Quick tips that do not require living on ramen
Saving money in college is like making sure you’ve got air in your tires – it’s required.
With student loans and night jobs as the only source of income, saving a little cash can procure another pizza.
The best way to save money might be to wait on those new slippers from Calvin Klein, but, for those who can’t, here are a few other ways to save money on clothes, food and other important items.
Saving money on clothes:
- Sales. Sales. Sales. The number one way to save money on any type of clothing is a sale. Just browsing Pearl Street or the 29th Street Mall on a Saturday afternoon can garner a number of great sales at great local stores.
- Shop in off-price stores like Nordstrom’s Rack. Stores like these offer discounts on name brand merchandise, usually just because it is the previous season’s collection.
- Buy from online liquidators. Web sites like Overstock.com, which sell overproduced and discontinued items, have items cheaper for than what they would at a normal store.
- For those not concerned with having the newest clothes, buying clothes from places like the Goodwill or Salvation Army often have the lowest prices.
Saving money on food:
- Signing up for a free store savings card, like a Safeway or King Soopers card, allows one to take advantage of all the sales a grocery store has to offer. This will immediately help students save money considering the card is free.
- Cereal is a college staple, but name-brand cereal can cost a ton of cash. Buying store brand or an off-brand cereal tastes the same but saves of money.
Saving money on stuff:
- Buying electronics from massive online stores like newegg.com and tigerdirect.com can save cash on a variety of electronics.
- Any CU student looking for a new Apple or Dell computer look no further than CU’s own book store. A computer from the bookstore can save a student anywhere from $40 to $100.
- Back to school sales at places such as Target and Wal-Mart are key to getting schools supplies and other goodies for cheap.
- For anyone who likes to ski multiple times a season, it is essential to buy a pass to save some dough. A pass, which costs anywhere from $300 at Eldora to more than $1,000 at Vail for the season, can pay for itself with three to four weekends of skiing.
If you have extra stuff such as gold, you can sell them via sites like alliancegoldandsilver.com/what-we-buy/ and gain more money to spend. After you’ve done all the steps above, sit down, eat your Ramen noodles and take pleasure in the fact you don’t have to survive solely upon them.
You can contact Campus Press Online Director Jason Bartz at Jason.bartz@thecampuspress.com
