Ok so I was going to do different posts with different bits of advice but then I couldn't think of a way of dividing it up so heres all my basic tips-
Money
Rough Budget- Right I am a realist so am not expecting all students to know exactly what thier loans will be getting spent on and when but it is good to have a rough idea. One thing I regret is that in my first year I was super with my loan I wasn't tight I still went out, shopped but I also managed to budget enough that I paid for a 2-week holiday with the girls. However, come second year I laid off budgeting and ended up pretty skint in the summer and could barely afford anything and it was awful! So finally in third year I reached a happy medium between my big budgeting of first year and my zilch budgeting in second. First I made sure all the serious neccesities were covered i.e. rent, bills etc then I'd do a big food shop so I was covered stock wise. Then i'd work out how much I was left with and just try not to go too mad! Another way to budget further is a weekly budget or keep a diary of how much you spend.
No Money Day/s- This was perfect the day after a night out. Basically it is what it says, you don't spend any money all day and the reason this was perfect the morning after was that we didn't actually feel like doing anything anyway! Instead we'd root through each others DVD collections and have a movie day chilling or if we wanted fresh air just went for a gentle walk, we had a park right next to us so we were pretty set. I'd also prepare food the day before and just have to heat it up whilst hungover, a win-win really. A way of doing this whilst in Uni and being a bit of a nerd at the same time is to take a packed lunch and spend most of the day in the library then arrange a kind of come-dine-with-me night which leads me onto the next point.
Come Dine With Me and Economies of Scale- A good way of saving money food wise is to but certain items in bulk with your flat mates and then split the cost such as large bags of pasta or mulitiple sauce jars. A slightly more enjoyable idea that combines a more fun aspect is to do come-dine-with-me nights you take it in turns with course mates to make each other dinner, it doesn't have to be course friends but the added benefit is you can go over uni work and help each other out then you can say it's a study night till the wine comes out..
Nights Out- We all know that on a night out it's easy to over spend, after a few and you'r a bit merry and theres that atmosphere but next thing you know it's the next day and your looking in your purse to find no money and a reciept for a 20 quid bar tab WTF! The way I decided to combat this way to only take a certain amount of money putting a set amout aside for a cab home and once it was spent that was that.
Me and my friends would also try to go to bars and clubs with student nights so there would be things like free entry or drink offers.
Days Out- Well even before I became a student I was a big fan of free days out or at least spending as little as possible not because am tight I just wanted as many days out as I could, in which case you kind of have to watch what you spend. As i said on a previous post attractions like Chester Zoo offer student discount so have a look what you local attractions are and always ask for discount!
Eating Out- I love to eat out, whether you just can't be bothered cooking or you need a little treat it's great but the way to do it as a student is as cheap as possible. For example not all places will do a discount but they might do on one day, for example my local scream pub would do half price mondays. Or restraunts do their own offers independantly such as Revolution do half price all food and drink mondays so it's worth keeping an eye out.
Thats all my basic tips but I'll be doing another post about advice for second year, as believe me it's very different!
Hope this helps!
X
No comments
Post a Comment