Attending college can be extremely expensive, and with all of the energy and time spent on classes, it can be hard to work enough to pay for all of your expenses. That’s why it’s important to learn how you can manage your money wisely and make the most of each buck. Whether you go to the University of New England or San Francisco City College, you’re going to need to learn how to organize your finances. Here are 5 important money management tips for college students.
1. Check Your Account Regularly.
You will want to keep close track of your financial situation, which means you need to be checking your account balance on a daily basis. You should always feel like you know approximately how much money you have in your account. If you don’t, then you could develop a habit of overspending, or possibly even overdrafting. This can lead to lots of hefty overdraft fees, and it could even have a very negative impact on your credit score.
2. Make Budgets.
For all of your major expenses, you should have a strict weekly or monthly budget. This includes food, transport, recreation, and anything else that you tend to spend money on regularly. There are a lot of different websites and apps where you can connect all of your bank accounts and track your spending by category. That way, you can make sure you know how much you need for each budget and monitor yourself closely.
3. Save Your Cash.
It’s important that you always save money when you can. A good way to build up a bit of pocket cash is to always set aside your 5 dollar bills. Every time you get a 5 dollar bill, put it away somewhere safe and you’ll always have a rainy day fund. Also, you should always make sure that you keep some cash in your wallet for when you are in places that only accept cash. This means that whenever you can charge your bill, you should use a credit card.
4.Cook At Home.
One of the best ways to save money is to curb your spending on restaurants and cafes. You can easily divide your food expenses in half if you try and prepare almost all of your meals at home. These days, a lot of grocery stores make it easy to buy delicious ready-made meals and even produce that is already cut and packaged. This way, you can take a lot of the time and work out of cooking meals.
5. Carpool.
If you live in a city where you really need to drive to get around, then you’re going to want to carpool as much as possible. Not only is it better for the environment, but you will also be saving a lot of money if you are only driving half the time, or possibly even less than half the time. It can seem a bit inconvenient to be constantly coordinating your schedule with others, but it’s never too difficult to get used to the savings.