Being a student is tough on the brain and on the wallet. Here’s some tips to help you save some money, so you can concentrate on studying!

• Check your campus for recreational activities – see if your campus has gym or fitness facilities, join a varsity team, or cultural club. Some campuses even screen free movies!
• Check everywhere to see if you qualify for a student discount – movie theatres, public transportation, museums and art galleries typically give discounts if you show your student card
• Banks usually have special banking plans for students
• Live with your parents and commute to school
• Take food and snacks with you to avoid buying vending machine fare
• Make your own coffee at home and bring it in a reusable container
• Take public transportation or bike to school
• Check your local dollarstore and/or budget retailer for your school supplies
• Buy secondhand – clothes and binders, and anything else you can find
• Buy used textbooks – check local used textbook stores, Craigslist, and postings around your school (only buy used at your campus bookstore if you can’t get it elsewhere, they still charge more than other places)
• Instead of spending money on long distance calls, try Skype, MSN messenger, or emails
• Apply for every scholarship, bursary, and grant you can – never turn down an opportunity at free money!

The new school year is almost here! Does buying back to school supplies leave you feeling broke? It doesn’t have to. Here are simple ways to save money on all those back to school essentials.

If you use a cell phone, make sure your calling plan matches the pattern of calls you typically make. Understand peak calling periods, area coverage, roaming, and termination charges. Prepaid wireless plans tend to have higher per minute rates and fees but may be a better option if you use the phone only occasionally.

Need a quick cash boost? Why not try to sell unwanted items on craigslist or eBay?

Wanna pay down debt or your mortgage faster AND save lots of $$$?

Extra payments that you make usually go 100% to the principal of the loan, not the interest, potentially saving you thousands of $$$ in interest costs. Talk to your financial institution and see how pre-payments can work for you.

Keep your credit card balance (if you carry one) to less than 30% of the available limit. This will help your credit score. The more of your available credit you use, the more it hurts your score.

Photographers equipment and workflow costs alone are huge. Then there are batteries, flash cards, an assistant, wear and tear on their vehicle, insurance coverage, and the hours of work on and after the wedding that they factor into their pricing. On top of that you then pay for the creative talent of the photographer. You can save money on enlargements and albums but don’t penny pinch when it comes to the photographer. After your wedding day, the only things you have left are your pictures and your video. These are the only 2 services that last a lifetime and can be passed down to the next generation.

• Biggest tip – hire a photographer that gives you your digital high resolution files, that way you can make as many copies of pictures from your wedding day as you want without having to order them from your photographer.
• If you choose a photographer that does not give you your files, always find out how long they keep your files for, and ask if you can obtain them when they are ready to discard them. Most photographers in general don’t keep digital negatives past 3 years. Be prepared that some photographers still may charge a fee for providing your with the files. If its 3 years after your wedding, you can prepare for that fee and remember again that its the only memories of your wedding day.
• $1000.00 for a photographer is a great price but if they charge $40.00 for an 8 X 10, where’s the savings. Don’t just look at the photo packages or wedding day shoot costs, ask how much their enlargements and albums are.
• If a package includes a couple’s album and 2 parent albums, ask how much that same package would cost without any albums. Sometimes it’s worth the savings to buy your own albums elsewhere and sometimes it’s better to take the albums offered by your photographer.
• Unless you’re doing a formal shoot at the bride or groom’s house, you don’t need a photographer there. Your wedding party and family will have their cameras out anyway.
• A great idea is to not have the photographer stay for the reception. Saves a lot of coverage time. If you want to do this, simply do your first dance and cake cutting when you are introduced. The photographer can stay to capture that and leave at the point that you sit down for dinner.
• You don’t need your photographer to stay until 1am. Once the bouquet and garter tosses have taken place, there are no more major events to shoot. Your 1st & last dances look the same on film.

Thanks to A Cheap Chick for some additional wedding resources!

Check out: http://acheapchicksray.blogspot.com/2009/05/free-wedding-resources.html

Any more tips or resources you’d like to share? Please comment!

Any wedding planners out there? Connect with other women www.shesconnected.com

The #1 rule is to shop around, just because you find a dress you love in the first store you see doesn’t mean you can’t find a dress you love just as much (possibly more!) at another store for an even better price. You won’t know unless you look!

Some other ideas:

• Book in the off season (the hall will be cheaper, food possibly too)
• Book during the week instead of a weekend
• Make your own (or have a crafty friend make) bouquets, table settings, and gifts
• Make your own or use pre-made wedding invitations (there are matching sets all ready to go, just use your home printer or take it to your local Kinkos)
• Keep the wedding and/or wedding party small. The fewer the people, the less the cost. In fact, if the wedding is small enough, think about renting a back room at your favourite restaurant!
• Don’t be afraid to buy a dress from the rack, last season’s dresses are just as beautiful as this years and the savings can be amazing!
• Have a cash bar
• Use an mp3 player or iPod as your DJ
• Have a family member step in as the MC
• See if the hall will allow you to bring in some of your own food, like desserts
• Have a buffet style dinner instead of having servers
• Barter/Trade – I had a friend who’s a lawyer tell me she bartered wills for wine for her sister’s wedding!

If you have any more tips, please comment, I’d love to hear them!

Want to Improve your Credit Score?

Here’s some helpful hints . . .

1. Pay on Time

Be sure to pay at least the minimum on all forms of debt and bills ON TIME. Late payments are reported to the credit bureaus and are reflected in your score. You should try and pay more than the minimum on your debts (or even better, the full balance) to try and pay down debt – but as long as the minimum is paid the creditors will be happy.

2. Watch Your Debt-to-Credit Limit

You should try and keep the balances on your debt – particularly revolving credit (credit cards and lines of credit) – to below 50% of your available credit limits. The less you use, the better it looks on your report.

3. Don’t Over-apply for Credit

Every application you make for credit – at the bank or for a store credit card – is reported on your credit report. The more you apply for credit the more you make creditors nervous that you’ll rack up all this debt and not be able to pay for it.

However, if you think you may be turned down by some institutions, keep your applications to a 2-week application window. That way it just looks like your trying to get a good deal on your interest rate. If your applications are denied do NOT apply for more credit until at least 6 months go by.

One important myth: checking your own credit report or score does NOT lower your score, it has no effect on your report at all.

Its important to check your credit report and score at least once a year to make sure you can get the credit you need when you need it.