When people think of college for their kids a lot of dollar signs usually pop in their heads. Frugal college tips can ad a different perspective to the idea of college being expensive. My own story of college is I knew my parents could never afford college for me, and I didn’t want them to.
I went to college a few year’s after high school when I had a full time job. As I looked for a job, one of the perks at the company had to be helping with college. The job I ended up with as a receptionist paid completely for college tuition. The entire four years. It was great! The pay was not great, but it gave me enough to cover basic living expenses.
Here are three ways to save money at college:
Community College Options
Community college’s are great for location, low tuition (still expensive) and financial help.
Classes still allow for the same degrees and graduation, just without the status of a big name. Along with big names come big price tags.
Frugal college tip number one is too look into close to your home option. That way it saves on gas, living on campus is not as expensive because maybe living off campus but close works out better. Another option is to live at home.
Frugal Tips to Live at Home
College kids that go off to college pay high prices for housing whether on campus or off campus.
Creating a space where it feels like an apartment without the high rent at home will be one of the most frugal ways for a college teenager. Obviously, they can pay for an “apartment” at home where the rent will be much lower.
Separating a space in the home for a college teen will teach them responsibility, and save you money. Our son moved to the basement and paid a small amount of rent. Very small but enough to teach him about paying bills on time.
Park off Campus and Walk
On campus parking is expensive even at a community college. The frugal tip we gave to our college teen was to “walk”. As parents we wanted to help our son save the most of his hard earned money. There were free spots available and walking is good exercise.
The free parking spots were not that far off campus and the area was safer. He was able to save almost $300.00 per semester by walking a little farther.
As a bonus, he did get good exercise. Walking is free. In addition to saving money it also helped him in the area of time management. Getting up 30 minutes earlier to leave on time for class became a necessary part of the morning. College age teens have the ability to learn frugality and independence easily. Frugal college tips helps is to examine what is a high cost and see how it can be reduced.
Take a Daily Meal, Snacks and Drinks
My college age son has learned all of his frugality tricks from his parents. Since day one he has shopped weekly and takes his lunch. His weekly meal prep usually happened over the weekend.
Buying snacks and drinks to keep on hand during a transition of classes or a long time between classes is a good idea.
As a result he was able to avoid the “hangry” phase where he would randomly go buy something to eat and spend more than necessary.
Planning ahead and implementing the plan is one of the best frugal college tips for teens that I can offer. Eating out is unhealthy and expensive.
Fast forward a few year’s to see what can be done with the money saved while in college. My son has saved enough by sacrificing now to invest monthly for his future.
College and life can be expensive. Frugality is a choice. In conclusion, college doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Frugal college tips opens the door for teenagers to make choices on how their money is spent during college. to get more frugal tips sign up for my newsletter.
Follow me on Instagram @momsarefrugal for more adventures in frugal living, homeschooling and homemaking.
Oh, but I am living in this land right now, too! I have a teen daughter who is a HS junior, and I still can hardly believe I need to pay attention to posts about “getting your teen ready for college”! 🙂 But I am so excited that all the hard work and preparation she has done the past 17 years has laid the foundation for an exciting future. I am looking forward to continuing our mother-daughter journey together along new roads. Thank you for sharing this sweet post…I found you @ The Art of Home-Making Mondays!
My parents are going through this process with #5 today…and I think all the paperwork involved is quite boring to them at this point (I got my B.A. in 2012, I have two siblings in their Junior year, one in her freshman year)…I think they will probably be grateful when college years are behind them, but it’ll be a while, because #6 and #7 are much younger than the rest of us. All of us were/are homeschooled as well, but our college process was a little different and a little extra difficult. My family lives in Southeast Asia but we have all gone to college in the USA because that’s where were from. So, sending kids off to college has meant sending 17 or 18 year olds 10,000 miles away to a country that’s practically foreign to us to figure out our own way. It wasn’t easy for me to adjust that first year, and letting go of her kids and getting used to not seeing them for sometimes more than a year or two at a time has been very hard on my mom.
Great tips. Takes me back! The young people over here go to college or uni after they have served in the army for 2-3 years, so they are often married or have already met their life partner. It is not unusual for them to work part or full time, as well as studying. They provide for themselves. #MMBC
That is very interesting, and the fact that they start at a different phase of life puts college in a mature perspective.
What great advice. My eldest is at college at the moment and she has just realised that taking a packed lunch is a good idea instead of buying a meal at college.
They do find that out…and the food is better.
Great tips! College expenses can add up fast! Thanks for sharing these. I’m visiting today from the You’re The Star link up. Have a great week Michelle!
Thanks!