27 Effective Ways to Save Money as a Student in Philippines

Always begging money from your parents to buy your needs in school? Not again! With these ultimate money saving tips, you’ll learn ways how to effectively save money as a student in the Philippines, especially if you are in college.

Elementary and high school students are also welcome. Some of the pinoy money saving tips here may also apply for employees too!

You might previously heard these familiar lines from your parents. “Hindi kami nagtatae ng pera!”,  “May baon ka nang pagkain kaya babawasan ko muna pera mo”, “ang pera hindi yan pinupulot!” and etc.

For understanding sons and daughters, this can turn into motivation to study well and hopefully, someday, get our families away from poverty. Yeah, these lines may sound irritating sometimes but you never know, you might say these lines too if you become a parent someday.

There are bunch of talented Filipino students only hindered by their financial situations. I know you’re here to help yourself and and your parents from all the family’s expenses. In this post we’ll be talking about how to save money as college students and even employees in the Philippines. Just keep on reading and more power to you! Let’s start!

How to Save Money as a Student in Philippines:

1. Bring Your Own Baon. For a student here in the philippines, this can really keep your daily budget super low especially if you have siblings who are also schooling. Your mom can simply cook foods that is already good for 3 or 4 persons with less cost compared to buying food in your school cafeteria.

2. Water instead of soft drinks or juice. Water cannot be replaced by any other drinks. Though most of the people know this but not all people are willing to take action. It requires self control and discipline to do this. If you really want to help yourself and your parents, just bring a big coleman good for the whole day.

This may mean a bigger and heavier backpack but it’s fine. Just treat it like an exercise, you are in a win-win situation.

You might be interested in: Summer Jobs for Students in Philippines

3. Bring money only for commuting. If you do the two tips above, then there’s no need to bring extra money unless there’s something you need to pay in school. Another thing, if your school is just walking distance from your home, then you don’t need to bring money at all! Cut out your commuting expenses to save money as much as possible.

4. Cut out vices. Vices will do you NO GOOD. Stop playing computer games just for fun or maybe budget it to minimum. Playing computer games consumes your precious time and money. Instead of staying in the computer shop, just go back home and help your parents, or study at home.

Here are ways how to stay healthy while saving money.

5. Don’t make impulsive purchases. Always plan the things you are going to purchase or you might spend your money on things that you don’t really need. This is a skill, if you train yourself to not be an impulsive buyer, you will have advantages over your peers. This is not just for students but also a very important part of an adult’s life.

This is also a part of Filipino’s bad money habits.

6. Buy second hand books. There’s no use of buying brand new reference materials. You can always ask the higher students if you can buy their used books. This can reduce your expenses up to 1/4 of the brand new price and you can now save 3/4 of the cost.

7. Reminding your parents to pay bills on time. Philippines is known for the mañana habit and in terms of paying bills, extra fees can really hurt if you pay late. Simply reminding your parents to pay the bills before the deadline, your family can save more and can give you more for your needs.

8. Buy whole pad paper and bring only your daily needs. If you can buy a whole pad paper then go for it as it will be much cheaper if you’ll buy in pieces of 3 or 4 every time you need it.

Here’s a ninja tactic (LOL)

If you buy a whole pad, avoid bringing it all! Just bring what you think you need for the day and save the rest for the next days or else your classmates will take advantage of you. Some of your classmates won’t buy their own papers as they know you’re bringing a whole pad! There are students who graduated in college who only beg classmates for papers when they need it. They’re all ninjas.

9. Don’t get a pet until after college or until after you can. Pet’s maintenance can really be expensive and not having any can save you time and money. But if it won’t cost you anything in taking care of your chosen pet, it’s all up to you 🙂 I like pets too but let’s just be practical.

10. Learn to say no, explain, period. It’s no new to school that after classes, your friends & classmates may push you to join and come with them to go here and there and everywhere. If you really can’t and have no budget for it, then DON’T. Just say no and explain them why you are not coming with them. They may get mad at you for that but think of this, real friends understand situations, period. 🙂

11. Apply for scholarships. If you really want to help your family by pulling them up from poverty, you need to study hard to get good grades in school. Apply for scholarships. There are government scholarship  programs that gives around five thousand pesos every term. Some have monthly and some have other schemes. This is also a good motivation to push you to get good grades always.

You might be interested in: Effective study tips

12. Live below your means. If you can have a simple locally branded android phone, don’t force yourself to have the top brands smartphones or iPhones. After all, you’re still a student yet. Don’t engage yourself into social climbing type of lifestyle. Always learn how to live below your means by simply be contented that you satisfy your needs for now. All your wants should be cut off for the mean time.

13. Have a budget plan. If you have a strict budget plan, you’ll be able to monitor the flow of money going in and out of your pocket. This is where you can say that you are indeed saving money. If you happen to learn this skill, it will be definitely a life advantage for you as not so many people are doing this. They may know stuffs about budget planning but they lack taking actions. You need to make a plan and take actions.

Related: Why you need to set goals

14. Befriend rich classmates. They got the money, you got the brains, perfect combination! This one is a bit funny but practical. Your “yayamanin” classmates can sometimes shoulder group expenses or at least share bigger contributions on projects, group activities, and etc.

Your rich classmates have the capability to treat their friends more than anybody else in the classroom. What you need to do is to befriend your rich classmates and help them if they are having hard time understanding your subjects in class. In return, it will be easier for them to recall your name if they want to treat somebody.

15. Don’t engage yet into relationships. Well, for you to help your family first, you should be able to resist the temptation of getting into relationships. This is especially if you’re a boy. There’s not much added expenses if you’re a girl because, we all know it, boys are the ones who treat girls, right? So if you want to save money, just follow these tips.

But if you guys are not maluho, know how to communicate properly, and know how to support each other it’s all up to you. 😉

16. Open a Savings Account. While you’re still a student, you might want to open a savings account. This will ensure that your money is in safe hands while you are keeping some of your parent’s hard earned money. This is not just for saving purposes but for other transactions as well.

Your parents are able to send you money via your bank account or do some payments or what not. In general, you need a savings account, period. One good savings account for students is BPI’s Kaya Savings account. You can open an account for only P200 as initial balance.

You might want to read: Importance of Discipline for Students.

17. Share books with your classmates. If one or two of your classmates happen to be your neighbor or just walking distance from your house, this is one good way to save money on books. Both of you don’t need to buy the exact same books as it will be wasted.

If you need 8 books for the semester or for the school year, why not have an agreement with your classmate-slash-neighbor: You’ll buy the first 4 books and your classmate will buy the other 4.  Since you’re near each other, you might just go to each other’s house to study and review.

18. Buy in bulk. Another good way to save money is to buy in bulk. Instead of buying per-piece of your consumables such as shampoo, coffee, toiletries, biscuits, snacks, and etc., you might want to consider buying packed items for it will cost less.

List down all your daily consumables and try to compute if it’s worth to buy in packs. Also, try to ask your classmates if they will buy similar items so you can save more. This is good specially whenever you have individual projects and all of you in your classroom need to buy same items.

19. Monthly Load Package. If you’re loading your phone on a daily basis, you might want to just get a monthly load package. You can save a significant amount of money from this.  Say if you’re loading 10 pesos daily, that’s about 300 pesos monthly. But if you’ll load and register for a monthly package you can get it for around 200 pesos only.

20. Demand for student Discounts. If you’re traveling back and forth your house and school, you can save 60 pesos or more monthly. If the regular fare is 8 pesos, you can save 1 peso for going to school and another 1 peso going back home. This might seem small but with 60 pesos, you can already buy  new set of pad paper or notebook.

21. Reduce Television Hours. Or better yet, stop watching television. This is a win-win thing for you to do. Not watching television means less electricity bill and more time to do important things. There’s so much negativity in television shows nowadays and really there’s nothing good you can get from most of the television shows nowadays.

22. Walk early, Ride a bike, or Commute, instead of Having a Car.

There’s no need for you to have a car while you’re still in college. You got a lot of advantage financially and academically in not driving your own car. If you drive for an hour, guess what? You can use that hour to read and review stuff inside a jeepney or a bus. Reserve getting a car when you’re married or when you have a business that requires you to have one.

23. Buy and Sell Clothes

You can still save or earn a little cash if you’re a fashionable person. You don’t always need to buy new clothes. There are a lot of facebook groups where members sell clothes used only once or for few times. The good thing about joining these groups is you can also sell the clothes you’re not using anymore.

24. Download Ebooks

Instead of buying new books or secondhand books, if you really want to save, just download free ebooks you can find on the internet. Imagine saving hundreds to thousands of pesos worth of books. This is not possible around 20 years ago which you can enjoy today.

25. Karinderya & Turo-turo instead of Cafe

You can always eat for around P70 pesos worth of food with extra rice already whenever you eat in a typical Karinderya. Fast food restaurants or cafe will cost you typically around 100 pesos and additional cost if you need extra rice. Korean cafe will cost you even more. (Huwag puro pasosyal, Bes)

26. 3n1 Coffee

It’s practical and easy to carry. You can have a cup of coffee for less than 10 pesos. Why in the world are you going to spend around 100+ pesos for a simple cup of coffee. Just reserve these kind of foods when you have your own job already or whenever somebody treats you.

27.  Buy Generic Instead of Branded Items

Generally speaking there are a lot of generic stuff you can buy which can be used as an alternative to branded stuff. If you can buy something generic that is worth half or three-fourths of the price of a branded product, go for that one! Just make sure of it’s reliability and functionality. If it works well, there’s no harm buying that product.

28. Bring Your Own Tumbler

Instead of buying bottled water every time, why not bring your own tumbler and refill it for lower cost? Some schools nowadays has drinking fountain or free water dispenser. Use it to your advantage.

Hope you get something from this. I’ve graduated in Polytechnic University of the Philippines and I know how hard it is for a student to accumulate and save money specially during thesis. It’s always good to plan and budget your expenses so that your parents’ hard earned money will be spent on the most important things.

29. Remove E-commerce Apps

It’s always tempting to buy things whenever you see those products with large price cuts. Always remember “Out of sighht, out of mind” principle. If you have lazada, shopee, olx, and other e-commerce application on your phone, you can start deleting it now so you wont get notified whenever there are new offers.

If you are a student who have the entrepreneurial itch, these resources might fit you:

• Ways to earn money online in the Philippines
• Low cost home business ideas in Philippines
• Business for students during summer
• Best Small Business Ideas in the Philippines

Here are some readable that might fit your interests:

• Adulting 101 – Ultimate Adulting Guide For Filipino Millennials

If you got savings tips other than the mentioned stuffs above, let’s discuss it in the comment section. Save money wisely kabayan! 🙂

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