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When budgeting, I have two primary concerns that I think many college students share:
1) Pay rent to keep a roof of some sort over my recently highlighted head.
2) Social spending, as in, how many nights a week do the remaining funds allow for.
Please note that these are not necessarily considered in that order, which can cause trouble.
Depending on whether your college town is ridiculously expensive (see: going to college in a major city) or suuuper cheap (see: anyplace where drinks are less than $4.00 each or has promotions like “dollar long island night”), your bank account is going to take a very different sort of beating by means of your social budget.
But food is an essential, and when takeout can cost more than your bar tab, grocery shopping to save some green is a great habit to have.
Some tricks that I’ve picked up, courtesy of undergrad:
1) It costs more to eat healthy. And no, this does not stand as an endorsement of the lettuce-and-cheap-vodka diet! What we’re getting at is the fact that you can cut down the cost of your basic essentials. If you want to be a label whore, fine, but keep it to your wardrobe. Store-brand basics, like cereals, are much cheaper than brand-name foods. Same goes with frozen veggies and canned foods—the ingredients are basically the same, only a little less pricey.
A dollar saved is an extra dollar toward the cute bartender’s tip. Desperate for a cheap, salty snack? Pretzels are usually pretty cheap and are better for you than your basic chip.
2) It’s not as cute as your sorority or fraternity labeled bottle-opener keychain, but use the stupid discount keychain cards. They actually do save you money.
3) Buy a Brita and stop with the bottled water already. You’ll save more than you think, and if you have roommates, you can go in on it and make it even cheaper…
4) Since you’re shopping for one, make a point to try and buy portions you’ll use. A trick for things like bread, which can go stale pretty quickly, is to keep it in the freezer and use as you need. Let it thaw on its own or pop it in the toaster or microwave, depending on your intention. Likewise, don’t buy a gallon of milk if you’ll only drink a half gallon by the expiration date… make sense?
Any other suggestions for how to save? Let us know!
[adorable photo from icanhascheezburger.com]
4 Comments
Bulk warehouse places like Costco or Sams club are good for things that won’t expire… things like toilet paper, bottled water, and other things you like to keep on hand.
A membership is like 50 bucks a year… but those places almost always have a gas station as well that discounts gas a minimum of 15 cents a gallon which really adds up.
Pasta is cheap (about fifty cents for a whole pound) and you can use it a lot of ways. You can dress it up with butter and Parmesan cheese, or you can get the jarred sauces on sale and eat a couple of meals. There are also a lot of different types: bowties, angel hair, fettuccine, ravioli, etc, so you won’t get bored with it.
I eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly. It’s good for you and cheap to make. You can always find some type of bread for “Buy 1, Get 1 Free”. I keep one in the fridge (to prevent mold growth) and one in the freezer until I’m ready for it.
Eggs are also pretty cheap; you can make a few meals with a dozen eggs. They can be scrambled, hard-boiled, over easy, put on a sandwich, made into egg salad, etc.
I buy flour, eggs, and sugar and do a lot of baking that way. You’d be surprised what you can make with that and some of the other things you have lying around. I’ve found Allrecipes.com is a great site to find and upload recipes. They have a part where you can search by ingredient, so you can actually input what you have in the fridge and it’ll show you what to make with it. I’ve used that function a lot.
Pancake mix is inexpensive, and most of them all you have to do is add water.
Check out the grocery sale paper. Some grocery stores, like Winn-Dixie, allow you to see the ad online. I did that the other day and got a 5lb bag of Russet potatoes for $0.99. You can do a lot with potatoes, but some things, like a baked potato, take awhile to cook. If you go shopping with a buddy, you can also buy in bulk and then split it, like those multi-packs of ketchup at Sam’s Club, or “Buy 1, Get 1 Free” items.
I didn’t realize this would be so long; I guess living on my own for 4 years has made me so knowledgeable on living cheaply. One more final suggestion:
At the beginning of the week, go to all the grocery stores in town and grab the ads. (You can also do this online, like I said before.) Stores usually have different items on sale, so if you prefer Coke and Pepsi is on sale at Shop Rite, chances are Coke will be on sale somewhere in the area. You can make separate shopping lists for each store and get the deals that way. If you cut coupons, you can really save a lot of money.
bags of uncooked rice are really cheap and they go great with a lot of things! don’t get the uncle ben’s or ricearoni stuff that is premade because it is so expensive. also frozen bags of chicken are great.. they keep forever and you can get a 10lb bag for under five dollars at walmart! then just buy cheap seasoning packets or salad dressing to marinate it in.
also walmart has these amazing things called homestyle bakes that come with EVERYTHING in them.. sauce, meat, starch, etc. and they are around 3 dollars or less.. you just put them in a casserole dish, add the water or butter or whatnot in some cases and bake.. it takes less than five minutes to make them and they normally bake for around 45 minutes.. and i can make one and if its just me eating it will last me at least 3 days!!
I definitely agree with buying rice in bulk is amazing, it lasts and you have hundreds of options.
Take your own canvass bags (or plastic) to save on those 10 cent bag policy.
Go to bulk stores!! They’re really expanding, I just found out that they sell KD mix!!
Buy produce from local food markets, they travel less (staying fresher longer) and usually cost less than the average grocery store.
Avoid 24 hours supermarkets, as conveinant as they are their prices are inflated!
And again I defintely agree on baking your own food.. I save sooo much money by making my own chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter, oatmeal ,shortbread,…. yummmy.. and they taste so much FRESHER!
Compare prices on items that aren’t on sale! Save your reciepts from different stores and see how much you could be saving by buy certain items from different places!
Also, getting food from dollar stores can be a big help if they sell the right kinds, I know things like Side Kicks or those Minute Rice packages are great, as well as snack foods.
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