Comments on: 10 More Ways to Waste Money In College

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:23:17 +0000

Another option for free TV is over-the-air antenna. I bought a decent indoor antenna that picks up 17 channels in my area (it would probably pick up even more channels in a big city). Not only is it free, but the picture quality is better than cable or satellite, because it is not compressed because there is unlimited bandwidth available. Plus, my laptop came with a built-in TV tuner, so that saves me from buying a separate TV, also.

I totally agree with the bottled water. It is expensive and is bad for the environment.

I don’t ever use postage. I almost always use e-mail. Or, if I need to send something across town, I just hand-deliver it.

Regarding a new car, don’t even have a used car. I am right now going to the local community college, and my parents always have an unused car available for me to drive. When I transfer to a university, they have a deal with the public transit in which students can ride the bus for free with a Student ID. I am also planning to get a good-quality used bike, and also carpool with other students for groceries, church, etc.

By: quail

quail — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:30:11 +0000

Good points about the shaving. The business model for modern disposable razors is to get you to spend an astronomical amount of money on razors and for you to upgrade to the newest, most expensive thing out there.

But I must disagree that the only way to go is with an electric razor. For me, the electric razor never did that good of a job. Even after using one in college for several years, I found that a blade worked better and faster in the end. Search out the world of double edge razors on the net. There’s hordes of people who can show you how to shave cheaply with a DE razor, and the proper shave cream. $3.00 for 10 blades that last me 4 to 6 months, and $6.00 for a tube of Proraso shave cream that lasts over a year…

By: someonelse

someonelse — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:24:34 +0000

What about going to college is the first place, lets see you get a job after graduation. Quit now or better yet don’t go at all. I know why too many College graduates including myself(Computer Science). who are unemployed.

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:18:55 +0000

I don’t know anyone who rents DVDs at uni – it’s just too much hassle when there are online services.

How about takeaways? I’ve spent as much on 4 takeaways this year (2 weeks into term) as I have on the rest of my food budget. £15 on 2 pizzas? That’s quite a large sum.

By: Nate Desmond

Nate Desmond — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:38:21 +0000

@ Tom

Good point! Pre-made coffee is another great way to waste money!

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:16:06 +0000

Decent list, but neither one listed Coffee shop type drinks…like Starbucks and all of it’s competitors…I mean $4 for coffee with whipped cream…or just some ice and sugar thrown in???? A coffeemaker is one of the best cheap purchases you can buy…

By: Stefan | StudySuccessful.com

Stefan | StudySuccessful.com — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:45:28 +0000

I never rent DVDs, I can download them. I think it isn’t illegal in the Netherlands.
I am against smoking and even more against bottled water. Not only the prize is high, the effects on the environment are also high. Imagine, you live in the Netherlands, you have the best tapped water in the world but you buy water which comes from springs in Switzerland. So the water needs to be shipped to the Netherlands, be packaged, be shipped to your store and you are going to buy it. This means a lot of extra trucks on the road, so a lot of extra oil spilled. Drink tapped water, it is fantastic!

I throw away leftovers too much, I don’t keep good enough track of what is going to expire when. I will look at that!

Nice tips Nate.

By: Ibrahim | ZenCollegeLife.com

Ibrahim | ZenCollegeLife.com — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:23:45 +0000

As far as DVDs and Cable TV go, I use redbox and hulu.com. Redbox is where you can rent a dvd for a dollar a day, and it’s like a vending machine, so you don’t need memberships or anything like that. And I think we all know about Hulu.

As a grown adult I still wouldn’t buy a new car.

cigarettes and bottled water are for noobs.

Postage? You mean for snail mail? I didn’t know people still used that. Same with checks.

Throwing away leftovers? You might as well throw away gold.

Energy drinks? What ever happened to the good ole days when college students just took caffeine pills? They were only 3 dollars for like 50 200mg pills!

Finally, disposable razers? I thought college kids were supposed to be bums, that’s why I just don’t shave.

Great post Nate, great tips, very insightful!

By: Nate Desmond

Nate Desmond — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:02:10 +0000

Good point Stephanie! I guess the point on DVDs applies more to those who buy DVDs than to those who rent them.
I don’t watch movies much myself, so I am out of the loop on that.

By: Stephanie PTY

Stephanie PTY — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:17:45 +0000

While I agree with you on nearly all of these, I’m not so sure about DVD rentals. Maybe it’s just my experience, but I knew very few people who used DVD rentals in college. There seemed to be three types of people at my school:

80%: Downloaded their movies illegally. Yeah, it was a tech school.
15%: Wasted a ton of money buying DVDs and building up a huge collection. A collection which had to be moved every year when summer came along, and which is now becoming outdated because of Blu-ray discs.
4%: Used the free video “rentals” available at our school library. They didn’t have the newest stuff, but between the library’s collection and the Residence Hall Associations collection, there were quite a few free and legal movies to be borrowed on campus.

Oh, and the extra 1%? I had two friends who figured out how to, between them and their roommates, keep signing up for Blockbuster Online free trials. They got those free trials for about a year without ever paying a cent for rentals. Other than that, they mostly just borrowed DVDs from that 15% that built up huge collections.