Reply #64: I'm went back to school at around her age. ..

[kevinbgoode]

and while I've been lucky enough to survive on a bit more than she does, it was quite an adjustment. . .and I'll have an awful debt to pay when its all over.

Still, I really admire those of you who learn how to cut corners. I grew up very lower working class, and was used to hand-me-downs and a lot of spam or peanut butter or potato cakes for meals, and when I grew up I vowed that I would live better. Well, I did for several years..and in many ways, I don't do too badly now.

It's difficult to put much money away, but that's part of the experience - I certainly use a change jar that nets me about $180 a year - a major windfall during the poorest time of the school year. Second hand furniture can be perfectly fine - especially if you know you are transient anyway and may pass it on to another needy student when you depart.

As for food, shopping at Aldi and Save-A-Lot and using every little discount card/coupon I can use is helpful - and it's also helpful to sign up for things like Student Advantage cards ($20 a year) which give a variety of discounts on tons of things, including 15% off almost all Amtrak and Greyhound travel. Hell, I have an AARP card now too, and use that for better hotel discounts when I have to go to a convention. . .it pays for itself in one trip. My car is almost ten years old and still runs pretty well though it is cranky and needs maintenance work. I expect to keep it another few years. I bought a bicycle and started riding that more often, both as alternative transportation and as exercise, and sometimes walk to class...about 35 minutes. You do the cheap or free movies at school for outings, or the free or cheap tickets to football/basketball games...use the student center big screen TVs for special events and don't waste money in the bars I think young people spend more money in the clubs and parties than anything else during their college years.

There are other ways to squeeze that dollar, even if you aren't a student. If you have very little social life (often because you are poor), look for programs open to the public or presentations which have refreshments as a nice treat. You can borrow DVDs from the library, and if you have a network of friends, from each other. I know people who rent a movie and make sure it gets around to three families before it goes back. . .
Getting away is also a creative venture, especially if you don't or can't run miles up on the car. But Amtrak runs some amazing sales (right now, I could travel RT from my college town and Chicago for about $52 - and that's nearly 650 miles. Greyhound runs that Student discount AND announces getaway fares sometimes...lately you can travel from Chicago to Minneapolis for about $50 RT. Cheaper than driving, and mass transit is amazingly inexpensive. In Chicago, you can get a two day unlimited mass transit pass for about $9. . . good for buses and the elevated. . .

You can not only get student discounts for movies, but anyone (non-students too) with a Kerasotes Theater (mostly in the Midwest) can go online and sign up for a FREE Five Buck Club card. Every week, the theater chain emails the movies playing that are eligible for $5 club members, and you can go to any feature at any time for...five bucks.

Freebies are good ideas as well. Stretching money for laundry detergent and stuff? Sign up for every free sample you can find online, and then dump all the stupid extra spam email you get from the companies. I've done laundry, shampooed my hair, had shower soap. . .

You can recycle your printer cartridges at Staples - and save $3 on the replacement.

And some towns have this. . .um. . .freecycle.org affiliate (I might have first read about this on here, actually) in which people give away items they dont' need any longer and you can pick them up. . .that link is at:

http://www.freecycle.org/

I've only looked at postings on my local affiliate, but it's a very helpful group of people. . .