Seniors: How to Save Money for College

Seniors, college is approaching. Most of us are getting ready for college and making vital decisions on what our career path will be. A big stresser amongst future college go-ers is how to pay for your future education. Most people work summer jobs while others work all year round. How can you start saving now so you won’t be staying up into the late summer nights crunching numbers? Here are some tips on how to turn your pocket change into your tuition.

Stop spending all your money on food.

We’ve all been there, driving around at 11 PM with the craving only a crunch wrap can satisfy. Even though that craving is hard to beat, you HAVE to try.  Let’s say you only eat out once a week and spend 10 dollars. In a school year, there are roughly 40 weeks when you include breaks. When you do the math, you’re spending about $400 a year on eating out ALONE. This also does not include the occasional morning Starbucks run or the random stop at the local gas station to stock up on snacks.

Luxuries

We all have things we like to buy to add comfort and pleasure to our lives. For me, mine normally involves diving into the weird part of Amazon and buying Squid Ink infused socks along with other normal lady things. From Kylie Cosmetics to the latest Call of Duty game, we all are guilty of maybe going a little overboard on materialistic things that make us feel good in the moment. Am I saying that you have to stop buying these things all together? NO! Absolutely not! I am a firm believer in treating yourself; however, you can still get these nice things, but it might be time to start prioritizing.

Random items you don’t even need

I was scrolling through some random websites I found online and came across a sketchy link that lead to a weird Australian websites that sold goats. A normal person would have dismissed and left the page, but I spent a solid 15 minutes exploring my options. Was I going to buy a goat? No. Did I honestly consider buying a goat? Maybe. But I only did this because I knew I would be ABLE to buy this goat. That is a large problem amongst most youth today. We go somewhere to get something essential and end up taking home something we had no intention of buying. Not because we necessarily don’t want these items, but because we have unlimited access to these items.

Spending money is a luxury we all do extremely well. We live in a world where some people eat, breathe, and sleep money. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we have to keep what we’re actually spending our money on in mind. We are now at a point in our lives where we need to work as hard as we play. The next time you’re tempted to blow your cash, keep calm, and remember your priorities.