Tips For Making Your Dollars Go Farther

Movie Night (Mondays and Tuesdays) at Regal Cinema: Tired of trying to sneak snacks into the theatre?  If so, Mondays and Tuesdays at Regal Cinema is your answer. For $1, you can purchase candy or popcorn with a Regal Crown Club card (which is free).  Local Regal theatres are located in Lakewood, Puyallup and Bonney Lake.

Are you a National SMART student?  If you have completed at least 60 cumulative credits, are a 2009-10 Pell Grant recipient, have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better and have not yet declared your major, you could be eligible for an additional $4000 in the National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grant.  To qualify you must (in addition to the above conditions) declare a major that is SMART eligible (as defined by the U.S. Department of Education) .  Majors include math, computer science, physics, biology, chemistry, geoscience, computer engineering, and Chinese, Classical Languages, French, German, Norwegian, & Spanish.   To initiate this process, you should have the Academic Program Contract (APC) completed by your Department Chair and submitted to the Registrar's Office.

Tips for Saving Money

Tip #1:  Discounts:  Take advantage of any discount available to you - ask the merchant if there is a student or educational discount on your purchases.

Tip #2:  Drink Tap water.  Bottled water (at $1 per 16 oz bottle) is about $8 a gallon (and you thought gas was expensive?!)

Tip #3:  Don't Drive:  Speaking of gas, add the cost of car insurance, parking (and possible parking fines), regular oil changes, and an occasional maintenance expense - you might want to leave your car at home.  Your financial aid budget has no allowance for making payments on a vehicle purchase.  If you don't need a car to get to and from school or work, you don't need the expense that goes with it.

Tip #4:  Track your spending: You can't stay on budget if you don't know what you've spent; watch the "burn rate" on your dining dollars. 

Tip #5:  Learn to cook: If you aren't on a university meal plan, learn to cook using fresh ingredients - avoid pre-packaged and processed foods.  It's not only cheaper, but healthier.