Ryan Lall | Contributor
Featured image: Want to have more bills like this in your pocket? Try living at home, if you can. | Photo courtesy of KMR Photography/Flickr
Summer’s over, which means the end of hazy days, nights of drinking on the patio and backyard BBQs. For students, this means empty bank accounts after paying for tuition and textbooks, leaving them looking for ways to stretch their dollars until their next paycheque or allowance. But in order to stretch your dollar effectively, you have to first know where that dollar is being spent.
One of the easiest places for students to cut spending is on their morning brew. A medium coffee at Tim Hortons will cost approximately $1.79, or $2.10 at Starbucks. Assuming that an average student attends 20 school days a month, this equates to either $34 or $42 per month, respectively. This cost can be drastically reduced by switching to instant coffee where the cost of a pack of seven coffee packets is $1 or about $3 a month. Over the course of an eight-month school year, this can save over $300. The added benefit of making this switch is being able to skip the long line ups in the morning.
“Sometimes the line up for Starbucks stretches all the way to the front of the building,” says fourth-year finance student Aslam Saleh.
Accommodations are one of the largest expense students face after tuition for those unable to live at home. With York housing costing of over $5,000 per year, this works out to approximately $625 per month over an eight-month school year. Rental housing options off-campus like The Village can average out to approximately $500 per month. This translates to approximately $1,000 in savings per school year.
Living off-campus has both drawbacks and benefits. The obvious drawback to living off-campus include commuting to class and not having many other students around for a more social living arrangement. But aside from saving money, other benefits of living off-campus include being able to have a guest over without signing them in, more control over who your roommates are, and more space both in your private room and public areas.
The major savings however, come from living at home.
Transportation can take up a significant portion of a student’s budget. Those who drive to campus have gas, insurance, maintenance and parking costs to pay for, which can run a couple of hundred dollars per month. For those who live close enough to campus, walking or biking are great alternatives that cost nothing and help keep students in shape. For others who live further away, trading in the car keys for a Metropass or a PRESTO card will significantly reduce transportation costs. The biggest drawback of this option would be the unpredictability of busses that never run on time, long line ups for the busses or delayed trains. On the bright side, public transit has the benefit of being better for the environment and reduces the stress of being stuck behind the wheel in the infamous Toronto traffic.
There are also pricing benefits that are offered to students. Many of these are accessible simply by showing student ID, while others can be accessed with the use of special cards such as the Student Price Card, or SPC. Free or discounted admissions to attractions, 10 per cent or more off purchases and free size upgrades on food orders are some of its many perks. The SPC card costs $10 and can be bought at the York bookstore, but are only valid for one school year.
Credits cards can be a useful tool for students when trying to build their credit rating, but can also cause some serious damage to student budgets if not used responsibly. If balances are carried on credit cards, interest payments become an additional expense that will need to be added into students’ budgets. With interest rates approaching 19.99 per cent or higher, the additional interest payment can easily become a significant expense.
While signing up for that new credit card for a free T-shirt may seem like a good idea in the moment, remember that using that card beyond means of repayment runs the risk of having to cut down on other areas of spending to make credit card payments, or risk damaging your credit score. When getting a credit card, it is best to do research regarding interest rates and potential perks.
While it may be difficult for students to cut costs, it is important to find a balance of being more fiscally responsible and having fun. Students should allocate a small portion of their budget to entertainment expenses. This allows for the occasional movie night or club event. After all, there is more to student life than just all-nighters in the library and study group sessions.
Remember, student life can be expensive, but with these cost-saving alternatives, the expenses of student life can be managed.
