In addition to student loans, college life can be expensive. Here are some frugal ideas:

Food

• Two words, Ramen Noodles.  There are many different ways to jazz up the noodles. My favorite is to add egg, onion, broccoli, and carrots. Yum! 
• Use a restaurant coupon or try to avoid going out to eat. Even if it’s only $3-4 per day. That ends up being $100 per month!
• For dates, make food (check weekly ads for sales and use the BeFrugal.com grocery coupon database) then eat at your apartment. It saves money, and it impresses your date.

Rent

• Live off-campus. Find some roommates to share rent with.

Car

• Buy used! Never buy new.

Textbooks

• Consider renting books. At Campus Book Rentals  you can get books for up to 90% off and there is FREE SHIPPING both ways!  Use online coupons and earn free Cash Back to save even more. The rate today (3/23/12) is 4%. There’s also a $10 bonus when you join BeFrugal.com for free.

Entertainment

• Avoid going to movies. If you have to, go to the cheap theatres.
• Subscribe to Netflix and watch movies at your apartment.  You can earn $6.00 Cash Back today (3/23/12) when you purchase through BeFrugal. Don’t forget about the $10 bonus when you join BeFrugal.com for free.
• Ask around and borrow movies.
• Instead of buying tons of music on iTunes, listen to music on Pandora: it’s free.

This is a guest post by Angela at campusbookrentals.com, who knows all about how to help students save money.

Image thanks to 401K on Flickr.