Saving Money as a Student

If you’re thinking about going off to university at some point in the near future, then you might be starting to worry about how you’re going to manage to afford everything with the small amount of money that you get given to you by the student finance company. Luckily, there are things that you can do which will mean that you don’t have to spend as much money as you might have thought previously. 

• Make use of the things that you have at home. Although it might be tempting for you to buy everything new when you’re moving somewhere for the first time, there is no real need for you to do so if you already have things that you could use. You could ask your family if they have anything that they don’t need to use in their kitchen, for example plates and cutlery, as this would mean that you don’t have to pay for them. Although you might want to buy some new clothes, it makes more sense to try and make the most of the ones that you already have. Once you have got through the first week, you will just be wearing the same clothes that you wore before you came anyway, so there isn’t much point in spending more than you have to.
• Buy your books second hand. If you have a look on social networking websites before you leave, you will find that there are a lot of people from your course who no longer need their books who would be willing to sell them to you. You might find that some people will even be giving them away for free, so don’t get them brand new before you have had the chance to have a look around for other people’s.
• Buy your food cheap. Although you might want to live like a King, it is much better for you to spend as little money as you possibly can while you’re living in your accommodation. By buying supermarket’s own brands, you would be saving a lot of money than you would if you’d chosen to buy a bigger brand, and usually there isn’t too much difference in the quality of the food anyway. You should also get into the habit of planning your meals so that you don’t waste any of the food that you buy. A lot of people find that they’re buying far too much and then end up throwing away a lot at the end of the week.
• Freeze food. If you’re making a curry one night and don’t need to use all of it that day, then it makes a lot of sense to freeze the things that you don’t use and then you would be able to eat them on another day meaning that you wouldn’t have to spend money on food, and you wouldn’t have to cook on that day either which would save you a lot of time in the long term.