<p>Not a parent (another parsimonious student here), but I do have some tips to save $$:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>if you need a phone, get Virgin Mobile. Buy the cheapest phone from them from Walgreens (or another drugstore). Get the cheapest phone that allows you to only pay $20 for 3 months of service. It runs on Sprint, so the coverage is good, and you can use it only for emergencies. Otherwise I suggest borrowing your friends’ phones to call home on weekends.(you’d be busy with schoolwork though, so that might not be so much of an issue). It costs $.18 a minute/$.15 per text. Not bad, but the cheapest pay-as-you-go phone plan I could find.</p></li>
<li><p>Chase always sends out bank account offers to me, saying “get $125 for opening an account with us” and all you have to put in is a min. of $100, and they’ll deposit that money probably within two weeks of opening the account. Take the money out and close the account after they give you that money. Find banks that give out offers like this. I haven’t done this yet (I don’t plan on closing the account though), and I’m relatively ignorant of the whole banking game. This might help you establish credit.</p></li>
<li><p>With the credit you’ve established in the above suggestion, you can open a credit card. Open one that gives you frequent flier miles, and charge everything on that card. That way you can earn credit and miles to fly home with. </p></li>
<li><p>If you could spare time on the return trip home, take Amtrak or a bus. Granted, it will take a few days going across the country, but you might save a few hundred doing so. </p></li>
<li><p>Not sure if you’re college allows you to stay on campus during breaks, but if they don’t, couch surf or go to a homeless shelter. </p></li>
<li><p>If you need to earn easy money during the school year and you have a bit to spare, invest some capital concert tickets and scalp them (if you don’t have moral qualms about this). Justin Bieber, Jonas brothers, singers that little girls love, they always work. NOTE: this is a bit risky because there might not be as much interest in the tickets as you first anticipated, but I assure you, entertainers like Lady Gaga will definitely command a lot of money for her tickets (especially in places where the gay community abounds). Just decode the vibe of the people in and around the college, and find opportunities to scalp (stubhub, ebay, craigslist -> my fav. option b/c no fees). You can make probably $40-60 for cheaply scalping (weird oxymoron) a pair of concert tickets.</p></li>
<li><p>Find stuff to scalp, and be an ebay scalper. Not the best option either, but there are plenty of things you can scalp, like limited edition video games, etc. All it requires some capital and a little bit of research. Perhaps you can find the various people who have knowledge in these different scalping areas on campus. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>I probably sound like a jackass for suggesting you to scalp things, but it really is a way to earn some money without doing much, maybe just a little bit of research and relying mostly on hype. If you decide to do this you’ll make some bank.</p>