Saving money and trying to have a life can be difficult. Whether you are working part-time or getting just enough pocket money, saving is a challenge. And if you are a student who is living away from family and have future student loans to pay as well, you should better start saving now on.

Bear in mind that the key to maintaining financial stability is being aware of how you are spending and cutting your bad habits. Here are a few tips to help you save some money:

• Buy second-hand books or rent them and sell last semester’s books back.
• Do not make impulse purchases.
• Never go for grocery shopping when you are hungry.
• Limit the number of times you eat out monthly.
• Cut out on smoking and binge drinking.
• Always pay bills on time to avoid any late fees.
• Walk, use as much public transportation as you can.
• Become a PG, so you can split rent and utilities.
• Consider more basic phone tariff plans
• When planning meals, make dinner with friends and split the cost of groceries.
• Sell what you no longer use or need.
• Don’t buy books you will only need for a short period of time – check them out from the library instead.
• Take advantage of what your campus has to offer in terms of activities, rather than spending money on going out.
• Make your own tea/coffee.
• Don’t buy music. Use free services like Wynk or Gaana.
• Avoid buying branded items. Purchase generic items whenever possible. They are exactly the same item, at a highly reduced price.
• Keep a track of your monthly expenses and scrutinize them regularly.

And last but not least, attend your class. You are paying for it and skipping is like throwing money out the window. If you have any tricks you use to save money, share them with everyone by commenting in the comment section below.

Criticism is a common—but painful—experience. Being criticized may produce fear, shame or anger, and feed into your insecurities. Obviously, not all critics produce these negative experiences, there is a positive criticism that makes you think and helps you grow. To discover it is important to understand what provokes people to criticize, if their reasons are valid or, on the contrary, are only a strategy to reassert their power, complain or humiliate.

 People criticize you because:

• They feel endangered by some of your qualities and use criticism as a defense to try to balance the game. In practice, these people feel inferior, then attack your flaws trying to take you down to their level.

• They like to feel accountable for the situation in every moment and get scared when they feel that are losing control. In such cases, criticizing you return to them, at least in part, the feeling of control, because they believe to tear you down this way and take the control.

• They want to gain something: They criticize you in front of someone else; to make sure they look better, both at work and with friends. In this case they do it because consider you a rival or a competitor.

• They try to draw your attention and approval, but since they’re short of social and emotional skills, fail to do it in an assertive way, so they end up, complaining or whining. In fact, when people think they are skilled in every field, often criticize others to demonstrate what they know and reaffirm their position, looking for admiration.

• They’re project their fears and insecurities: In fact, when people do not admit some of their features and recognize them in the others, they generate in them a deep denial and open the way to criticism.

• They feel frustrated as they have tried to express their needs and opinions in a more assertive way, but you haven’t been paying attention and, then, they discharge all that anger in the criticism.

• They need to feel powerful, even if it means over powering you and to achieve this, they use criticism as a stick with which they hit you.

The way to respond to criticism depends largely on the situation and the reasons that cause it. In fact, there are circumstances where is better not to do it, because reacting to criticism would only serve to further develop the other person and satisfy his/her desire for leadership and control. In these cases it is best to pay no attention to them, because trying to defend ourselves would only lead to a dead end. Hence, if you can, pretend that nothing has happened. When the person who criticizes you is significant for you, it is necessary that you pay attention and let him/her know that you love and esteem him/her, even if you do not agree with that opinion. You can also point out to that person that you respect his/her ideas and efforts, but always asserting your freedom and the right to make your own decisions. Nobody enjoys to be criticized, but it is part of the human experience. Try to find the middle ground between taking too much accountability for other people’s issues and being too defensive.