Tips from a college student

Most college students don't have any money. Some don't even have a car. I know at least for me every time that I go out on a date I'm racking my brain for something to do that is cheap and fun. So I have made a list of different things that college students can do for cheap dates, and if you're single you could do most of these things with your friends too.

1. Play a sport.
- Most college campuses have places available where people can play sports. These range from basketball and tennis courts to huge open fields. Many people enjoy Frisbee golf or ultimate Frisbee. These are a very low-cost activity that can provide hours of entertainment.

2. Go to the movies.
-Go to a matinée movie at a lower price, and check for low price movie theaters near you. We have a $1 theater here, and back home we have a $2 theater. That is cheaper than Blockbuster! Just be sure not to spend to much on snacks and drinks there, because that's where they make their money!

3. Play a game of Laser-Tag.
-Thinking back to high school, Laser-Tag can be fun for just about anyone, and it doesn't cost that much either.

4. Bowling.
-Bowling is a great date! Also fun with a group of friends. Also try going at night and see if they have blacklight bowling. Most of the bowling alleys near me do, and that is pretty fun also.

5. Play Miniature golf
-Watch for good deals, often times putt putt runs specials or you can get coupons.

6. Spend an evening playing board games by candlelight.
-or not by candlelight, whatever floats your boat! Board games are a great way to be easily entertained for hours. And after the upfront cost of buying, they are free! If you are too poor to buy a game, ask friends. Almost everyone has a game or two stuck in the closet.

7. Go window shopping.
- this can be a good or bad idea, depending on your money habits. My favorite way to do this is put $20 in your wallet and leave all your cards at home. That way you have a spending cap. An interesting variation to this is going to flea markets and places where used stuff is sold. That can be very entertaining.

8. Take a hike.
-Lots of places here to go hiking, ask the locals to see if there is somewhere near you to go hiking. You may also be able to get information from your school as to where there are some good trails.

9. Check the university schedule for school-sponsored activities.
-So basically, check your school home page for free events.
-There is almost always some type of sporting event going on, and if you are enrolled in the college they are often free. Even if you aren't interested in the sport, this can be a good place to hang out.
-Also watch for debates. Occasionally a school will host a debate on an interesting topic.

10. Visit the zoo or museum on a free or lower admission day.
-Good idea if there is one near you. Be on the lookout for discounts!

11. Star gaze. Ponder the mysteries of the universe.
-Really good idea.. free and romantic! also try sunsets.
-Probably one that you only want to do with your significant other.. your friends probably won't think this is too cool

12. Dance lessons.
-This provides entertainment for years to come. Once you've had dance lessons you can randomly just dance anywhere, which can be a fun or romantic activity.
-This is very entertaining. It does cost money, but is very fun.

13. Take a stroll through downtown.
-Window shop, people watch, make random conversation, talk to random people. Don't be scared, it'll be fun!

14. Play around: Visit a quiet playground (without kids). Share secrets or interview each other..
-Random stuff is fun, and it's free!

15. Take a walk.
-The ultimate free date. Just walk around and talk. Provides exercise, conversation, and scenery if you walk through an interesting area.

More ideas for college students...

Watch people. This basically can be a lot of fun. Go to Walmart or a mall, and just observe the people around you. There are some very interesting people everywhere, and I'm sure you will be entertained if you watch them.
If you get bored, do random stuff like sneak stuff into people's carts at Walmart, or glue a quarter to the floor and watch people try to pick it up.


There are infinite options for free entertainment available to you, you are only limited by your creativity. So be creative and go have some cheap fun!

As poor college students, my friends and I have had to discover ways to have fun without spending money. Normally, if we wanted to go out and do something we would go out to eat, go to the movies, do things that cost money. But now that we're in college, we don't have hardly any money and can't afford to do that much. So we have had to develop ways to have fun for free. Or at least cheap.

You're going to end up paying for food unless someone invites you over and cooks for you. A good way to get food for cheap is to get a bunch of people to go to the park and chip in some money, and then grill out on the grills that they have there. You have to be smart about getting everyone to pay though or you can lose money on this deal. That's food and fun for cheap, and you can get hours of entertainment from a park.

Another way to have fun is to have people over to a house, and order pizza and play games. The more pizza you buy, the cheaper it is. And you can get pretty good deals, like the 5-5-5 from Dominoes. The key to having fun for free is to be creative. You don't always have to spend money to have fun.

If you cut food out of your time with your friends, you will save a significant amount of money. You can eat something you cook at home, or eat on campus for free if you have a meal plan. There are many things you can do and make it fun that are completely free, like going to Wal-Mart and goofing off.

Check this page for more ideas on fun stuff to do for free or cheap.

Many of my classes require a subscription to a magazine or journal. For this semester I have to have the Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine. I have found that I can access these through the school library online for free, or go into the library and flip through them whenever I want. This is an easy way to save some money!

Some of my large lecture hall classes have notebooks required to fill out. Since these are classes that almost everyone has to take, I started asking around and am going to try to get them for free or significantly cheaper. There are 2 upsides to this: 1) save money, 2) already filled out notes make class easier.

I still haven't purchased any books, except for one for my web class that I absolutely had to have to pass the class. I got an international version of that book, so it was much cheaper, and I am sharing it with another guy so it saves money.

By following these tactics, you can easily save 50-100 dollars a semester on books and required reading.

I hope everyone has a great, inexpensive semester!

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I have signed up for a personal finance class at my school, and have just begun it. I plan on using this class to learn more about how to manage finances and invest money wisely, and then transferring that knowledge to you. I will attempt to take the theories and whatever else they teach me in the class and apply it to us, as college students, and make it applicable.

Check back frequently, bookmark this site, subscribe to the RSS, do whatever it is you do so that you remember to come back and see what I learn in this class and how it can apply to you!

I think this will be very useful for anyone who takes the time of reading it, if the class is taught well. I'm off to finish my first homework for this class, so I'm going to wrap this up. Just remember, check back later!

I am hungry and have been looking around my dorm room for something to eat. My fridge has eggs, water and Gatorade in it. I have other random stuff sitting around that I could eat, but I just need something to hold me over, so I googled egg recipes and found some good stuff.

I discovered that eggs is one of the cheapest sources of protein that you can get. Protein is very important in your diet, because it will keep hunger away longer and it is essential to building and maintaining muscle. Now I am about to go make some hard-boiled eggs, the easiest snack available, and it will hold me over until dinner, when I begin the search for something healthy to eat again.

So, eggs are healthy, cheap, and easy to make. Every college student, no actually everyone in the world, should keep some in the fridge.

I hope this helps some hungry poor person somewhere, if not it helped me and I fit that description!
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If you want an easy $25, along with a good online savings a checking account that both earn good interest rates, you should sign up with ING Direct. Email me or comment on this post for a link to recieve the $25 promotion.

ING's Orange Savings and Electric Orange accounts have good interest rates (Orange Savings is 4.10%APY), and good features too. You can link it to up to 3 banks, so you can easily fund it. The Orange Savings account has an automatic savings feature where you can set it to automatically withdraw a certain amount of money from your checking account on a regular basis to boost your savings. And best of all, if you sign up now you get $25 for free just for signing up!

The Electric Orange account is a checking account that pays a great interest rate of 3.15% APY. You can send checks to people online, which is very useful, and you can use certain ATM's for free.

You can also use these accounts for automatic bill pay, and they deposits made from these accounts to other accounts will count as direct deposits, so you can use them to fulfill the conditions on other promotions later down the road.

If you open a new account, you can get a free $25 bonus. The conditions for this is you have to open it with $250 and open it through a link that I would be happy to send you, all you have to do is send me an email or comment on this post. I will respond to emails ASAP, but only email me if you are definitely going to do it, because I only have a limited number of links available.

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I called Discover at the beginning of December to try to get a credit limit increase (CLI). I asked for them to do it using only a soft pull, because a hard pull will hurt your credit report. The customer service rep (CSR) on the phone said she was unable to do it because I had not been with the company long enough, and that after 6 months to try again (evidently I had only been there 5 months). She didn't give me a specific date, so I called again the other day and inquired about the CLI. A different CSR said that 6 months still wasn't up yet.



I bought a new camera (Nikon D40) on the card along with 2 lenses and a months worth of gas, so I have a decent sized balance going on the card right now. I am hoping that I don't go over my credit limit ($1000), because I am definitly pushing it. I am a little frustrated with Discover right now, although I guess I understand because of the credit crunch going on right now. I just think that $1000 is too small for a credit card, because one decent sized purchase and you're maxed out!



I am now considering getting a new card. I got this Discover card because of the rewards program, which I just received my first $20 from. I get 5% cashback on gas purchases and 1% on everything else. The camera was the first purchase I made that wasn't gas on that card, so I have done pretty well with it so far. I always pay off my bill every month on time just to make sure I don't build up any debt.

It's really frustrating to use up that much of my credit limit, and then have a CSR say they can't increase my limit. I have always paid the full balance every month on time, so I don't see what the problem is. It's now been over 6 months, so I'm going to wait another week, and then try again. If it doesn't work this final time I'm definitly getting a new card.



I will be on the lookout for a new card with a decent reward program, because that is where I benefit the most at from credit cards. What I need is one with rewards for eating out. I'm going to analyze my spending and see where I spend the most money every month, and then get a card that has rewards in that area. I will update when I find something interesting.

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