ROLLERBLADES!!!!

This is one of my favorite ways to save money while still having lots of fun. It also seems a little backwards- buying something in order to save money. But in all honestly, everyone loves spending money, and everyone loves saving money. So I get super excited when I find options that allow me to do both: purchase something that saves money in the long run.

And here is my latest discovery: Roller blades!

You get the best of several worlds. It’s exercise, it gets you places quicker than walking, when done with friends it creates unforgettable fun, and it saves gas money if you replace your usual mode of transportation with it.

1.     It’s exercise- Roller blading, if done with intensity, can be an excellent workout for your body. A 30-minute roller blading workout can be compared to doing about 30 minutes on a stair climber at the gym.

2.     It gets you places quicker than walking- I live about a mile from campus. I think I deserve an award for world’s slowest walker, so it takes me a while to get to school in the morning, if I walk. Because of this, I am usually about 5 minutes late to my first class of each day. If I rollerblade, it is tremendously faster, but it doesn’t get me sweaty like running would. I can maintain a leisurely pace while still shortening my travel time.

3.     Unforgettable fun- some of my favorite college memories so far have been rollerblading around campus or around town with my friends. I have never had a boring roller blading experience.

4.     Lastly, our ultimate goal for this blog, it saves money. It costs me about $65 to fill up my gas tank. I drive back and forth from my house to campus several times a day, which I did not think would use up much gas, but I was wrong. The constant starting up of my car and stopping and going with stop signs have been draining my car of gas. I’ve averaged about $40 a week for gas money, when I feel like I haven’t been going anywhere! When I replace my trips to campus and back with rollerblading instead of driving my car, my gas tank lasts double, almost triple, as long.

Now lets get down to the nitty-gritty. How much do roller blades cost?

Well, as always, I checked my favorite place to purchase items: Craigslist.com.

Here’s what I found:

$6:

http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/spo/2595332464.html

2 pairs for $20:

http://fortwayne.craigslist.org/spo/2614495882.html

$5:

http://fortwayne.craigslist.org/bab/2589017073.html

$5:

http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/spo/2535904243.html

As you can see, you can purchase decent roller blades at a dirt-cheap price.

It might even be worth purchasing two pairs, so you can have a friend go with you at all times, whether or not they own a pair of blades.

Money-Saving Tactic #1: Purchase a Grill

The first way that I have enjoyed saving money may seem a little backwards to you.

It involves purchasing a grill.

I know what you’re thinking…it sounds crazy. How will purchasing a grill save money?? Just think with me for a minute. If my friends and I decide we do not want to eat in the school’s cafeteria, we go out to eat. We enjoy the food that we eat when we go out and we enjoy the company of our friends. But if you are trying to save money, going out to eat involves a lot of money, especially if it becomes a regular thing. If you have 3 friends that go with you out to eat and you each order a $7 burger, a $2 drink, plus a tip; that’s about $11 each, times 4 people…over $40 for one outing, not even including gas money, which adds up very quickly.

I realized this at the beginning of the semester, so I decided that I wanted to save money by buying a grill. I looked on craigslist.com, where I was surprised to see how little used grills were going for. For instance:

http://muncie.craigslist.org/hsh/2585316593.html

This one is a $10, decent looking grill.

http://muncie.craigslist.org/hsh/2569092202.html

This one is $45 with an empty propane tank, or $30 without.

http://muncie.craigslist.org/for/2549739103.html

$30.

I got my grill for $20, which included starter fluid and charcoal.

Now imagine this scenario: Several of your friends come over just as the sun is going down. Everyone stands outside and plays corn hole while the grill heats up. Once the grill is ready, the guys stand around it and talk while they cook the hotdogs and the hamburgers. The girls drink lemonade, laugh, and tell stories. When the food is prepared, everyone sits around and eats, enjoying each other’s company. You smile because the first bite into your burger was delicious.

The best part about the second scenario is that you still get all the things you enjoyed about the first scenario (the company, the great food, and the memories), all without a large cost. It costs about $7 for 2 pounds of hamburger meat. This allowed me to make about 6 patties last weekend. That’s about a dollar a person- if you include drinks, toppings and sides, it might total $3 a person. That means you can have a fun night of grilling 4 times for the same price as going out to eat.

Yeah, I know. There is the initial cost of purchasing the grill. But a used grill is the same price as going out to eat once. And there’s the cost of the propane/charcoal…so maybe it would end up being $3.50 a person including that cost. Plus, a grill lasts a very long time…years and years.

I don’t know a single guy that does not enjoy grilling food, and I don’t know of anyone that doesn’t enjoy eating grilled food.

Over time, purchasing and regularly using a grill instead of eating out will save you a lot of money and will definitely increase your college memories. 

Let me introduce myself....

Are you in college? Are you stretched for money? Are you and your friends constantly sitting around asking each other the question, “What should we do tonight?”, and almost every idea thrown out is shut down because its too expensive? My name is Rebecca. I’m a college student at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, and I’m in that boat.

I see lists all the time in magazines or on the internet that are titled something like: “Ways to save money in college”, but most of them are ideas that still leave you sitting bored and barely saving any money. One idea on a list I saw recently was “eat as much ramen noodles as you possible can”. I try to stay healthy and have vowed to never eat ramen noodles.  Plus, eating ramen noodles doesn’t create fun. My roommate, for instance, turns off the water in the shower while she is shaving to save on the water bill. Ummmm….no. I can’t do that. I want to save money but still want to live comfortably and happily.  I want money saving ideas that still let me live a normal/comfortable lifestyle while creating fun.

This year I am living in an off-campus house and have discovered lots of tricks that have increased the fun of my college experience, while still saving mega bucks. The purpose of this blog is to share some of those ideas with you. Hopefully, my ideas will cover many different aspects of life, including food, transportation, decoration, entertainment, games and hobbies. I will be very specific and include links to whatever I’m talking about, so this will be especially helpful to those of you who are in my general area. 


I want to take the BLAHH out of your money saving tactics. This is going to be a "non-blahh money saving blog".