Battalion
Aggielife
Page 3 • Tuesday, September 14, 1999
Flat Broke
Students feel money crunch as the semester progresses
Eric Andraos/Thk Battalion
BY EMILY RUDER
The Battalion
I s Hamburger Helper your main en
tree each night? Do you charge
everything to credit cards? Is donat
ing plasma a source of income for you?
Is the word “budget" foreign to you?
If you answered yes to these ques
tions, you may be experiencing the
warning symptoms of acute college
debt.
Texas A&M Student Financial Ser
vices estimates the cost of tuition,
room and board for an on-campus
Texas resident to be $11,007 for a year.
Expenses rise with the cost of living
off-campus and being an out-of-state
student.
Laura Beach, a junior horticulture
major, said debt is inevitable if you
want a degree from Texas A&M.
“Most college students can’t avoid
debt,” Beach said. “School is so ex
pensive, and we like to spend money.
Everything that is fun is going to cost
something.”
Financial aid is available to students
through grants, scholarships, loans and
the college student’s best friend — the
credit card.
Beach said with so much help avail
able, financial responsibility is not con
sidered important to some students.
“My brother once told me that college
is the time to have fun so I shouldn’t
worry about funds,” she said. “Some
people say that college is the time to live
it up, but I don’t want this to be the only
time I can have fun. Loans have to be
paid back eventually. ”
Beach said if students want to stay
out of debt, they should get a part-time
job to pay for extra expenses.
“I worked three jobs this summer. It
was a little crazy and school started to
bog me down, but the summer is the
time when a lot of students can make
good money to last the rest of the year.”
Peggy Carey, supervisor of student
debt management services, said stu
dents should search for help when the
cost of school becomes a problem.
“Some [students] may have a finan
cial hardship and instead of seeking
help immediately, they ignore it and
hope the problem will fix itself,” Carey
said. “When the problem is ignored, it
only gets worse. ”
Unless a student’s parents are both
brain surgeons, it is difficult for fam
ilies to pay for all of their child’s edu
cation without some form of financial
assistance.
“Most students need to utilize loans
to complete their college education,”
she said. “If they make it through col
lege without acquiring a huge credit
card debt on top of that, they should
not have any problems repaying the
student loans upon graduation.”
Carey said college students’ main
challenge with money is not budgeting
their money properly.
“A big part of some students’ prob
lem is not knowing how to make a bud
get and stick to it,” Carey said. “They
over-extend themselves and do not re
alize it until it is too late.”
Beach said many students lack
enough responsibility necessary to
keep themselves out of debt.
“Sometimes students go a little over
board when they have the money to
spend,” she said. “Credit cards are
dangerous. They are right there in front
of you and you can use them so easily.
That’s when you get in trouble.”
Beach said many students do not re
ally value their limited funds or spend
their money wisely.
“We take it for granted that money
is there in the checking or savings ac
count,” she said. “My parents tried to
teach me how to budget, but it is dif
ficult because there is so little to bud
get with.”
Elizabeth Barnes, a sophomore
business major, said parents are often
the main source of emergency funds
for students.
“I owe my parents so much money
it’s crazy,” Barnes said. “This summer
I didn’t get to work so I owe them
more money than ever. Eventually I
guess I’ll pay them back.”
Barnes said Aggie Bucks save her
money by providing her a spending
limit for a semester.
“With Aggie Bucks, you can’t go
over a set amount,” she said. “If I go
over [the amount], I have to use my
own money. I look at it as my budget
for eating. ”
Barnes said there are many cre
ative ways to save money when a stu
dent is broke.
“Instead of going to the movie the
atre, you can stay at home and rent a
movie,” Barnes said. “Or you can just
hang out rather than going to a club. I
think the weekends are when things
get expensive. During the week all I
spend money on is food.”
Consumer Credit Counseling Ser
vice, offers tips for surviving on a lim
ited budget. The agency gives basic ad
vice such as never shop hungry, stop
wearing clothes that require dry clean
ing, selling used books and CDs, stop
ping smoking and having the phone
company block all 900 numbers.
In the end, these small cuts in ex
penses for food, clothing and enter
tainment can save students from the
humiliation of asking mom and dad for
money.
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