Back in the ’60s I tooled around the University of New Hampshire in a rusty old salt-encrusted Dodge with “Live Free” engraved on its plates. The state motto is “Live Free or Die,” but that sentiment didn’t please me or my draft-dodging friends, so we took tin snips to the plates.

Yankees who liked the state’s Revolutionary motto on their license plates also liked sticking it in our faces, but we preferred to live free.

Not much has changed really. But here in Santa Barbara, “live free or die” is more about saving money than saving face.

How do students survive-perhaps even thrive-on our own South Coast Riviera without maxing out the credit cards and ending up frozen under a fig tree?

Can we take back just a little control of our own lives? Who’s really in charge here?

Friends have shared some strategies for living free here.

For instance, last week I had good seats for the Russian Philharmonic, courtesy of City College music department. Face value: $45. My cost: $0.

City College Continuing Education is one of the biggest bargains in town. Open rehearsals abound. Tickets for plays, concerts, lectures and dance performances are often free for the asking if you ask the right people.

What’s that, you say, you’re hungry and the cafeteria is too pricey? You’re right, it is. But you do have other choices, whether you tend toward vegan or carnivorous fare. Stay strong, healthy, and well fed with just a little planning.

My daughter’s dining commons up in Portland has a “scrounge bar,” with free food donated by fellow students, but that tradition is unlikely to take hold here. Still, we’re commuters, right?

Last week I dined al fresco on West Campus with a student who packs his own film can of instant coffee, a bottle of filtered water, a clay cup (no handle), and a tub of leftovers.

Sometimes he microwaves his meal in one of the campus lounges. As my new friend said, packing lunch guarantees you’ll have what you want when you want it, and you’ll save money and waste.

The view from a West Campus hillside beats the ambience in most local eateries.

If you have grocery dollars to spare, indulge in a big block of Ghirardelli dark chocolate from Trader Joe’s at 17 cents an ounce-and please share.

Now about these March winds. Have you shopped Santa Barbara’s opulent thrift stores? When rich Yankees retreat to our sunny clime, they shed their outerwear.

It all ends up at Alpha Thrift, which dominates the market with two huge well-organized stores on Hollister, or one of its even thriftier though messier competitors. See the Yellow Pages under “Thrift & Second-hand Stores.”

Whether your taste runs to navy melton or faux fox with bling, you will find something incredible for under $20 to keep you warm. And if you love the fox but hate the bling, check the junk shelf for tin snips.