If there is one thing of absolute certainty, it is that college is expensive. If you think about it, it doesn’t really make much sense. You spend upwards of $30 thousand dollars a year on tuition, you won’t have an income from a regular job and you might even put yourself in debt with student loans. Yes, college is a crazy gamble, but if you work hard and deal with the stresses of having no money whatsoever, chances are that you will make it out on top in the end – you might even laugh about the experience later in life. Here are 5 ways to cope with crazy college expenses.
- Buy used textbooks. Your mouth probably literally dropped the last time you saw how much new text books are. You could be spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on textbooks. However, there are a number of sources where you can find used textbooks for pennies on the dollar. Often these sources are online or you could even scope out local, used bookstores in your college area. Yet, your best bet is to find them online.
- Live on campus. Rent is not the only thing you’ll be paying if you live in an apartment off campus. You will have to pay for heating, electricity, Internet and perhaps even garbage. Not to mention, there might also be a coin-operated laundry. However, if you move into the dorm you won’t have to worry about paying for any of those things. Sure, you might have to be in the dorms at a certain hour, but sacrificing the freedom is worth it if you can’t even afford to eat half the time.
- Graduate early. You could pack the course load in so that you can graduate a year early. Not only will this save you money on all your crazy expenses, but also it will reduce the money you might owe to a lender. You might be working twice as hard, but it might be worth it to leave college early and start looking for a job in the real world that will pay real money.
- Another way to cope with crazy college expenses is to take online courses. You can take online MPA courses or get credits towards any other degree you can imagine. Online courses are typically much less expensive and you don’t have to deal with all the added costs of living on campus, like food and the gasoline it takes to get there. You could even live at your parent’s house while you are taking courses to save money on rent and bills.
- Lastly, why not start a dorm room business? With the Internet and the worldwide connectivity, anybody with enough gumption can start an online business from the comfort of their dorm. You could build a website and sell products, like t-shirts or mugs, or you can start a goods and services business that meets some of the demands of your fellow students. For instance, you could start school supply delivery business and hire a few friends to make deliveries when people run out of paper, pens, and pencils. If it starts making money you could put yourself all the way through college.