Why you’re Losing Money in College
Do you find your expenses are adding up faster than you can handle? When you’re not keeping track of your finances, it’s easy to not realize the amount that you’re spending on a day to day basis.
While that $5 coffee might not seem like much in the moment, after a week of spending $5 every day, you’re suddenly down $30. While college tuition might be taking most of your money, it’s not the only factor why you’re losing money as a student!
You Only Use Your Credit Card
Having a credit card is a great way to securely keep your money, improve your credit score, and gain rewards points. However, this is only beneficial if you’re able to efficiently pay it off every month.
Although there are many benefits to owning a credit card, it’s important to understand how your credit card is hurting your financial health.
Unfortunately, many students fail to remember the importance of not just paying your card off on time or watching for their debt load. Before deciding whether or not you get a credit card, make sure you understand how to properly use it so you’re not causing any financial issues for you in the future.
Delivering Food for Every Meal
As a student, it can be difficult to find time to cook when you’re busy balancing our academics, extracurricular and a social life. Because of this, many students find delivery apps to be their best friend.
While it is more convenient (and more tasty) to order food for every meal, those costs all add up immensely. Research from Forbes found that it’s 5x more expensive to deliver food to your house than it is to cook from scratch. Save some money by learning how to cook some quick and easy meals that you enjoy!
Paying Unnecessary Bank Fees
When you first start managing your finances, it’s easy to get excited about finally having financial freedom. While many banks offer up special student checking and saving accounts, it’s important to do your research and find out what each bank offers to ensure it matches up best with your lifestyle.
When looking for an account, make sure you understand their additional fees, the efficiency of depositing, interest rates, minimum balance requirements, and online banking features. Some fees to look out for are monthly fees, per check fees, and assistance fees. These areas tend to hold sneaky ways the bank might be taking money from you.
You’re Ubering Everywhere
Research has found that the 3 main areas of spending for both students and professionals are rent, food and transportation. As a student, transportation is one of the easiest costs to cut down on.
This is because most college’s offer a student bus pass that includes either free or discounted public transportation. If you’re traveling long distances from one city to another, always make sure you’re double checking all your options instead of choosing the most convenient.
And luckily, public transportation options have a student discount rate you can save money with!
You Don’t Know Where Your Money is Going
Have you ever heard your friend tell you that they don’t check their bank account because they’re too scared to see how much they’ve spent? While this might be good for your own mentality, this is a bad habit to get into when you have to start taking care of your own finances.
If you don’t know where your money is going, you’re putting yourself at risk for unhealthy financial habits and potentially landing yourself in debt. Tracking your spending allows you to budget appropriately for your priorities and move towards your financial goals.
Underestimating Utilities
When you finally move into your own home, you’re so excited about living with your friends and finally having your own space that you forgot about the extra expenses that sneak up on you.
For most students, they go their whole lives not understanding how much money is being used to pay off their family’s hydro and electricity bill. Because of this, it’s easy to forget that you are paying for those long showers or for keeping the light on all night. But, did you know using water costs more at certain times of the day?
Or that it costs more for heating when you keep adjusting the temperature? Make sure you research the average utilities bill and look for little tips and tricks you can use to cut down on those expenses!
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