Guest Post from A Girl with a View.
It’s probably common knowledge to think of a student and tothink of someone struggling financially. Students aren’t necessarily known forbeing the most money-savvy of people but your university years are some of thebest times to start practising good money habits that will set you up for life.It’s always nice to have money left over at the end of the month to either popin savings or to treat yourself, and by implementing these tips at universityyou’ll be well on your way to having a few extra pennies in your bank account!
Photo credit: Skitterphoto on Pexels.
Meal Plan
This is something I sometimes fail to do successfully andthe appeal of a takeaway or meal out when you can’t be bothered to cook isalways tempting. However, meal planning is one of the biggest ways I manage tokeep track of my finances and not go overboard when food shopping. If I’ve madea conscious effort to look for recipes and things to cook for the followingweek and then made a shopping list with only the ingredients I need I am muchless likely to overspend and buy excessive amounts of food that I won’t use.Some good meals to think about making are spag bol (a student classic), acurry, pasta bake, fajitas or chilli. Most of these meals can also be made inbatches that you can freeze, making them, even more, cost-effective as you canreturn to them weeks later and thank your meal-prepped self when you don’t feellike cooking again!
Put aside a certain amount each week
This is something I started doing more regularly and it’smade a big difference to my savings. Last year, by doing this I was able tovisit Berlin, Naples, Prague and Seville bytravelling cheaply and using this method! I made a separate ‘pot’ on Monzo(more on that later) called Holiday so I could start saving for a trip later inthe year. Monzo automatically adds £5 every week to this pot so at the end ofthe year me and my boyfriend could go away somewhere nice without having totake a chunk out of my other savings. Sadly, the holiday hasn’t happened thissummer due to COVID but I’ve kept adding to the pot throughout lockdown so thatwe can, hopefully, have a few nice holidays next year. £5 is a manageableamount, for me, to save every week. However, you can add in as much or aslittle as you want or make your saving bi-weekly or monthly to make it work foryou. Putting just small amounts away can add up to a big amount of money by theend of the year.
Get Monzo
Monzo has been a huge help in keeping track of my financesand helping me to save money. Each time you buy something Monzo will place yourpurchase into a specific category which is so useful for being aware of whereyour money is actually going and, at the end of the month, it shows you whichcategories are your biggest spends. It can be quite shocking at first torealise how much you’ve spent on eating out or shopping in a month initiallybut the app allows you to set budgets within each category to help you cutdown. You can set up a loose change pot which will round up to the nearestpound your latest transaction and put it into a savings pot. I find thisfeature really helpful as you don’t even realise how much money you’re puttinginto savings and suddenly you have a few extra pounds that you didn’t knowabout! I think it’s such a good bank and app that really helps you keep controlof your money and where it’s going.
Use student discount and cashback
Student discount is one of my favourite things about being astudent and by quickly registering to discount sites like Unidays orStudentBeans you unlock so many savings. Most retailers will offer between10-20% off for students which is not to be sniffed at, especially when it’ssomething you needed or were going to buy already. Sometimes it can be worthputting the extra 10 or 20% you saved into a separate savings pot so you canrack up how much discount you received over the year and put it towardssomething like a holiday or into your savings account. Cashback is anothergreat way to save a few pennies and is something I started doing fairlyrecently. Topcashback and Quidco are my favourite sites to use and it’s veryeasy to register and get going. When going to make a purchase from somewhereonline, check whether these sites offer you cash back for doing so. Even ifit’s only 1% it’s still worth doing as it soon adds up, and if it’s somethingyou need to buy then you may as well make some saving on your purchase.
Buy secondhand textbooks
As an English student, I need to buy a lot of books which,if I bought them all new, would cost me an absolute fortune so I’ve learnt toshop around. Places like World of Books or Abe Books offer very cheap bookswith big discounts and I often get the books I need from these places. It canalso be worth looking at your University’s course Facebook page as often paststudents will be selling their old books at a discounted price so it can be agoldmine to get the exact editions you need at cheaper prices. Another tip Iwould say is that although courses often recommend you pick up the latestedition of a textbook, this isn’t necessary. More often than not, the book hasexactly the same content (just different page numbers) and is half the cost -it’s not worth paying so much more for the same content just for page numbers!If you really don’t want to buy anything then your University library shouldhave all the books you need for your course, you just need to make sure thatsomeone doesn’t borrow them before you!
Those are my top tips for being a money-savvy student and tohelp you start saving whilst at university. I think the key thing from thislist is that you don’t need to start saving extravagant or unrealistic amountsof money, little and often is the way to go and always make sure you’re awareof what you’re spending so you’re able to cut back on areas if you need to!
Related Read: Top Tips for Starting University
About the Author:
Tash is a UK based blogger and English student who blogs allabout university life, travel, books and a whole host of other topics! You canfind her over on her social media:
Blog: http://www.agirlwithview.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tash__evans
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/agirlwithview/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8507134-natasha
