However, if your belly is full, the electricity is still connected and you’re ogling that big jar full of shiny pennies you’ve collected, well done! You’re ready to move on to stage 2. In Part 1, I showed you how to get by with your meager fortune. But by now you probably have a burning desire to spend spend spend!! Don’t go overboard. The golden rule is to always remember that you’re a poor cheap student (and proud of it).
Scabby Students’ Super Scab Master List: for a scab-tastic life on the cheap*
Part 2: What you want
Making money
o Super-Scabby Students’ tip: Put any money you’re not using in online savings accounts—heaps of interest and no fees. It’s like money for free!
o Sell books you never read to a second hand bookshop/online for ca$h!
o Tutor someone—you must know something that someone wants to learn!
o Sign up to ad-hoc jobs to supplement your income e.g taste-testing, market-research surveys, mystery shopping
o Apply for scholarships, especially obscure ones that no one else knows about.
o Use your university careers office and take student union-run skill courses to get that dream job (these excellent services would cost you hundreds of dollars if you’re weren’t a student)
o Super-Dooper-Scabby Students’ tip: instead of chilling out on the beach, chill-out on the footpath in the city, next to a cardboard sign—bring your recorder!
Entertainment
o Get subscriptions for magazines you buy regularly
o Check out legit $10 CD shops in your city
o Cheap Tuesday movie tix e.g. $9 at Hoyts, $8.50 at Greater Union
o Theatre tickets—productions sometimes have a youth night with discounted tickets for students
o Super-Scabby Students’ tip: use your library! Free magazines, newspapers, DVDs, CDs and of course books! But take them back.
o Super-Dooper Scabby Students’ tip:if you’re really desperate, get ‘obstructed view’ tickets—at least you can still say you were there!
Going out
o Buy a weekly travel pass instead of single trips
o Buy your drinks during happy hour
o If you do eat out, order a number of dishes to share with friends and just drink the complementary tap water
o Super-Scabby Students eating out: Buffet!! If you eat enough for lunch, you probably won’t need any dinner!!
Looking good
o Make-up, cosmetics and perfume counters usually have free samples
o Try home-made cosmetics—egg white (tightening), oatmeal (vitamin e) & green tea (antioxidants) masks; olive oil for hair treatments; plain white toothpaste for pimples
o Get all your trendy clothes from those ultra-cheap shops in the city—they may only last a few months but so will the fad.
o Get cheap, good-quality basics from Target and K-mart e.g stockings, socks, plain t-shirts, hair clips.
o For true vintage (as opposed to smelly old crap), check out op-shops in wealthier suburbs
o If you value quantity more than quality, seek out those op-shops where you can pay by weight
o Go to hairdressers on campus for student discounts, or a beauty school—trainees need to practice on someone
o Super-Scabby Students’ tip: get thongs for summer from Woolworths for only $5 a pair!
Final words
o Keep the cheap-cycle going—donate what you don’t need to op-shops; let people borrow your stuff
o Being good to the environment can also help you save money in many ways e.g being energy efficient, using cars less often, eating seasonally, reusing before rebuying
o Being cheap does not equal being mean and stingy. Be nice and you might just find a $50 note on the ground!
*Compiled with the help of like-minded scabs.
Stay tuned for cheaporrific travel tips in Scabby Students’ World Tour, coming soon(-ish)…
