This blog was made to be a transparent guide into the world of personal finance, primarily through budgeting and saving, tailored exclusively for college students and young adults. We seek to make a positive learning environment around financial literacy, and we want to make it as easy to understand as possible.
Our Founder
Hi! My name is Jalen Thompkins. I graduated college in 2022 without any student loan debt. How did I do this? I was able to pull this off through scholarships and grants due to the efforts of my academic achievements, my various side hustles, and of course, living very frugally!
Throughout my teenage years, I always tried finding ways of how to make money. I quickly came to understand that to make money, you need to provide value. My first way of making money while I was in highschool was charging for math homework help with a mix of tutoring. Around my junior and senior year of highschool, I then started making money through First-Person Shooter (FPS) video game tournaments and helping people level up their in-game characters.
When I was in college I started reselling sneakers, and supplemented my income mining cryptocurrency on my graphics card. After I started mining crypto, I found myself more interested in investing and trading both stocks and crypto alike. I lost some money in the process, but eventually gained much more back through learning from my mistakes. After I graduated college, I landed a job in my field of study a few months later. My lack of debt and frugal lifestyle has allowed me to be able to stash away between 40-50% of my income currently on slightly less than average american’s yearly income.
I started this blog because I noticed that most of my peers in college didn’t take the same interest in personal finance that I had. Coincidentally student debt is also at an all time high. When you give 18 year olds tens of thousands of dollars expecting them to know how to repay it or even take it seriously, what else would you expect? Neither are the students themselves necessarily to blame either. While the majority of students are facing hefty student debt, I wanted to share my own methods of being able to spend less and save more during my time in college, in hopes that readers like you will be able to graduate with as little student loan debt as possible, or at the very least pay it down as quickly as possible.
I don’t expect my experience to be easily replicated, nor am I trying to sell you that dream, but I do believe that taking control of your finances and really making your dollar count, especially at a young age, is key to being able to save more and grow your wealth over the long term.
Meet The Team
Frugal Student consists of our founder, Jalen Thompkins who writes, plans, and structures our articles; our editor Mason Stoutamire, who reviews grammar, syntax, and phrasing; and our personal finance expert Jose Guerra-Miranda who reviews and verifies the information in our content to ensure it provides quality knowledge to the reader.
Our Mission
Our mission is simple: To empower college students and young adults with the tools and insights needed to make smarter, and more budget-conscious decisions when it comes to spending money. We believe that by building financial literacy early on, you can set yourself up for a lifetime of success.
What We Offer
Unlike most personal finance blogs that cater to a broader audience, we want to hone in on the challenges of college students when it comes to money management in the world of higher education. We understand the challenges of balancing academics, social life, and financial responsibilities. We speak your language, diving deep into topics that resonate with you, from stretching a meal plan to its fullest, to making the most of student discounts, to strategies for cutting your textbook costs in half. We’re also giving away free budget templates to people who sign up for our mailing list. We plan to provide email list signee’s more value in the ways of exclusive discounts with collaborating entities, notifications of sales on relevant supplies, cool apps that can save you money, productivity tips for acing your exams, and so much more!
Our blog is not just about saving a quick buck; it’s about fostering a mindset. A mindset where you, as a young adult, can take charge of your financial future without compromising the unforgettable experiences college has to offer.
Whether you’re a freshman taking your first step into college or a recent grad stepping into the world of adulting, we’re here to ensure you do so with financial savvy and confidence.
Editorial Standards
The content produced from this blog is partially assisted by AI writing tools for content ideation and structuring, and is heavily edited, and fact checked by a human team. Our content is meticulously researched for wider-used best practices and is substantiated by personal experience. Any content that explicitly deals with managing finances is reviewed by our personal finance expert before posting. We seek to ensure that the information we post is useful and relevant for the average college student’s financial situation and life experience.
We strive to make sure that there are no errors or inaccuracies in our content, and every single paragraph we write is looked over by three different people. In our pursuit of perfection and providing quality content, if we somehow manage to publish any unfactual information, please contact our team and we will make sure that we will make the proper corrections to ensure our content is of the utmost quality.
Privacy Policy
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