1. Plan ahead and limit yourself

If you limit yourself to a certain amount of outings per week you will be able to save money that otherwise would be coming off of your college loan debt.  You have to be realistic.  Don’t limit yourself so much that you are not going to follow through as this will lead to more college loan debt.  3 or 4 nights per week should be reasonable.  Try to plan ahead for the week and set up a social and academic schedule.  By being able to plan ahead you should be able to avoid spontaneous bar nights which significantly add to your college loan debt.  A good tip is to plan ahead for the cheap nights at the various establishments or go to a pub where you can share pitchers of beer.  Local establishments are fully aware that students have college loan debt and have cheap nights to get them through the door.

2. Buy drinks from the store, not the bar

Binge drinking is usually what people engage in while at college.  If you are going to adopt this style of partying you cannot afford to start your evening at the bar.  This is one of the quickest paths to college loan debt.  What you need to do is buy your drinks from the store and start at home or at a friends home so that by the time you get to the bar you only need to nurse a few drinks to get you through the rest of the night.  This will help keep the college loan debt to a minimum.  The benefits of drinking with friends before going out is that you can actually here what they are saying, you can choose the music, and the seats are more comfortable.  Plus, you can make the drinks the way you like them, not the watered down version from the bar.  You don’t need extra college loan debt because of watered down drinks.

3. Only bring cash and id to the bar

So you’re ready for your night on the town after a significant amount of pre-drinking.  ONLY bring cash and id to the bar.  If you do not, the amount of college loan debt you accumulate will be astounding and you likely will not remember how you even got it.  By leaving the ATM card and especially the credit card back  at the house you will be saving yourself a world of college loan debt and credit card debt.  Just think about how many times you are out and all of sudden you want to buy a round for everyone because you’re smashed.  People tend to get really generous when they’re feeling the effects of a strong night of binge drinking.  This will prevent you from buying everyone pizza on the way home or other incredibly impulsive decisions that will pile on to your college loan debt.

Hopefully these tips will help save you a lot of money.  If I had heeded this advice when I was in college I likely wouldn’t have spent the equivalent of tuition on going out.  Live and learn.  I’ll live so you can learn.  College loan debt sucks and the less you have the better off you will be.

Technorati Tags: College Loan Debt, Partying, Tips