Feel difficult to manage your finances at college? Read our useful tips and get to know how to save and spend money correctly!
How to save and spend money correctly at college?
A college freshman can face a lot of problems, including managing finances. It’s important for each and every student to understand how to manage their own money, and how to live on a budget they have. The way to success in finances depends on how you used to spend the money.
During studying in a college, all students learn now only those subjects they choose, but they also learn how to manage their finances, plan expenses, and pay debts. We create this short guide especially for college freshmen and their parents to help them with setting their priorities and planning their own budget.
Create a budget
First of all, the freshman in the college has to understand how to create their own budget. The income is all money from jobs, parents support, student scholarship, grants, and other financial aid. The next step is categorizing expenses, so you will be able to see what you spend your money for. When a student has a budget with certain incomes and expenses, he or she can plan some additional expenses in case if needed. For example, it’s possible for a student to buy cheaper food and save some money on it and then buy clothes he or she dreamed about. It’s important to make smart money choices, but sometimes it’s also possible to save for something you want most of all, like a new gadget, or an interesting book, or cool sports uniform for training.
Use special software
It’s fast and easy to use online services to manage your budget from the smartphone. Such simple but useful applications allow students to see their current balance, and count expenses for a particular period. This is a great way to plan, manage and control your finances!
Keep your debt minimal
Don’t let yourself go into a cycle of college debt! There are simple ways how to avoid it:
Spend money only on the right stuff. Financial aid should be spent on books, housing, and studying, but not partying and new clothes.
Borrow only those sums you will be able to return. Remember that if you must take out student loans, the sum has to be proportionate with your salary after getting a degree. In any case, it’s better to pay for everything in the current moment than to make a huge debt to pay later.
Find a part-time work for students if you need more money. Some companies offer special positions for students with an opportunity to combine work and studying without being torn between job and campus.
Look for special discounts for students
There are a lot of special student discounts in restaurants, shops, and other services that will allow the freshman to save good money on their account! Most of the companies and services know that students usually live on a tough budget, that’s why they try to reduce a price to attract more buyers.
For example, if you need to write custom essay, look for online writing companies with special discounts for students. This will help you to save money as well as get a good work written by experts.
Be careful with credit cards
Stay away from tempting offers of various credit companies. They are like sharks hunting on inexperienced and naive freshmen and offering them piles of credit cards. Be careful with such cards because you may have a big temptation to spend that money and get a big debt. Never sign up for a credit card if you don’t need it. It’s better to use a debit card without overdraft option and live on the money you have in reality, but not on a credit card.
Set your limits
You can set a limit for the first year of studying to avoid buying stuff you actually don’t need. If to set a month limit, it’s possible to control your finances and even save some. Let’s say, a student set a limit to $100 per month, and he or she spent only $240 for three months. That’s good savings, $60 is not a huge amount but enough to buy those fancy jeans or organize a Birthday party for campus friends without draining your budget.
Keep your private details protected
Be careful and never share your personal information like passwords from debit and credit cards, SSN, or any other personal documents. Identity theft is a crime with the highest risk for students. If you have lost your bank card, or it was stolen, you must inform the back immediately. They will block a card right after your alert, so a theft wouldn’t be able to steal your money.