For decades, being a college student meant living on a tight budget. And this is more than just a stereotype. According to the latest surveys, six in 10 students report facing financial struggles, with 84% of them also reporting being concerned about the cost of living crisis. Indeed, many young people in college are struggling to cover the high cost of tuition and living, not to mention their inability to land jobs to provide more money for themselves.
Although living on a shoestring budget is definitely no fun, it doesn’t mean that there is nothing you can do about it. These days, there are plenty of ways to cut down your expenses. One of them is to gain basic DIY skills. Read on, and we will tell you how do-it-yourself abilities can help you save money on a daily basis!
Cooking
Cooking is another DIY skill that can save you a lot of money. There is no secret that many students prefer to eat out to save their precious time. Indeed, being loaded with homework and academic papers, young people rarely have enough time to cook their own meals. But have you ever thought about how much you overspend because of this? Studies show that eating out is about 325% more expensive than cooking your own meals. Thus, if you have even basic cooking ability and a reliable “write my thesis” service that will back you up academically, it can help you cut down food costs a lot.
Gardening
Cooking will definitely reduce your monthly food costs. However, there is one more DIY ability that can help you save even more – we’re talking about gardening. Being able to grow fruits, herbs, and vegetables at home is a great way to live a more sustainable life and, at the same time, spend less. Most importantly, using this to your benefit doesn’t necessarily require having a lot of space or a physical garden. You can grow some groceries even in a dorm room as long as you know how.
Repairs
No matter how careful you are with your things, they will still break from time to time. This is inevitable, and it requires cash to fix these breakages. Due to this reason, repair is probably one of the most versatile do-it-yourself abilities. Being able to do basic repairs can help you continue using your stuff without going over your budget. This can apply to repairing clothes, home appliances, gadgets, etc.
Home Improvement
Every student wants to feel at home in their dorm room or rented apartment. Due to this reason, young people are often seeking ways to improve their homes. Needless to say, even the tiniest home improvements cost money, whether we are talking about buying new furniture or repainting your room. However, you can also do it yourself! Basic home improvement skills will let you tackle your home projects without the help of professionals. Respectively, you will be able to reduce the expenses.
Transportation
The next point might not be so obvious. However, it’s still there. Not many realize this, but car maintenance and repair skills (even basic ones) are also DIY abilities, and they can also cut down your everyday expenses. If you are able to do simple repairs and maintenance of your car, bike, or another type of vehicle, you can reduce the amount you spend at repair and service shops.
Clothing
Earlier, we mentioned how basic repair abilities could let you spend less money on buying new things instead of the ones that break, which, of course, applies to fixing your clothing too. Now, there is one more way DIY skills can save you money on clothing. If you learn how to sew and knit, you can reduce the budget you spend on buying new clothes. Instead, you will be able to make your own clothing and even accessories with ease. This can be a very rewarding and, at the same time, fun process!
Photography and Photo Editing
Whether you need to take graduation photos or take pictures of a memorable event, first of all, you will think about hiring a professional who will shoot and edit photos for you. Needless to say, this can be rather budget-breaking, especially for students who struggle financially. But what if we tell you that you can handle it all on your own? Developing photography and photo editing abilities can help you save quite a lot of money whenever you need to make high-quality pictures for any purpose. And the good news is that building these skills isn’t as hard as it might seem.
Coding and Website Building
These DIY skills aren’t among the “basic” ones. Still, they can really come in handy for you in college and help cut down your expenses. As we all know, young people don’t have time to do a full-time or even a part-time job because all their time is busy with academic research and homework. Still, young people desperately need an extra budget to cover their education and living costs. Thus, they often start looking for alternative ways to gain income and often opt for entrepreneurship. If this happens, you will likely need to build a professional website for your college startup, and that’s where coding and website-building DIY skills will come in handy. Delegating website development to professionals can be rather expensive. However, if you can do it yourself, it will be much easier in your pocket.
The Bottom Line
DIY has been trending for decades. This group of skills includes many different abilities, from cooking and gardening to building websites and maintaining your cars on your own. And all of this is much more than just handy skills that you could use as a hobby or boast about in a conversation. These are the abilities that can make your everyday life better and even help you stick to your budget.
Now, you know how DIY can help you reduce the costs of living while in college. Start using this knowledge to your benefit right now!
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