College students are always looking for ways to save money. It seems no matter how much we work and no matter how much money we make, we are broke all of the time. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I use to save money. Whether it is for a rainy day or using it to buy myself plane tickets to visit my family down south, it is always a useful thing to have. I mean, who wouldn’t want more money in the bank?
The first trick I use is if I want something, I think about why I want it. If I cannot think of at least three good reasons for why I want to buy something, I will not buy it. Another approach to this that I use is waiting a full day after seeing something to buy it. If I am still thinking about the thing I want, then I will go buy it. This helps you buy things that you know you are going to use and like. I am sure we have all had the experience of buying something on a whim and then never touching it again. I can say I am guilty of that for sure. If you want to take this tip a step further, you can also put the money that you would have spent into savings. Say you are at the mall with some friends and you see a dress on sale for $25. You cannot come up with three reasons to buy it and know that coming back later for it is not an option. So, take that $25 you were going to spend on that dress, and put it into your savings account instead. Yup, you heard me, do not spend it, save it instead. This will build your savings account a lot!
The next big thing is USE YOUR STUDENT DISCOUNT! You are paying to go to school here, and you had to take a bad ID picture, so use it to its full advantage. The places that give discounts range from Chipotle to Amazon and even phone plans. There is no reason not to use these discounts and find out what you can save. If you want to find out what discounts are offered, just do a quick Google search to find out where student discounts are accepted. Sadly, the MBTA discount is only for high school students, but you can get a discounted pass at transportation services on campus.
The last trick I am going to share is bring food from home with you to school and work. No one is saying that UMass Boston’s food is high dining, but man, it can be expensive. If you are getting a meal and a drink everyday, and you pay $10 for each meal, that is $50 a week! Just take that money, go to the store, get yourself stuff for lunch, and make it the night before. If you do not have time to make your lunch every night, make five meals on Sunday night, and you will have lunch for the whole week! Also, pack yourself some snacks to keep with you. Put a pack of nuts in your bag or bring a bag of chips. It might be silly but buying snacks everyday slowly adds up over time.