Metzler

Many of the costs associated with going to college cannot be avoided, these are tuition, room and board, etc. However, starting college on a budget can be accomplished.

The first thing entering freshmen need to understand is that their student ID is their best friend. With your student ID, you should be able to purchase movie tickets, dinners or even games of golf locally at a discount. This discount may not be that great, however, for a college student, a buck here or a buck there will definitely add up.

Another way for students to save money is by getting a roommate. If you have to live on campus, that is fine, but if you live off of campus, the easiest way to really save money is on a local house or small apartment that you can share with 3 or 4 friends. This is also a little more fun than sharing a dorm room with a perfect stranger. A house can also be much more conducive to studying you hate your roommate, so you cant study in your dorm, yet your library closes at 11. With your own house, you can study, in your own room, whenever you want, regardless of the time.

OK, this might be a little tacky, but a lot of college students get a serious bang for their buck by donating plasma and blood and even some other bodily fluids. Although, this isnt really saving money this is more of making money you can seriously bring in a high amount of return for a short amount of work by donating your fluids. I would recommend counseling or some serious reflection at the least before you donate anything besides blood or plasma, but you can make $30 - $60 for donating your plasma twice a month for just 30 or 60 minutes of inconvenience. For most of us, there are few jobs that pay between $30 and $60 an hour.

Utilize Ebay and other online auctions. These places can not only give you extra income by allowing you to sell the crap that you just dont need, but it can also enable you to buy your necessities at a discount. Save some money, buy second hand. If you are a little impatient, go to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. These places arent just full of crappy hand-me-downs; they really have some decent stuff. Keep in mind that many of the people that donate to these causes do so for a tax write off. Many times you can find really nice clothing or furniture at a fraction of the cost of buying new. Also, the people that owned it may have never worn it. I recently bought a Polo shirt at good will in the wrapper for $5.

Stay away from Credit. Credit cards are the college students worst enemy. With opportunities for free stuff abound, it is easy to fall into serious debt aside from the astronomical student loans for college students today. One thing to remember is that once you get a credit card, you will have to pay everything back, plus the interest you accrue. If you dont pay this back, you will have to file bankruptcy, etc. and these horrible things can jeopardize your chances at a good career, owning a house or even getting a car that doesnt break down constantly. Falling into this trap is an easy thing for most students, especially those on a tight budget, but remember, if you cant afford it today, what makes you think you can afford it tomorrow? Credit card companies make incredible amounts of money off of college students, do you really want to support this evil empire?

Buy used this is common sense, but it can include furniture, cell phones and even text books. This follows from the previous point, but let me get to textbooks. Used textbooks from the bookstores usually will give you a slight discount compared to the new textbook prices. Many universities now have textbook exchanges for their students to circumvent some of the extraordinarily high textbook prices that many bookstores charge. To find out if your university works with these services, you can check your homepage. If you dont have one, there are still options; these include paid services like BookAnt (http://www.bookant.com) and free services like BookDefy (http://www.bookdefy.com). These websites offer students the ability to exchange textbooks or purchase them from one another. Even if you do not save a whole lot on buying a textbook from another student, the profits still end up in your hands and your fellow students hands. These sites are a great resource for the starving college student.