student loan advice | 8 Places To Find Free or Low Cost College Supplies

8 Places To Find Free or Low Cost College Supplies

8 Places To Find Free or Low Cost College Supplies

If you haven’t figured it out yet, college can be expensive! Tuition, room and board is the largest budget breakers of a College Student. Coming in a close 3rd is college supplies such as textbooks and related material. Here’s 8 places to get your supplies cheap or in some cases, cheap!

  1. eBay – Face the facts, there are many things we as consumers can get dirt cheap on eBay. Need a used laptop, digital recorder or USB Storage device? Not a problem, there are literally thousands on eBay. You can even get pencils and paper in bulk off of eBay.
  2. Membership Wholesale Clubs – Even though they’re called “Membership” Clubs, most everyone has a chance to become a member of Wholesale Clubs like Cosco, Sam’s, etc. If you don’t have a membership, then call the store or visit their website to see what membership requires, usually just being a Student will be enough for you to qualify. You can buy bulk classroom materials such as pens, pencils, paper, hi-tech gear and save a lot of money doing it at wholesale clubs.
  3. Garage Sales – If you’re the type who just turned their nose up at this idea, that’s fine, you deserve to pay out the yazoo for your equipment. The other can save a bundle by being wise and shopping for deals other people want to get rid of. I had one friend who outfited his apartment in College for less than $200 at Garage sales. The cool thing was that it was name brand furniture like Simmons and Ethan Allen. Some of the furniture was actually given to him by these people simply by taking it off their hands. Now that’s being frugal. Oh, and when he graduated and left school, he sold the furniture for $1500. Not a bad profit margin!
  4. The College Right Under Your Nose – Many Students never take advantage of the free or low cost resources their college will provide. For example, the Library has tons of books (obviously) but also may have use of computers, printers, scanners and other machines to help you succeed. Ask! If there is something you need, ask the people in the Library. If they don’t have it, they may know where to get it.
  5. The local Library – Staying on the Library kick, (they really are bargains) your local Library may have computers and other business and learning equipment free of charge for your use. Hey, you’re supporting them with your tax dollars, you might as well take advantage of it!
  6. Local Companies – If you work for a company part time, ask them if they have resources you may use. Printing, scanning, supplies, and other equipment may be available to you for the asking. Companies like Office Depot, Staples, UPS, Wal-Mart, etc all have employee discounts plus you may be able to obtain damaged or returned goods at deep discounts, or free, just for working there. FREE TIP: Many companies also offer tuition assistance if the degree you’re studying for is related to their field. Defintely check into this with the HR Department.
  7. Pawn Shops – Look around any College town and you’ll find many pawn shops. Your classmates hardships can be your good fortune as you browse the shops to see what they have pawned. The nice thing about Pawn Shops are that you can negotiate the price of everything. No price is set in stone and if a Pawn Shop says it is, go to another one. Now if you walk in looking like a starving dog looking at a bone, they’ve got you and they know it. Play it cool and walk away from your buddies laptop if you have to. The Pawn Shop down the street will sell you your other buddies laptop cheaper.
  8. Trade Shows – I knew several guys in College who routinely made their rounds of the local trade shows so they could stock up on free everything…pens, pencils, paper, totes, backpacks, etc. You name it, these guys were walking billboards. But they didn’t spend a dime on many of the supplies they needed. They even sold many of the “freebies” to other students who needed last minute supplies.

The object of a college education is not to see how much student loan debt you can rack up in the shortest amount of time. Those who finish college with little or no debt have a huge financial head start in life as opposed to those who will run up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt just so they can look “cool” and have all the newest and latest toys. Go ahead and let them be the “cool” ones. The wise student will use these 8 places to find free or low cost supplies to help them live within their means so they can win financially once they’ve graduated college.

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