Student Shopping Habit

Shopping can be an emotional release for many students. Lots of students shop to reduce stress or just to pass the time with their friends. Shopping out of boredom or to cope with life’s woes can lead to much bigger problems. When it starts to get out of control, consumerism becomes a bad habit, even an addiction. If your bank account has been taking a beating due to over purchasing, you might have a compulsion to shop.

Shop-a-holics show signs that are similar to other addicts. You think that shopping and buying things, even little things like make-up or gifts for others, is going to make you feel better and forget about your problems. Actually, it makes you feel worse, compounding guilt, financial hardship and anxiety on top of whatever was wrong to begin with. Finding yourself in a financial struggle or deep in debt can strain relationships with your friends and family. Living beyond your means stretches your sanity as well as your wallet.

Do you go out for just a few things and come home with your trunk full? Do you seem to shop more after an emotional trauma or stressful situation? These are questions that students with a problem don’t want to face. Don’t get caught in that downward spiral of spending due to stress where that moment of elation leads to even more stress and worry. Ask yourself every time if what you are about to buy is a “need” or a “want”. The hard part is not buying the things that you only “want”. Try to recognize the signs that you may have a problem. Have you made purchases and regretted it later? Bought things that you never used? Maybe your family or friends have expressed a concern or disapproval that led you to hide items, or lie about prices. Many compulsive shoppers report feeling elated and nervous at the same time when making frivolous purchases. They later feel guilty or embarrassed about the truth of their shopping spree. They also have a general belief that shopping is “bad behavior”.

Something to think about is that you’re letting marketing control you. Commercials and ads seem to prey on your psyche. Just passing a store or getting a little extra in your bank account sends you into a “What can I buy?” mental frenzy. Remind yourself that you will only feel worse afterward. It’s really not worth the guilt and trauma that it causes.

Avoid circumstances that may make you want to spend. Never use credit cards. Keep one emergency one at home. If it is in a store, it’s most likely not an emergency. Exercise, yoga and hot baths generally curb the temptation to shop. Take a drive through the country where there aren’t any stores. Patience is a learned skill. Have patience with yourself and your money. Immediate gratification doesn’t last long, but patience can benefit you for the rest of your life. If you need more help than you can give yourself, there are support groups out there that can help. If you have a real emergency, take the time to research if your credit card is really the best option. You may be eligible for student loans or private student loans that have fixed payments and are easier to get out from under than a credit card.

About the Author: Evelyn Saunders, a retired teacher, is the editor for student-loans.net, a provider of student loans and information on how to get private student loans as well as consolidation. For more information, please visit http://www.student-loans.net.

Is Your Life Becoming Expensive?

Life in college is trending towards becoming more and more expensive. Meanwhile, college students are still making around the same amount of money year to year. Unexpected expenses and emergencies can drag down your finances making it seem impossible to stay afloat. Sometimes we don’t realize that we have actually up-graded our lifestyles so much that we’ve slowly been getting closer and closer to living beyond our means. So, if your eyes have become bigger than your wallet, you need to learn how to cut out some of the extra expenses that you’ve accumulated through the years.

You can start with your monthly bills. What would happen if you lived without cable for a while? Are you paying for channels that you barely watch? Sometimes renting a movie is cheaper than paying for a whole month of a premium channel that doesn’t play what you want to see, anyway. If you mostly watch network TV, think about purchasing a power antenna to get all of your favorite shows. That’s a one time cost instead of a monthly bill. Also, paying your bills online for free can save you almost two-hundred dollars per year on stamps, not to mention late fees on bills and mailed checks that eventually bounce because you forgot that they were out there.

If you must have a cell phone, consider it a necessity instead of a luxury. Only use it when you absolutely need to and don’t chatter away to your friends all month. Pick a plan with minimal minutes and keep track. Ask yourself if it’s really an emergency before you use it. You can also save money on your cell phone bill by using free texting instead of actually making a call if your cell phone company provides that feature.

Think about the long-term cost of your daily spending habits. Calculate it and write it down. Would you pay over one-hundred dollars for a can of coffee at the grocery store? Probably not. So ask yourself why you would willingly pay close to five dollars a day for a latte on your way to class. It may seem like a small amount, but if you saved that money, you would have around five-thousand dollars for yourself at the end of the year. Spoiling yourself on little things is fine every now and then, but make it infrequent and keep your goal of saving in mind. If you brought a sandwich and fruit for lunch instead of grabbing some fast food, you’d have another five-thousand dollars in the bank.

Set yourself a weekly grocery budget and carry a calculator when you go to the store. Use coupons, but don’t buy something just because you have a coupon. Make a menu and only buy the items that you really need to make the dishes that you have planned. Try to spend one week per month living off of just what you have stored up in your pantry. Your pantry will get cleaned out and you’ll realize which items you shouldn’t have bought in the first place. Go for generic brands whenever possible. Their quality has greatly improved over the years, so if you were not impressed the first time, give it another try. Save money and live happily, not beyond your means. If you get into a bind, consider student loans or private student loans instead of running up a credit card.

About the Author: Evelyn Saunders, a retired teacher, is the editor for student-loans.net, a provider of student loans and information on how to get private student loans as well as consolidation. For more information, please visit http://www.student-loans.net.

Pay Off Your Debt

So you’ve gotten yourself into a credit card bind. If you are only paying the minimum amounts due on each card, then there may not be an end in sight for years. You have to realize that you are at the credit card company’s mercy and decide to get yourself out. You have to want to get your own life back and make conscious, deliberate moves to make a move in a positive direction. If you’re not sure where to start, take some of these popular strategies into consideration when devising your pay-off plan.
Probably the best way to get out of debt is to attack high interest rate cards first. To do this, you need to actually write down your income, subtract your minimums and other monthly bills. When you see what is left, take out what you need each week for food and gas. Any extra income needs to be applied to the highest rate of interest card that you own. Just increasing the amount you pay to above the minimum can knock years of payments off of your payment plan.
Consider the extra money a payment to yourself. If you don’t pay it to yourself, then you’ll be paying it to your credit card company for years to come. Consider a couple of years of prudence over many years of padding the credit card company’s pockets. Your goal should be to at least double your minimum payment. Keep paying the same amount month after month despite the credit card company’s plans to entice you back into their clutches. You’ll see smaller and smaller minimums due. You’ll get more offers in the mail. Your credit line might get increased. Ignore these tactics and stick to your plan of getting free.
Some people find it motivating to pay off their smaller balances first. This could be a good idea if it keeps you on track. Also, if you have more than four credit card accounts, that alone can hurt your credit. These are things to consider. If you have 5 small store accounts on top of your major balance cards, then paying them off and closing them can look better on your credit report. This could give you more leverage when negotiating with your higher interest card companies to lower your interest rate. Once you get down to three or four credit cards, it’s a good idea to switch to the first plan of paying off the highest interest card first.
When you’re going through the process of paying down your debt, make sure that every time you pay off a card, you apply that amount that you were paying to the next card. It helps to pay your bills online, preferably through your bank. That way, you can always see what your last payment was and pay the same again regardless of what the bill says you owe. Round up the amount that you’re paying to a good whole number to make yourself pay a little more than you might have originally paid.

Any time that you receive a tax return, bonus, raise, money from a garage sale, any extra income, it should always go directly to the card that you’re cracking down on. Go online immediately and send that money to the credit card company. Don’t try to save it in your bank account until the next bill is due or you may end up whittling it away and missing your opportunity to knock months off of you bill. If you’re a student, you may qualify for student loans or private student loans for future emergencies which can have better terms than a credit card.

About the Author: Evelyn Saunders, a retired teacher, is the editor for student-loans.net, a provider of student loans and information on how to get private student loans as well as consolidation. For more information, please visit http://www.student-loans.net.