Some expenses in college are uncontrollable. Items such as textbooks, clothing, school supplies are necessities to get through college. The most controllable college expense is probably the food you are eating. How many meals a week do you eat outside of the dining hall? I know that back in college I probably ate off campus 3 times a week, and sometimes as much as 6 times a week. If I were to guess, I would say I usually spent about $50 a week on meals off campus.

$50 a week for an entire semester rounds out to about $800.

Want to cut costs? Eat in your dining hall on prepaid plans, or make cheap meals from food bought at the local food-store or wholesale center. Also, the cost of cooking with a group of friends will almost always be cheaper then a meal at a restaurant, plus you can have a lot of fun with it.

Lots of students think that by eating cheap fast food meals they are reducing their expenses. Not really. These are the kind of meals that not only help develop the dreaded Freshman 15, but they usually leave you hungry in a few hours anyway. What do you do when you are hungry again later? You order pizza!

That late night Pizza snack might seem like a great idea at the time, but if you order late night pizza 2 times a week you can spend almost $500 in just pizza each semester!

Another tip to reducing food expenses is to take advantage of campus activities that offer free grub. There are usually numerous events all over campus giving away food in order to create interest and awareness. Don’t feel guilty for eating their food, after all that is the point of them offering it. Just don’t be rude and eat and run… stick around for a while and take some interest (or at least pretend). You might even learn something about a cause you weren’t aware of.

Are you aware of how your food expenses are creating debt? What habits have you adopted to reducing food costs?