Cheap Living for Broke College Students and Graduates, or Anyone Young and Poor

It's hard being young and poor today. With the job market getting tougher, a college degree is beginning to feel a lot like a high school degree. Power bills and gas are getting more expensive. Although states can now set individual minimum wages, most still go by the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, hardly a living wage. It has been years since the federal minimum wage has been raised. With all these factors against us, we must find ways to work within the system to save and earn money. But we can still eat, drink, and be merry for cheap. Here are some suggestions as to how:

Cheap Food:
1.) College Events: Lots of college events have free food like pizza or sandwiches. Even if you've graduated from college, you can still show up at the events. Even if the event is happening at a college you never attended, you could still show up, grab some food, and leave. Most events will be big enough that no one will notice/care if you're actually a student. It's not like they make you show college IDs to get into stuff like that. But if anyone does ask, you can tell them you're visiting a friend who goes to the school. So do a little research and find out what's happening at the local colleges and when.

2.) Day Old Bread/Dumpster Diving: It sounds gross, but you can actually find fairly good food still in packaging in dumpsters outside of grocery stores. Also check bakeries for day old bread, which is usually very cheap but still tastes fine. 

3.) Potluck Dinners: If you have broke friends and you're all sick of eating the same things all the time, plan a potluck and arrange it so that everyone brings something different to eat. Maybe the portions will be small but the variety will be nice.