Save money before you go!

If you have the change to do so, you should get a job whilst you are in college. Even if you only earn £100 per month, this will soon add up and mean that you can afford a little more towards university. You should remember at this point that you will have to pay about £10,000 per year if you are living in accommodation (including living costs) so you will have to save up at least a little. The more the better- if you start saving as soon as you leave high school, you could very easily have saved enough for the whole of the first year by the time you get there.

Have a separate savings account!

Whether you are working or not, it’s always useful to have an account for money that you don’t want to use up. You can ask your bank to set your account so that you cannot access the money apart from in exceptional circumstances, or, if you are at university, you can allow yourself a certain amount per month, meaning that you won’t be able to spend more than you actually have. If you have a job whilst saving up for university, you should put a certain amount into this account each month so that you have a fair amount when you start university.

Take advantage of your student loan.

This is the only time in your life you will be offered a loan completely interest free. You should definitely take advantage of this. You only have to pay it back once you’re earning over £15,000 per year, and if you still have any outstanding debt after 25 years, it gets written off anyway. There are two types of loan- the course fee loan and the maintenance loan. The course fee loan is paid straight to the university, which is useful, as it saves you having to mess around with paying them. The other loan, even if you don’t need it at the time, is very handy. If you have saved enough to see you through the first year, you should place the loan into your savings account and just leave it there. Don’t even touch it. You won’t need it this year, and you won’t need it any of the other years, as you will get another loan then. The £4000 you can borrow will have turned into around £6000 by the time you get round to having to pay the loan back, and that will give you a £2000 profit on it. You can pay the loan back in lump amounts if you want to, but would still have to continue paying the monthly payments if you were earning enough. You should pay back the original amount that was borrowed, and then you would still be left with a fair amount of interest on it.

Save your change.

If you save all of your change in a jar instead of throwing it on the floor, or loading it off onto someone else, you will be very suprised with how much you will actually manage to save just by doing that! If you go to your bank, they will give you some bags for you to place your money into, and then you can sort it and take it into the bank. Whether you put it into your savings account or your current account, it will still be a nice suprise for you when you realise just how much you’ve saved!

Get involved with paid work at university!

For certain courses, students are required to carry out research. So that they make sure they have enough participants, they may offer a small fee, typically about £2 for a half hour participation. There are always things going on like this, and you could earn a fair bit of extra cash by participating in things like this. Even though they don’t pay much, you’re not tied into a contract as you would be with a job, and you’re not required to turn up every single day- just as and when you feel you could do with a bit of extra cash.

Some universities pay their students for guiding people round on open days and applicant days. Typically, you can earn £30 for a day of doing this, and it is normally during the day at the weekend, when you would be bored anyway. They have typically about four of these per year, which is £120 you wouldn’t have had if you didn’t do them. You just have to remember that every little does actually help!

Buy a lot of frozen food.

If you buy in bulk, you won’t need to go to the shop as often. You will find that if you go to the shop once every two weeks, you will spend less on average than if you go every week. You can buy a lot of things that can be frozen, and can even freeze bread and milk so that you can use them when you need them. This way, you’re less likely to buy things on impulse- or if you do, you’d only do it once every two weeks instead of every week.

Take advantage of offers

You see it in supermarkets all the time. Buy one get one free, two for £1, etc. If you take advantage of offers like this, particularly on bathroom and cleaning products and tinned food, while they are available, you will save money in the long term. If things are on buy one get one free offers, you could split them with your flatmates, meaning that you both have to pay less than you would have done.

Don’t share food.

If you share food with people, you may end up buying more than the others, as there will be some people who are too tight fisted to buy a thing. That may sound harsh now, but there is always somebody who will buy more than everyone else, and another person who will buy nothing at all. Also, if you are sharing teabags and splitting the cost, some people might have only one cup per day, and others may have five, meaning that it is extremely unfair that they have to pay the same as everyone else. It may seem easier and space saving to share food, but some people in your flat will end up paying a lot more than everyone else, and that can’t be helped.

Use your student card.

Most highstreet shops offer students a discount, which is anything up to 30% in some places. You have nothing to lose by asking if they have a discount- if you normally spend say £100 on an average trip to the highstreet, you could save up to £30 by asking whether they do discount or not. Also, cards such as NUS will charge you £10 for your card, which is a good investment, however most places will accept your university ID card for a discount, which you don’t have to pay for at all. It depends on what part of the country you’re in though, so you will have to try and see what works and what doesn’t.

Don’t wash every week.

If you have enough clothes to last you for a couple of weeks, then I would advise that you only do your washing when you really need to. Washing machines/tumbledryers can cost anything up to £5 just for one wash, which is £20 per month. If you could cut this in half, you could save another £10 per month to use on something more important such as your food. If you’re planning a trip home, you can take washing home with you and do it at home as well. It will save a lot of money if you do it this way.