5 Affordable Places to Get Brand/Designer Items

Northface. Sperry’s. Patagonia. Michael Kors. LL Bean Boots.
Just to name a few.

College campuses all across America have established an unofficial uniform made up of brand name items. Now I’m not saying that everyone’s wearing brand clothing, I’m just saying that you can’t walk past a group of people without seeing some sort of logo. And whether you buy into it or think you don’t want to wear it ‘because everyone else is’, you have to admit that deep down you want a pair of [insert item here] yourself.

The downside though is that they can be expensive. We are broke college kids after all. But luckily for us, there are  a few resources to get these goods for cheap.

 1.       The THRIFT STORE

Thrifting has become popular thanks to Macklemore’s hit song, and for good reason. You can find just about anything at a thrift store- including lightly worn designer goods! I myself have gotten two pairs of Sperry’s, a Banana Republic coat, and a Patagonia jacket for under $20- combined. A quick Google map search for ‘thrift store’ will help you locate nearby shops. Some of them even have membership cards or daily sales events, so watch out for those for extra savings.

2.       eBay

Watches, coats, jackets, jewelry- ebay’s got it all AND for about 60% off what you’d normall pay for. Just make sure you keep updated on the bids and double check the item description and return policies to avoid buyers remorse.

 

But if you’re not a fan of the second hand market, here are cheap options for NEW goods.

3.       6pm.com

Usually when stores overbuy goods and can’t afford to keep them in store long enough to sell them, they send them out to stores like 6pm.com. Items get quickly sold out, but you can get a new pair of Frye boots for about half the price you’d buy from them directly.

4.       Hautelook

Hautelook hosts ‘events’ which feature sales that last a few days. They have a few going on at a time and the categories range from clothing to housewares to accessories. You get to create a free account and they’ll send you emails letting you know of events (aka sales). They’ve had designers like Michael Kors and Hunter Boots for around $60!

5.       Gilt.com

Gilt is another events site which functions like Hautelook, but they have different items and categories. They’ve had FRYE, M Missoni, Gucci, and more. You’re best bet is to sign up for both of them to get the most options to save.

 

Don’t let your budget limit your style. With these options, you won’t have to!

 

My favorite paid-to site is Swagbucks. I earn at least $25 in Amazon Gift cards each and every month! Read more about Swagbucks in this entry. Want to know about new freebies, samples, deals and money-saving as soon as they happen? Follow The Broke Student's Guide on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

The Best (Free) Apps for College Students

Many of us, self included, received smart phones/tablets/iPods what have you this year. After the initial joy of joining the 21st century wears off, one question remains: what apps should I download? Well, I'm here to answer that age-old question. And if you don't have yourself a fancy piece of touch screen machinery yet, no worries - I'm also going to recommend a few apps for Google Chrome! In fact, I'll start with that first. (Note: if you're not using Google Chrome as your browser, please go download it. Mozilla is fine too - just as long as you're not still using Internet Explorer. Please tell me you're not.)

The Best Chrome Apps for College Students

First thing: to get to the Chrome app store, click here in your Chrome browser.

1. StayFocusd This is the app that will change your life if you, like me, happen to sit around on the internet for hours and hours and suddenly realize it's 2am and you didn't get anything done. This app is for us. Using StayFocusd you can limit the amount of time you spend on time-wasting websites. You set the time per day (such as 40 minutes) and you set the websites you want to limit. (Example: Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter etc.) You can also set "allowed" sites and even set a window of time for unlimited browsing (mine is set to 2 hours at night and weekends). And possibly the most useful of all: you can "Go Nuclear," which means ALL websites except, if you want, those on your "Allowed" list (Blackboard, Oncourse, etc) are completely blocked for as long as you want them to be. It is a LIFE SAVER when you need help focusing, or when Wikipedia articles on celebrities are more exciting than the essay you need to finish writing. Download it here.

2. Evernote This is basically like an electronic notebook where you can paste and clip anything you want to remember later. Write notes, add lists, pictures, videos, whatever you want - and you can sync them to your phone or other devices, too! Download it here.

3. Remember the Milk This is a task-management app for those of us who DON'T regularly keep To-Do lists handy. Simply add a task to your list, prioritize it, and if you like, give it a time estimate or due dates. If it's really important, you can have the app send a reminder to you to complete the task by phone or email! A must-have organization and productivity app. Download it here.

4. Mint.com So this one is really less of an app and more of a bookmark, but if you haven't yet signed up for Mint.com - the BEST money management and budgeting tool ever - take this opportunity! To learn more about Mint, read this blog post. Download it here. 

The Best Smart Phone and Tablet Apps for College Students
Most of these apps will be available for iPhone, Android, iPad, Kindle Fire, etc, but make sure you check first (and don't kill me if it's not available for you!) I have an iPhone 3G, so these apps are all for sure available in the App store at the very least. Anyway, here are my recommendations.

1. Any app from your school! If your school has an app, download it! School apps can help you catch a bus on time, check your meal points, give you instant updates on campus closings or dangers, help you find buildings on campus or numbers to call if you need help, and more. Search for your school to see if you have an app available.


2. CampuSpecial An app created by http://www.campusspecial.com/. Many of you may already get the little coupon booklets from CampuSpecial containing awesome local deals around your campus. Well, imagine if you could get all of those coupons, deals and more, right on your phone, using a handy locator to find which ones are closest to you? It's pretty freakin' awesome. The app is free, search for CampuSpecial in the App store or Android Marketplace.

3. Mint.com Unfortunately, this app is only available for newer iPhones, so 3Gs can't use it. It is available for Androids as well as Kindles from the Amazon App store. Anyway, if you haven't gotten the message yet, Mint.com is the most amazing, super easy, incredibly awesome way to track your spending and budget your money. Even if you don't do anything more than just set it up to look at where you're spending your money, it's insanely helpful.   To learn more about Mint, read this blog post. (Note: even if you don't use Mint, at least download your bank's app to keep track of your spending so you never incur overdraft fees!)

4. Evernote Evernote is the best way to make notes for yourself on your phone. Unlike the regular "notepad" that comes with your phone or tablet., Evernote allows you to create notebooks or organize your notes and include photos, audio clips and more to your notes. If you're the kind of person who frequently finds themselves writing cryptic notes in your phone or taking photos to "Remember for later," this is the app for you.

5. Amazon Price Check, Google Shopper or Shop Saavy Both of these apps are price comparison apps. Google Shopper searches for prices in your local area - so if you're in, say, Target looking at some nail polish, you can scan it with Google Shopper and find out that CVS next door has it for cheaper. Price Check searches for prices on Amazon, which is good for things you might not need immediately but want to save money on. Shop Saavy will search for a scanned bar code both online and in local stores, and also has reviews available for the product you scan. Making sure you're getting the best price possible means saving money!

6. Shopkick So you know how I love paid-to sites like  Swagbucks where you get points to do super easy stuff and then can redeem those points for gift cards and other rewards? Well, Shopkick takes that idea to a whole new level. Shopkick gives you points you for going into stores and doing super easy stuff, and then you can redeem those for gift cards and other rewards. Let me repeat: GOING INTO STORES AND DOING SUPER EASY STUFF. For example, you'll get 50 "kicks" (points) by just walking into Best Buy, or Old Navy. Just WALKING IN! You can get more kicks for doing "scans", which just means finding a specific product and scanning its barcode. (Like a treasure hunt!) Yesterday, for example, there were 750 possible "kicks" for scanning items at Target. A $2 gift card is about 500 "kicks", so if you were going to Target to pick up some toothpaste or whatever anyway, you would've just gotten it for free and then some. In my experience, one trip to the mall can usually get me about 500 kicks, so this is a very easy to get rewarded for just walking around stores. If you want to save up your points for the rest of your life, you can get a cruise for a couple million "kicks" - I prefer to redeem my points for gift cards and do as little work as possible to earn them. I highly recommend this app- it's fun, easy, and gives you free money! What could be better?

Other Free Apps I Love: These might not be college-specific, but they are very useful:
- Pandora: better than listening to your playlists!
- AroundMe: For when you're wandering around and want to know where the nearest whatever is.
- HopStop: When you need to figure out how to get from A to B using public transportation!
- HauteLook: I'm just addicted to HauteLook, basically.
- Thrift Hunter and ThriftBuddy: I love thrift store shopping, especially in places I've never been. These apps help locate the thrift stores nearby.
- Shazam: For when you hear a really cool song and want to know what it is.
- Find My Car: Helpful in big parking lots, or for people who forget where they park their car every single time.
- Yelp: Need a review of a restaurant, salon, bar, etc at a moment's notice? Yelp has it covered.


Want to know about new freebies, samples, deals and money-saving as soon as they happen? Follow The Broke Student's Guide on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

The most profitable tip I can ever possibly give you

Hello everyone! My apologies for the severe lack of posting over the Holiday. In addition to some much-needed extreme relaxation, I spent most of my time scrambling around doing interviews and attending events for my major.  I also actually managed to score the BEST freebie of my life to date over break: a FREE trip to New York City, 2 nights FREE in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, and a FREE cocktail hour and dinner (valued at $750, apparently) with top industry leaders. Oh, and I'll be getting a FREE check for $5,000.  Total worth of freebie? $6,600. It inspired me to write this post, which details The most profitable tip I can ever possibly give you. (How Profitable? It could potentially pay for your entire tuition.)

 So how'd I do it? I entered and won a Merit-Based Scholarship. There are tons of them out there, and they're yours for the winning. If you can find 'em, enter 'em! Few people actually do, which means if you really take it seriously and put your heart into it, you've got a GREAT chance of winning. I only wish I'd known this before my last year in college! I've been discovering many amazing scholarships this year, and I want to share them with you, my readers, so that some of you can take advantage of these amazing opportunities. Not only do they  frequently pay in cash, but they look SO, SO, SO good on your resume. Having won a merit-based scholarship says to hiring managers that you have initiative and drive, seek out opportunities for yourself, take on extra projects and have a competitive edge. In short, the perfect hire!

So how do you go about finding these opportunities? In my case, I get a lot of emails sent out major-wide from my advisor, so I'm going to share a couple of those with you. I also hear them mentioned in classes (write those down and ask the professor about them afterwards!) and, of course, if you search around online, you can find them easily.  Also look at public bulletin boards on campus: not only are they great for finding new activities to go to, but they frequently advertise scholarships.  Look for scholarships offered for anything you participate in on campus: your dorm may have one, your major probably has a few, and any clubs/activities you're involved in may offer some as well. Here are some major-based scholarships I've found to share with you all. Get working!


For All Universities


- Sign up for these sites: http://www.meritaid.com/, http://www.scholarships.com/, http://www.fastweb.com/ and use them to search for scholarships to apply for
- Google "Merit Based Scholarships [Your School's Name]" and you should get some good results

For Indiana University Students
Your department's page will have a section titled "Scholarships." Go there to view all available scholarships for your major.

THE 2012 HENRY A. BERN MEMORIAL ESSAY COMPETITION
PRIZE: $1,500
Deadline: Tuesday, May 15, 2012
ELIGIBILITY: Any current Indiana University Bloomington undergraduate student.
Details: Read More Here

Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design Scholarships
PRIZE: Varies by specific scholarship, deducted from your bursar bill next fall semester
Deadline: January 18th, 2012
ELIGIBILITY: Scholarships are open to Indiana University Bloomington students who are either majoring in Apparel Merchandising, Fashion Design, Interior Design, or are earning the Fashion Design Certificate. (Not seniors, though, apparently).
Details: Common Application and Details Here

IUAA Alumni Scholarships
PRIZE: Varies by specific scholarship
ELIGIBILITY: Depends per scholarship - some are based on location, some campus, some group affiliation, and more.
Details: Read More and View All Available Scholarships Here

Oh - and the scholarship I won? It was the Y.M.A Fashion Scholarship Fund. If your school is a participating member, and you know a thing or two about fashion (either design or the business/merchandising aspect), you can apply next fall!

So what are you waiting for? Go win some scholarships! 


Want to know about new freebies, samples, deals and money-saving as soon as they happen? Follow The Broke Student's Guide on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Broke Student Toolkit: Easy Budgeting with Mint.com

We've heard about it before - the idea of "budgeting" your money, and keeping track of your spending. For most of us, it probably goes in one ear and out the other because it just sounds like a lot of work. Well, back in the day, it was. You had to do a lot of math and keep track of a lot of receipts. Gross. Lucky for us, we live in the age of technology - and this means that budgeting your money today is SUPER EASY. The site I'm going to tell you about today literally does the entire thing for you: it keeps track of all of your spending, categorizes it for you, analyzes it and alerts you if anything is amiss, such as spending more than you're earning. If you use the full functionality of the site, it can keep track of everything from where most of your money is going to your credit card and student loan debt. And it's FREE.


The site I'm talking about is https://www.mint.com/. It's an easy-to-use personal accounting website, essentially, and it's been making my life a whole lot easier. I can now log into the site and quickly see exactly how much money is in my account, where and what I spent that money on, and set budgets for myself. I'm going to give you an exclusive sneak peek into my Mint.com account and show you EXACTLY what it looks like (DON'T JUDGE ME on my spending habits, promise?) Go ahead and click on the picture to make it bigger and check it out. I didn't have to do ANY of that myself. Every time I use the debit card attached to the checking account that I hooked up to my Mint.com account, Mint automatically labels and categorizes the type of purchase I made. I can go and edit it if it's not accurate, but 99% of the time, it is! (Note that the only "Uncategorized" category is SmartyPig LLC- that's a sneak peek of next week's post!)

Now say I've used the site for a month or two, and I'm curious as to what I spent all of my money on - why am I so broke? Well, click on the picture to the right - that's a graph of everything that I spent my money on, added up and categorized for me -

AUTOMATICALLY. I didn't do this in Excel, guys. I just clicked the "Trends" tab. That's it! Using this handy little tool, I can see that in June, I spent almost as much on food and alcohol as I did on rent. Oops. I could also look at my net income - how much I made, minus how much I spent - and look at overall spending for whichever months I want. I can choose several different graphs to look at, to finally solve the problem of Why I'm So Broke (Food and "dining" - that means going to bars. No surprise there, let's be honest. Though I did cut my grocery budget from $100/month in June, to $40/month in July, so this month's should be much better. See, guys?? The site is already working for me!)

The other functionalities of the site are things I haven't had a chance to explore, as I'm thankfully free of credit card debts, student loans, mortgages, etc. But the site is very helpful in regards to those things as well. Overall, it's an EXTREMELY easy way to budget, and I think that the best way to save money is to know exactly WHERE your money is going! So I highly recommend this site to everyone and anyone. What are you waiting for? Go sign up at https://www.mint.com/! BONUS: A lot of paid-to sites offer rewards for signing up on Mint, so you can actually earn some money just by signing up and using the site! How's THAT for a good budgeting incentive? InboxDollars pays $1.00 to sign up for the site, and Swagbucks pays 90 sb. Some others might as well, it's definitely worth checking out!ly

Broke Student Toolkit: Amazon Prime

I'm starting a series of entries called Broke Student Toolkit, where I talk about helpful things to know about as a Broke Student - things that you can put in your metaphorical Broke Student Toolkit to use whenever you need them. It will cover everything from websites that give deals for students, to ways to manage your money, to free music and movies online. Today, we'll start with Amazon Prime.

Log onto Amazon.com, and you'll see a nice little note from the founder and CEO of Amazon about Amazon Prime, which is essentially a swanky, expensive subscription to Amazon that gets you free two-day shipping and tons of instant streaming free movies and TV shows. You might roll your eyes and scoff, "$79/year? That's ridiculous." And it is, because what kind of broke student could ever scrape up that kind of cash?

Well, you don't have to. Amazon Prime is FREE for students for one year. All you have to do is sign up with your .edu email address at Amazon Student. And ta-da! Now you can order your textbooks 2 days before you need them, and get them shipped FREE. And you can spend those 2 days watching Sesame Street or whatever you're into watching. (I prefer Spongebob, but to each their own). It's awesome. Mine expires in September, so I'll be ordering my textbooks early this year - which is good, since that's the best way to get them for cheap!

More reasons to use Amazon:
1. Cheap textbook prices
2. Free music downloads
3. Earn Amazon Gift Cards at Swagbucks.com - read this how-to guide. Now EVERYTHING at Amazon is free!