Managing a budget and commuting to university
Moses Colley
Electronic and Electrical Engineering with Foundation Year BEng(Hons)
Hello! I’m Moses, a foundation year electrical engineering student. I’m a commuter student and I’m going to share with you some of my best tips for budgeting for your uni life.
For a lot of us, starting university can be a daunting experience, especially transitioning from college. More people, more independence, and a student loan to manage.
With this comes a great deal of responsibility. Anyone can easily spend all of their student finance money in one go, but that’s at the expense of struggling towards the end of term. Here’s how to avoid doing that.
Transport
You’re probably thinking, what’s the most cost-effective way of getting to uni?
Transport is one of, if not, the most important parts of being a commuter student. Between delays and cancelled trains or buses, it’s very easy to end up being late to campus because of public transport - and every minute you’re late adds up over time.
I found it way more convenient to travel by train from Leeds, because it takes a lot less time than the bus would, and because it’s cheaper in the long run. I often pay monthly for a ticket that covers both buses and trains because it means I’m not limited to just one train, and should my train be late I can easily get a different one, or find an alternative way to travel.
It saves me around £100 to pay monthly for travel rather than paying daily, which would cost me nearly £500, compared to the £350 it costs me per term. So, you can do yourself a massive favour here and save £150!
Keeping track of spending
When you have a lot of money to spend (i.e. when your student loan lands), it’s very easy to get carried away and spend more than you need to on everything from takeaways to in-app purchases. This is how I stop myself spending money unnecessarily:
Each term when I receive my student finance, the first thing I do is work out how much it costs me for the necessities, such as food and travel, which for me is around £700 per term. I then set that money aside and label it, so I don’t use it by accident, because these are quite important!
Once I’ve got the necessities sorted, I can allocate the remaining money to my savings for future, or to pay any other expenses I might have. I pay for my mobile phone, and it costs me around £70 a month. I always add that to my priorities, because it needs paying on time.
Once I’ve got all the necessities covered, I start to think about the smaller things like subscriptions. I personally pay for Apple Music, so I can have something to listen to while I’m travelling to and from university. Then once I’ve got all my expenses covered, I use about £100 for when I’m going out with friends, to watch movies or eating out. Then I save the rest of the money for the future and so I don’t spend it recklessly.
Making the most of offers and discounts
When you become a student, the majority of retailers have discounts available just for you. These include new tech, clothes, appliances, and so much more. I found a lot of these by using UniDays, a platform aimed at people like me and you which gives you access to hundreds of discounts at a lot of popular retailers.
As a student you don’t want to be paying more than you need to for anything, right? Especially the more expensive items like new computers.
A lot of banks offer new university students money for opening an account with them. I opened one with a bank which offers £85 joining bonus and a one-year Tastecard which you can use to get loads of discounts on most food places. I would highly recommend looking for this because there can be a lot of benefits for you in the long run.
Where to find support
As always, things may change or not go as planned and you may find yourself struggling financially. In this case you can always send an email to the Student Finance Office. The team is always happy to assist with any questions you may have.
The University’s student finance team can also help you to contact Student Finance England if you think you’ve not been paid the right amount of money you’re entitled to. You can also apply to use the University’s hardship fund if you’re struggling to pay for basic things.
Remember, be smart with your money and don’t use it recklessly because sooner rather than later you’ll start losing money, quickly - but it is okay to have fun too!
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