Money Matters (Part 3) - Money Saving Tips for University

It can be a stressful time for students embarking on to university life for the first time. The fear of going into debt, or meeting new people, or even a fear of being homesick – we’ve all been there. So to help out all the students out there we’ve decided to put together a list of top money saving tips.

Tip #1: Budget during your first week

Everyone loves the thought of Freshers Week – the thought of meeting new people, having a good time, but at the bottom of the list of thoughts is that fact you will potentially spend a lot of money during the first week. Some students have even said they spent their entire loan!

So, top of the list of tips has got to be budget during your first week. This can be something quick, for example allocating different amounts of money per day so you know you’re not going to overspend. You can also buy budget books from any stationary shop if you want to write all of your budgets down.

An effective way to save money and budget with night-outs is to actually pre-drink. Pre-drinking will save you money on drinks in the nightclub, meaning you’re happy because you’re having a great night and you are being cost effective!

Tip #2: Plan your meals

Planning your meals can be a very effective way of reducing costs, especially if you buy in bulk. This means you’ll know what food you need rather than panicking and buying more food last minute.

Tip #3: Student Discounts

Lots of places offer these! We highly recommend you invest in a NUS Card. These are super cheap and only cost £12 for a year (literally £1 a month)! For such a low price you get access to discounts to a variety of stores and companies, ranging from Topshop and Amazon to Dominoes and Odeon. You can even go as far as get discounts on holidays with companies such as easyJet and LateRooms.com

Another worthwhile investment is a 16-25 Railcard. This gives you a whopping 33% discount on all rail fares.

Tip #4: Textbooks

It’s inevitable; you’re going to end up buying textbooks for your degree. However, what do you do when you’ve exhausted your use for it? A good idea is to sell it second hand to the year group below to get a bit of money back. Similarly, buying your own copy second hand from someone else will most likely save you money instead of buying a brand new one.

Tip #5: Catch-up TV

Most students when they come to university think about bringing their TV. What they don’t realise is that you need to pay for a TV licence to legally receive your channels. More so, this also applies if you wish to watch programs live on iPlayer – you still need a license to watch programs live whatever platform it’s on.

So instead, why not use Catch Up TV and watch the program after it’s original broadcast? This saves you money since you don’t have to pay for a license to watch programs after it’s broadcast.

So there you go, those are our top money saving tips for University and on behalf of all the staff at Finnies, we’d like to wish all new students the very best of luck with their degrees.