Easy Tips on How to Budget as a Student
Need help in how to budget as a student?
Student or not, making a monthly budget isn’t the most fun task😛. That’s why we’ve put together a list of tips that we hope will help you out when counting your precious pounds 💷 💷. If you need to make a little extra cash, no worries – download the JOB TODAY app and apply on the go as hundreds of jobs are posted daily.
1. Calculate Your Monthly Income
The first thing to do is to estimate how much quid you’ll have coming in. Generous parents👨👩👧, a scholarship here, extra money earned – every channel that generates money is imperative. Here are a few possible streams of income:
- Parents contributing to your costs
- Grants
- Scholarships
- Student loans
- Wages earned from jobs (Psst, want to get rich with these high paying student jobs?)
- Savings
This is super-important as it will decide how tight or how loose your purse strings should be.
2. Pinpoint Your Outflows💷
Now that you know how much money you’ll have to play with, it’s time to identify your outflows.
Student Accommodation🏡
Apart from your university tuition fees, this is probably going to make up the major chunk of your total expenses – but, hey, you have options 🙂 The cost of your student accommodation is going to depend on your location and the type of lodging you decide to go for.
You can go for rented accommodation that can range from a lowly £120 per week to more than a £1000 a week. There is also private student housing 🏠 ranges from £160 – £500 per week.
Take your pick 😀
Food, Travel & Utilities 🍰🍴
Now that you got your main budgeting units sorted – let’s get into the nitty gritty 😀
Based on what kind of accommodation you chose – you’ll be responsible for your share of utility bills such as electricity, water and heating. This can cost up to £120/month and can vary seasonally. A standard 8 Mbps internet broadband connection will be an additional £21/month or so.
If you can whip up a wicked Mac’n’Cheese, that’s fab! Why, you ask? Because cooking yourself will save you a whole lot of dough!
Food expenses are estimated to be about £50/week. Take this time to enhance your cooking skills and to experiment with different kinds of cuisines. Have a bit of fun and save some dough! Go shop at low-cost stores such as Lidl, Aldi, Morrison’s, Iceland and Asda. That is the brilliance of knowing how to budget and where to shop from.
As much as we all love Uber-ing around – it’s not wise to do so on a daily basis. As a student, you’ll qualify for a Student Oyster Card. Mate, you just found your new travel bestie! This little magical piece of paper will entitle you to awesome discounts on London public transport.
Tube time🚆?
3. Personal Expenses🍻🍴💇🏽
Clothing, mobile phone plans, eating out etc..this is all in your very capable hands.
As a general rule, the closer you get to the city center – the more expensive things tend to get. Need winter clothes? Buy it in the summer when shops put up sales on their winter stock and vice versa for summer attire.
Try to limit the usage of your mobile data when without internet access. Good thing that there are plenty of hotspots around the city that you can tap into 🙂
There is no harm in eating out once a week. You work hard all week around, you deserve it! And hey, if you want to grab a beer🍻, what’s happy hour for?
Now that you know how to budget – whether you’re a student or not, it’s going to help you in day to day life when you start working. There are plenty of easy jobs to get without a qualification. Fret not, there are plenty of highly paid no qualification jobs too that you can go for. Once you land such a brilliant gig, then you can put your awesome budgeting skills to the test!
