What to Do If You Don’t Like Ramen Noodles

Written by Lauren Smyth

There are some expenses in college that just can’t be avoided. You’ve got to have a calculator. You’ll need books. And—perhaps most stressful of all—you’ll need to pay tuition. Costs can add up quickly, so here are some tips for keeping money in > money out.

Save the most on things you don’t use often. My Russian language keyboard, which I use for online lessons, spends most of its time in a drawer. Sure, I’d like it to work when I dig it out and plop it on my desk, but my day wouldn’t be ruined if I had to type on my phone’s digital keyboard instead. Since I don’t use this keyboard often, and I don’t particularly care if it misses a letter here or there, I shopped on a budget when I bought it.

This is a good tip for items that are useful but not necessary. If losing this item wouldn’t keep you up at night, consider it a chance to save some change by choosing the less expensive version.

On the flip side: If you’re going to use an item every day, consider spending a little extra for quality’s sake. There are three things I use every single day in college: My laptop, my backpack, and my audio editing headphones. All three of those items can be pricey. But consider: If you buy the less expensive laptop that got multitudes of questionable reviews, it may crash and transform into a pricey brick. (That example comes from bitter first-hand experience.) On the other hand, if you spend the money upfront for a quality laptop, you won’t have to replace it for a long time to come. So, for a few specific items, I’m willing to spend a little more so that whatever I get works every time, extremely well, and for a long time.

Of course, there may be items you just don’t have time or resources to save up for (like housing, for example—when you need it, you need it). But if you have the opportunity to wait for quality, it’s often worthwhile in the long run.

Eat at the cafeteria rather than dining out or buying snacks. We’ve all been there. It’s three in the afternoon, the cafeteria doesn’t open for another two hours, you’ve got a paper to write, and you’re starving. It would probably be easiest to drop by the vending machine and grab a quick protein bar—but hold on. That’s $2.50 you’ll never see again. Instead, you could go to AJ’s, order a sandwich with your meal plan, and write a few lines of your paper while you wait. This wouldn’t take much more of your time, and it would be a full meal rather than a snack that will require another snack, and another one after that, and so on.

Since you’ve already paid for your meal plan, use every penny of it. Take the opportunity to invite friends to dinner, too, so you won’t regret the hour or so spent at the cafeteria.

Keep tabs on subscription services. Every month, I’m slightly surprised to see my Adobe Photoshop subscription pop up on my debit card statement. Recurring charges make me run some panicked math: How much money is automatically debited from my account before I get around to consciously spending anything? Even if it’s just $5 on the first of the month, which is half a Netflix account, you need to know where every dollar is going. (For reference: $5 is nearly 13 packs of ramen noodles, or three meals for four days!)

On a related note, use your student email to get discounts. Subscription services often have reduced rates for students, and some offer other perks, like discounts on textbooks or other school supplies.

Plan activities with friends that don’t cost money. Spread out a picnic blanket and read library books. Go for a hike or a run. Attend an on-campus event hosted by the SAB. Watch a movie on a common-area streaming service. Go stargazing and use an app on your phone to identify constellations. There are plenty of entertaining things you can do with your friends that don’t cost a dime. In fact, the more creative you get, the more fun you’re likely to have, and the more memorable and unique your experiences will be.
Get an on-campus job. Can you write? Work at the writing center, or join the blog team. Do you love the smell of coffee? Get a job at AJ’s Cafe. Are you a night owl? Join the cleaning crew to scrub chalkboards after students are gone for the day. No matter what you’re good at or what you enjoy, there are opportunities for you at Hillsdale College. And, since the College knows you’re a student, these jobs often have flexible hours that will accommodate midterms, sporting events, and other school activities.

If you can’t find a campus job that fits your schedule, you could apply for a scholarship specific to your interests. Or you could attend a job fair and find remote work outside the college. (That’s how I found my news writing job, which has helped fund my caffeine addiction throughout the past semester.)

Put online shopping off-limits. Online shopping makes it way too easy to buy things. You don’t even need your credit card to buy a whole new PC in about three clicks. (Not saying I haven’t thought about it, but at least I can say I haven’t done it—yet.)

One simple way to make this money Pac-man less accessible is to delete any shopping apps from your phone. Then, set your account password to something long and outrageous that you have to look up every time you want to log in.

Since online shopping provides the “instant gratification” of quick purchasing and shipping, give yourself a three-day consideration period. If you find something you want to buy, do you still want to buy it in three days? If not, you’ve just saved yourself from making an unnecessary impulse purchase. If you do still want the item, consider whether it fits in your budget, and then make an informed decision.

Use a budgeting tool. This allows you to locate high-cost areas in your spending habits and streamline. For example, maybe you discover you’re subscribed to several different streaming services, and there’s enough overlap between the programs you watch that you can cancel one or two of them. Boom—that’s a few dollars saved.

Budgeting doesn’t necessarily mean limiting yourself. It simply means not spending money on certain things so that you can spend it on others that have a higher priority. Think back to the piggy bank you had as a kid. If you had $5 and you spent it on a couple of sodas, you wouldn’t be able to afford the candy you actually wanted. Budgeting is simply a tool that helps you get the things you want and need, when you want and need them.

With these eight tips, you’ll be able to develop a budget that disciplines your spending and still leaves room for a fancy latte here and there.

Lauren Smyth, ’25, is an economics major and journalism minor. Outside of starting arguments in philosophy class, she enjoys curling up on a bench outdoors (sun, rain, or snow) to write novels or articles for her blog, www.laurensmythbooks.com.

Published in September 2023