Wise Financial Decisions in College

I was randomly surfing the internet when I came across a post on wise financial decisions in college by I've paid for this twice already. The two smart decisions she says she made included not using credit cards and only getting student loans to pay for tuition. I started to think about what smart moves I've done financially while in university.

1. Avoiding leases like the plague.
I only signed a lease once during my university stint, and that was on purpose in order to learn about the tenant/landlord minefield. Apart from that one time, I never signed a lease. Leases generally carry a minimum duration of 12 months, and I was never at school for the whole year. Instead, I scoured rent ads for people who wanted lease takeovers and subletters. That way, I negotiated the duration of the lease to only be for the length of time I needed, and sometimes I would also bargain to have internet included in the monthly rent. (I think a lot of people go about this unethically, but I tried to be as fair as possible and not a bully).

2. Working full-time jobs in between classes.
Whenever I wasn't a full time student I was employed full time (except for one summer where I went to a few developing countries to do volunteer work). The money that I made from each of these jobs went first to my tuition, then to paying off student loans. After that I used my money to pay for fun stuff.

3. Setting financial goals.
I never, ever would have been able to tackle my finances if I had never started university with the goal of paying for it myself and walking away without debt. Yes, I still have debt now, but it's my choice (because I opted not to use my money to pay off my loans just yet). That's incredible freedom that I have.

Maybe in a few years I will look back and add a few other things I think were smart decisions.