When you’re a college student, spending money is inevitable. There are so many costs involved with going to school and it’s often difficult to figure out how you can save yourself some money. In this post, I share nine easy tips that can help you to save money while still doing the things you enjoy.
1. Use Chegg to buy textbooks.
Chegg is an awesome website because it allows you to rent textbooks for a semester at a much cheaper price than what you’d find at your school’s bookstore. When it’s almost time to return your books, Chegg will send you email reminders, along with simple instructions on how to send them back.
Related: Do’s and Don’ts for the First Week of College
2. Install Ebates on your web browser.
If you’re someone who is obsessed with online shopping, you need to stop what you’re doing and sign up for Ebates. Ebates is a website that allows you to earn cash back from your online purchases. All you have to do is sign up for an account and install the cash back button on your web browser. When you are on a website, it will then notify you of how much cash back you would be receiving, and it also applies all available coupons automatically at checkout.
Ebates will save you a lot of money if you are making a lot of expensive purchases online for back to school shopping. It’s extremely simple to install and you will not regret signing up.
Click here to sign up for Ebates!
3. Sign up for Amazon Prime.
Amazon offers college students a free six month trial of Amazon Prime. All you have to do is sign up with your school email, then you can enjoy free two-day shipping among many other benefits. Once your trial is over, you can still enjoy Amazon Prime for only $49/year compared to $99/year. I found myself ordering random things off of Amazon all the time my freshman year because of the fact that I didn’t have a car with me at school.
Amazon is another great site for ordering textbooks. I found many of my books on here for a much lower price than what I found on other websites, and the free two-day shipping was great because I got them in time for my classes.
4. Sell old clothes.
Apps like Poshmark make it super easy to sell your old clothes, shoes, and accessories. If you have a bunch of clothes that you no longer wear, then you might as well just sell them to make a few extra bucks. You could also sell on eBay or at consignment shops like Plato’s Closet.
Shop my closet here!
5. Take advantage of student discounts.
It’s likely that many of the stores that you shop at offer a student discount that you probably don’t even know about. By signing up for Unidays, you can find out about all of the stores that offer student discounts. Doing this you can save money when you shop at your favorite stores. It’s completely free to sign up and all you have to do is provide your student email. Be sure to ask if there is a discount for college students everywhere you go because it doesn’t hurt to ask.
6. Find free entertainment on or around your campus.
There is always some type of event happening on college campuses, and most of the time, these events are free. This also gives you the opportunity to meet new people and to maybe even get some free food, T-shirts, or other freebies. Check out your school’s website to see if they have an event calendar where you can see what’s going on throughout the year.
7. Sign up for rewards programs.
While I do not recommend regularly spending money on food and beverages, you should sign up for the rewards program at places that you often make purchases at. Places like Starbucks, Dominos, and many movie theaters have loyalty programs where you can earn free items and discounts. If you are already spending money at these places, then you may as well join for free and start saving a little bit of money.
8. Commit to a saving plan and create a budget.
If you have a job, or if your parents give you an allowance, then you should be setting aside some of this money into a savings account either weekly or monthly. It can be something as small as $5 a week, but over time it will add up. Creating a monthly budget can help you to clearly see where your money is going. Budgeting will help you to eliminate unnecessary spending and to prioritize how you spend money whether it be on rent, food, gas, etc.
9. Apply for scholarships.
I have written an entire post on my scholarship secrets so go check it out to learn all about how to find and apply for scholarships. Getting your tuition paid for is obviously a priority in college, so getting this out of the way will allow you to spend money on other things.
Please feel free to share how you try to save money in college in the comments!
