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College students: How do you afford this madness?!

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BoomerD said:
Just keep living in your mom's basement. That eliminates the cost of rent and food, leaving you much more party money.

For those who've suggested that Trident get a job...you obviously haven't been paying attention to his posts. Jobs are for losers...🙄
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No hookers and blow in the time he'd have to be working.
 
TridenT said:
Seriously... I don't know how I am going to afford this:

$500 for rent+util /month (REQUIRED)
$200 for food /month (REQUIRED)
$200 for car /month (REQUIRED)
$350-400 a term for books (YEAH, THAT'S KINDA REQUIRED TOO, DUH)
$70 a term for a fucking parking pass (MAAAAAAAYBE IF I FIND FREE FUCKING PARKING, BUT GOOD LUCK WITH THAT)
!?WTF?!

Ugh.

I need to find some kind of scholarship that pays for my books.
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LOL, that's nothing. Just wait until you get into the real world.
 
TridenT said:
Seriously... I don't know how I am going to afford this:

$500 for rent+util /month (REQUIRED)
$200 for food /month (REQUIRED) You're paying too much. You could probably trim $40-70 off this if you watch for sales, pack your own lunch, stock up on stuff when its cheaper
$200 for car /month (REQUIRED)
$350-400 a term for books (YEAH, THAT'S KINDA REQUIRED TOO, DUH)Why? The internet is a great resource for buying books, particularly international editions.
$70 a term for a fucking parking pass (MAAAAAAAYBE IF I FIND FREE FUCKING PARKING, BUT GOOD LUCK WITH THAT)
!?WTF?!

Ugh.

I need to find some kind of scholarship that pays for my books.
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See bolded.
 
TridenT said:
Seriously... I don't know how I am going to afford this:
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Loans

FFS what you listed is nothing as you get tuition waved, 38k a year is what i paid for that shit


also 400$ for books is low, some of my larger txt were close to 200$ alone, you could get them online for less then 1/2 that but if you actually purchased all the books for some of my semesters it would have been over 1k
 
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500 for rent and utilities is pretty good, I pay 500 just to rent a small apartment.

But, you pay too much for food and gas. Buy only what you need that week at the grocer, you'll save tons. I try not to spend more than about 30-40 bucks at a time at the store. Gas, hell I drive several hundred miles a month and never rack up more than $100 bucks. Where the hell do you have to go so much to rack up that kind of gas bill?

Lastly, buy books online for real cheap. I bought a brand new psych book from Thailand for like 100 bucks less than it would have been here at the store. If you have to, use the books in the library.
 
TridenT said:
College students: How do you afford this madness?!
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I didn't:

$700 for rent+util /month (REQUIRED)
$200 for food /month (REQUIRED)
$130 for a bicycle. One-time. Then maybe $20 a year to keep it rolling.
~$200/term for books (you can buy used ones)
 
I was sick of them telling me book are mandatory then never use them in class. I started just downloading digital copies
 
The last two years of college I actually made a small profit on books. First rule, never never never buy the book new. Second rule, never never never sell your book back to the campus bookstore. Third rule, always check to see if your book is in the library or on interlibrary loan (you'll be surprised how many of them are, I did about half of my text books that way). Fourth, if you need to buy, buy online and used. Fifth rule, get the previous edition if possible (sometimes the differences between editions are in chapters you'll never get to, or just minor error corrections). Sixth, sell your books before the beginning of the next semester, NOT at the end of the semester (everyone is selling at the end of the semester, so prices go down. Everyone is buying at the beginning of the semester so prices go up)
 
at what location?

if you go to small town, your rent can be half of 500. are you talking about sharing apt or having your own place? if you need your own place, why are you complaining the cost? If you are cheap and okay with sharing with people, you can probably get a place like $100 a month (try to see if you have friends that have a living room they dont you)

$200 for foods if reasonable, but you can probably get away with $100 if you eat cheap.

car? wtf? get rid of it, no more registration fee, inspection, maintenance, gas, etc. just because you got used to having a car doesn't make it a necessity. save yourself the frigging parking fee. not to mention the saving of getting potential tickets of any kinds.

books? get it from the library, utility this thing called interlibrary loans.

just because you have to maintain a higher standard of living doesn't mean other people are as dumb as you.
 
I lived at home and commuted 45 minutes to an hour (each way) every day. I worked full time while going to school full time. I took out student loans and paid the rest of tuition with credit cards. I didn't buy books that weren't required, and didn't even buy some that were. Now I work at a job that doesn't pay well and makes me hate myself more and more every day. Not much chance of leaving any time soon due to economy, etc.

Welcome to life...it fucking sucks.
 
I pay under $100 for books each semester, this semester I only spent $40 on books. It helps that for some series of courses (calc series, physics series, general chem series) that the same book is used for the entire series of courses. Usually older edition books are enough. If homework is done out of the book, then I make copies of the problems from the reserve copy at the library.

Don't pay for food, or car, or insurance, or rent, and parking pass is $20 for me. Just gas and food if I decide to eat out, parents help me with the rest. I am about to finish my transfer requirements at CC so tuition has been free for me except for a few small fees.

But anyways you fail at buying books.
 
vshah said:
is it feeding time? bring forth the fruit loops!
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I have bad news... the fruit loop factory burned down in a thread last week 🙁

Loops2.jpg
 
Stop crying? that shit is cheap as hell, I wish I could get by with that little. Get a job and do what 90% of the other college students are out there doing. I'm currently working full time and enrolled full time. Just find a job with some down time and doesn't mid if you do homework on the clock as long as you get you're caught up with work or not busy or whatever.
 
I have no sympathy for you, only pity.

The real world is going to be a painful shock if you think those expenses are bad.
 
TridenT said:
Seriously... I don't know how I am going to afford this:

$500 for rent+util /month (REQUIRED)
$200 for food /month (REQUIRED)
$200 for car /month (REQUIRED)
$350-400 a term for books (YEAH, THAT'S KINDA REQUIRED TOO, DUH)
$70 a term for a fucking parking pass (MAAAAAAAYBE IF I FIND FREE FUCKING PARKING, BUT GOOD LUCK WITH THAT)
!?WTF?!

Ugh.

I need to find some kind of scholarship that pays for my books.
Click to expand...

If you were smart enough, you wouldn't have to pay any of that.
 
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