Want to get 20 quick tips to saving yourself a buttload of money while you’re in school? This list may help.

20) Take the bus instead of your car – If you’re bringing your car to campus, good for you, a car is awesome to have on campus. BUT. If you can skip out on using your car and take the bus, you’re going to save a lot on gas. If you fill up every week like I did ($30/ each time), you’re saving a good 800 bucks right there.

19) Buy groceries and learn to cook your own food – Let’s face it, eating out is pretty expensive. A cheap meal is probably like five dollars, and the higher-end meals are probably fifteen bucks or so. So if you eat on average 18 meals/week (meaning you skip breakfast a few times or eat cheap breakfasts), and each meal is about 7 bucks, you’re spending $127 a week. Compare that to buying groceries – $127 will let you eat for the entire month or at least 3 weeks if you spend wisely.

18) Use a meal plan – Even though getting groceries is the best idea, it may not be available for everyone for whatever reason (no car, no way to go get groceries, etc). In that case make sure you are using your school’s meal plan. Usually by using a meal plan you’ll get some kind of discount on food. Instead of spending cash on food, why not save and use the meal plan? At my school we were able to get buffets for four dollars on the meal plan.

17) Choose your snacks wisely – Snacking is a big part of college, especially for guys. At home we had a whole pantry of snacks that mom replenished. At school we have to buy snacks ourselves. Avoid buying from the vending machine since those prices are crazy expensive. Get a large package of snacks from Costco instead. If you want chips, buy Pringles because they are cheap ($1 / carton), and if you want crackers get Goldfish crackers (cheap and relatively healthy).

16) Put 25% of your paycheck in your savings account – A big problem with most teens is that they get a paycheck and immediately use it. Don’t be like this. Once you get your check and you go deposit it at the bank, immediately put 25% in your savings. Now most would advocate that you put in 50%. I advocate 25% for a number of reasons. First of all, this will prevent you from transferring money from savings to checkings (as I did many times), and this will also let you have enough spending money as a college student.

15) Search Fastweb.com for scholarships – I made the mistake of not taking advantage of Fastweb during my freshman year. It was definitely a mistake. The thing was that I thought it’d be hard to get scholarships because I’d have to write a good essay. Actually my writing skills are not that bad and I was able to get several scholarships. Plus there are many essay contests that don’t have very many entries at all.

14) Save time studying, earn money – If you can spend less time studying, you can spend more time at your part-time job or doing a work at your own pace job (see #1). This is why I advocate learning how to speed read.

13) Choose good hobbies – Instead of playing video games or online MMORPGs, look for hobbies that are free. For example, instead of playing WoW, my friends played Guild Wars (no monthly fee), and instead of paying a lot of money for paintball, I played basketball at the gym.

12) Use a realtor for your housing needs – Do your own research first, but then also hire a realtor. Through the realtor we were able to find an AMAZING apartment and get an awesome deal. Realtors usually do know where the best deals are at although some realtors CAN be shady. This is why I also advocate that you do your own research online and give a call and a visit to several places before signing a lease.

11) Never buy your own alcohol – I almost never have to buy my own alcohol while I’m in college. This is also because I’m in a frat. However, most parties ARE free so you just need to go and find them and leech off their alcohol. Go early because by 1:00, most parties are dry and only the truly good parties will still have liquor.

10) Pay off your credit cards – Don’t pay interest, this is a no-brainer. Don’t buy something unless you know that you can pay it off.

9) Don’t impulse buy – If you’re going to buy a big-ticket item, then you should wait about 5 days. If after the 5 days is up and you still want to buy it, then go ahead. Impulse buying is never a good thing.

8 ) Stop watching movies – Movies are DAMNED expensive these days. Most universities now offer free screenings so take advantage of those. Also instead of going to the theater and paying upwards of 8.00 for a ticket, consider getting a rental package at Blockbuster or Netflix if you ABSOLUTELY must watch movies. Or pirate them =).

7) Don’t pay for a hair cut – Paying for haircuts can get expensive over time. I know that the place I went to, which was the only place on campus, charged $20 for a cut. Instead find someone who can cut hair. You probably have at least one friend who can do this (look for a Vietnamese girl… just kidding, no racism here). If not, then you can try cutting it yourself. My friend does this and it saves him tons of money per year.

6) Cut down on expensive clubs – Joining organizations and clubs on campus is a good way to meet new people, but you should figure out what clubs are worth joining and which clubs are just sucking your money. Usually you should go to at least two meetings before committing the money to becoming a member. Figure out if you can potentially get an officer position, which will help your resume, or if there are any benefits such as free food or good connections.

5) Buy cheap clothing, and only when you need to – It shouldn’t be that much of a problem for guys. I know that girls love clothes and that this piece of advice is probably something that girls won’t follow.

4) Make use of university file sharing – Never buy music. Never. Unless you want to support the artist or the band. Universities usually have file sharing hubs that have every single file you could dream of on there. Figure out how to be a part of it.

3) Fundraise if you’re joining a fraternity – A lot of you guys will decide to join a frat or sorority. I did and it was the best idea of my life. Sure I have to pay a grand per semester, but it has been the best investment I’ve ever made. My frat has an option to fundraise your semester dues and most fraternities should have this. Ask one of the active members before you join just to make sure.

2) Leech off your parents – Your parents aren’t going to let you starve right? Tell them that you need some more money. Most parents are willing to give a little bit.

1) Find a job that you can work while juggling part-time job AND school – This one is crucial. There are jobs out there that you can do while just on your computer which means you can do them in your spare time. If you have a part-time job and classes to attend, this is a good way to get a few extra dollars. One of the jobs that you can do in your free time is data entry. You can find these types of jobs by searching the classified on Craigslist (this is where I found mine).