Somehow, a trip to the grocery store yesterday made me reminisce about my horribly awesome college experience. 

I say horribly awesome because let's face it, making $20 - sometimes $10 - stretch two weeks is NOT a fun or easy task. But free food at the campus diners is AWESOME. It's like your last time being "carefree" in your life, yet somehow it's one of the most stressful times.

I saw myself in this poor girl in the Publix parking lot. After navigating my way through the random layout, successfully avoiding the mindlessly wandering college students and finally finding a parking spot, I noticed the evil devil that is the tow truck following behind me. It stopped at a (really cute) little red car, and and started dragging it up to the platform. Suddenly a girl came running down from the apartments next to the lot, frantically pleading with the truck driver to leave her car.

I immediately thought of the time my second year of college when I woke up at 5 am to my car being towed right outside my window.  I ran out there with mismatched pajamas and no contacts and somehow convinced the tow truck driver I was just leaving for work. I don't know WHERE he thought I worked looking like that, but he let me take my car. (I drove it around the block, waited for him to leave, then parked my car exactly where it was.)

This poor girl was not so lucky. :( I saw her later walking back up to her apartment carrying a bunch of things from the misfortuned car. I felt bad for her thinking that, as a college student, she's probably using the rest of her precious money to get her car back. I wanted to give her a hug and say "Been there, my friend!" More times than I care to admit...

Being in a college town, I see a lot of situations I used to find myself in. It makes me really happy that now, years later, I can FINALLY pay all my bills, buy plenty of groceries, maybe new shoes, and still be financially comfortable.   

Are you still in college? How do you save money and make what you have stretch however long you need it to? I learned some of the best money-saving tips in college! (Example: Don't buy more food than you're going to eat.) Tweet me your money tips! (Because we can all still use them!) @KaciKruz

Me and my friend Noelle in our college radio station!