I commented the other day about how I was destined to "be poor until I graduate", because I was in college. Little did I realize how much of my money was going to unnecessary purchases. By scaling back, I realized I could save up to$350.00 a month.
That comes out to over 4000.00 a year! Want to know how I did it?
First, I looked at my debit and credit card statements for three months. As painful as this process is, it will show you where you are spending your hard-earned money. Most banks now offer online banking, where you can see electronically stored statements for up to about a year.
Second, I identified areas where I was over-spending. Here's what I found:
-Coffee (Starbucks)
-Groceries
-Movies
-Eating Out
-Clothes
Here's how I cut back, and ways you can cut back too!
1) Say No to Starbucks! Sure, that tall latte looks good, and it might help you get more study time, but its eating away at your wallet. Did you know that if you drink coffee just 20 days out of a month (approximately $3.40 a cup), you are spending $68.00 a month? I limited myself to two coffees a week, on bargain days (double punch days at Dutch Brothers) and tea or brewed coffee from home the other days. I found I saved $40.00 a month.
2) Eating Out is Eating Your Budget! I found that eating out, just lunch, every day, was costing me about $30.00 a week. I now pack a lunch every day and eat out just once a week, with a maximum of $10.00 per meal. I stopped ordering sodas/tea with my meals and found that can cut about $3.00 off every meal. My TOTAL food bill for this month (I share meals with my roomates) was $46.00! That's a savings of $74.00.
3) Your Gas Pedal is Costing You! I was spending about $240.00 a month in gasoline, commuting from Medford to Ashland. Since I moved closer to campus, and now I am paying about $80.00 a month in gas costs! Limit your trips to surrounding areas, or carpool with roomates. It reduces your carbon footprint and the crunch on your wallet.
4) Those Little Shopping Trips... My roomates and I will often "run to Albertson's" to pick up little items like ice cream, magazines, and soda. We realized it was costing us about $30.00 a month to pick up overpriced snack foods because we didn't buy in bulk. Cutting these small trips and making just two giant Costco or WinCo runs saves us large amounts of money. Pre-packaging your own snacks (buy in bulk and tuck snacks into Ziploc bags) takes time, but saves you too. I didn't realize I had spent $25.00 a month in snacks and sodas at school.
5) Invest in Nicer Electronics...and take care of them! In three months, I found I had purchased three car kits, three chargers, and five pairs of headphones for my iPhone! I had bought them all on discount (about $6.99 each), but they all broke fast. I now purchased one brand-name one and take better care of it. So far it's lasted three months.
7) Clip Coupons! Yes, it sounds nerdy, but I clip coupons for things like makeup, groceries, and photo developing and it saves me over $20.00 a month. You can even find things like poster board or index cards in advertisements and save on those too. Using search engines like www.swagbucks.com also gives you points for searching (like Google), and lets you use them for online merchants.
8) Clean Your Closet for Cash: I cleaned my closet and brought clothes to Avant Garb, Deja Vu, and other consignment stores in Ashland. They take name brand, good condition clothing and give you cash or credit at their store. They carry designer jeans and designer clothes, and it's a budget friendly way to overhaul your closet. Make sure your clothes are clean, pressed, and without tears or stains.
Start saving today...and pocket the results.
Grace S. Cartwright (Nursing, Class of 2011) is an OHSU/SOU student at the Ashland campus, and blogger for Southern Oregon University. She is a professional freelance writer and music publicist.
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