Splurge or Save? A Guide to Making Smart Spending Decisions as a Student

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As a student, you’re faced with difficult decisions every day. Quite often, a lot of those decisions come down to money. It’s difficult to save a lot when you have tuition, rent, and still have other subscriptions or deserve a special treat after a long week. As hard as it seems, there are plenty of categories that you can save on while splurging on some other ones to get the best products. Here is a guide to making smart spending decisions as a student and what you should splurge on versus what you should save on.

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Groceries and Food – Save

Of course, groceries and food are essential items and purchases, but there are plenty of ways you can save on them rather than splurging. For example, you should choose store brands over brand names often to save a little bit of money. They’re quite often the same exact product, or at least very similar, just with different packaging. You never realize just how much some brands charge solely for their brand name, and you can save a lot of money like this, especially over time. You should also peruse your grocery store’s weekly flyer or app to see what kind of deals they’re offering and plan your meals and shopping around it.

As enticing as ordering food is, it’s best that you limit your spending in this category. With delivery fees, service fees, and a tip for the driver, it really adds up to be exponentially more expensive. Every now and then won’t be detrimental, but try to save it for special occasions or really tough weeks.

Lastly, take advantage of your meal plan and dining hall on campus. If you have a meal plan, make sure you use it so that money doesn’t go to waste, and you can save on groceries that way. Believe it or not, sometimes your dining hall has really good food!

Health-Related Products – Splurge

When it comes to your health, these products are worth splurging a little more on so that your health doesn’t start to decline or your mental well-being doesn’t suffer. Some products to consider are nice mattress toppers and pillows so that you can always get a good night’s sleep, comfortable shoes and sneakers so that walking around campus isn’t a pain, and of course, important and vital medications. While hopefully your insurance covers what you need, it’s still essential to actually go to your pharmacy and pick up what you need!

If you’re considering whether something you want to buy is worth splurging on, just consider if it’s important to your overall health, as these are usually worth the price and beneficial.

Renters or Tuition Insurance – Splurge AND Save

While renters’ and tuition insurance might now sound like something you want to splurge on, it’s well worth the price. Luckily for you, GradGuard’s prices mean that while you’re splurging a little on your protection, you can still save money. Even while they offer a premium service protecting your investments in the case of an emergency, whether that’s your apartment and valuables inside, or the countless dollars you’ve spent on your tuition, they have some of the lowest prices, especially for college students like you. They genuinely want to protect you, not take advantage of you! Consider splurging while still saving money with GradGuard.

Transportation – Save

Another category you should save on is transportation. If you don’t have a car, don’t use rideshare apps to go everywhere, as this adds up and will cost you a lot of money. Rideshares can be expensive, especially in a college town where a lot of the population doesn’t have a car. Consider taking the bus or train often, as these are a fraction of the cost. While they may be a little slower, you will save a lot of money. Plus, look into the public transportation system in your town–Many have special discounts for students, which will save you even more money. Imagine the round-trip cost of transportation to run your errands is only $5 as opposed to $40. Those are some huge savings that will run you very far!

If you do have a car, you can still use public transportation for short trips to save on gas money; there’s no shame in that! If you’re looking into getting a car, buy something old but reliable. There’s no need to spend an extra couple of thousand dollars on something brand new when old and used vehicles are still fully functional.

While it might be tempting to constantly splurge on high-end items to make your life easier, you should really only splurge on necessities, such as items that will protect you, like essentials related to your health that keep you in comfort and good shape, as well as insurance to protect your money and high-end items that you do own. By saving on food and transportation, you’ll be able to save money for a rainy day.

It’s no secret that college costs a lot of money. Make sure your investment in higher education is protected with GradGuard. Our affordable tuition insurance and renters insurance plans are specifically designed for college students. Customizable plans make it easy to protect your tuition, room and board, laptop, bike, and so much more.