What do most college students have in common? Well, yes, stress, lack of sleep, but also… they’re broke. And yet somehow, they’re expected to stretch their resources so thin as to handle their studies and have fun and possibly have 3 months’ rent ready for when they graduate and need to move into an apartment. However, to do any of those things, there needs to be a saving strategy. Here are some tips:
1. Open a Savings Account
Seems traditional enough. If you already have a college checking account and you have a job, you qualify to open a saving account joined with your checking. With this, you can choose to deposit money manually or have a percentage of your checks taken out and put aside in your savings account. Now, the idea is not to touch that money and pretend it doesn’t exist even though it may be tempting to resort to using your savings for purchases.
2. Envelope System
This can be really helpful if you want to save for specific things. Using different envelopes, you can label each one with what you’re saving for—clothes, concerts, vacation, etc. On the back of the same envelopes, you can keep track of the total every time you put in or take out money. This way you know how much money you have, and you can keep tabs on what you’ve been using your money for so you can learn to budget accordingly.
3. Monthly Savings Challenge
If you have a Pinterest account perhaps you’re familiar with the monthly savings challenges all over the platform. Put the money anywhere you want but follow this and you could save a decent amount in no time. If you follow these, you’ll be putting aside a certain amount of money each month of the year for a year until you reach the challenge goal. The key is, the amount changes each month challenging you to budget accordingly that month. For example, you may save $25 for October, but for November we might crank that up to $60.
4. Good Old-Fashioned Piggy Bank
The concept of the piggy bank is the most traditional sense most people have of saving. Though to many it may seem juvenile, it doesn’t have to be. It can actually be a very viable way of putting aside any spare money at the end of the week or month. Though the process may be slow this way, over time, you may crack it open and find that unconsciously, you have saved more than you anticipated.
Saving takes time, and you’re not going to rack up thousands of dollars in a couple of months unless you have a great source of income. However, start early, and by the end of four years, you may have a cushion to support you when the big bills start to hit.
