One word comes to mind when you think of college students: broke.
Everyone warns you of how broke you will be, but you don't truly believe it going into college, for you think you are really good at managing your money. Sadly, however, it hits you like a ton of bricks once you get to college.
Despite how stressed you are about the money you have been spending, there are always going to be certain things that you feel no guilt buying regardless of how low your bank account balance is. Here are a few:
1. Jimmy John’s
Jimmy John's sandwiches are the move for any time of day– breakfast, lunch, or dinner. And you never feel bad spending the money you don't have on it because it's healthy and only $7 tops. Delivery is super clutch too which always makes Jimmy John's extremely tempting.
2. Those really cute bathing suits that you think you need but wear maybe twice
The first mistake is allowing yourself to browse on swimsuit sites, because once you're there, you are going to be so tempted to buy them all. American Eagle, SheIn, CupShe, Zaful...they're all dangerous places. And what's worse, is even if you have the willpower to say no, the algorithms will have that one suit you loved pop up over and over again on every one of your social media classes.
3. Sorority dues
Unfortunately, we don't necessarily WANT to pay for these but we HAVE to in order to stay in our sororities.
4. School apparel
I'm not sure why college girls have an obligation to buy hundreds of different outfits for game days and school events, when, in reality, you only need like 6. There are never more home football games than that, but I guess we just like to be over-prepared.
5. Panchero’s/Chipotle/Any Mexican Food Chain
How can you say no?? A burrito bowl will instantly make any day ten times better.
6. Coffee
This one is unfair because I need it to function, and the dining hall coffee is just so average. You spend so much money on coffee because $3.00 seems like nothing each time, but those $3 seriously add up.
7. PIZZA
Even though the pizza here isn't nearly as good in my hometown, ordering pizza makes an occasion more enjoyable. Studying? Pizza. Movie night? Pizza. Pizza always all the time.
8. Cute room decorations
These were more of summer-before-freshman-year purchases, but that's honestly probably only because I don't have a car to drive myself to TJ Maxx or HomeGoods. I'm sure I'll be sucked into spending again next summer when those stores are so close by.
9. Clothes for a themed mixer that you will never wear again
When you receive notice of a great mixer theme for the weekend, excitement kicks in, and you sometimes get a little carried away with going try-hard for that theme. It's a shame that you'll probably never wear it again until that same theme pops up a year later.
10. Uber
It is so easy to choose Ubering over walking in the freezing weather, but that $5 minimum fee is really a killer.
11. Underwear
I have learned that laundry only gets done when there is a sense of urgency, and there is only a sense of urgency when you no longer have clean underwear. The simple solution is to constantly buy more underwear, for that means less often you have to do laundry!
12. Textbooks
This one no one ever wants to buy but unfortunately, we have to. And it's very hard to resell them when they change the edition every semester.