How to Cover Your Expenses and Stay Out of Debt in College

With rising tuition costs, college students are graduating with more and more debt than ever before. Not only are students struggling to pay back their loans post-college, but during and after college, students are racking up credit card debt and unaware of how to budget the money they do have.

So who’s to blame? No one and everyone at the same time! Unfortunately, being in debt and living outside of our means is common in our culture and often times, people learn this from their families.

Can YOU break the cycle? Yes, you can! Through my personal experiences taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course, learning from Tony Robbins, working with college students for the last 11 years, and once being a college student myself, I know you can.  Here are 4 SIMPLE steps to take to cover all of your expenses and start saving.

STEP 1: Write Down ALL of Your Monthly Expenses that You are Responsible for Paying

Tip: If you have no idea how much you spend, like most students, then look at your bank statements for the last month or two in order to get a good feel on where your money is going. My girlfriend even prints her monthly statements off and assigns a category to each expense, such as “food, entertainment, bill, etc” to track where she’s spending her money.

Examples of what the average student may spend in a given month:  

Apartment rent – $350 (outside of the dorm)
Apartment utilities/Internet –$50
Gas – $70
Groceries excluding a meal plan – $150
Cell phone – $80
Car insurance – $70
Dining out – $80
Entertainment/party – $100
Clothes/supplies – $50

Total: $1,000

(FYI, I’m assuming you’ve already paid for this semester of school, your parents have helped, or you’ve received a loan. I am also assuming you have a meal plan already paid for).

STEP 2: Download the Mint.com App

This app is a great tool to link all of your accounts together in one spot. It allows you to get a snapshot of your debt, expenses, and bank accounts. You’ll be reminded of upcoming bills, low balances of an account, and you can set up a budget for each category to make sure you stay on track. I believe this is one the best free tools to use for basic budgeting. A lot of students overspend because they aren’t aware of their spending or cash flow situation. Being able to open the app quickly and instantly see what you just spent that day or if you’re on track with your budget is half the battle. With this app, you will actually be aware of your spending and then, can do something about it!

STEP 3: Get Creative!
Once you start noticing your spending patterns, you may realize that you may need to find a flexible job around classes that will allow you to make money. The thing is, you probably have a busy schedule at school already and don’t want to have to bust your tail at a minimum wage job, just to make ends meat.

Think about the rut students are in. If they’re one of the lucky ones and making above minimum-wage with $8 per hour, they are only bringing home $6 dollars per hour after 25% of their paycheck is taken out for taxes. Let’s say you’re a student spending about $1,000 a month like the example above.The student who needs to cover $1,000 a month will need to work 42 hours a week just to cover their expenses (after taxes). In order to cover your expenses, you may want to get creative for work.

Ideas to make money around school:
1. Find a typical lame and boring $8 per hour job

2. Donate plasma 
3. Sell items on craigslist or eBay
4. Have friends pay you to do their laundry or type up their study notes
5. Become a CUTCO rep (Some reps on our team work 10 -15 hours a week and take home $1000+ a month.)

Don’t let the excuses “I don’t know what to do” or “I don’t have time” keep you from staying out of debt in college. Everyone is busy but will make time for what is important to them. If you don’t believe me, read this article on time management and how to make a Google calendar, and be the most productive and profitable you’ve ever been this semester.

BONUS for Cutco Reps Before the FINAL STEP BELOW

Let’s say you need $1,000 a month to cover your expenses, and you also want to save $500 a month for investing or to open up your own branch office.

If you are still reading this article, you are probably an above average person. Someone who is responsible, growth minded, and an experienced rep making 30%. At 30% commission, that means you need to sell $5,000 a month to take home $1,500. With the company average of $250 average orders and a selling ratio of 60%, that means you’ll need to set up 35 demos per month, or about 9 demos per week. This could be one to two demos, five days a week, OR you could go ham on the weekend with four demos on Saturday and five demos on Sunday around homework. Even if you don’t have a vehicle or live near your hometown, you can still demo it up! Check out this really cool link to the Cutco virtual demo.

Since it takes five phone calls (with averages) to set up one demo, that means you need to make 50 calls a week, which could be 10 each morning or it could be 20 on a team night and 30 calls during the Saturday morning Rising Star meeting. Overall time spent would be less than 20 hours a week to make $1,500 a month for current reps on the team who have hit a few promotions, not to mention priceless experience to add to your resume.

STEP 4: Stick to a Budget and Start Saving

Dave Ramsey lays it out so well with this Ben vs. Arthur example (see chart below) that shows how early investing can have a huge impact on how much money you’ll be able to accumulate over your lifetime. Even though Ben invested a mere $16k as compared to Arthur’s $76k, Ben ended up with an EXTRA $750k to retire with because he started early. With your new budget, extra income source, and savings goals, begin investing in a Roth IRA with your money. The best time to start…..is NOW!

7 keys to CRUSHING your finals without being STRESSED

Do you hate finals week? Do you feel like you need to pull all nighters or slam Red Bulls to have a chance at passing them?

Here are some tips I’ve learned to help you crush your finals without the need to feel stressed or overwhelmed.

1. TURN OFF ALL NOTIFICATIONS ON YOUR PHONE

How are you supposed to get anything done if you are watching Snaps, scrolling through Instagram, reading your emails, and constantly hearing dings on your phone? We live in such a need-to-know-instantly culture that we are addicted to our phones. Turn off all your notifications or turn on airplane mode when you are studying.

I just read “The One Thing” which talks about focusing on one thing at a time. 28% of our day is wasted by distractions. Don’t let 5 hours in the library only account for 3 hours of actual study time.

2. DO HOURS OF POWER

I know you may be in college, so I need to clarify this is not a “Power Hour.” This is a focus strategy. Instead of trying to power through endless hours of studying, break it into chunks.

For every 50 minutes of focused study time, take 5-10 minutes for a break. Those breaks could include doing jumping jacks to get the blood flowing, meditation to clear the mind, checking social media because you’re going through withdrawals, or going to the bathroom. You will return for the next 50 minutes rejuvenated and ready to focus.

3. DRINK YOUR BODY WEIGHT IN WATER

I know this doesn’t seem like it relates, however, water is very important. Our bodies are made up of mostly water, and we need to stay hydrated. Even though it doesn’t give you a kick like coffee does, it will be better for your body, leaving you balanced throughout your entire study session. Drinking tons of water will keep you cleansed, give you better focus, and not leave you feeling drained and lethargic.

4. GO SOMEWHERE WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS

Too many students study with TV or music on in the background. You aren’t absorbing everything you can because part of your brain is focusing on what’s going on in the background. Even the library can be distracting. It’s a great place to go study, but most likely you’re spending half your time saying “hi” to all of the friends you see, getting distracted by side conversations, and staring at the cute girl in your English class across the room.Find a place with little traffic, little noise, and somewhere that puts you in a good mood.

5. DO THE MIRACLE MORNING DAILY

I could write a whole website on the what the Miracle Morning has done for my life. 😉 Essentially, it’s doing all the important activities that we should do, but we claim not to have the time or energy to do. What I think is funny, is that when it’s time to step up and prep for finals, students cut back on healthy habits. They think they need to spend all day studying. However, it’s even more important to keep those good habits up to be on your “A game.”

How good would you feel if before you studied, you exercised, reflected on what you’re grateful for, had a chance to clear your head, got pumped up with a self-confidence affirmation, and read 10 pages of an inspiring book? EVERY student has an hour a day to complete these activities daily to keep them in tip top shape for crushing their finals. Unfortunately, many students eat crappy, get less sleep, don’t exercise, and sit in front of a screen all day.

6. GO TO COLLEGE THE WAY YOU WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL

Isn’t it funny how college students complain about a packed day of classes when they only have 4 classes? That’s about 5 hours of actual class. We used to go to school from 7:45 am-2:45 pm. That’s a straight 7 hours. Students don’t need to cram for exams or pull all-nighters if they just treated college like high school. What I mean is “go to school” from 8 am-4 pm, even though you might only have 3 actual classes in that time frame. Fill the hour gaps with study and homework time. That way you are already focused and in school mode. Then you can have fun and relax all night. Do you really need that nap, or that extra episode of netflix? Resist short term pleasure throughout the day, to have long term happiness later.

7. STAY POSITIVE

In my original Vector  student work training, I learned that “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” It’s amazing how powerful our brains are. Go into your finals week confident and motivated. You are smart enough, you have all the resources at your fingertips, you took good notes, and attended most of your classes. Don’t get stressed out and fill your mind with the “what ifs.” Most of the “what ifs” never happen. Build yourself up and fill your mind with positivity. You won’t be as worried for your exams with a ‘can-do’ mentality.

FINALLY, AFTER YOU TAKE THE FINAL…CELEBRATE!          

I find that too many students worry about their grade still after they have already taken the exam. They live in misery for days wondering what their grade is. Worrying about it won’t change how poor or great you did. Forget about it and move on. Don’t let the last test affect your next one. Some of the best athletes have the shortest memory of bad moments. If they have a bad quarter, they forget about it and believe in themselves for the next one.

Finals can be a stressful time, but if you follow these tips, you will CRUSH YOUR FINALS and NOT STRESS doing it.

Now that you’re done with finals and still need to pay for school, check out WiStudentWork.com! We have flexible student work that can be done remotely!