Photo by unknown
College isn’t cheap, especially when in Hawaii, where the cost of living is high. New students come and gape at the expensive prices of milk at Foodland, dishing out their savings to pay for tuition, board, and the textbooks. Yet there are small things you can do to keep some of your money and not be completely broke. Here are tips to save your spare change.
- School ID. Carrying it around can get things a little cheaper. You can go to Hanauma Bay for free, get a discount at Laie Palms Cinema, discounts on skydiving, etc. Turns out it's handier for a lot more than you think it is!
- Give ‘N’ Take: Volunteer for half an hour and get 10 items for free. If you look closely, you could find books for school, laundry detergent, new clothes, sheets, kitchenware, movies, and more. It’s a goldmine of reusables, all for free! Sunny Jin, a sophomore studying music from South Korea, said, “I go to Give ‘N’ Take often so I get good stuff and I don’t have to buy it.”
- Stop paying money on Netflix or Hulu. There is our own LibFlix in the library with a lot of movies you can rent out for two nights for FREE. “You don’t have to pay to watch a movie, like Redbox,” said Pate Latu, the circulation supervisor at the library.
- Make a budget and keep to it. Don’t just map it out and and forget about it; know how much you earn and how much you spend. The more you lose track, the more you lose that precious change that makes all the difference. “Whenever I have to get food, I have to write it down and make a list to go buy. If I want to buy anything else, I don’t buy it,” said Saebom Park, a junior studying business finance from South Korea.
- Carpool. There are a lot of beautiful beaches, breathtaking hikes, and places to see on this island. If you have a car, take people with you to make the ride cheaper, and if you are getting a ride from somebody, chip in on gas money. Gas is expensive, and its always nice to show a little gratitude.
- The Bus. If you don’t want to get a car, you can always spend $2.50 to board the city bus and receive a transfer slip for one more bus ride. There is also a semester-long pass available at the Aloha Center Front Desk for $120. That is only worth buying if you ride the bus more than 48 times a semester, which would be more than twice a week.
- Cook smart. Don’t always buy prepared food. Buy in bulk and freeze the food you don’t use immediately to save for later. If you live off campus, share the cost of food with a friend. Carpool to Costco or Sam’s Club with someone who has a card. Look for coupons in the newspaper and online.
- Gourmet your cheap food.
- Work at a place that feeds you. The Seasider, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Pounders, and the Caf will feed you once per shift, and that is one less meal to pay for.
- Attend school events such as FHE, activities held by clubs, and other activities for students. These will mostly likely have food, and also it is something fun for free, somewhere you can meet new exciting people and make the most of your college experience. There are a lot of free, fun things to do like movie nights, free bowling.
- Do well in school. There is a scholarship for those who get high grades. Isaiah Gillenwater, a senior studying biochemistry from Indiana, said, “I keep my grades up because I automatically qualify for the academic scholarship and it can save up to all your tuition.”
- Textbooks are expensive and heavy. You can spend an arm and a leg buying them from the bookstore, or you can rent them from the Bookstore, buy them from Amazon, or not buy them at all and check them out from the library for two hours and get your homework done.
- If you want to save and get other cheap stuff, look on the Facebook page Sell your stuff @ BYU–Hawaii. You can find textbooks, bikes, clothing, electric fans and all sorts of other things for less than the retail price.