<p>I know many of us are looking to get the most bang for our buck, even with Alabama’s incredible merit scholarships. </p>
<p>Who has tips on how to save money at UA? Ranging from the big (where to live) to the small (where to get coffee)?</p>
<p>Saving money…</p>
<p>As a frosh, the options are more limited, but…
- rent books or buy used online
- get coffee for free at the dining halls with a meal swipe (since swipes are unlimited)
- get a coffee maker for your dorm for coffee on demand. There are “one scoop” types that save money. </p>
<p>After frosh year…
- move to cheaper housing
- Bronze meal plan or lower.
- shop with roomies at Sams Club for toilet paper and other bulk, but needed items. Parents can add you to their card for about $13 a year.</p>
<p>choice of off-campus housing will depend on whether you’ll have a car or not. If you can live off campus and use tram service and only need car on weekends, then great…you won’t need a car permit then. If you don’t have a car, then options may be more limiting.</p>
<p>As a soon to be UA student, I find this post interesting and helpful. And I would love to hear more. Soooo… bump. =)</p>
<p>^^^Don’t join a sorority or fraternity. Get a job at the cafeteria to get free meals (don’t know if Bama offers this, but it worked for me in college). Don’t go home for Thanksgiving and Fall Break. (I think it stinks you have to leave dorms for spring break, as this adds expense for on campus kids). Don’t buy football tickets. Borrow books from previous semester kids, or maybe rent books. Take as many classes as possible under your scholarship so you can graduate in less than four years. Take as many classes during the summer at a local, inexpensive cc, if you’re lucky enough to have one in your town. When you’re on break for Christmas and Spring Break, work three jobs, so you can earn as much money as possible while you’re not going to school. Get a job as an RA, if that gives you free housing. Get a job on campus, for business hours, and get a job off campus for weekend hours. Get an off campus job that provides free food, like a pizza place or sandwich shop or restaurant. Dress simply, bring your wardrobe. Get free tshirts any chance you can. </p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>If you do join a fraternity, look for one that offers a “rebate” as an incentive for your grades/ECs. My son’s fraternity does that, and each semester, he received anywhere from $200 to $300 back on his dues because he was an outstanding student and a campus leader. Also, you do get a break on your meals when you go Greek.</p>
<p>If you choose to live in the suites, I recommend learning to cook. This does save you a few dollars when you do and shop at Publix, Target, Walmart, etc. You can do PB and J for lunch – do not laugh, my mom would say she got through nurse’s training in the 1950s on PB and J, soup and tuna fish sandwiches.</p>
<p>Speaking of Publix, there is a deal where you can get a parent/student gift card. That way, your parents can check the balance and add to it if needed. </p>
<p>As for shopping for clothing, look for the sales. I just got my husband two, very nice dress shirts on clearance – at 75 percent off the regular price.</p>
<p>Yes, once you’re no longer a frosh and can opt for a cheaper meal plan, plan on eating breakfast in your dorm…cereal, toast, bagel, yogurt and so forth are all quick and easy breakfasts.</p>
<p>If you do join a fraternity or sorority, don’t feel as if you have to buy every T shirt and every ZAP photo. Choose one or two T shirts a semester, and take your own photos at events.</p>
<p>The biggest psychological way to save money is to not spend money in the first place when you don’t need to. Start by keeping a log (either on a spreadsheet or in a journal) of everything you spend money on - arrange this in columns such as: housing, food, education expenses (books, supplies), entertainment, discretionary stuff. Seeing where your money goes every week/month is eye-opening and will then help you plan a budget. If you stick to a budget (spending no more from each column than you need to), you will be able to ‘save’ money in the long term. With today’s debit cards, it is super easy to forget, until you get that monthly statement, how much little things add up. If you update your log/spreadsheet every couple of days, you are much more likely to adjust your spending and keep within budget. Sorry that this isn’t exactly what you asked for in terms of saving money at UA, but I guarantee it will save you money anywhere in LIFE! ;)</p>
<p>Since you will have the freshman meal plan, use it. Bring snacks, such as fruit, cereal and sandwiches back to your dorm so you aren’t tempted to hit the snack machines. Buy cases of soda and water at the grocery store, instead of from the machines. That 2 or 3 dollars a day adds up. </p>
<p>Set your self a weekly “fun” allowance and take it as cash. When the money is gone, you don’t get any more until the next week.</p>
<p>One thing that I think bites some students in the tush is when they have friends who can spend a LOT more than they can.</p>
<p>My older son experienced this his frosh year. He and his best buddy both had the NMF scholarship (back then it included 4 years of housing). His friend also had PACT which provided about $8k per year for spending money. Plus friend’s parents gave a $400 a month allowance and paid for whatever the NMF didn’t cover . So, that student had well over $1000 a month just to blow on whatever! </p>
<p>within about a month, they and another pal tired of eating 3 meals a day on campus and soon began wandering around The Strip. Son quickly blew thru his own allowance (Neither of my sons worked as tutors their first semester). Son’s “emergency credit card” quickly started having balances that this mom wasn’t happy about. So, a little more guidance was needed…and a job! (to earn his own money AND to keep him busier so he wouldn’t have so much time to spend!)</p>
<p>So, be aware that you may end up with friends who have more money and don’t be tempted to try to “keep up”. And, once you feel settled and ready, get a part-time job so you will have some spending flexibility.</p>
<p>The tutoring center is a great place to work…no weekend work!</p>
<p>Mom2ck, where on the Bama website can you find job listings for the tutoring center? My D found a few student assistants jobs listed, but none for the tutoring center.</p>
<p>This link should help? <a href=“Job Search”>Job Search;
It has student assistant jobs, yes, but there are a couple of tutoring positions available as well.</p>
<p>Mom2ck, where on the Bama website can you find job listings for the tutoring center</p>
<p>I’ve never looked for job listings for the tutoring center.</p>
<p>My kids just filled out the app on the tutoring center’s website and sent an email to the director.</p>
<p>the app link can be found in the left column…
<a href=“http://www.ctl.ua.edu/[/url]”>http://www.ctl.ua.edu/</a></p>
<p>I think this is the tutor link you are looking for.</p>
<p><a href=“Job Search”>Job Search;
<p>While it may be counter intuitive, sometimes it makes sense to spend more money now to save money later. This especially makes sense when saving money on something might put one at increased risk for health or financial problems later on. </p>
<p>On the topic of having friends with a lot more money, try to spend time with them doing activities which are free or inexpensive and should y’all decide to go out to eat, don’t be ashamed to use coupons or suggest meeting for a late lunch instead of an early dinner to take advantage of lunch specials.</p>
<p>If you decide to start going to bars once you turn 21, be aware that alcohol prices can vary widely between bars and that night out can easily run $20-50 after a couple drinks and cover charges. </p>
<p>All things considered, it can be very inexpensive to live a comfortable life as a student by shopping the sales and not always needing to have the latest and greatest items.</p>
Since there has been some discussion on other threads about the high cost of attending UA, I thought I would resurrect this old one because there are some great ideas here. Further to my own post #7 above, I feel the best way to save money for the future is to do what I will call “not-spend” money in the first place. Here are some ideas of how to “not-spend”.
• Live in a traditional dorm instead of suite-style. http://housing.ua.edu/new_students/rates.cfm You can “not-spend” about $3150/year right there.
• Don’t spend your $325/semester Bama Dining Dollars (can be reimbursed to you). http://actcard.ua.edu/creditrequestform/ . You’ve just “not-spent” another $650/year.
• Don’t bring a car to school.
• Ask your car insurance company to reduce your premiums based on student being far from home (i.e., not driving/not driving as much). Or, take your student off your policy completely.
• Check with your homeowners insurance to see if your policy covers your student’s belongings (thus not-spending on renter’s insurance).
• Shop hard online for bargains on used/rental textbooks. Much has been written about this on CC forums.
• Buy plane tix well in advance (if applicable to your family situation). Clear your cookies before you search online for tix, because most sites can see that you have repeatedly looked at a certain destination so they know that you’re keen to get there and their prices can reflect that, usually not in your favor.
Those are the obvious things. But here is something that might astound you:
Determine how much money you will/can save by not having your student at home: food, gas, ‘mad’ money/allowances, high school registration fees, music lessons, private tutoring, test prep fees, school sports fees, school events fees, school club/EC fees, travel/club sports fees & tournament fees, parking permits, gym memberships, sports training fees, coaching fees, museum memberships, school pictures, dance tickets, etc. You will be surprised at how much you spent on your kids in high school! (Do I really need that 3rd TV in the basement that the now-gone kid will not be using? Nope, and that’s another $10/mo “not-spent” on my Direct TV bill.)…
…And then (this is the uber important part!), put that money aside and “not-spend” it. Set up a direct debit each month into a separate savings account for the amount you are able to not spend on your now-gone student. I calculated that our daughter will not-spend us $3927/year once she leaves for college. Yes, I will turn around and spend that $3927 on her college…but it is not additional spending I have to make, is the point. Plus, I just realised that the phone contract is up in November and we’ll no longer have to pay for that interest-free financing of 2 new smartphones we got 20 months ago, so cha-ching, another $687.24/year not-spent coming soon. 
Talk with your students in advance of them attending college about these finances. Just because many of your students have tuition scholarships which have ‘saved’ you money, doesn’t mean that they can/should then turn around and un-spend all of that savings! Agreeing on allowances and a spending budget (or, rather, a “not-spending” budget) ahead of time will save you (no additional pun intended) a lot of headache.
If you go out to eat, ask for water. A soft drink at a restaurant can set you back around $2.50 to $3, not to mention the added tip. Order an appetizer version of a dish, which is usually cheaper.
Aeromom offers some good tips about saving money while at Alabama … or any college.
That said, I echo the importance of checking your insurance policy on the car. For example, when my younger son went to UAH two years ago, he did not have a car with him. So, his insurance dropped to $250 a year. He now has a car. While it is licensed in Virginia, our insurance company wrote a policy for him for Alabama, and that is a $300 savings each year.
Also, if you do live in one of the super suites, consider doing breakfast and lunch in your room. My older son, a Bama grad, had back-to-back-to-back classes one year, and making it to lunch was nearly impossible. So he went to the grocery store and bought PB and J and bread weekly. Also carried a bottle or two of water with him. He saved considerably on his meals.