Frugality: How to Spend the Little Money You Don't Have

                “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

-          1 Timothy 6:10

Paul was right. History has shown that money and its pursuit have ended, time and again, in hatred, hurt, and destruction. Kings have killed those with larger fortunes and taxed the impoverished to fund a life of luxury. Stores are robbed and people are killed because people have come to value wealth more than the life of another. Lawsuits are filed daily when folks are afraid they’ve been cheated of even the smallest amounts in the race for property and privilege. Yeah, Paul had it right when he said that money is a root of all kinds of evil.

But Paul never attended a modern-day university. He wasn’t aware of just how much it costs now to get an education; my tuition alone this year (before books, gas, meals after 7 p.m., and any source of entertainment) was $25,826. How much did Paul have to pay before getting his job as the most featured author in the New Testament? Nowhere near that amount, I bet.

But where does all of that money come from? Every college student in America knows that the four years you spend in a classroom after high school are both the busiest and most expensive years that one may ever live. That’s why, in this blog, I am going to offer five seemingly-simple-but-often-overlooked concepts for saving money while in college, including things like how to save on common dorm room items, how to make your own impressive cuisine, and how to recycle your leftover trash. These tips are easy and direct, and, with them, you might just save yourself from becoming one more root on the tree of evil. Or, at the very least, you might make it through school without being so broke all the time.

One can only hope.

Saving on the Little Stuff

College is, for most people, a first-try at being on your own.  That means you wake yourself up, make your own schedule, do your own laundry, and spend your own money. Usually.

                The latter of that bunch is always the hardest. It is surprising how quickly money disappears when you not only have to buy the normal things like food and movie tickets, but also the small but very necessary items like toothpaste, trash bags, and shampoo. It all adds up, and, before you know it, you’re out of money and you can’t afford to buy laundry detergent.

                But there are ways to avoid this tragedy. Not every college student is doomed to the pitfall that is overspending. In fact, using modern technology and the tips in this blog, you can morph from a typical first-time over-spender to a frugal smart-shopping machine. Then you can make all of your dorm buddies jealous over your keen ability to afford toothpaste, or your laundry detergent collection.

Tip #1: Ditch the name brands

                According to Walmart.com, the difference in prices between the Hefty (Name brand) EasyFlaps 13-gallon trash bags (80 count) and the Great Value (Walmart brand) FlapTie 13-gallon trash bags (80 count) is $0.90 per box. Now, while that might not seem like a lot of money saved, think of it in this way: to buy the name brand instead of the generic brand is to spend an extra dollar on something that is meant to be thrown away.

The difference between these two items? $0.90.

                To make a long story short, if both products function in the same way, springing for the generic brand instead of the name brand will save you some bucks.

Tip #2: Make everything count

                Every time I do laundry, I see first-time guys doing their laundry. They make a habit of overloading the washers and rarely separate by color. Then, it comes time to add detergent, and they dump the bottle upside-down over the washing machine without ever bothering to measure. There is a reason that the cap on your detergent bottle has a few lines on the inside for weighing out your pours.

                This is not a way to make your hard-earned dollar last. Instead, you should try measuring everything: there’s a reason the manufacturer suggests a particular amount for each use. This could be said for shampoo, soap, and conditioner too, as well as deodorant, mouthwash and other items.

                To maximize your time between buys, use only what you’re supposed to. No more.

Tip #3: If you can do it yourself, do it

                How much does a haircut cost nowadays? How about a car wash? I don’t know the answers to those questions exactly, but I do know this: it’s more than the average college student needs to spend. Instead of taking the easy route by paying someone else to do things for you, do them yourself.

                By doing this, you’ll not only save money, but you’ll also learn skills that can help you later on in your life. Does your car need an oil change? Why not try it yourself? Save your money and instead invest a little time. You'd be surprised how easy it is to make a birthday gift for your roommate instead of buying something expensive or how little it costs to make your own meals instead of eating fast food.

That doesn't seem so hard, now does it?

                And there you have it: the best tips money (or no money) can buy when it comes to saving in the little areas of college life. And, guess what? You got them for free, which means you’re doing better already.

Personal Pizza Snacks: A Masterpiece

Art comes in many mediums. Van Gough chose painting, Bukowski chose poetry, Bruckheimer chose film, and Taylor Swift chose to sing. Each person is an artist in his or her own way, and each is solely responsible for producing something beautiful (Teardrops on My Guitar was a stroke of genius).

                The medium that I’ve chosen (at least for this blog) is my microwave. Why? Well, this blog is primarily about learning to save money while in college, and, if there is one thing that every college student has in common, it’s that they have to eat. Drive-thrus get expensive very quickly, and microwaves produce the next-fastest food I know.

                So here’s the masterpiece: they’re called Personal Pizza Snacks (PPS for short), and they’re quick, tasty, and cheap. Also, pretty fun to make. Take a look with this recipe:

Ingredients (in order of appearance):

• French Bread: $1.50
• Pizza Sauce: $1.50
• Pepperoni: $3.00
• Italian Style Cheese: $2.00
• Ravenous Hunger: priceless

In total, this costs about $8.00 and provides around 30 snacks. Good luck beating that anywhere else.

Here’s step 1: Slice your French bread into pieces and place them on a regular-sized plate.

Step 2: Spread your pizza sauce in even amounts over the pieces of bread to make a small layer of festive flavor.

Sorry for the blurriness; I got too excited.

Step 3: Next, top the bread/sauce-combo with pepperonis. Now it almost looks like a real pizza.

Step 4: Add the last ingredient, cheese (also, love), and you’re almost ready to chow.

Step 5: Microwave your concoction for 30-60 seconds, depending on your settings.

If done right, it should yield this:

Step 6: Eat them all. 

                There’s no shame in pigging out on a meal you made yourself, right? It’s easy to work up an appetite. And now you can feed your hunger without starving your wallet.

True Life: I Made Laundry Last

“I did laundry about three weeks ago, and I ran out of detergent when I did it. I don’t have the cash to get more, so I haven’t done it since.” This was a story told to me by one of my close friends, Kevin Lewis. However, even as scary as it may sound having to go three weeks without clean clothes, it is not a story of horror. Instead, it is a story of triumph, as Kevin has accomplished a feat that most college students have only dreamed of: he went three weeks without doing laundry.

Here's Kevin getting a free cookie -- another great money-saving tip.

                Laundry is expensive. Even here at University of the Cumberlands where laundry facilities are free to use, washing clothes can become a costly luxury thanks to the prices of laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and more. Knowing this, it isn’t difficult to realize that cutting out that expense or, at the very least, lessening the regularity of its occurrence is a key proponent in frugality as a college student.

                Kevin has unlocked the secret. Here’s what he said: “I conserved my laundry by minimizing the wear on my lower-traffic items. That means things like jackets, over-shirts, and jeans.” To do this, you’ve got to be careful. It is easy to throw on any shirt, run around campus until you soak it in sweat, and then toss it into the washer later. That is, unless you can’t afford to wash anything.

                “Take your jacket or over-shirt off before you get sweaty,” Kevin advised. “That way you can wear it again before you have to wash it.” He also mentioned reusing towels by hanging them to dry instead of tossing them in the dirty clothes hamper immediately. Kevin insists that, if you are careful, you can go for weeks without washing clothes. Or, at the very least, you can minimize the amount you need to wash, leaving only the necessities (you know what these are).

                Kevin’s advice was on laundry, but it is also very applicable to our topic of saving money in other ways. The less you do laundry, the less you have to buy supplies, and the less money you waste. Pretty simple. And similarly, the less you eat out, the less you pay to restaurants, if you use plastic instead of paper plates, you will spend less at Walmart. I guess what it boils down to, though, is this: Minimize your laundry to maximize your money. 

Recycle! (in your dorm room)

                Recycling is a resource conservation habit that people around the world are picking up in order to reduce waste, prevent pollution, and save energy. It is an alternative to waste removal that yields positive financial, environmental, and social results.

                But this blog is about saving money as a college student, and, aside from the very, very small monetary incentive they offer for recycling, there really isn’t a lot of immediate benefit for your wallet (this, however, does not mean you should avoid recycling; for more information, click here). So here is an alternative way to recycle resources within your dorm room that will keep you from shelling out unnecessary cash for products you could reuse: dorm room recycling.

                Jared Coleman, a fellow University of the Cumberlands student, offered a few practical uses for the empty drink containers you undoubtedly have scattered across your room. "The most obvious is just to reuse them," he said. "I do it all the time and I have saved so much." Plastic bottles (like those used for bottled soda, water, or Gatorade) are ideal for refilling and taking on runs, hikes, or to the gym. It is simple but effective, and it saves you the $1.25 you would spend buying bottled water from a vending machine. That adds up quickly (trust me on this one).

                This next option is a bit more creative (and, no doubt, more for the female demographic ), but also a bit more glamorous. Instead of tossing out the glass bottles you have in your room from soda or other perishable products, try making something like this:

                It's a homemade vase, and it would be a great gift for anyone who appreciates hard work, thoughtfulness, and/or money saved. It is simple, tasteful, and, above all, very cheap.

All hands on deck.

                All kinds of items within your dorm room are reusable; plastic bottles can become piggybanks or flower vases, and used paper or cardboard can be a door stop or a prop to fix that wobbly desk. Heck, I even built a boat (not life-sized) out of old Popsicle sticks once and sailed it in the flood after a hard rain. It isn’t hard to get creative with the way you recycle in your dorm room; all it takes is a little time and a lack of money. If you are a college student, I’d say you have both.