Saving money as a grad student can be tricky. Most grad students have a limited income, whether through graduate assistant-ships or student loans, and especially if you worked a regular job between college and grad school, cutting back to the minimum level is difficult. Making the most of what you have requires a certain amount of ingenuity!
Some ways to save on expenses are the same for grad students and for other thrifty people. Some popular options include:
- Sharing housing — an especially good option if you’ve moved to the area just for a few years of grad school and don’t intend to stay. You can live with other “transient” people both to make friends and save a lot of money.
- Buy very little clothing, and/or buy it at thrift stores. Many grad students don’t need much professional clothing, since they spend most of their time in libraries, labs, and classrooms. I only owned one suit when I was in grad school, and I got it off a “free” rack!
- Cook your own meals/make your own coffee
But there are other ways to save money that are particular to grad students. Here are a few of my favorite tips, in no particular order:
Employer reimbursement
Depending on what you are going to grad school for, you may be able to take advantage of tuition reimbursement. For example, many part-time MBA students are able to take advantage of this perk.
For those who are not familiar with employer tuition reimbursement, there is a tax law that allows employers to provide each employee up to $5,250 in employer tuition reimbursement tax-free each year.
While there are plenty of full-time grad students or students who are in programs where employers are not inclined to pay for them to get their masters, if tuition reimbursement is offered to you by all means take advantage of it. If you can stretch the reimbursement over six fiscal years you will save in excess of $31 thousand dollars.
DC wrote an entire post on how to take full advantage of employer tuition reimbursement.
Student Discounts
An oldie, but goodie! I was a grad student in New York and one year I saw every single program the New York City Ballet did, because I could get a ticket for $12 as a student, which was literally cheaper than a movie.
You can get student discounts at arts organizations, restaurants, and even dry cleaners. Often, in your university’s neighborhood, other kinds of businesses will post discounts aimed specifically at students of that university.
If a business doesn’t have something explicitly posted, just ask. You never know.
Travel Funds
Your department or central graduate school administration may make travel money available for conferences and/or research. Talking to older students is often the best way to find out what hidden pools of money may be available, on top of what is advertised by the school. If you work closely with a professor (say, as a research assistant) that person may have some professional development money they can share with you, as well.
Travel funds are great for the obvious reason: you need to go to the conference or research site anyway, so you can save money by not paying for it yourself! But they’re also great for taking a cheap vacation. I did this many times: the university paid for my plane ticket, and I paid for my own lodging after the conference was over so that I could have a few extra days to see the area.
Professional Association Funds
Depending on what you’re in grad school for, you may be able to join one or more professional associations. This costs something up front, for annual dues, but those are usually steeply discounted for students. And importantly, they can give you access to another pool of money you can use for research or travel.
These funds are more competitive than the ones given out by your school, because grad students from all over can apply for them, but they can be really useful. I once got $1500 in conference travel money in exchange for writing a short essay for my professional association.
Use University Facilities
Your university probably has:
- A student health center
- Free wifi
- Free or inexpensive printing
- A gym you can join at a steep discount
- Movies, plays, and/or musical events on campus
Even if you don’t have the university’s health insurance plan, you can probably still use the student health center for very little money. They won’t be able to do emergency or specialist care, but you can get basic exams, women’s health care, help with routine illnesses like the flu, vaccines, etc.
You can also join the university’s gym. Sometimes this is actually free for grad students, but if it’s not, it’ll still be much cheaper than any commercial gym membership. You do need to watch out for restrictions on your ability to use certain facilities at certain times — often the swimming pool is off limits several hours a day for the use of the swim team, for example.
Finally, think about what else you can do on campus. I didn’t pay for the internet at my apartment for several years, for example; I lived close enough that I could walk to the library every day. I was actually more productive at home without being able to surf, too! And I took advantage of inexpensive entertainment on campus, where there are often concerts, art exhibits, plays, and classic movies.
Here are some of our other posts you may be interested in:
- 12 Tips for Beginner Couponers
- How to Organize Coupons Using a Database in Excel
- One Strategy That Immediately Limits Spending
Have you been a grad student, or are you one now? Are there other university facilities you use to make life a little less expensive?
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Great post! My fiance is doing a part-time, online engineering masters program, which is paid for entirely by his job (whoo!!), and he is still able to have his full-time income. But I didn’t even think about him getting student discounts. That is great advice!
Absolutely true and sometime co-housing is best choice to save more, because split bills with others for determined period is good deal… This is good also when you are on a budget go to Public Library and see what events it can offers, It is been a real discover in the past years!!!
The tough thing about minimizing spending as a grad student, in my view, is that it needs to be done both at a high level of impact, such as having one or more roommates, and at a low level of impact, such as seeking out free entertainment on campus (because lots of those low-level actions do add up). That takes a lot of energy! But I would go for the high-impact actions first, like you listed. Minimizing food spending was one I spent a lot of energy on while I was in grad school because it is such a large monthly variable expense.