50 Money Hacks College Students Swear By — and You’ll Want To Steal

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The words “broke” and “college student” go together like peanut butter and jelly, but is that changing? Perusing the r/college Reddit, it looks like college students have some financial wisdom that is actually really valuable.

Here are some of the top hacks college students use to save money, which you can have for free.

Meal Advice

Elevate Ramen

“Dress up your ramen noodles with fresh veggies and different sauces. That was always my go to.” – user redactedname87

Go to Events with Free Food

“Go to every club, lecture or speaker where there will be food.” – user cuppa_tea_4_me

Look for Food App Deals

“Look up coupons online before ordering food through apps. Subway offers different flavors while also being like 5 dollars for a huge meal.” – user Fother_mucker59

Split Food Cost with Roommates 

“Whenever I buy food, I try to share with my roommate or with some friends so then it’s cheaper and we’re all saving money. For example if I want pizza I’ll ask my roommate if she wants to do half and that way we both spend less.” – user Best-Development-362

Strategically Store Foods

“Store separately away from others: Tomatoes, Bananas, Avocados, Cantaloupes and Apples. (these produce ethylene and can age other fruit and veggies faster).” – deleted user in r/college

Meal Prep

“Stir fry (veggies and chicken) also dried bags of rice and beans can go far.” – user LT-shorts

Shop at Real Farmers’ Markets 

“Farmers markets are great for produce if they are actually farmers markets. A lot of “farmers markets” these days are just a bunch of stalls with overpriced canned peppers targeting white suburban people who have never seen a farm. A real farmers market will have huge carrots, bushels of greens, and tons of other good looking vegetables for half the cost of the supermarket.” – user darniforgotmypwd

Switch from Coffee to Tea

“Tea would be great since you don’t need a coffee maker, just hot water and the tea itself, which is easy to buy in large quantities.” – user Suspicious-Yogurt-60

Job Advice

Tutoring

User vorosmarty514 wrote “Tutoring during the year is relatively quick and easy way to earn money during college. …It ended up funding study abroad and many other adventures in college.”

Work at a Restaurant 

“Get a job at a restaurant or on campus dining job that has a free meal per shift. They usually have leftovers as well.” – kala_43

Babysit 

“Babysitting is always a good one if that interests you. Easy work if you only do date nights for families and can study while the kids are asleep.” user EveryDisaster

Sell Scrap Metal

“[My boss] would go to scrap yards and look through parts on tractors/cars, and then look up the market prices for said parts. He would only take the ones that cost $200+ and sell them online.” – user Landabogins

Deliver for DoorDash

“DoorDash is a godsend for me. I made a spreadsheet calculating my earnings per hour and after doing the appropriate deductions it came up to be around $21.37 per hour which is pretty freakin good for a job that only requires you to take something from point A to B.” – user Icantw8

Start a YouTube Channel

“I have a small YouTube channel that I’ve been growing since the beginning of high school. It’s not much, but it brings in a few hundred bucks a month, which is enough for groceries and random small expenses that come up!” – user RpM_Feuerrm

Try Wonolo

“You can make your own schedule and each job pays upward of $15 an hour.” – user vvill112098

Make Things to Sell on Etsy 

“If you’re interested in doing something on the creative side, I’d totally recommend it! I make glass paintings and custom phone cases, like the ones you see on TikTok!” – user Catnip3978

Teach English Online 

“If you have a college degree, teaching English online is a great side gig. VIPKid is my preferred site.” deleted user in r/college

Clean Houses 

“Make $30 an hour.” – user kelsieelynn

Busk

“I used to busk with my violin. If it’s a good spot, I could get $40-50 an hour.” – user accountsavvy 

Transcribe 

“I’ll get one or two jobs per week, and it gives me a little extra cash to spend through the weeks so I can put more of my proper income into savings.” – user graduatedbanana19

Drive for Uber

“I would make $400+ every week working only Friday, Saturday and Sunday.” – user scvmty5

Travel Advice

Travel Cheap

“When I traveled in college we did it dirt cheap – hostels, budget airlines, red eye flights.” – user NoFilterNoLimits

Stay with Friends

“I visit Boston a lot because I have a friend who goes to NEU and lets me crash at his apartment. Just have to pay for train tickets, which isn’t that bad if Ii catch them early.” – user dearwikipedia

Plan Ahead

“I plan trips 6 months [or more] in advance to get good deals.” – user Lt-shorts

Don’t Check Bags

“I’m in a long distance relationship so I fly fairly often, but when I do I scour the internet for the cheapest flights, do carry on only and only on airlines where carry on is free.” – user torrentialrainstorms

Use the Incognito Tab to Shop For Trips

“That’s what I do at least (among other things), and it really reduces the price.” – user These-Ad2374

Cheap Airlines

“Fly Spirit, JetBlue and Frontier.” – user Pleasant_Log789

Get a Travel Credit Card 

“I opened a travel card when I started my undergrad with the intention of going on a trip the summer before I transfer. I’m sitting on about 150k points which covers a flight and a hotel to pretty much anywhere.” – user the_faith

Camp

“It doesn’t have to be expensive! For example, last summer 3 friends and I drove out to see the Redwoods from Utah and camped for a few days. I think by the time it was all said and done, we each spent about $150 for 5 days.” – user tacofiend44

Shopping Advice

Only Buy What You Can Carry

“Instead of making grocery lists, I just wouldn’t allow myself to buy more groceries than I could carry in a handbasket. Makes for a fun prioritization game and the bill was almost always in the high $30 low $40 range.” – user lexushelicopterwatch

Shop Early

“If you go early in the morning the grocery store will put about to expire food at a reduced price.” – user ClothesExcellent

Use Coupons 

“Look at weekly ads at different grocery stores for discounts and deals. Coupons will be your friends.” – user dkrk17

Five Below

“They actually have some decently cute stuff and rugs.” – user mackemerald

Aldi

“Go to Aldi for grocery shopping. You will be surprised with how much food you can stock up with such low damage to your bank.” – user ellis3g

Doctor of Credit 

Use doctorofcredit.com for credit card deals. Spend X amount in the first three months and get X amount of points. Generally travel points are worth more than cash. For example, $800 USD might be worth $1120 USD travel.” – user Beginning-Flamingo89

General Tips 

Consider Community College Over University 

“While a degree has its uses, a significant chunk of its value is in the connections you make along the way. Going to your local Community College in-person for that same IT Associate’s degree is much more likely to land you a job post-graduation because you’ve got the instructors and the school connecting you to opportunities.” – user ViskerRatio

Use an App to Get Cash Back

“You can get a cash back app like Ibotta and scan your receipts to get a little bit of money back as you do your regular shopping. You also get cashback on online shopping and if you buy gift cards through the app. Definitely a nice treat to see that 20-30 dollars extra a month just from going about your regular day!” – user terrificfoxtrot

Forgo Vices for a Period 

“For the last two years of college I didn’t drink, smoke, see concerts, buy new electronics, etc. Think about how many students do any combination of this stuff (across all income brackets). It adds up quickly and they don’t realize how much is really being spent in six months.” – user darniforgotmypwd

Look Into Tax Write Offs

“A lot of supplies can be a tax write off. You can google what is accepted just make sure you scan the receipts (they have apps).” – user Sequtacoy

Ask Your Community

“Had a buddy in college go to church and just talk to the old people and see what they needed done outside that they just simply couldn’t do. Made decent money.” – user BeaversWithCleavers

Automated Savings

“The day after my paycheck deposits I have Fidelity automatically withdraw 20% of my average pay and put it in a savings and retirement account that isn’t immediately accessible.” – user slightlybentspork

Free Hobbies 

“Pick up free hobbies such as hiking with friends to still help you feel like you’re not confined to spending money to enjoy something.”  user LT-shorts

Get a Library Card

“Not only will you have a source of books for school, but many libraries also have a wide collection of films, ebooks, games, etc for free.” – user charliesque

Walk or Bike as Much as Possible

“I only [drive] where free parking is available.” – user elvencae

Get a Car with Good Gas Mileage

“My car gets 46 mpg highway so it’s not terribly expensive to go several hundred miles, even up to a thousand.” – user NoPapaya7372

Ask Someone to Hold on to Your Money

“Something that has worked for me being in a similar situation. I give all of my money and my paychecks to my much older brother. I hold on to a reasonable percentage for rent, food and a few beers a month. Whenever I want to make a purchase, go on a trip or order something online that isn’t a necessity I have to go through my brother to get that money. He rarely says no but he always keeps it real with me on my spending habits and it keeps me in check.” – user DJSynthzilla

Car Sharing Services

“If I needed a car for something, there was this service called Zipcar that I used.” – deleted user in r/college

Look at Meetup.com

“You can keep an eye out for social activities taking place that don’t necessarily center around spending money.” – user charliesque

Check “Buy Nothing” Groups

“Most community facebook groups like ‘Buy Nothing’ give out free food all the time! People who are looking to get rid of groceries or other miscellaneous things post to groups like these. As a college student, I have greatly benefited from these Facebook groups.” – user VincentLuna111

Cut Down Slowly

“A common mistake is cutting off a large amount of spending and feeling too restricted. Slowly cut down on how often you go for food, or coffee, etc. If you try to stop all extra spending you’ll probably fall back into old habits.” – user slightlybentspork

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