6 tips on how to save money as a student

University is one of the biggest steps in life — at least for now anyway — and one of the biggest questions is: What is the cost of university? There are two main cost buckets related to university. Let’s take a look at them below:

We’re going to mostly cover the cost of living because that is the part that you have the most control over. You can always choose another university with lower tuition costs, but that is for another post.

You pay for insurance (health + dental) as part of your tuition. So, if your family has insurance, you can opt out of this and save money. It differs by university, but on average you will save $250/semester which is a solid $500 for the whole year.

Just go to your student center and ask how you can opt out. You’ll just need to provide proof of your parents’ insurance.

Find out everything that is free or very cheap on campus and use it. Good examples are:

Also, because you are a student, you should register for BMOs student account, because it has no fees and you get a free SPC card which is fantastic! The only thing you should get off of quickly is campus residence — it’s way too expensive.

Don’t eat out — it’s not that hard to cook and you’ll spend less money. Save money on groceries by going to Walmart, Food Basics, or No Frills. Never buy brand names and instead, get the cheapest option — usually the store’s own brand or a no-name brand.

Buy your groceries early in the morning so that you don’t waste a lot of time, but also so that you can price match (download Flipp, it has all the flyers there and allows you to save all the cheaper items so you can show them at the cashier), use coupons, and get home fast. Cook on Sunday for the rest of the week; I say Sunday because it’s usually a pretty chill day. Put everything into reusable containers and into the refrigerator.

Also, always check the Red Flag Deals coupon and freebie section, it’s hit or miss, but there’s at least one really good post every month. Their hot deals section is good for phone plans and sales.

Never ever use the school book store. You should always buy used books, whether its from Kijiji, a Facebook group, a friend, or a turtle; do not ever buy anything from the book store.

Also — never sell any of your books to the book store, they’ll buy them for 10% of the price. Sell and buy on Kijiji, student groups on Facebook, friends, or anything else.

How to save more money? Take a look at all your expenses. Write them down, enter them in Excel, or however you want to track them. You need to analyze what you actually need vs what is nice to have.

Are you paying more than $60 for your phone, you need to find cheaper deals, or go with Chatr, Wind, or another carrier. Don’t book trips at expensive times, the first week of school is usually the least productive so use that for travel because it will probably be cheap — think early January/September when everyone is coming back.

Stop using Tim Horton's/Starbucks to buy coffee — it is SO expensive. Make your own coffee, make your own sandwiches, you should already be cooking lunch and dinner if you’re this far. Don’t pay for any premium version of apps, don’t get Netflix during school, and don’t buy clothes unless they’re on sale.

Side note: Amazon prime student is a pretty good deal IMO — for $40 a year it offers a lot of value (shipping, Amazon Music, Amazon Video and more).

How to make money as a student? Honestly it depends — do you want to get very high grades and depend on scholarships and grants? Or will you get a part time job or an internship/co-op? Choose the one that makes sense to you. Part time jobs are easier to find and more flexible; if you can find a part time job with the university, you’re probably getting paid more and can put it on your resume.

I personally find studying boring and not worth the effort and I didn’t need a 3.5 CGPA for the jobs I was going for. You should keep your CGPA above 3.0 though. Personally, if you can get a CGPA of 3.5 with a part time job, then do it, you will have less time, especially if you’re part of a club or two, but you should be getting decent scholarship money.

Co-ops are only attainable if you are in a co-op program. If you’re not then you are going to want to apply for summer internships. There are some fall and winter internships, but its way less than summer.

If you have any questions or want me to write about a specific topic — send me an email at 5to9works@gmail.com. I’d love to help out!

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