Couponing an art form that will save you quite a headache if done properly. Also, something that many families undervalue and forget to take advantage of! I come from a family of businesspeople. Both of my parents are entrepreneurs, and my sister worked in marketing before stating her own restaurant. 

I always grew up with financing at home. From a young age, my mom showed me the power of budgeting and of saving. She would give me a monthly allowance and opened a savings account for me, I could choose to use all of my allowance or save it long term then have more to spend. She would always teach me how to budget. She told me that with a good budget you can make even impossible things happening. She lightly touched in investing not much thou since she was not a big investor. She preferred to play it safe focusing her attention on budgeting and saving. 

From a young age I watched my parents budget and make accounts at the end of each day to see how much they earned and what they needed more off, etc. I have a decent understanding of budgeting, and to test it my mother will leave me an allowance of 100 dollars for 6 months, it is my job to let those 100 dollars cover any outside expenses I might need such as gifts for my friends, going out to eat or video games. Depending on how much I have after the 6 months she will give me that same amount back so if I have 50 dollars she will give me 50 back. 

I took classes at school such as path were we talked about budgeting. Budgeting is pretty easy in my opinion it just takes time. People don’t realize the power of budgeting, when you sit down and budget your money you can avoid overspending, you can avoid living for paycheck to paycheck, you can avoid making your life a headache and instead save up for the things that matter to you. All it takes is time and a bit of patience. 

Credit cards and investing I am highly confused on, my family did not teach me anything about credit cards or financing. The school did not show me anything regarding credit cards , financing and investment. In my mind the easiest thing is to avoid credit cards or all possible, but if you have to use them, keep track of how much you are spending. You don’t want to end up overspending and finding yourself in a situation we’re you cannot pay back the money you spent. As for investing I understand that there are different places and ways you can invest money; you can invest into the real estate market, you can invest into the stock market, you can invest on content creators and growing businesses. 

Investing worked in the sense that you but a certain amount of money into whatever you are investing then sell it and gain a profit. Investing is creating a profit that surpasses the money you invested. If you are loosing money when investing then you aren’t actually investing you are just wasting money. In a sense college is supposed to be an investment. You pay for an education that will allow you a reach into a career you want that you would otherwise have no qualifications to be in. 

I want to be an animator which means that the only colleges that offer the degree I want are private art colleges. Private colleges specially private art colleges are some of the most expensive colleges there are. The colleges I am looking at range from 30k-60k a year. A pretty huge investment if you ask me. However there are ways to make college cheaper and less of a headache for all of us. Some of the outside college ways is to apply for scholarships within the college. Apply to merit scholarships, apply to financial aid, apply to need based scholarship. The college offer resources to help you you just need to reach out and apply, worst case scenario you don’t get the scholarship, best case scenario college is now a bit cheaper. Fill out your FASFA if you can. Not everyone can hit if you can do it, the government can provide financial aid and alleviate the expenses of college. 

Third ask around the colleges if there are any benefits to becoming an RA. You may not be able to apply until after your freshman year but some colleges give RAs free or even discounted housing. Which can save you a bunch of money; another good way is that if applying for outside scholarship. Going merry, cheggs that allow college students to buy textbooks for way cheaper than college agencies. Not only that but if the edition has not changed yet you could hopefully buy it from a student that finished the course.

Another thing to keep in mind is college dorm research if it is cheaper to be an RA, live on campus or live off of campus. Once you decide if it turns out it is cheaper to live on campus ask about what kinda furniture comes with the room. Do not spend money on desks if you don't need to. Also I would not recommend spending money on decorating because let's be honest college is temporary, it is an experience that will pass.

Spending lots of money decorating the college dorm that you might have to move from in a year is an utter waste of money. Honestly you only need your college dorm to sleep, and study. If you really want somewhere more personal decorate your desktop it is more permanent.

Avoid going to parities personally I do not see much of a point in parties but that might just be my cultural anxiety talking. However you will spend unnecessary gas if you have to drive, you will waste time getting distracted and being away from your studies. If you throw a party you waste money on chips and beer and then waste time having to clean up the mess gone. Now for transportation if you have a friend that has a car try to car pool with them if at all possible, if you re able to walk or bike places it is much cheaper than owning. car, and well in the worse case scenario public transportation is a good option.

Take advantages of discounts offered for college students, there are websites that provide coupons and discounts specifically for college students, like Retailmenot, CouponCabin or CouponVario. You should take advantage because if you can save money on your supplies you should. The less money you spent the more money you can have for important things such as emergency. You could also consider joining a website such as course hero where you get entered into sweepscapes drawings when you upload assignments you have finished, you could try making money by tutoring. College does not have to be expensive if you budget and work hard.