Being at university can be a big change to your life. All of a sudden you have to keep track of your own money and it can be stressful. You want to be able to save to allow yourself to go on days out, nights out and even travel on holiday! However, at university other essentials are more important so here are a few tips to help you get the best of both worlds!
1: Make a note of what you are spending. If you keep a note of what you are spending, you can start yo pick out the items that are more essential than others, and you can see patterns in your spending. for example, if you are eating out a lot, you can see how often you are doing it and then see how much you are spending in that area.
2: Put an amount of money into a savers account that suits you, and be consistent with it. If you set yourself a certain amount of money that you can save each week/month where you won’t be struggling without it, it will soon add up so if you wanted to treat yourself you will have money saved.
3: Do your food shopping weekly, not daily. When it comes to saving money, you want to avoid spending money on things you don’t need as much as possible. Planning what you are going to eat each day for the week and buying it all at once not only stops you buying extra food, it saves time. If you are not going to the shop every day, you won’t be tempted to buy more than what you need. Another tip is not to go food shopping hungry! if you go do your shop on an empty stomach you will be tempted to buy more food and may then go to waste.
4: Look for deals in shops Doing this can save you money in the long run. For example, if a pack of chicken breasts are £4 each or 3 for £10 and you know that you will use the other packs for other meals, get 3 packs. Food will not be wasted because you can freeze the other two packs and will make the next couple weekly shops cheaper!
5: Buy own brand foods in supermarkets This helps you stick to your budget as most own brand foods are a lot cheaper than branded foods. Also, for most foods, you cant really tell much of a difference in taste, but will help your bank balance!
6: Take your weekly budget out of the cash machine to spend. Doing this can help you keep track of what you are spending each week and you can see how fast that amount of money goes instead of paying with your card and realising you haven’t stuck to your weekly amount. This will help you take into consideration what items are more important.
7: Save your change up. A good way of saving money is to put your spare change (copper and small silver) into a money tin. When you have filled the tin you can then go to the bank and exchange it for notes and then you have spare money without noticing that you are saving. This may be a good way to save if you cant afford to put a consistent amount of money into a savers account each month (tip number 3).
Hope these tips help!
