College Cost Savers

Saving money is always a must. Saving is especially important for average people like me. These are some ideas that I have found to save me a lot of money.

• Get a meal plan that fits. I made the mistake of getting a meal plan that was bloated. It was to big for me and cost me more money than I needed to spend.
• LIVE OFF CAMPUS. A lot of the time you can find more financially viable deals off of campus. This is especially true if you have roommates. I know two people that are renting a decent apartment in a good part of town and they pay about $250 per person per month. Do the math that is $750 per quarter opposed to the $1500 that I was once paying. The other advantage to this is that you have more freedom than if you were in the dorms. Some of the rules that school dorms impose are intrusive and personally I hate intrusive rules.
• Buy your own food. If you don't have too, don't get the schools food. You will find that it is generally crap and that it is drastically overpriced.
• Trade Books. If you have a textbook try and trade it with a friend. This way you both get the book you need for free. This is really easy on small campuses.
  Use online bookstores. One trick that I found works really well is to find out what book is required for a class. By that I mean go to the bookstore and write down the ISBN number located on the bar code. Then go to a place like Abebooks.com, type in the ISBN and buy a used book for nice low price. I did this with a calculus book that was over $100 dollars and I got a functional copy for about $20 in the current edition.
• Get involved and I don't necesarily mean sports. If you are thinking of going Greek or are already greek try and move into the chapter house. The rent can be less than living in a rented house or apartment. I live in a chapter house and I pay $600 for an entire quarter. In addition its a really fun time being part of the Greek college system. I don't only mean the parties. It provides a lot of oppertunites to meet many interesting people. If you are interested in student government do not hesitate because they are normally compensated. For example, the president of my school gets free tuition for the year. A lot of lower level possitions get tuition assistance.
• DON'T BUY IT UNLESS YOU CAN AFFORD IT. Stay out of credit card debt. I'm not going to beat a dead horse. Just don't do it.
• Network, Network, Network. The more people you know the better. You will find out about job openings in advance and plus in business its not what you knw so much as who you know. So network, network, network. On that note do not do all your networking at parties it because that defeats the purpose. The idea is that they will remember you, be impressed by you and then want to hire you.

I hope these tips will help you out. I know they have helped me pinch the pennies.