Need to Save Money? Here are 5 Tips for You!

18 Dec 2020

6 Min Read

Shahmalarani Chandran (Guest Contributor)

IN THIS ARTICLE

With the hustle and bustle of college life and maintaining a good CGPA, sometimes we tend to forget to keep track of our daily expenses and find ourselves with worn-out pockets nearing the end of the month. Hence, we sometimes resort to looking for part-time jobs and even work as student helpers on campus to accommodate our monthly expenses. Living on a budget isn't as easy as we think, especially for students staying away from home. However, with these money-saving tips, you’re sure to save (and even earn) some money at the end of the month without worrying about daily expenditure. So let’s get into it!

1. Sell Old Textbooks

Several dinosaur models on a stack of books

Do you often find yourself stacking up tons of notes and textbooks after your final year exams? You’d probably store them on your shelves for years or even throw them away once the particular semester is over. Stop! What if you can earn some money from it instead? Rather than chucking your old textbooks aside, sell them to your juniors. If you’re someone who has neatly kept records of lecture notes and important formulas, you can even sell your notes to the new semester students.

Taylorians, if you’re unsure where to sell it during this pandemic, you can head over to Taylor’s College Second-Hand Textbook Facebook page to post your old textbooks!

2. Buy Used or Second-Hand Textbooks

At the same time, instead of buying whole new textbooks for your upcoming semester, why not grab those second-hand books for a cheaper price? You’ll find that college textbooks are way more costly than what you’ve paid during your secondary days as the books are way thicker and have more content.

So this would be a perfect tip for you to keep within your budget. It’s also a win-win situation where your seniors earn some money from selling it while you get access to similar materials for a cheaper price. You can even bargain for a lower price if the condition of the books isn’t satisfactory enough! However, do take note of the changes in the syllabus and edition of the books as colleges constantly update their module syllabus as well.

3. Make Use of Library Resources

A girl with glasses looking for a book on a shelf

The best place to look for resources is none other than your college library. You can find almost all types of reference books that are used by the lecturers, in your university library. You just have to put in some effort to look for it. The best part about these references is that they’re free to use and you’d get to access it whenever you want. However, don’t forget to return the borrowed books in time or risk getting a penalty. Though, you can extend the period of borrowing if you’d like to access the resource for a longer period.

As the CMCO has been implemented, many students might worry about not getting to access these resources physically from Taylor’s library. Not to worry, Taylor’s library collections include an extensive collection of e-Books and online resources which can be downloaded at any time from anywhere around the world as long as you have your student ID to access them. On the Taylor’s library page, you’ll be able to check out the availability of the resources you’re looking for which is useful especially during exam seasons. This online borrowing system is also helpful in keeping track of your fines, return date, and extending the borrowing period.

PS: Final year students, you can also find the most relevant journals for your final year project in Taylor’s Library!

4. Buy in Bulk

Next, in order to keep within your budget, you can consider buying your food and groceries in bulk as they’re typically cheaper. This will also save you a lot of time from having to go back and forth to the store frequently. To get started, plan the necessary items needed for the month and discuss with your friends or housemates. Having a proper plan to buy things in bigger quantities will reduce your expenses in the long run and maybe even earn you some discounts. Say if you and your housemate need to get similar items like milk or cereal, you can buy them in larger quantities and split the bill.

If you’re worried about physical grocery shopping, you can even purchase products online which may be easier as many wholesale and retail shops can be found in Lazada and Shopee. Remember to make full use of the free shipping vouchers and cashback to save some money.

5. Flash Your Student ID for Discounts

Besides using your student identification card (ID) for library resources, you can flash it at retail outlets to enjoy the benefits that come along with it.

Books and stationery: Use your student ID to purchase at a lower price at Popular bookstore which offers a special membership for students offering discounts of up to 10% which is valid for 2 years.
Food and beverages: There’s no harm in asking restaurants you dine at if they offer student discounts.
Public transportation: Apply for your concession cards to enjoy 50% discounts whenever you use the LRT, MRT, BRT, and RapidKL Bus services.
Tech: If you’ve been eyeing for any Apple products, you’d be happy to know that you can get the products at their education price after some simple verification steps!
Fitness: Most gyms offer a discounted student rate for a monthly gym membership. If you’re worried about keeping up with the monthly commitment, you can pay per entry charges for as low as RM10 just by showing your student ID.

Conclusion

You’d be amazed at how much money you can save just by following these simple tricks in your daily expenditure. Remember, a penny saved is better than a penny earned. So spend wisely as this habit will guide you when you’re out in the real world. Don’t forget to share these tips with your friends!

A Taylor’s Sports scholar, Shahmala is a passionate karate athlete and a math whiz with big dreams to inspire everyone. She’s currently pursuing her Bachelor in Actuarial Studies at Taylor’s University.

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