BLOOMINGTON - Some college students inevitably will live on Ramen noodles for a week because they're broke.

That free T-shirt offer from a credit card company looked too good. Now, they're paying 25 percent interest on a $10 case of beer.

Or, maybe they saved 10 percent on the latest fall jacket by opening a store credit card but didn't realize they'd later pay an extra 20 percent in interest.

"Don't be enticed by all those credit card offers. Be really cautious with that," warned Carol Burroughs of Forward Financial Planning in Normal.

The average college graduate carries twice as much debt than their predecessors did 10 years ago, according to the Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit think tank. In Illinois, the average debt was $17,089 in 2005.

That figure includes the rising costs of educational loans, but students find debt in other places too.

Many students run out of money before the semester ends, or more importantly, before the next financial aid disbursement hits their mailboxes, said Chuck Boudreau, director of financial aid at Illinois State University.

So they seek alternative loans outside of school or sign on for a credit card, he said.

"Only use a credit card when you can pay it off monthly," Boudreau said. "What you don't want to do is get into a situation where you're only making the minimum payments each month. It's going to be a $50 to $75 pizza by the time you pay it off with interest."

Burroughs recommends students get only one credit card to establish a line of credit that will help them buy a home or car after college. Credit-card purchases should be limited to major purchases like books or computers, however, not for clothes or other small, spur-of-the-moment buys, she said.

Boudreau recommends students avoid credit cards and use debit cards so they don't spend more money than they have.

That's Larissa Krok's plan. The Illinois State University junior from Arlington Heights doesn't have a credit card.

"My mom keeps me away from them for my protection and her's, so she doesn't have to cover my debt," Krok laughed.

Krok swipes her debit card to buy groceries, dinner, clothes and just about everything else, and that can be dangerous too.

"It's handy to have but it can be a terrible temptation," Burroughs said.

Often times, students don't record each transaction, and debit cards can make spending too easy, creating bad buying habits, she said.

"Bad spending habits may follow them a lifetime," Burroughs said. "It's like starting to smoke. It may be really hard to break that habit."