How to plan a student budget and manage your money at uni

“My parents were really generous, giving me £200 a month,” Mei said. “Living just off this money would have been doable — but I wanted to have fun. I liked having a part-time job, as it gave me financial security,” she added.

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Getting a job wasn’t the only way Mei managed to keep on track with her tight student budget. She batch-cooked meals, sold items on the second-hand clothing website Depop, shopped at the cheapest shops for her groceries and buddied up with her housemates to buy big bags of rice and pasta to save money.

“On my days off, I hopped between stores and noted down prices so I knew where to shop for the cheapest prices for groceries,” she said. “I noticed that Waitrose was cheaper than Poundland for dish soap, for example.

“And in my second year, I lived in a house of four, so we split a massive bag of rice between us for £15 from Amazon which lasted the whole year.”

Many students like Gaeter are finding that they are having to work harder to make their money cover the cost of living.

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Students spent an average of £924 a month on rent, bills and living expenses in 2022, up from £810 the year before, according to a survey by the money website Save the Student — a 14 per cent rise.

With maintenance loans in England not keeping up with inflation (the maximum available is increasing 2.8 per cent for the next academic year), your money won’t go as far.

Here’s how to budget to make sure you’re keeping your finances on track.

Download budgeting tools

Setting up a spreadsheet to log your spending is a good way of keeping track of your finances, but apps can help too.

Snoop lets you connect all your bank accounts and credit cards on one dashboard, so you can keep track of spending. You can set yourself a budget and set an amount for each spending category — from food to shopping. It will send you summaries, showing where you could be overspending to help you cut costs.

Splitwise is an app aimed at people in shared houses, so they can manage bills and share costs. You can add expenses — like cleaning products and shared groceries — as well as bills, and see who owes what.

Thinking of going travelling with your newfound friends once the holidays start? Squirrel helps you save for trips and big expenses. You can set a savings goal and create a budget to help you meet it.

Compare prices

Do your homework before you head to the shops to get the best prices.

Trolley.co.uk tracks the cost of groceries across big supermarkets and shops, including Aldi and Asda. Search an item and it will show you which supermarket is selling the same or similar product for less, and claims to help customers save up to 30 per cent on their weekly food shop.

Before you splash out on expensive items such as a new laptop, use comparison websites such as PriceRunner or PriceSpy to see which shop is selling what you need for the lowest price.

The fashion website Lyst shows which stores are selling clothing brands for the cheapest.

Sit down with your flatmates and see if you can save money all together. “Talk to each other about your monthly outgoings, such as subscriptions, groceries, and entertainment, and see if there’s any overlap where you could join forces,” Illen Rowe from the student discount site Student Beans said.

Try cash stuffing — or do it digitally

If you find it easy to lose track of your spending using your debit card, you could switch to this popular method, though it has some risks.

You withdraw money from your bank account each week and “stuff” it into envelopes. You might have envelopes for food, travel, going out and shopping.

It’s so popular because you can easily keep track of what you are spending, and how much money you have left to tide you over. But be careful to leave it hidden in a secure place and not to leave too much money lying around. You’ll also lose out on an any interest the money would have got by leaving the money in your bank account.

Doing it digitally is a safer system — for example Monzo allows you to put money into “pots” in your account. Keeping it in your bank will also mean you don’t miss out on interest.

Plan meals

Throwing away food is a big waste of money. Wrap, a sustainability charity, estimates households waste about £730 a year on average.

Planning your meals and writing a list of groceries will limit the temptation of buying more food than you need in the supermarket.

When you’re at the shop, head to the frozen section where fruit, vegetables and meat will be cheaper.

Keep an eye out for yellow stickers on food. Shops often discount food nearing its sell-by date to shift stock, and you might find what you need for less. You could get up to 75 per cent off fresh fruit, veg and meat.

Shop with your housemates to save money. “If you can, team up with housemates or friends to buy food, cleaning products and toiletries in bulk,” said Charlotte Jessop, who runs the personal finance website Looking After Your Pennies.

“You can then split these items between you and enjoy the savings.”

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