A College Version of Occasionally “Skipping” Out on The Bill

Being a college student can sometimes be more expensive than one person can handle. Living as an independent student your money goes in three ways: 60% goes to college, 20% goes to personal bills, and 10% goes to your personal affairs. The struggle is getting to the 10% and actually spending it without becoming completely broke before your next payday. 

There’s this funny saying “Money can’t buy everything,” but the only people living by that are the people with the money. To a certain extent, it is true because you can’t buy friends or that occasional family member that you actually like. Now, what I’m going to suggest is slightly selfish and completely beneficial only to you, BUT beggars cannot be choosers.

1) Streamline TV: Watching TV can be a good past time when you’re not crammed with work, but subscribing to multiple streaming devices can cost more than your car insurance bill. A way to get around having free live television is to ask a family member if you can sign into their cable provider via the app. Things like Disney+, Netflix, or Hulu can be shared easily through friends, significant others, or anybody that’s willing to give up the goods.

2) Free food?: The best way to score a free meal is to go on a date and not forget a to-go plate. Now I’m not saying use people for free meals because eventually karma is going to come for you. But your options vary from dates, cook nights at a friend’s, and a school meal plan. You can even throw in the occasional trip home where you can eat up all the food in your family home.

3) Early payments: As far as normal life bills go, the easiest thing to do is to pay any annoyingly frustrating bills a couple of months early as much as you can to prevent future worry. Even though you wouldn’t actually be skipping out on your monthly bill, you’ll at least feel better knowing its one less thing to worry about.

Keep in mind these tips are based on paying the bare minimum or not paying at all. Sometimes it’s easier to go half in on what you can offer, and ask someone to meet you halfway. Hopefully, life flows on from there. In an ideal world, college students would get a free subscription to anything and everything, but this isn’t an ideal world. Remember for every person that helps you out, put on your gratitude pants and say, “thank you.”