Struggling with your finances at university? If you are trying to cut your spending and save for more important things, this blog will be very handy for you.
Create a Strict Budget
University can be expensive, but if you create a strict budget you stick to most of the time, you will save money to battle the university’s expensive lifestyle.
Manage your Funds
The most important thing I would say everyone needs to do is create a couple of pots in your bank for the essentials: create a pot for your rent money, a pot for your food shop money, and then have a pot for just free money. This will make sure you do not cross any lines that could result in you being hungry or your landlord calling you telling you to pay your rent. I would also suggest making these in weekly pots so it is easier to manage.
Take Advantage of Student Discounts
With apps like Unidays and Student Beans, saving could not come any easier. These apps have multiple big corporations that offer student discounts for you; the only thing you need to do is log into your student email on them. Another thing I suggest is to go to student pubs and food places that will offer a better price than non-student bars.
Meal Preparation
I cannot say this enough: meal prepping saves much more money than you think. There are so many benefits in investing in bulk meat and carbs, seasonings, frozen vegetables and sauces. This initial stage costs money first, but it will be a lot cheaper to cook your own healthy food and reheat it or freeze it. Avoid takeaways as much as you can; obviously one here and there is fine, but if you are getting takeaways every day, you might as well just start burning your money instead by how much you are wasting.
Pre-Drinking
Another handy piece of advice is if you intend to go clubbing while at university, I suggest that you save your money and drink at your friends’ uni flat before the club. This will save you a lot of money in the long run. It is also a good place to drink responsibly to get to a good level of drunkness, where you are not feeling unwell or unfit to go out in the end. In my opinion as well, this is the best part of the night; drinking around a table with friends before going out is something you will definitely remember during your times at university.
Reduce your travel costs
Another thing that burns your wallet is travel costs around cities; these tips are to make sure you save some money when travelling around the city so you can afford the more important things.
Buy a Bike
Investing in a bike is a good idea for someone who does not mind biking around cities, especially around cities like Manchester and London that are relatively flat. You can get a bike for around £80 to £100, which sounds expensive, but it is so worth it. Another benefit of owning a bike is that you can beat the traffic and busy buses.
Do not Rely on Ubers
Another thing to use less if you are trying to save money is Ubers; I think that you should only use Ubers if you need to. Of course, if you are going to use an Uber to travel a distance that is too far to walk, then that is fair enough, but if you are Ubering to University when you could just walk, you are going to burn a hole in your pocket.
Utilise buses
Buses around cities are very useful to get about, and they are fairly cheap. So if you need to get somewhere that is not walkable, I recommend that you look if a bus can take you there first.
Get a Job
This tip is harder to achieve due to the current job market, but it is still possible. Even if you work 10 hours a week, it keeps you afloat financially. What I have learnt from university, one day you will check your bank account and think you are okay, then in a couple of days you check again, and you don’t know how you spent so much.
Final Thoughts
My final thoughts for money management at university is at the end of the day, money comes and goes, but memories last forever. Be cautious with your money, but do not let it stop you from going out with your friends. I am 30 years old, and I used to attend Manchester Metropolitan University, and now I live with my partner in Manchester, who got a spouse visa uk to live with me here. We met when she was an international student here at Manchester Metropolitan University.
