Cut College Costs
Sending your kids to college doesn't have to break you financially. Here's help defray your kids' educational expenses.
Instructions
1. Rent your textbooks instead of buy them. The price of textbooks has skyrocketed, and renting is a much cheaper alternative than buying new ones. Of course, if the student loses or damages the book, then he or she must buy the book at the end of the semester. Check out sites such as Chegg and BookRenter.com (see Resources below).
2. Be careful about paying your kids' credit card debts. Use low-fee, low-interest rate cards with a relatively low limit so that your kids don't get in over their heads. At some point, you may also need to let your kids suffer the consequences of their actions; set boundaries and tell them how much of their debt you'll cover them for.
3. Ditch the car if at all possible. This eliminates a plethora of expenses such as parking permits, gas, insurance and upkeep. Bus passes and bicycles are sufficient for most everyday commutes, and students should look to zipcar for low-cost rentals for weekend road trips (see Resources below).
4. Let your student earn at least a portion of his of her school expenses. Working a part-time job will force them to see the value of money because they have earned it. Asking your student to pay even 25 percent of tuition and fees, or at least their own room and board and books, will drastically reduce the amount of money that you'll have to come up with out of your own pocket.
Tags: your kids, College Costs, Resources below, your student