Food is where your money is going. I hear college students every day complain that they do not have the money they want to do the things they want or to be able to properly save. That is because we are eating all of our money. If you look back at your bank statements, you will find that there are charges from restaurant after restaurant on there.

1 grande coffee from Starbucks would cost you about $2.66, and that is if you do not get anything special. No special requests, no espresso shots, NOTHING. If on the other hand you brewed coffee at home using 1 Keurig pod it would cost $0.50 per pod and you could buy your favorite Starbucks creamer to still have the Starbucks flavor for $0.17 per cup. That is a savings of $1.99 on each cup of coffee you drink. Then imagine that you get coffee 4 times a week every week of the year you would end up saving a total of $413.92! With all of that money you could build up a savings account or buy tickets to a concert or something you didn't have enough money to go do before.

To further my point, the same thing is true for lunch. The average person will spend upwards of $10 at any of the on campus vendors on lunch, but that can vary depending on what you get and where you go. On the other hand, if you were to make your lunch (and a big lunch at that) you could make yourself a sandwich for a maximum of $1.00, have a banana for about $0.25, a granola bar for $0.41 and bring a drink of your choice for about $1.00. If you were to bring a lunch like that you would be spending a total of $2.66 and you could even throw in something extra if you were feeling more hungry. You would save $7.34 a day and if you were to eat out for lunch for times a week every week of the year you would end up saving $1526.72.

Now you are starting to see what I mean. By simply making your own lunch and coffee, without changing any other parts of your life, you would save $1940.64. You are definitely eating all of your money. And you say, but I don't have any time to be doing that! Well then think about all the time you will be saving by not waiting at Starbucks and your favorite lunch spot, and use that time to instead make your lunch. Even though it may mean you have to get out of bed 4 minutes earlier, those 4 minutes add up when you are saving that much money.