<p>I'm OOS and would really, really love to go to UCLA - but I'll only be getting 23,500 in free aid from the govt and UCLA itself according to the preliminary review of my file.</p>
<p>So after tuition and books are paid for, what's the cheapest way I can possibly get by at UCLA? I don't mind living in a triple and having only 11 meals a week (ramen noodles, anyone?). And can I even save money on books from that estimated amount? I am looking and the website says I can be in a triple and have 11 meals/wk for 10497/yr. Can I do any better than that? Does that not include certain living fees?!</p>
<p>I remember making a thread like this last year :)</p>
<p>If you’re trying to live cheaply, my advice is to try to get a room to share in a cheap apartment. ook on Craigslist. If you’re lucky, you can pay ~400-450 a month in rent sharing a room with someone. (some people offer their living rooms for this, but i HIGHLY recommend against doing it. My roommate did it and trust me – it sucks.)</p>
<p>The cheapest nearby area would probably be West LA, but you could go as far as culver city if you had decent transit. (buspasses are like $40 a quarter, but you can easily bike to school which many do, but i never would [LA traffic is crazy!]</p>
<p>After that, you can set aside how much you want to spend on groceries. (This is where it wouldn’t hurt to have a car or live near a grocery store.)</p>
<p>The only difficult thing will be the actual apartment hunt itself which might take as long as two months. My advice would be if you don’t have any family out here to maybe couchsurf for like a month until you find a decent place.</p>