Here are a few tips about food plans and other college life decisions to save you some money in the long run. While about half of these tips are about food, that is all of my spending habits in college so far and that's basically college life for most students. There are a multitude of ways to save money in this day in age but I hope these few simple ideas help you out.

1. Standard Food Plan

If you are an undergraduate and forced to purchase a meal plan, go with the Standard Meal Plan. With the Standard food plan, individuals pay the same rate at the start of the year but have $800 more money to spend than those on Flex Accounts. While the standard plan forces students to eat three times a day, they can spend $800 more than the other students!! It is mind-boggling that the institution takes this money and the students on Flex never pay attention to the amount they are spending each day! On Standard, you must purchase $5.50 for breakfast, $8.00 for lunch, $8.25 for dinner or lose the money forever! This forces students to be more responsible and budget what they are spending with an added bonus of keeping their $800.

2. Shop Around

Before buying school supplies and other life supplies, look at different markets. Purchase Great Value items instead of the expensive brands. Don't buy a banana for $.50 at store A when you can easily google the information to find that store B has a banana for $0.20 This won't save you a lot every time you look but in the long run you could save enough to go on a nicer vacation or have a nice savings account if something unexpected happens.

3. Use Old Notebooks

Do not waste money on a bunch of new notebooks when you have perfectly fine paper in your junk drawer or in a bin with old homework!! If a notebook or folder has used stuff in it, take it out or just accept the old work in there and add some new work to the fresh paper. Another option is always to take out the good paper and work with that!! Lots of options for re-use!! For folders, I will just make one folder of old work I want to keep and then re-use all of the other folders. If a folder is falling apart, contemplate if the folder is more expensive than the tape you could use to fix it (which goes back to "Shop Around").

4. Purchase Containers/Ziplock bags to Keep Food Fresh

I know I use Ziplock bags constantly to store my extra food from meals and then I eat the food as I study or if I get bored. Having containers when you purchase the food also saves you money because, at University of Dayton, the restaurants charge $.10 for a to-go container that you barely use! So purchase some reusable containers and bags so that you can have a plethora of food at your fingertips and save money!!

5. Purchase Off-Brand Items

Why purchase name brand notebooks when you have partially used ones or just regular notebooks and materials for half of the price!! When comparing prices of drinks and an ounce of drink A costs $.70 while the other name brand ounce of liquid costs $2.50 which should be bought? On another note, name brand sneakers are not as cool as you might think, just save some money and risk that people really do not care about your sneakers.

6. Stay On Campus

If you leave campus on a daily basis and spend money, you are probably spending more than if you stayed on campus. With gas prices, wear and tear on your car, risk of accident and the prices around the area, plus you are already paying for food on campus. If you are running out of campus or biking, you will have lots of fun with adventures but spending money at restaurants on a daily basis will be less beneficial for your bank account.