Keeping Your Money in Quarantine

BY: TRAVIS MCMILLAN, STAFF WRITER

Fourth Estate/ Billy Ferguson

While we remain at home indefinitely, why not try to save some money for after these stay at home orders end? It’s much easier now that we can’t go out and get dinner with friends, go shopping, party — you know.

One of the biggest things to stay away from is ordering takeout. Places are still open for online orders, and you can often have food delivered with the least amount of contact possible. Yet ordering out is still as big a waste of money as before COVID-19.

While it may seem more expensive at first, stocking up ingredients to make your own meals will save you more in the long run. it will also keep you from spending money on takeout nightly. If your family is scared to go to places like the grocery store, many stores offer delivery to send groceries to you instead.

Have your family plan out what they want to cook for the upcoming week beforehand — simple things if you’re all new to cooking — and avoid buying pricey, one-time meals. Buying things to enhance what you eat like spices and sauces are a plus too. Once you have your list of meals for the week, strictly keep to that. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the next Gordon Ramsey coming out of quarantine!

Moving on, now that you have all this free time, why not use it to cut out all the subscription services you don’t use anymore? That streaming service you got a while ago but forgot about? Cut it off! Paying for online services for a gaming console you packed away? Cut it off! Now that you’re stuck at home, maybe it’s time to consolidate. All those monthly payments can certainly add up. 

With switching to online classes, many teachers have adjusted their syllabi and cut a few things out. With these cuts, some of your books may be taken off the reading list. A great way to get money back is to collect all the books you had to buy for class and sell them to the highest bidder.

People taking your class next year are most likely going to be looking for the same book, so putting it up on eBay or Amazon for a lower price will get you some of your money back and help out the next person taking that class. 

We may be stuck at home, but there’s no reason we can’t be frugal too. Once we get out, you can use all that saved money to get together with your friends!