A lot of students really are that poor. I went to a state school, where tuition was 1500 a semester, my apartment cost 104/month, and I spent 100 on food a month. I wasn't atypical among my friends. I never went to the bars. Spending 2-4 days worth of food money on a source code repository would not have even crossed my mind as possible. There are a lot of people at public schools, and they have very different resources than those at private. 7 dollars a month does seem small compared to 30,000 a year.