Here are some tips:

1. Make a budget and track your expenses. That means keeping all your receipts, and No Cheating! And do make make yourself an easy target to have your identity stolen.
2. Understand that you must pay your bills on time. Not doing so will hurt your credit score, which will make it difficult and more expense to get loans in the future for anything from a car to a house.
3. Credit cards are not a license to print money. Use them for Needs, not Wants.

4. Text books: Go to as many libraries as you can in the area and check out as many text books as you can that are required for your classes. I did it in grad school and saved hundreds of dollars.
5. You cannot have a car at school. While it might make your life a little easier, it is simply too expensive.

6. My momma told me, you better shop around. That is your mantra. Don’t sign-up for or buy the first thing you see. Find the combination of the best that has the lowest price.

7. Do not try to keep up with the Jones’s. It will exhaust all your funds, and you will probably go into debt just so you can dress your best.
8. College and college towns have many low-price if not free entertainment abound. Sometimes you just have to do some searching.

9. Odd-jobs, scholarships, part-time work; whatever you can do to make extra money and not have your grades suffer can go a long way.

Written by Nagel on May 15th, 2007 with no comments.
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