Money at university is a very fragile thing. You need to keep an eye on every last penny and absolutely every penny counts. Keeping an eye on your student loan is a very good way to keep your costs down, so we’ve compiled a list of some of the best money saving tips for when you go to university.
Eating Cheap:
Eating cheap may seem very obvious. But the more money you can save the better and eating cheap will certainly help with that. Especially when you consider just how cheap salads and the like are in the shops, you can make your own food in your own kitchen and it will cost a lot less than if you buy it pre-made. Make sure that you find the best deals for the food that you want to buy, for instance butter may be cheaper in Tesco than it is in ASDA, so make sure that you check out all of the prices for the food that you need. That being said, it is a very good idea that the meals that you buy are healthy where possible so do watch out because nice and cheap food is not always healthy.
Living Cheap:
All students want cheap accommodation and there are plenty of private landlords renting houses of multiple occupancy to students all across the country from London to Edinburgh and everywhere in between. Especially when you consider that many universities do not provide a room in student halls of residence except in the first year. Clearly though there is cheap and cheap – for students at university in London the London version of inexpensive accommodation can still drain a student budget very quickly so shop around for the best rental deals and be prepared to travel that bit further out of the centre.
And, of course, don’t forget that once you have found your accommodation you have to pack all your stuff and transport it there. This may be easy of you live in the South East of England but for others, including the many foreign students in London this can be a major undertaking or even require some help from an international removals firm. For UK-based students shop around for inexpensive self storage as this may be the most cost effective way of storing stuff over the summer holidays rather than transporting it back and forth to home each year.
Work Out Your Loan:
Working out your loan is a very important part of having your loan. You need to know what your expenses are, you need to know what the repayments on the loan are, you need to know how long it can last and you need to know just how much you can realistically payback. The sooner you become aware of this information the better it can be for you and you can eve start working towards paying it back when you finish university. You can also use a student loan calculator to help you work this out.
Be Sales Savvy:
There will be plenty of shops that will have sales on and these are the very best places for you to shop. Whether you’re food shopping or you’re just looking for room decorations or for some new clothes, we recommend that you always look for any potential sales first, even it’s only a measly 5% off, it’s still money that you could certainly do with saving. You’d be surprised at what exactly companies decide to put on sale at various different points!
The Tesco Approach:
As everyone knows, Tesco’s motto is “Every Little Helps”. This (As strange as it may seem) is a very important thing for you to consider, especially when you realise how much money you’re going to end up spending a week, the very first thing for you to do is to make sure that any money that you have left over is added to your next week’s budget. Don’t just think that just because you have 10p left over from the previous week that that same 10p can’t help you the following week, as the famous proverb once told us: “Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves”.
Streaming is King:
Spotify and Netflix have certainly cornered their respective markets, everyone wants to watch the very best in TV right now, and they want to listen to the newest music from our favourite artists, and it’s affordable for students! Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora offer various different student discounts which can bring the price down from £7.99 down to £4.00 in some cases!
Hopefully these have proved to be helpful, these have been some of the best tips for you with regards to saving money and for budgeting, these tips will help you to stay afloat and they will ensure that you won’t lose silly money unnecessarily. If you’re ever stuck there is always advice available if you need it.
To find out more about university, then check out University Compare, a university comparison website that compares over 36,000 courses across 425 institutes.
Thanks for reading and good luck!
