5 Tips To Help Manage Your Money In College

College debt, by all accounts, is going to crush you, your soul, and the soul of all of your children, and then their children. You can either just believe that statement offhand, or you can approach college as something to be fiscally responsible and transparent about. Which means finding techniques to manage your money. Student loans are one thing – everything else falls under a different category.Manage Your Money In CollegeSo if you want to come out of your college experience anything other than a pauper, try these five tips out for size, including getting your own transportation in order, cooking your own food, staying off of credit cards, avoiding drinking, and buying disposable furniture for the places you end up living.

Get Your Own Transportation

Cars are too expensive. Point blank. So, when you’re in college, buy a bicycle. Learn to ride it safely. Get a helmet and a backpack. Save thousands of dollars on the car itself, the car insurance, the gas, etc. And you don’t have to buy a gym membership, because you’ll have quads of steel after cycling all around campus. Everybody wins, including your wallet.

Cook Your Own Food

There are a few different ways to feed your body. The least expensive way is going to be to do your own shopping, preferably in bulk, and then do your own cooking. No eating out. No restaurants. No fast food. You’ll literally save thousands of dollars while you’re in college, and you’ll learn how to cook as well, thus being able to impress your future dates. Money management and nutrition management fall solidly into the same categories here.

Stay Off Of Using Credit Cards

The last thing that you want to do is compound student loan debt with credit card debt. That’s a double whammy that can affect the next two decades of your life. So, one of the best ways to manage your money in college is to stay completely away from credit cards. Debit cards are both fine and useful, because that is money that’s actually yours. Credit card money is imaginary. And expensive. Remember that!

Don’t Start Drinking

If you’ve been to college, you’re aware of how much drinking alcohol cost you. If you’re just headed that direction, then you have no idea. But if you want to make a financial contribution to your future that will come back in the form of a larger bank account and better managed money, just don’t start drinking in the first place, and save that money instead for books!

Buy Disposable Furniture

None of the furniture that you buy in college is going to move with you to the next stages in your life. So, right from the beginning, buy the throwaway stuff. Get it at thrift stores, or borrow it from people who’d throw theirs away otherwise. Again, it’s a matter of practical savings that wins over in the end.