4 College Expenses to Consider Cutting Back Next Year
Tuition may be rising at a number of colleges, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of your college expenses need to follow suit! Keep in mind that your total cost of attendance includes a bunch of other things, like books, room and board, travel to and from school, and supplies.
Even now, you can start thinking about how you can save money on necessary college expenses. As you start to pull together funding for next year, such as savings, graduation money, scholarships and student loans, take a look at the following ways you can reduce your total cost of attendance and give yourself some financial breathing room.
1. Books
Cost-Cutting Plan: Go digital. Digital textbook companies are on the rise, and a number of textbooks are now available in digital format – readable on an iPad, smartphone, or your laptop. Most digital textbooks cost less than their traditional counterparts. As soon as you know what your class schedule will be this fall, see if you can find your most expensive textbooks in digital format and if there is any significant difference in the cost. If so, pick up the digital version and save yourself some money!
2. Living Expenses
Cost-Cutting Plan: Share. Get together with your roommate-to-be and strategically plan your living expenses. Plan to share things that make sense, such as appliances and room decor. You can even share food. Of course, we don’t advise planning to share something as important as a car if you don’t know your future roommate well. Be smart! Just consider all of the things you know you will spend money on, and whether or not you and your roommate could split the cost and save both of you money in the end.
3. Transportation
Cost-Cutting Plan: Think ahead. Soon enough, you will know the exact dates of your Fall, Thanksgiving, Winter, and Spring breaks. If you have to travel far to and from school, consider now how you will pay for those trips. This doesn’t just include purchasing tickets in advance – that is not always the cheapest way to travel. Consider things like airline miles, for example. Many banks now offer airline miles as a reward for using a signature debit card. Paying for some big ticket college expenses with your Visa or Mastercard debit card instead of a check could translate into airline miles that you can use to fly to school or back home. Take the time to look into this now.
4. Course Load/Credits
Cost-Cutting Plan: Do the math. While you should always keep in mind that it’s never good to take too many classes at one time, those of you who are okay with a full schedule ought to carefully calculate how much money you could save by adding one additional class each semester. At first glance, this may not seem like a cost-cutting idea, but it really is. Not only could you potentially graduate early by doing this every semester, but you would be taking the extra course at a lower price than it would likely be the following year, given that tuition tends to increase year after year. Food for thought!
You can see that just by getting a head start in planning for next year, you could save on some of the most expensive college necessities. Give it some thought and if you come up with even better cost-cutting plans, let us know in the comments!
