Soothing the Sorrow from Student Loans

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With money tight for college kids, there are ways to get around and make every dollar count.

Sleepless nights, eating cheap meals, and student loans are just something that has become a part of college life in America. The amount of stress that college can put on your mind and your wallet is overwhelming to the average person. In Texas, according to USA Today, 56% of 2015 graduates have student loan debt with the average debt being $27,324. To put that in perspective that’s almost 156 years’ worth of ramen if you ate it three times a day. Because of this cost of college, its important to save money around every corner to ease some stress on your bank account.

When it comes to traveling through campus and getting around town, the cost of a car can be a big chunk of expenses that must be accounted for. For the cost of car insurance and gas, the price will vary between the type of car or truck that you have but somewhere around $2,000- $3,000 can be expected if you use it as your source of travel. Some can afford this expense or may have their parents still taking care of their insurance however if the student is paying it out of their own pocket, it might be some money that is hard to let go of. Luckily for them, cars aren’t the only form of transportation. College kids might consider investing in a bike and a bike lock or maybe even a skateboard to travel around the campus. If it’s a great distance to get to the campus, a bus, subway, or other forms of public transportation can be considered as well. While it’s not free, it’s still saved money in the long run compared to using a car.

Although it costs a lot of money through tuition, you’ll still have to put more money on the side for a school that will be required for your classes. Everything from textbooks, to a laptop to do you work on will be required to finish your day to day class work. Textbooks will without a doubt be expensive however through buying books used and reselling the textbook after you’re done using it you can alleviate the pain of spending a couple hundred dollars for a book in one class. The used path can also be used with laptops. Instead of spending $600 on a new laptop from Best Buy, you might be able to find an old computer a family member no longer uses and get it for free. Look for relatives who are upgrading their electronics as their trash may be your treasure. Another alternative if you don’t have generous relatives might be going to your local pawn shop and finding a computer. Make sure it works before you pay them is also important or that it comes with some type of warranty.

Saving money in college is something that lots of people don’t take the time to truly think about but it can all be focused on a central question. Whenever you are about to buy something no matter what it is, consider “Do I really need this or do I really need to spend this much on it?”. Separating your needs from your wants will really save you some money and deciding whether you need toilet paper or a Smart TV might be easier than you think.