Remember, the Student Effort is the estimate of the amount of money you should try to earn in a given year through summer employment and employment on campus to cover your expenses and bills. One way to develop financial stability is to minimize your expenses and create and stick to a budget. Below are strategies Yale students have used to save money while at Yale.
Opening A Checking/Savings Account
The best way to keep track of your money is through your bank account. There are many banks in New Haven with checking account services. You should be sure to ask for a student checking account, as these accounts have fewer fees attached and may not require a minimum balance. Direct deposit of your paycheck can also lower or eliminate fees (see instructions for Direct Deposit (PDF) on the Yale Student Jobs website).
Choose the bank with the fewest and lowest fees, lowest minimum balance to maintain an active account, and a bank that can be used/accessed when traveling. Larger banks such as Chase or Bank of America have more ATMs in more locations, which will make accessing your funds while travelling easier, but they can have higher fees. Other lower cost options include credit unions, which charge less in fees but only have a few ATM locations.
Also, as part of your checking account you may want to get a debit card supported by Visa or MasterCard so that you can have purchases taken directly out of your bank account and limit your credit card use. Having a low or no-fee savings account can also help you with budgeting and saving for emergencies or special events. A good rule of thumb is to “pay yourself first” by putting 10% of each paycheck straight into your savings account. You also might want to keep the bulk of your money in your savings, and set up an automatic transfer to your checking account each week to set and keep to your weekly budget.
Keep on top of your spending and income by making it a habit to check your account balance and transactions regularly. Just as stepping on a scale daily can help maintain your physical health, checking your account balance daily can keep you financially healthy.
Limiting Routine Expenses: Books and Course Materials
Some of the biggest out-of-pocket expenses for college students are books, course packets, and other course materials. Here are some tips for minimizing your expenses through free or lower cost options:
Borrowing Directly from the Yale Library
Yale University has one of the most comprehensive libraries in the world. Most texts required for your courses can be found within its stacks. Getting materials free from the library does take additional work and organization on your part, and thus has an opportunity cost. You need to find and sometimes request books early enough so that they arrive when you need them but not so early that you have to return them before you discuss them in class. As a result, you need to constantly be checking to make sure you have the materials you need at the right time.
Step One: Go to the ORBIS Yale Library website
Step Two: Search for the given book you need.
Step Three: Sift through the results and click on the appropriate title/edition.
Step Four: Click “Recall” or “Delivery”
You can have your books delivered to the campus library of your choice without hunting through the stacks. Sometimes a course book will be checked out or placed on a 24-hour/3-day reserve, specifying how long a book can be borrowed until it is due. This, of course, could be restrictive if you need a book for an entire week of class.
Using Borrow Direct, or the Interlibrary Loan System (ILL)
Borrow Direct and ILL are available services that allow you to place an order for a book loan from participating libraries of other universities. Borrow Direct books will arrive within 2-4 days, while ILL requests can take up to 14 days to be processed and delivered. These two options are excellent solutions when a book you need has already been reserved and you don’t want to recall the book.
Both services are available as links in the top right-hand corner of the main search page on Orbis.
Using Scan and Deliver Services
If all you need is a select chapter(s) of a text on your syllabi, you may want to use the Scan and Deliver Services. This service will allow you within 1-2 days of your request to have a library employee scan and email you a PDF of the section of a text you need.
With all of these resources from the Yale Library system at your fingertips, you should be able to choose in most cases whether or not you want to purchase a book for your class. These services are especially helpful when gathering materials for a research project or senior essay. Refer to the Get It @ Yale Library Guide for more in-depth information about how to use your library services.
Buy Used Books or Rent Books
The Yale College Bookstore, Amazon, and other sites enable buying used and rental copies of books. These low cost options allow you to worry about obtaining books only once or a few times per semester, lessening the amount of time you have to spend tracking down your books during the semester. Buying used also gives you the option of keeping a book after the semester ends. There are some books you will want to keep because they are important for your major, or simply because you love them and reading them changed your life.
Free and For Sale Facebook Group
Students often sell used copies of books and course materials on the Free and For Sale Yale Facebook Group. It is a closed group within Yale.
Book Sharing
If there is an expensive or hard-to-find book assigned in your class, you might work with a classmate to book share: each of you contributes equally to the cost of the book. As with other free/low-cost options, this takes some work and requires you to set rules for how you will share the book and what to do with the book when the class ends.
