re good to go.
71. Meal plan: if you’re cooking for yourself, you need to be planning out all of your meals. Have a list of dinners that you can cook and have them all listed out on a calendar for each month telling yourself what you’ll be cooking on that specific day.
72. Don’t shop at expensive stores: you obviously need some food to be able to cook. And groceries can be expensive. So don’t shop at expensive grocery stores like Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, or The Fresh Market. You pay way more at those stores. Instead, try Lidl, Aldi, Food Lion, Trader Joes, or Walmart.
73. Don’t grocery shop hungry: when hitting the grocery store, make sure that you never ever go shopping while you’re hungry. Coming from experience, you will always shop with your stomach. Anything that sounds good that you want to eat will get thrown in the basket. This always means you’ll spend more at the grocery store.
74. Make a list: when grocery shopping in college, another trick is to always make a list of things that you need to buy. When you get to the store, stick to the list and buy nothing else. You’ll save yourself from impulse buying and spending a bunch of extra money.
75. Don’t eat out after grocery shopping!: I know that this is easy to do because I’ve done it. You spend two hours grocery shopping and putting everything away, only to go get fast food because you’re exhausted afterward. Don’t do that. Just get a frozen pizza or frozen dinner for after and call it a day.
76. More fruits and veggies: buying more fruits and veggies can help save on your grocery bill and give you healthy food to eat.
77. Buy in bulk: buying in bulk can definitely be worth it if you only buy stuff you actually need or use. Don’t just buy stuff because it’s in bulk. You’ll just be wasting money.
78. Don’t buy name brand: stick to store brand food if you can. Most of that stuff tastes exactly the same for about half the price.
79. Skip pre-packaged and processed: I know you’re in college. I bought a lot of chips and junk food, too. But if you can, try to only buy foods that you can make. Skip the processed and pre-packaged stuff because it’s unhealthy and way more expensive.
80. Store loyalty cards: having store loyalty cards can help save you money on various store discounts and can even earn you cash back on certain purchases depending on the store. If you frequently shop at a certain store, like we do with Food Lion on the east coast, make sure you use your store’s loyalty card. It can help save you money in the long run.
81. Cash back apps: cash back grocery store apps can be a fun way to save a little bit of money over time. If you’d like to take advantage of these, go for it. You’re probably not going to earn much money. But I would rather you use these than a rewards credit card.
There are two apps specifically that I’d like to mention in this section – Ibotta and Fetch Rewards. Both are decent and can save you money. Try them both and pick whichever one you’d rather use.
82. Raid the pantry: before you go grocery shopping again, try looking through your pantry and thinking about everything you could possibly make. Raid the pantry and try to get 2-3 extra meals out of it before you go grocery shopping again. That could be $20-30 dollars saved before every single shopping trip!
Fast food
83. Stop eating out: one super easy way to save money while you’re in college is to stop eating out completely or at least cut your fast food spending down. This is an extremely simple way to save a couple hundreds bucks per month by just eating what you have at home.
One easy way to do this is by trying out the no-spend challenge. Either cut out all expenses or just cut out fast food for a whole month. Try it out and see how much money you save!
84. Fast food discounts and happy hour: if you can’t bring yourself to cutting out fast food completely, try only getting fast food if you can find discounts or get it during happy hour.
Discounts: we regularly receive a small local newspaper with coupons in it that are good for McDonald’s, Burger King, and other places. These deals usually include buy 1 get 1 free type coupons and family meal deals that are perfect for a couple of hungry college students.
Happy hour: happy hour is awesome because you can normally get food for for super cheap. But you do have to go during random hours – like a Tuesday from 2pm to 4pm. Still worth it, though.
85. Fast food rewards: I love fast food rewards. It might take a month or two to earn one, but it’s so worth it when you do, that free meal is SO worth it. Right now, I’ve currently got a free chipotle burrito and a free meal at Chik Fil-A ready to go!
86. Leftovers: don’t hate on leftovers. If you eat out, and you have food left over, take it home. Don’t waste it. Yes, leftovers aren’t quite as good. But it’s probably still delicious.
87. Don’t order delivery: whether it’s Domino’s pizza or something from Doordash, delivery fees and tip can make dinner almost twice as much. Skip the delivery and carry out.
88. Cook copycat recipes: you can also think of 3-4 of your favorite fast food dinners and try to recreate them in copycat fashion. For every single fast food meal, there are about 20-50 different blogs who have put out a recipe for how to make that dinner.
Here’s a simple copycat Chik Fil-A grilled nugget recipe.
Here’s a copycat meal recipe for copycat Chipotle chicken.
Or you can just look up your food of choice. I’m sure there at least a few versions of the recipe online.
89. Frozen dinners: frozen dinners aren’t that healthy, but they’re normally cheaper than fast food. Stock the fridge full of these for those times when you’re craving fast food.
90. Protein shakes and smoothies: protein shakes and smoothies are super healthy and can be made for around $1-2 dollars per serving. So make these a daily staple. Especially when you’re broke and in college.
Miscellaneous ways to save money
91. No-spend challenge: a no-spend challenge is perfect for college students. If you’ve never tried it, the premise is simple – no spending on anything except for required and necessary expenses (tuition, rent, other bills, and groceries) for a certain period of time like a week, month, year, or other custom period of time. And it can be a great way to save money when you’re in school.
For more on the no-spend challenge, check out these two posts:
92. Use cash only (or debit cards): it’s been proven that using cash causes you to spend less than using credit cards. So try to carry cash for any of your transactions. Debit cards are fine, too.
93. Don’t overdraft EVER: when using your debit card in college, make sure you’re managing your money. And make sure that you never ever overdraft your bank account. That means you spend more than you have in the bank. This causes you to “overdraft” your account and usually causes you to have to pay overdraft fees. That’s just wasted money so don’t do that.
94. Don’t use credit cards: I absolutely despise credit cards. They’re the cigarettes of the financial industry and only cause you to owe more money on top of more money in interest. Interest fees on almost all credit cards are high, which causes the normal borrower to pay insane amounts of money in interest charges. Stop paying extra money for stuff and just buy it in cash. If you don’t have the money for it, and you have to put it on a credit card, you CAN’T really afford it.
For all of the reasons why you shouldn’t use credit cards, check out these two posts:
95. Find free ways to have fun: college is where the fun is at. I remember those days as being some of the most stress free days of my life. But I also remember how broke me and all my friends were. We had very little money, so we did everything we could think of that was free – from hiking to just hanging out and playing video games to playing sports. There are hundreds of free things to do as a college student. You just have to find them.
Here are 30 free things to do if you’re bored and in college.
Here is another cool post on 30 fun, free things to do as a teen over on liveabout.com.
96. Free on-campus activities/events: you pay a premium to go to college, so take advantage of all of the free on-campus activities, events, festivals, and concerts that your school puts on. And if your school is a decently-sized university, there’s something going on multiple times per week.
97. Find cheap ways to have fun: if you don’t have any free options available to you, try to find things to do that are as cheap as possible while you’re trying to pay for school.
Here are 34 ways to have fun on a college student’s budget.
98. Come up with a huge list of things to do: one free activity to do while you’re in school is to come up with two huge lists – one for free things to do and one for cheap things to do. That should take you a couple of days to do. Get two sheets of paper and come up with 25-50 things to do for each list. Then, when you’re bored and trying to think of something to do, just whip out those pieces of paper and pick something.
99. Video games: here’s one that I want you to use caution on – video games. I say this because they can be extremely cheap if you buy one game and play it for multiple months. Or it can be an expensive hobby that costs you hundreds per months if that’s all you do. I would encourage you to put down the video games and get to work so that you can pay your college off and graduate debt free.
However, if you still want to play video games, try to do it for as cheap as possible. Try to get something like the Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus – you can pay a small monthly fee to play hundreds of games on their platform.
100. If you spend money: this builds right off the last two tips. If you end up doing something that costs, just keep the costs down as much as possible. I want you to have fun in college. But I don’t want you to go deep into debt just because you think you have to spend a bunch of money to have fun. You can still have fun with only a little bit of money.
101. Activity potluck: instead of you footing for the bill for an entire activity, get a few friends together and have everyone put in a few dollars for something. You could try an actual potluck dinner or have everybody throw in $5-10 dollars and get a bunch of food to make. Movie nights are also inexpensive. Just find an activity that you all like to do and figure out how to split the costs!
102. Find friends who are frugal: this runs along similar lines as the last tip because it involves those same friends. I want you to find friends who are decently frugal and try to mainly spend time with them. As I’ve said, I’m not against spending money. But hanging around people who spend money all the time will cause you to spend a lot, too. That’s just how it works.
103. Find cheap or free hobbies: hobbies can be awesome to have. But they can also be INSANELY expensive if you’re not careful. I’d encourage you to find cheap or free hobbies, especially while you’re in college.
Common cheap or free hobbies:
- Learning the guitar (you do need a guitar for this).
- Hiking.
- Biking.
- Running.
- Weightlifting.
- Disc golfing (check out my other site here – DiscgolfNOW.com)
104. Cut down on shopping: if you’re in college, you probably don’t have a lot of money. So unless your parents are paying, cut down on any unnecessary shopping – whether online or in-store.
105. Cut back on buying stuff from Amazon: Spending on Amazon has gotten out of control in the last few years. Why? Well, it’s become so incredibly easy to buy on their site. You just log on to the app and you can literally buy stuff with one click. And it’s all online with no friction. So people tend to spend A LOT of money every month on Amazon. So be careful of Amazon. If you can, cut it out completely.
106. Cut back on alcohol: alcohol can be a HUGE expense for a college student. Because you’re probably going to be going to parties and buying some. Over time, alcohol expenses can really add up. I mean, you’re not going to college for the alcohol, you’re going for the degree. I’m not trying to limit your fun, just being real. The less alcohol you drink, the less money you spend.
107. Stop going to the bar: it’s not expensive just to go to the bar. But if you plan on drinking at all, you’re going to be paying more. My friends and I would normally go and limit ourselves to a drink or two and then just chill for a few hours.
If you plan on drinking a lot, I would suggest “pregaming” or having a few drinks at your place first, then walking to the bar to hang out with friends. If you are going to drink, try to do it for as cheap as possible. Otherwise, cut out the alcohol. It’s not that good for you anyways.
Disclaimer: don’t drink and drive. It’s not worth it. Also, make sure you’re 21 years old and legal to drink alcohol.
108. Cut out bad habits: if you have any other bad habits that cost money like smoking, vaping, fast food, drugs, or too many energy drinks, cut ALL of that mess out and save yourself A LOT of money.
109. Stop buying name-brand coffee: no one on the planet really NEEDS name-brand coffee. And if you’re a college student, you definitely shouldn’t be buying Starbucks or whatever local coffee shop that you like. Why? Because it’s way too expensive! You’re broke and in college. You don’t have the money for expensive coffee. Buy a coffee maker and make your own.
110. Save money on coffee: here is every way that I can think of to save money on coffee, all packed into one awesome post – “27 Insanely Simple Ways to Save Money on Coffee.”
111. Buy a water bottle: instead of coffee, sugary drinks, or even bottled water, just buy a couple of reusable water bottles and continue filling them up. That’s healthy and free.
112. Cut out cable: you don’t need cable. Just watch YouTube or get a couple of streaming services like Netflix or Hulu. Those are inexpensive and have a lot of options. My wife and I cut out cable a couple of years ago and have saved over $100 dollars a month ever since.
113. Cancel some subscriptions: be careful, though, because if you have 15-20 different streaming subscriptions, you won’t really be saving much money. So cut your subscriptions down to just a few so that you’re not paying too much to slack off.
114. Share streaming expenses: if you live in a dorm with 2-4 people, you all could each pay for a different streaming service and share 4 different services (while only paying for one service). Now that’s how you save money.
115. Public library!: just like your library at school, the city’s public library can offer you even more free books, ebooks, movies, and resources. You’re paying for school in that city so you might as well take advantage of it!
116. Cut insurance costs: as a college student, you really don’t need much insurance at all. You’re probably covered under your parents’ health insurance plan for now and basic urgent care services are usually provided for free by your college. So use those. Car insurance may be the ONLY insurance you really need. So if you’re looking for the best coverage, try working with an insurance broker like Zander Insurance. They shop around and find the best deals between multiple different insurance agencies and then get you the best deal.
Check out Zander Insurance here on their site.
117. Cut your cell phone bill: simply switching to a cheaper carrier like Mint Mobile can save you hundreds of dollars per year or more. College kids really don’t need the best cell phone service and you probably have Wi-Fi in your house, apartment, or dorm. So try a cheaper service and you probably won’t even notice.
118. Don’t upgrade phones every year: even if you have a cheaper cell phone carrier, that doesn’t mean you need a brand new cell phone every single year. Cell phones these days are so good, they can usually go for 2-3 years at least. A few years ago, I kept a my Samsung Note 3 until I finally upgraded to the Note 8. So keep your phone. As long as it works and the screen isn’t completely cracked, you don’t need a new one.
119. Don’t buy brand new gadgets (all the time): it’s okay to have a decent phone, a gaming system, and a computer for school work. But you do not need all-new tech gadgets every single year. You just don’t. Make all of your tech gadgets last for all 4 years through college and you’ll save yourself a couple thousand dollars to put towards school.
120. Thrift store clothing (or Walmart): while you’re in college, do your best to keep your clothing budget down. Buy clothes from Goodwill, local thrift shops, and Walmart. If you want anything else, try finding sales at Target. All of those places can help keep cost of clothing down and more money in your pocket for college expenses.
121. Buy generic: anytime you can, but generic. Whether groceries, medicine, clothing, or whatever you’re thinking of buying. It’s okay to cheap out on stuff in college because the goal is to graduate debt-free.
122. Cheap furniture: this is where I want you to go SUPER cheap-o. DO NOT buy furniture for college. If dorm furniture isn’t provided, find someone who will donate you a used piece of furniture. Or look online for gently used furniture that people are just giving away. It’s so easy to find used furniture these days, so don’t think you need brand new stuff for college because you don’t.
123. Take care of the stuff you have: whether you have nice stuff or cheap stuff, I still want you to take care of everything you have. That’s important if you don’t want your stuff to break or get destroyed before you can graduate. Just take care of your stuff and you’ll be fine.
124. DIY gifts: if you’re in college, you don’t need to be buying a bunch of gifts for people (especially ALL of your college roommates). My wife had a friend in college that always bought everyone she knew gifts. We knew that she had no money but she continued buying everyone gifts anyways. She ended college with A LOT of debt. Don’t be that person. If you want to give gifts, either go cheap or Do It Yourself by making people gifts.
125. Don’t stress: in the end, I want you to do everything you can to get through college without debt. But have yourself a little bit of fun along the way. College should be an epic experience where you make friends and get a decent education, but it needs to be completely paid for before you leave. That way, you don’t carry the weight of student loans on your shoulders for the next 20 years or more.
126. Ask for help with anything: if you need help with grades or finances, don’t be afraid to ask for help. I can help you with the finances part. But the schoolwork should be left to the professionals. Get help if you need it.
127. Do the best that you can: this last tip is to let you know something – I want you to do the best that you can while you’re in school. As long as you put forward the effort to get good grades, save money, and stay out of debt, I think you’ll be fine. Don’t slack, though. Work hard and think about what the 30 year old version of you will think when you look back at your college days.
If you end up with debt
If you come out of school with debt, you need to stop and think about your new situation. Add up every penny of debt that you have and get ready…because now comes the hard part. I want you to work your butt off and fight like hell to get out of debt. Don’t let that debt stupidity hang around your neck and choke you for the next 20 years. Pay it off quick and find your way to debt freedom. Because being debt-free feels awesome.
For more on getting out of debt and crushing your student loans, check out this post – “How to Stop Borrowing Money: 10 Step Guide to a Debt Free Life”
The final say
So that’s it. 127 of the absolute best ways to save money as a broke college student. Hopefully you’ve been able to take some good tips from this list to help you get through college completely debt free. Once you get out into the real world, take some of these helpful tips and use them again. Because I want you to get out of debt, stay out of debt, make money, build wealth, and be happy with your life. It’s important to save money, but it’s even more important to enjoy the life you’re living as well. Good luck out there, y’all!
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