Felesha: I am in college and I wish I could figure out a way to budget my expenses so that I could live more like a rock star.

Eric: I am a college student as well, and I have also found that it is difficult to figure out the best way to spend my money. However I have been thinking of a few ways college students could save money.

Felesha: Well what kind of ideas do you have about saving money? Like I said, I want to be able to live like a rock star. I do not want to be eating Raman noodles every night, in order to save a buck.

Eric: I had a few different ideas. For instance, you could shop online, in department stores or at thrift stores.

Felesha: I already shop online and it does not save me any money. If anything, I am spending more money after they add shipping and handling.

Eric: Well there are certain online sites where you can find items for much cheaper than you would in the store, and sometimes you can find places that ship for free. For example, one of the most popular sites would be eBay. You can often find things on eBay for a fraction of the price you would pay in the store. In addition there are sites like half.com and newegg.com that offer good prices. Even sites like bestbuy.com and circuitcity.com often have special online only deals that will save you money.

Felesha: That sounds good for electronics and what not, but I do not like buying clothes off the internet and I want to look like a rock star so I do not want to shop at thrift stores.

Eric: Like I said earlier, department stores are a good place to look for clothes. They offer the same product as most other high end stores for a fraction of the cost. Also department stores often have good sales on their merchandise. I know you want to look like a rock star and you are skeptical about shopping at a thrift store, but many thrift stores offer very nice looking clothing. Also there has to be times when you just like to wear a t-shirt and jeans, and thrift stores would be a great place to find those things. In addition, thrift stores often offer used merchandise at very reasonable prices.

Felesha: Well that all sounds like good information Eric. Thanks a lot for all your help. What I would like to do is organize all this information and more into an easy to navigate website for college students. I am sure there are a lot of college students like you that have different ideas about how to save money. So if we could gather all this information in one place, I think it would really help the average college student.

Eric: That sounds like a good idea Felesha. I think you should pursue that idea further.