Money Saving Tips for the Average Student
As the world adjusts to ever changing scenarios, we are seeing that in Great Britain, nearly 90% of adults are experiencing an increased cost of living. That’s 14 million more adults than just 10 months before.
As a university student, some perhaps living away for the first time, we have to balance organising our own schedule, assignments, perhaps a job for most of us, as well as washing, cleaning, and food, which can make finding time to get all the handy tips and tricks and experience to save pennies, rather hard. For this reason, I’ve decided to trawl the Internet for some of what I think are the most useful money saving tips for students, to compile a handy guide of recommendations for you. I’ve gone through a few guides here to pick out the best tips (shown in bold) to suit student life.
SaveTheStudent held to its name in my search, appearing with fabulous tips like to shop in evenings when the reductions on need to sell items might begin, or allocating one spending free day per week.
Barclays also has a cool challenge on their site that looks manageable for a student: it involves putting away a penny a day, with a single penny the first day, two pennies the second, and so on , such that you’ll have over £600 by the end of the year.
Now, it doesn’t matter if you’re a new student or returning, you’ll probably get into one Secret Santa group or more, and that involves spending a little on a gift for that friend. The Money Saving Expert has a contest where you can compete to find fabulous gifts for nearly anyone around £5 in price . You can look here for some of the previous winning suggestions and inspiration.
On the idea of gifts and occasions, you’ll have to commute from uni at some point, whether it be every day, or for the holidays. A Railcard as suggested by SaveTheStudent is a great options, and you can chose between 9 types, of which you can find here. .
Another great tip for materials was given by The Complete University Guide for procuring textbooks: buy second hand textbook material . They also give a second handy tip that if you buy the newest versions you can, you’ll be able to send them off after as well. From personal knowledge, I’ve also heard of websites such as Perlego, which I’ve not used but are advertising they have hundreds of thousands of books, with study tools. Another reading tool is Kindle Books for other reading.
When it comes to actually taking the notes, UCAS (though they credit content provided by Money Saving Expert) in This Guide have a list of cool software options whether you want to write, present, or edit music/photos, for not as much money.
UCAS Also has a few other handy student saving guides, crediting money.co.uk for things such as making sure you get a bank account with the right interest and overdraftto help you. They also suggest S haring cooking timetables and buying bulk deals to save money.
Of course, around all that studying and organising your money, you’ve got to kick back and chill too, and SaveTheStudent has recommendations on how you can do this, including using BBC audience tickets . On This Partof the BBC Site, you can chose shows you love and apply to be an audience member!
When it comes to getting the tech and material you need to live away, SaveTheStudent recommends eBay as a good site to find stuff you need . They also go on to say you should look out for where people have misspelt the names of products of what you want as well as some people might accidentally mis-type the name of the products, but they’re still out there.
On the view of online shopping, the same guide also suggests waiting before you check out online when doing your grocery shop as sometimes the companies will offer you reduced prices.
Now, these are the most useful tips I think so far, but if you’re interested in more, you can also check out my article on how to help the environment as well as bills , and how to be more Carbon Neutral , as well as how to reduce waste and save money . From one money saving student to another, hope this helps! 😊
