University is meant to be some of the greatest years of your life, and the last thing you want is to spend it stressing about unpaid bills, missed nights out or declined cards because you didn’t budget correctly.
To save you unnecessary heartbreak and hours pouring over spreadsheets while your friends are out enjoying themselves, here’s our little guide to managing your student finances.
Creating a Realistic Monthly Budget
It’s easy to convince yourself you’ll only get takeaways at the weekend, only have a few beers once a week at the pub or definitely won’t get an Uber to that lecture you were also late to last week, but it’s probably safer to just be realistic. By being honest with yourself and budgeting realistically, you can save yourself a lot more hassle. If you know the bulk of your budget is going into socialising and nights out, plan your finances around it so you can leave enough money for everything else and don’t get caught short when it comes time to pay the bills.
Finding Deals and Discounts
It might initially take more effort than seems worth it, but by looking for deals, offers and savings, you’ll stack the savings up over time and find yourself left with more money at the end of the month. Plenty of places offer student discounts, buy one get one free deals, happy hours and even store Clubcard’s that save you money on specific products. Hunt them down and find the one’s that suit you best to save yourself as much money as possible every month.
Making Informed Purchases to Stretch Your Budget
Take a look at your outgoings and drop the things that you really don’t need. Keep the things that you need, and those that make you happy and stop buying or just reduce the things that push your budget to the limit. From dropping one takea week to brewing your own coffee in the mornings, take the money you’ve saved and put it to the side so you’ve got a little silver lining fund to cover you when times get tight. Before pulling the trigger on a specific purchase or booking, you can also take a look and see if there’s a way to get it cheaper, or an offer/coupon code you can utilise to save yourself cash. This way you still get the things you want but save yourself money.
Exploring Housing Options on a Student Budget
Getting the perfect accommodation can make all the difference when it comes to a positive student experience. Saving too much money and ending up with a tiny space miles away from your campus can be a nightmare, but spending too much and ending up in the tared every month can also make life miserable. Striking a balance and finding the perfect space that matches both your needs as well as your budget is essential, so dedicate some real focused time to searching so you find the perfect place for your needs.
Effective Rent Management and Cost-Saving Measures
It’s important to foster good money saving habits right away so they stick at the beginning of every month, ensure everything that needs to get paid first, gets paid first. This way, all the essentials are covered until the next time they roll around, and you can focus on enjoying life rather than stressing you’ll miss a payment or forgetting you had to pay something.
You can also save additional money by being careful with your overall usage and expenses. Turning lights, devices and equipment off when you’re not using it, taking shorter showers or showering at the gym to conserve water and walking when you don’t need to take transport are all straightforward ways of hanging onto more money as time goes on.
Utilising One Bill For Student Households With The Student Energy Group
As a trusted student bills company, The Student Energy Group allows you and your housemates to combine all of your monthly utilities into one easy all-inclusive payment, that allows everyone involved to pay their share without having to figure out frustrating percentages and uncomfortable “who still owes what” conversations. Everyone pays their share and that’s that, if someone still owes, no-one else gets punished and no-one must pay any extra.
For peace of mind, less hassle and more time to focus on what’s important, let us do the hard work for you. Explore our student bill splitting options today!
