Wondering how you'll make your loan go the distance? Check out these budgeting tips
Published on 11 October 12
Surviving on a student budget isn’t easy, but you’re not alone. Find out where to get all of the best student offers and how to make your money last until loan-day!
Creating a budget...As boring as it may sound it is worth sitting down and figuring out how much money you have to spend and working out a budget to keep to every week. If you dedicate some time to this early on you will be thankful when it’s coming up to pay day and you still have some money left for those important end of exam parties! ...and sticking to itIf you know you struggle to keep to budgets you’re not the only one! Below are a few tips from students about how to fight the urge to spend up: |
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How to make a budget
Work out what your income will be for the academic year taking into account loans, grants and money saved from previous employment. Don’t include wages from a job you intend to get a few months time, if you are fortunate enough to earn more after your budget, you can always have alter your budget.
Figure out how much of that will need to go on monthly and weekly bills and then you can split up the remainder into how much that leaves you with per week (or month if you prefer).
Once you have this figure you can allocate amounts to different things such as shopping, transport and social events. It may take some time to get the right balance but once you’re happy with it make sure you will be able to keep to it. NUS have put together the average expenditure of students so click here if you’re unsure of what you will need to account for.
Make sure you take into consideration extra expenses such as birthdays, holidays and one off events as well as University related expenses such as printing and buying course books.
You can find further advice about budgeting from the NUS website or the Crucial Guide Live.
Discounts and offers
There are a few websites out there that are dedicated to bringing you the best student offers available. You’re best to take advantage of these discounts when you can, but don’t get pulled into spending money on something you don’t need, weren’t intending to buy or can’t really afford.
Save the Student is a website that was created by a group of University of Manchester students with great deals on anything from your gas and electric bills to free toothpaste. Here you will also find great advice about budgets, cooking basics and job hunting; everything you need to become confident with your independence. You can find all of this advice at http://www.savethestudent.org/
Student beans is also another popular website promoting a wide range of deals to students including freebies, 2 for 1’s and you can check what deals are available in your area. To find out more that they have to offer, check http://www.studentbeans.com/