Are you a poor Uni Student? There are things that you could do to make your life better! As a uni student who lives away from home, I have come up with a few ideas that could save you probably more than a hundred bucks a month.
- Do not bring your Credit card/Eftpos card with you when you aren’t going to shopping - When you are going to uni, unless you have to buy some expensive text, it’s very rare that you’ll need a credit card to live (at least in Australia), and you can save yourself from impulse buying!
- Do not bring cash more than you need - if you live near home/take public transport to school. You probably only need your ticket and a few bucks. Do not bring more than you need so you can save yourself from impulse buying, AGAIN!
- Buy groceries for a longer period - it’s usually cheaper to buy in bulk. Moreover, when you buy for a longer period, then you will have to shop less, and the chances for any impulse buying is AGAIN lowered.
- Put your wallet somewhere else (not the usual compartment)- this one is kinda tricky. Because you have to make sure you don’t lose it but you have to put it somewhere so you cannot remember where you put it when you have to pay for your impulse purchase. It is usual that you will give up the impulse buy when you couldn’t find your wallet.
- Bring Lunch to Uni - this is a general rule: eating out is always more expensive than cooking at home.
- ALWAYS return your books on time - you just don’t want any unnecessary payment. But if your uni library has a fine threshold, you may want to take advantage of it, but please be sure that you check the amount of fine and the threshold before you do so.
- Think before you print/photocopy - it saves tree, it saves you ten bucks a month from printing notes that you probably will NOT ever read. And many uni now uploads their resources online, so you can basically find it everywhere as long as you have a laptop and internet access.
- Study in the library - if you study in the library, you save electricity at home and you can read the expensive text which needed by the subject, so that you can pass buying the book!
- Bring your water bottle - Never buy water in store. They are free - you just have to turn on the tap (only applicable in places where tap water is drinkable)!
- Cut caffeine - You don’t really need it and it will only grow on you. Cut your coke and latte intake now. Three bucks a cup of latte, one cup a day, 30 days a month, you do the math.
- Always have snacks in your bag - Again, saves you from impulse buy. Museli bars/lollies/fruits on the counters are always more expensive than those you get from supermarket.
- Bring the charger(s)! - cut down your electricity bill from today - charge your cellphones, laptops, ipods, etc at Uni!
- Read newspaper online/in library - Unless your course requires you to do newspaper clipping, you can always pass newspaper subscription. There, it saves you $20 a year (if you are a The Age subscriber)!
- Get a USB thumb drive - upload/download all your files at Uni, it’s much faster and saves you from exceeding your monthly bandwidth limit (if you aren’t on an unlimited plan)! Plus, it’s always handy to have one and for the love of god, stop buying floppies, who use them these days?
