I’ve decided to write about 5 frugal tips you can utilize to reduce your living expenses while in law school. These 5 ways include cutting your variable expenses and taking advantage of services at your law school.
If you’re heading to law school next fall, or even considering applying to law school soon, you need to consider the costs of taking out loans to cover your living expenses during your time in school. If you’re a return reader of this blog, you know that I’m all about frugality so in this post I outline some frugal ways you can reduce your living expenses while you’re in Law School.
Frugal Tip #1: Share Housing
A hug frugal tip I have for you to reduce living expenses while you’re in Law School is to share housing.
I highly recommend getting some roommates instead of living on your own. You may be sick of sharing a bathroom/kitchen/living space or assume that you’ll perform better in school by having more privacy, but by doing so, you’ll be increasing your law school student loan debt by whatever your rent is multiplied by 36 months!
If your law school offers on-campus housing, you can select to either live in one unit by yourself or with your spouse or share a larger unit with other law students. Of course, sharing the unit with another student or two will reduce your monthly costs.
Although some law schools offer on-campus housing, many more do not. If this is the case for you, you will need to find frugal off-campus housing that will enable you to get a good night sleep, feel safe, and offer you a good place to study and relax. You can achieve all of these aspects by sharing a 2- or 3-bedroom apartment over getting your own place.
Where To Look
Great places to find roommates are in your Accepted Students Facebook group if your school offers one or in other online communities specifically aimed at the area your Law School is located in. You can even group up with a few other law students and rent a house together.
I actually found my house on Craigslist. I have four housemates, and although they may not be the most clean, most of them are graduate students too so my house is quiet 98% of the time. We rent out our rooms separately and don’t pay for utilities. My costs are a flat $825.00 monthly, and I am walking distance from a subway station and shopping center. If I were to get a studio in a comparable location, I would be paying a little over $1,700.00 and would have to pay for my utilities on top of that.
Although I have used Craigslist to geat success, be weary of strange posts that are masking scamer artists trying to get you to send them your security deposit and rent money before arriving in the area!
Frugal Tip #2: Limit Eating and Utilities Costs
This piece of frugal advice goes hand-in-hand with the first entry to reduce your expenses.
You should consider looking at apartments that include utilities in the monthly rent. Therefore, you are not dealing with variable costs monthly that you have to budget. It will be wasy easier to budget a flat amount each month than guestimate multiple fluctuating bills.
Should your rent not include utilities, you can also try to limit your utility usage so that you pay less. For example, My mom recently told me about “peak times” for certain utilities. That is, utility companies charge more for your usage depending on certain times and days of the week. So she only does laundry at certain times that costs less than if she just did laundry whenever she felt like it. You should research the peak times for your area, but this article provides some general rule-of-thumb information.
Turning off/down your heat during the day when you are at work or sleeping with extra blankets can save you some money instead of blasting the heat all the time.
Other savings habits you can pick up as mini frugal tips are:
-Unplugging or turning off your appliances when you are not using them;
-Turning off your faucet when you are washing dishes (use a bowl of soap water!);
-Wash your clothes using cold water to cub electricity costs;
-Wear long-sleeve shirts and sweaters at home instead of turning up the thermostat a few degrees;
-Insulate windows and doors leading to outside;
-Keep doors leading to “cold zones” (rooms that aren’t insulated) closed.
Also, you are going to have to completely hunker down on your eating out and ordering in habits when you are in law school. You will be living off of your loans or cash-flowing your expenses each month by working. Due to the rigorous courseload, you will not want the stress of running out of savings or having to work extra hours to cover these expenses.
Living more frugally to reduce your living expenses may be one of the only few ways in which you can lighten your loan burden in law school. Your law school may still impose a limit on the hours you can work per week although the ABA dropped that restriction a few years ago. You do not want your bills to become so high you’re struggling each month to live.
Frugal Tip #3: Don’t Buy New Books & Supplies
Law Schools approximate between $800.00 to $2,000.00 for books each year. You don’t need to pay anywhere close to that. This is the price of brand-spanking-new textbooks that are required for your courses each year.
2Ls and 3Ls and former law students have taken the courses for which you are preparing. If they haven’t sold their books back to theri school, they are probably trying to sell them to new students like you!
Hop into any online groups, text your friends, or walk up to students who are in the class in front of you and ask them if they are willing to sell you their old books.
Besides buying the books from other students, you can also research online if you can get the books from online stores and educational vendors for a reduced price.
Renting your law school books for the semester or sharing the books with some classmates may actually save you even more money!
I know plenty of attorneys who bought their books at the bookstore sticker price and kept them thinking that they would refer to them during their practice of law or for studying the bar. These same attorneys haven’t opened those books for years and purchased bar prep courses anyway so don’t call into this trap unless it’s within your budget.
Frugal Tip #4: Negotiate Everything
A “known secret” that a lot of people don’t actually employ is to negotiate every-single-thing!
You can not only negotiate your law school scholoarship – if you were offered one during admissions – but you can also negotiate your financial aid package each semester you are in law school. You can leverage your good grades or simply your audacity to get book stipends, partial scholarships, and other funding options.
Further, you can negotiate your rent with your landlord, too. Since you will get yoru loan money dispursed to you in a large chunk, you can offer to pay 6-12 months of your rent upfront for a 10-25% discount. I have had a landlord during undergrad that offered a discount if you or your parent paid a few months of rent in huge chunks instead of month-to-month.
Further, you can negotiate your utilities, books, financial aid package, and – crucially – your wage or salary. After 1L year, plenty student will seek summer employment and part-time employment during their 2L and 3L academic years.
Salaries
The ranges of salaries for employment during law school will depend on the location of your employer, the prestige of your school, the details of your resume, and your rank in your class. You do not have to accept the first offer for compensation.
Plenty law firms, especially big law firms, enact lock-step systems for their compensation structure in which their associate attorneys all earn the same as their peers of their law school graduation class. However, you can negotiate your compensation for transportation benefits and other types of fringe benefits.
Although I was a paralegal, not an attorney, I was able to negotiate many supplemental benefits when I could not get a higher salary. I’ve been able to receive more cell phone stipends, transportation stipends, work start and end times, and more vacation days due to some shrewd negotiation.
Frugal Tip #5: Use Your Law School’s Free or Reduced Services
Fitness Facility
For those of you who like to exercise and use fitness facilities, you can use your law school’s fitness facility for free. The law schools which are associated with larger universities will also have access to multiple fitness facilities and other amenities you can use.
I currently use LA Fitness, which costs me money that I won’t have to use once I go back to school and can use the facilities on campus. It may be uncomfortable to exercise in the same facility that my peers may be using, but that’s another compromise I may have to endure for my budget.
Health Insurance
Speaking of other amenities, you will also have to consider your health care costs and access. You can purchase your law school’s health insurance, which tends to be cheaper than private health insurance. Through your law school insurance plan, you may also be able to use your law school’s larger student system, which may offer frugal services as well.
I went to Howard University for undergrad. Howard has a dental school and hospital attached to its broader educational structure. By beign a student, I was able to receive free cleanings and reduced services through that network.
Laptop
Most law schools require you to have a laptop and you may actually need that laptop for certain exams and coursework. This requirement may tempt you to go out and purchase a really expensive computer for school since it is “required.” However, you will only be using this computer for internet browsing, internet research and word processing.
Instead of dropping 3 grand on a laptop, you can buy a brand new chomebook for under $400 or a notebook, which functions as a lightweight tablet and laptop, for under $800.00. You do not need all the bells and whistles. Go frugal instead, sis.
You also need to reduce the wear and tear of your device once you buy it. When you are on campus, use the law school’s computer lab to lengthen the life of your computer instead of bringing it to school every single day and wearing it down.
Frugal ways to reduce your living expenses also involve maintaining the expensive things you have chosen to purchase so that you get the best bang for your buck. You already spent so much money on applying to law school so don’t continue thinking you have to spend a lot of money.
Your School’s Shuttle
Finally, if you are able to get housing close to campus, especially if your housing is oriented towards students, you may live close to your law school’s free and reduced shuttle service. If that’s the case, you can save on transportation costs (forgo a car!) by using your law school’s shuttle instead.
These 5 frugal tips to reduce living expenses in Law School are just a few I’ve thought of that you should consider when you’re in law school. I most certainly will!
