Speaker 1: Hi everyone. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. My name is Bhoomi and let's get started with today's video. So today's video is basically going to be about the financial mistakes we make as students in college and how to avoid them because I think going to college in itself is so expensive that after paying your tuition you have to be very careful with the money that you spend and how you are spending it. So let's get started but before that just a quick sneak peek into who I am and what do I do. So my name is Bhoomi and I am a sophomore in college and I study finance and economics. What else? I'm an international student from India in US and I go to college in NYC. That's pretty much it. Now let's get started so number one just because I made a list of those number one is do not go to Target randomly this one is so real because I made it myself I mean I made this mistake myself too so what happened was when I came to New York and you know I used to see all these dorm room videos and stuff on YouTube and then I used to see these inspirations on Instagram and I was like I gotta go to target and you know I want to see those eyes on which they have like college what was that? college special or something like that so I was like I got to go to target I have to see this I have to buy that this so I used to randomly go to target like let's say if my if I don't have any class in the evening so I was like okay let's go to target let's do this let's do that so that's wrong because you impulsively just go to target randomly when you don't need anything and then you end up buying stuff which you actually don't need and you spend money on that because I think I remember once I went to Target and I think I brought those lights or something those really fancy lights and those were like for 25 or 30 dollars it was a waste expense I would say you don't need to buy those you can instead order those fairy lights from Amazon they were like five or six dollars and trust me they're good so do not go to Target randomly because you will buy stupid things which you don't need Number two, avoid Doordash Uber Eats and instead eat in the dining hall and prepare your own food. This one is so real because each time you click on Uber Eats or you Doordash something you will end up spending around twenty to thirty dollars even though you're not like ordering something fancy because you order food that's you know one of your expenses and then they take service Discharges and delivery fees and I don't know what not like hundred other fees and taxes they have and then they just Like round it up to $30 or 25 whatever that is So avoid doing that instead if you're living in university dorms, like I did in my first Entire year you can instead go to the dining hall because you're basically paying for that food over there You know you have a meal plan use it and I think most colleges have this that for freshmen they have an unlimited meal plan in which you can swipe how many I mean as many times as you want in a week so yeah eat in your dining hall and then you can do the second thing that I did I used to promise myself that every weekend I'm gonna make something you know my home food I used to make Indian food so often in the dorms we had a common kitchen on each floor so I used to use it and I to make food and you know just like enjoy and trust me cooking in college is so much fun because you're cooking at 2 a.m and then randomly people just come and they're like oh you're cooking like what are you making this and that and then you just have to share your food with people i mean you don't have to you can just be nice and share it with them so that they learn about your culture you get to learn something about them because i remember once i shared my food with a friend of mine I think they were from some I don't know what country exactly they were from but they had I mean food which was similar to Indian food so I was like okay now I learned you know some some countries have similar culture and stuff like that and then I also used to get so many compliments everyone was like oh Bhumi makes good food she always makes food she's always cooking in the kitchen this and that so it's good like instead of going to expensive restaurants Uber Eats, DoorDash, you can just cook or go to the dining hall. Dining hall has so many stories. At this point, I just think I'm yapping. I'm just yapping about the stories. Dining hall is so much fun because I remember my friends and I used to like go to dining hall every single day together and at least once in a day, we all used to eat together. It could be maybe lunch or dinner because breakfast usually used to be so messed up because someone has a class at 2am so they they were waking up at 1 or something someone has an 8 a.m. they're waking up at 7 so breakfast was not usually a thing but lunch and dinner we made sure that we eat with each other and it was so much fun because we used to sit on a big table in the middle of the dining hall and then we used to talk and all good things so yeah please go to the dining hall use your money number one and create memories I mean my phone gallery is full of those pictures and videos which I randomly took in the dining hall and it's just so much fun so please go to the dining hall it's good and then do not shop from oh do not shop for different seasons and instead buy trended clothes by this what I mean is do not buy clothes which are you know I would say season specific like I understand you need summer clothes you need clothes for the fall spring and winter but there are certain things like track pants trousers which can be used in the spring, fall, summer and you know winter so you buy those which you can use in all seasons this way you're gonna I mean you're gonna be saving a lot of money on different kinds of pants or shirts maybe which you want to get and then what you can do is instead of buying really fancy clothes you can buy I would say you know those general clothes which you basically need in in everyday life. Maybe you could buy one white shirt, one black, brown, those basic colors, and then you can, you know, pair them with pants, trousers, skirts, whatever. So buy those kind of clothes, you can be saving lots of money. And then number four, avoid buying books from the bookstore, and instead buy them from online websites or purchase the PDFs. Because I remember for the very first semester I bought this textbook which was 195 something and it was not worth it trust me it was not because some days later when I was like okay you know I saw this YouTube video in which this girl was talking about how she purchases all books online and I just like put the name of the book and I said free PDF and it actually popped up so obviously I wasted my money and I could not return it. All I could do is sell the book as a used book or something online and then I can get 50% of my money but that's 50%. 195 is almost close to 200 so obviously I lost 100 so don't do that. Instead go online try buying it from maybe Amazon and then there are these really cool websites I mean I can add the names of some of them in the description or something and you can use those websites and they have free pdfs or even if they have paid versions those paid versions are like four dollars five dollars maximum 10 or 20 it's better than paying 200 300 so do not do that and especially your college bookstore it's hell expensive i mean you can get the same notebooks from target or you know other stores around for maybe three or four dollars and your bookstore will sell it for $10, $15. It's expensive. At least my college bookstore, it's so expensive. I would not suggest anyone to do that. So avoid going to the bookstore. And one more thing with the bookstore, you know, they sell these college merches in the bookstore. Random college shirts, which have your college name on it. And then these really cool backpacks, hats, bracelets, don't do that. It's of no use. Instead, attend your college events like the sports events, maybe baseball game, basketball game, whatever. And then, you know, the prep rally, prep rally, I don't know what is it called. It's called something. Attend those and then you can just get those for free because they like, you know, throw the shirts, throw hats, you can just like grab them for free. So you will only have to attend it and you can save a lot of money. And then number five, avoid doing expensive excursions and instead explore your city or town. By this, what I basically mean is, I live in New York and New York is hell, hell, hell, hell expensive. I mean, there's nothing which is under 50 or under 100 bucks to like do in the city. All you can expect to spend is like 200, 300, whatever. I mean, it's actually very expensive. so instead of that what I do is I try exploring free sites like you know those parks and bridges I mean Brooklyn Bridge Park that's so so so famous Central Park the most famous park in the world and then you can go to like different museums I mean some of the museums are free on the first and the last weekend or maybe on a Friday or something you can always find these little tricks and you know things about how to explore your city wherever you live like I live in New York I know things about New York how to get there for free or you know get them at discounted rates you can see them for your city just all it takes is a google search and now we have AI you can always just ask chat jiminy what's free in your city you get to know it number six use public transport instead of uber and lyfts oh my god this is so so so important because every time you open uber just like uber eats you can spend 25 30 bucks i mean whenever we go out my friends and i we never take the uber we always go in the subway and come back in the subway i mean i'm not saying that put yourself in danger and use public transport but if you know it's going to be all right don't be dramatic and oh and i may book an uber don't do that like don't be dramatic about it if you can take the subway or the buses if you are in a good city or a place do that it will save a lot of money like trust me i have saved till now like hundreds or maybe even yeah like hundreds and hundreds of dollars by taking the subway to and fro from the college or my house wherever. And then keep a track of all the subscriptions you're paying. This is so so so important because I remember I had to take the subscription for this online book app for one of my classes in the spring semester which is the last semester and I forgot to cancel the subscription and then I was paying it for like three or four months over the summer break and I recently realized that I'm paying the subscription for it because it just automatically you know gets deducted and then you get an SMS or an email and you just like slide it down you ignore it because they're like oh whatever but no you that email is important so keep a track of all the subscriptions you're paying and I think Amazon Prime has this special offer for students I think it's 50% off or something I have that one so you can get it for way lesser price so do that and then yeah like just keep a track of your subscriptions those are just so scary and so expensive they can just empty your bank balance at no time and then use your college resources wisely this is super super super super important because your college has partnered or maybe received you know some sort of discounts and stuff from different channels and websites or whatever it is like my college library they have this free subscription for all the students in the college by the wall street journal new york times and stuff so all we have to do is register with our university email and then we can get a free subscription for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, like those subscriptions are expensive so you can just get them for free by using your college email. So it's a college resource and you can only know about it if you're active on campus or maybe you know active about the emails that you receive because I remember every semester in the first week they do send an email that you can use these library resources for free and you know it's just less expensive or whatever so you be careful about your emails just read them and be alert and attentive about your college resources and then use student discounts on websites so there are these really fun websites like College Universe and all they have these discount coupons for students and all you have to do is register with your student email which has an edu in it so your college email is basically your college name or maybe the shortcut for your college like I think Harvard Business School has HBS and then .edu or something my college has Manhattan .edu so whatever email you have with an edu in it use it and then you can get so so many discounts so please use them because I remember I once went to H&M and I think I got 50 or 60 percent off and I once went to forever also and I or discount so use it, it's good. And then use college tutoring instead of paying for the online or in-person ones. I don't know if many people do this because once you're in college, you're like grown up, you just basically try to figure everything out on your own but I did have one of these friends, I mean not a friend exactly, maybe an acquaintance you can say and she was like paying for this online tutoring I don't know what exactly it was she had a tutor tutoring her math every day and it was expensive so instead of that what you can do is each university or college they have the student learning center in which they have tutors who are basically upperclassmen I mean if you're a sophomore or a junior you can tutor freshmen for those classes I mean if I go and you know get a job there I can tutor for economics and maybe management and stuff like the classes in which I have an A so you can do that so those are for free so you can utilize them because I think private tutors for college they can basically cost you anywhere between 150 to 250 per session which is US dollars is really expensive so avoid doing that and your student learning center is free and they can basically you know tutor you in a better way as compared to the private ones because they have been in the same classes with the same professors as you so they have a better knowledge and understanding about it so they can help you better. So those were the ten mistakes that we make and we should not I mean I'm not saying that you should completely avoid them, avoid them as much as you can like you know prevention is better than cure so these are your preventive measures and your cure will be cutting down on all your expenses which you don't want to do because you want to enjoy your college life so do this instead take these preventive measures and then you will not have to cure your expenses later so yeah these were just a few ones and i can make a part two if i you know just randomly come up with another 10 or 5. I will definitely make a part 2 because I know it's tough to manage your finances in college. So if you like this video, do give me a thumbs up, hit that subscribe button because it takes absolutely no money to subscribe to my channel. I mean everyone's channel but mine especially. So subscribe to my channel. I'll be bringing out college videos, vlogs and everything random. Just like I said in my previous video, sometimes it will make sense, sometimes it will not make sense so whatever just just watch them love them and you can comment down your financial advices or some of my advices which you loved and if you're already using them tell me how did you use it how did you know about it XYZ share your information with me and maybe in my next video I can share it with others let's all be helpful and useful to each other and share it with your friends because if you save money they will save money and then together with that money y'all can do something fun so yeah have a good day or a good night if you're watching this right before bed and keep watching my channel and I love you all bye bye