6 Ways to Save Money in College Right Now

As most of us know, college is a big part of a lot of people’s lives, especially when it comes to figuring out how to save extra money during the school year. So what are some of the best ways to save money in college that can help you avoid student loan debt? Let’s talk about it, and no, this will not be an article solely pushing random student discounts that may or may not work. 

So let’s put the bottom line up front – Scholarships are the number one way to save money in college and avoid student loans. They offer a high return on investment and very rarely require any additional effort after submission. Taking full advantage of FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is also a great way to save money in college. Like a scholarship, most of the funding that FAFSA provides to you does not need to be paid back.

It is very possible to graduate without student loan debt and you can take steps to make that your reality starting as early as high school. At the least, you can take these steps to mitigate some of the major college costs like tuition costs and living expenses. So keep reading and remember to share this article with others if you find it helpful!

Read More: Do these 13 Things To Prepare For Your First Year of College

1: Scholarships – APPLY, APPLY, APPLY

You cannot win unless you apply. There are literally thousands of scholarships out there for grabs and it is all free money that can help you better achieve your ideal college experience. You just have to find the ones that are a good fit for you and apply.

Now I would argue that applying for scholarships can provide the biggest ROI for a young person – especially since there are no upfront costs except for the time to complete applications.

Seriously, here’s an example. Let’s say it takes you seven days to complete an application for a scholarship that pays out $2,000. If you win that scholarship, that’s about $286 a day or about $35 an hour. Not many young people make that amount of money in seven days of work, but you have the potential too receive that much money. The even cooler thing is you aren’t spending eight hours a day working on the application. You might spend a total of ten hours on the application over those 7 days.

Something else that makes scholarships a great option to pursue in order to pay for school, is it is free money. You complete a compelling application and if selected you get free money. You do not have to pay that money back like you would have to if you were taking out student loans.

Scholarships Enhance Your College Savings Plan

Scholarships can truly change the trajectory of our financial success while we attend school. More importantly, though, any student loan debt that we can stay away from while in school gives our future selves more opportunity to pursue passions and take risks – because if you are constrained with debt after graduation, you do not have the luxury to turn down jobs at your leisure. You have student loan payments that will begin six months after graduation.

So, you are already hindering yourself from other opportunities that you would be able to pursue if student loan debt were not an issue for you.

A cool site where I have personally found scholarships, applied to, and won some is called https://jlvcollegecounseling.com/. Check it out.

Now, another avenue for more scholarship aid is to go to your financial aid office and speak with your financial aid advisors about scholarship opportunities that you can pursue. If you have an Office of Fellowships and Scholarships, talk to them as well. They might be able to share any other useful tools or insights to help you cover the numerous expenses that come with college. Just schedule a meeting to speak with someone and explain that you want their help with finding scholarships for school.

2: FAFSA: Do it, it’s effectively free money

Complete the FAFSA each year, no matter your financial situation, because you won’t know what you are eligible for if you do not try. As long as you are in school, give yourself a shot at securing some extra money and complete the FAFSA. This is another opportunity for you to get money that you do not have to pay back, i.e., free money. Now, as a quick synopsis, the FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. So this is an application that you complete to get federal and state aid to attend school. The amount of funding that you receive depends on your family’s EFC or Estimated Family Contribution. If your family is not well-off, or if you have multiple siblings in college, you should definitely be applying to the FAFSA. Let me be clear, though, no matter if your family is well off or not you should still apply for the FAFSA. It does not hurt you to apply and eligibility for FAFSA changes each year since it is connected to taxes and yearly income. I am not an expert, but I do know that the FAFSA can be a game changer when trying to find enough money to attend college.

You can learn more about the FAFSA at https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out

All in all, complete the FAFSA and speak with your counselors or offices of financial aid to discuss more about how the FAFSA could help you cover your college costs.

3: Look into being an RA or on RHA

Almost everyone knows that being an RA (Resident Assistant) gets you free housing and at some universities even more perks. Now, depending on where you go, your housing costs can cost a hefty amount. This is why being an RA could be a huge savings opportunity for you since you will not how to pay for living expenses like housing.

Being an RA is a tough gig though. You are essentially a parent, teacher, friend, and counselor all wrapped in one plus the added woes of being a college student yourself. However, you get free housing and maybe even more like a free college meal plan. I only did it for a semester and I knew I didn’t ever want to do it again.

However, it served its purpose in helping me save money in college and reach some of my financial goals. Depending on how involved your housing and residence life wants you to be, it can be a very demanding position – at minimum a part-time job.

So, get as much info as you can about your university’s expectations for their RAs and see if it is something you can see yourself doing well.

Read More: Essential Adulting 101 Tips For College Students

4: Save on college textbook costs by price matching

There are a ton of options for you to get used and affordable new textbooks. In my humble opinion, I think resorting to your campus bookstore should be a last resort. They often inflate prices just because they can. My go-to site was eCampus ( https://www.ecampus.com/ ). I usually found their books to be cheaper to rent when compared to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and of course my university bookstore.

You can also just buy books from current students in the respective classes that you will be taking. This is not something I was able to take advantage of since as a business student I always had to have the most updated version of my book to complete the online work – ugh Cengage took so much of my money.

However, there is a silver lining there – if you are one of those students whose professors demand you have the most updated version and online access, look into buying a membership with the publishing company. Cengage, for example, offers what they call Cengage Unlimited.

Cengage Unlimited gives students access to textbooks, online homework, and pretty much everything else they need that’s related to the textbook itself. At the time of this writing, it only costs $180 a year. Now for me, that was a great way to save some extra cash because my accounting books cost me easily $230 a piece – and that’s just a textbook cost for one class.

Cengage Unlimited isn’t the only service like that out there for you to choose from. So as always, do your due diligence and find what works best for you.

If you are interested in learning more about Cengage Unlimited go to https://www.cengage.com/unlimited/

5: Save money on your cell phone plan by switching

One way that I know we can all cut costs is by revisiting our phone plans. If you are like me and have to pay for your own cell phone bill as a college student, well you are probably going with the cheapest option you can find.

That is totally fair.

Although, sometimes that cheapness gives up reliability. But, there is one service that I use that has been both cheap and extremely reliable for me and that service is Google Fi.

Now, if you listen to my season 1 episodes from the Adulting Starts Here Podcast about studying abroad then you have heard me talk about Google Fi before. If you haven’t heard of it, Google Fi is an affordable, no-contract phone service created by Google that uses various cell service providers to deliver some pretty reliable service.

Why Is Google Fi Great For College Students?

Here is why it is completely the best bang for the buck for college students. Google Fi’s base plan is $20 a month for unlimited talk and text. They charge $10/GB of data that you use. But as a college student, you spend most of your time in class, in your dorm, and at work. This means that most of the time you are somewhere that has access to Wi-Fi.

So that means you won’t be using your phone’s data as much, meaning your bill should be around $20 plus tax every month. Last month, I only used 0.07 GB or 70 cents worth of data since I am always on Wi-Fi. So, my service bill was $20 + $0.70 + tax which equaled to about $26. 00. It’s truly the best bang for your buck especially now that we are indoors on Wi-Fi even more.

But what if you use a lot of data anyway? Well, Google has an unlimited everything plan for $70.

But I’ve been just fine using the $20 plan since my junior year in undergrad. I only wish I would have discovered Fi earlier, but you live and you learn. If you are interested in learning more about Google Fi, I have an affiliate link in the show notes for you that will give you a $20 credit toward your service plan.

If you go for the base plan, that is essentially a free month of service for you. So check it out, especially if you are looking to cut costs in 2021 while still having a reliable phone provider.

Join Google Fi using this link and get at least a $20 credit to your plan!

6. Finding Part-time Work

Of course, the final way I’ll share today that will help you save more money in college is to actually make more money. Big surprise, I know – but regardless I think it is important to discuss for anyone who might not have thought of this option. If you are looking for a job to help you bring in some extra money, first start your search on-campus. It is best to aim for on-campus jobs because they are more likely to work with your class schedule.

Let’s say that you have mostly evening classes, well if you are trying to get a job in the dining hall you have a higher likelihood of the manager there allowing you to work solely in the mornings and not the evenings.

Other good places for employment are the campus bookstore and the campus gym. It’s usually not highly demanding work that might even give you some free time to complete your homework in your downtime. 

You could also try for a job at any local restaurants around your college campus. They might also be flexible with the work schedule since their clientele is largely based off of college students.

One major thing you want to consider when finding part-time work is the transportation costs to get to and from work. It will be extremely difficult to up your bank account when you are spending all your money on transportation. So, be aware of how your transport situation will impact your bottom line.

Putting it all to use

Finding a way to save money in college and better manage a tight budget can be very tough. However, you have already taken a good first step towards answering your money questions just by taking the time to read this article. We have shared a few simple tips today, but make no mistake about the impact that implementing these tips can have.

These are powerful tips, and with careful planning and execution, you may very well discover new forms of extra income to help you cover your college costs. These are all both simple and creative ways to save money in college that anyone can put into action. Depending on how well you apply them, you can see yourself saving a nice sum of money on college costs. So, what are you waiting for!? Get started!

What are your thoughts? Do you have any ways to save money in college? Tell us in the comments below and check out the rest of our Education section for more tips and insights!

Best of luck adulting!

And Remember,

Adulting Starts Here

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