Arts & Humanities

Budgeting during University

Arts & Humanities

Posted by: GS

12th Feb 2022 11:02am

Uni is a time when finances are tight for a lot of students. Between study, work and socialising there are a lot of expenses and little time to earn money for them.
How many Uni students actively budget their money during their study career? How do you budget and organise your finances? Any tips and tricks?

Comments 3

Shania32090215
  • 8th Apr 2022 03:06pm

I've just graduated and started working full time. Prior to this I was either working casually or not at all. Budgeting was a necessity not a choice for me. There are lots of helpful tools online I utilized. The money smart.gov website in particular was super useful. My biggest recommendation us readjustibg your budget regularly. What works one month probably wont the next so you need to be constantly reassessing.
Do activities such as going out with friends based on your budget and what you can afford. Cut out excess spending such as streaming services where you can.

kidwithsmurf
  • 17th Mar 2022 09:31pm

Being a former uni student myself finding money to live and still have a social life and be happy is hard.

The best thing to do when it comes to any budget is to work out how much income you have a week. Then work out your weekly essentials cost. These essentials are things you need to live (Bills, Rent, Electricity, Water, Fuel, Food etc). Once you have worked out how much you have left outside of essentials then you can start your budget.

The next thing you have to do is work out how much you can put to savings each week for emergencies (For the unforeseen like if your car breaks down or if your rent is increased etc). Then you can work out what you have left to spend on things that make you happy each week.

And that's how you should complete any budget.

Now onto money saving tips (In no particular order).

1. Limit eating out to once or twice a month and or special occasions (This saves you more than you would expect)
2. When shopping only buy food and essentials you need to survive. Try to plan your meals and limit them to as many as you need to satisfy your hunger.
3. When shopping for things such as shampoo, toothpaste, detergent, makeup, deodorant, clothes etc only buy these when they are on special. Things at Woolworths for example seem to cycle on special all the time, so make sure you always check if the things you need are on special and when they are buy 2 if you can. That way you're saving yourself money later.
4. When you go out socialising if you want/need to drink, always pre-drink (This will save on drink costs as clubs/bars charge almost double then shops). If going to bars, buy jugs and share the cost between whoever you are with. When at a club always buy the cheapest drink but strongest. That way you only have to buy a couple of drinks because it's that strong you will be able to sip it for most of the night and if you pre-drank well enough you won't need to spend much.
5. Always walk or take bus/train where possible. I never had a car when I went to Uni which saved me thousands on car expenses. Also, now fuel prices are through the roof, for a uni student to use a car it is not feasible.
6. Always car pool where possible and split costs. If you can do this, it always works out cheaper. This also works for Uber/Taxis when going out for a night of drinking etc
7. Try and buy in bulk - buying in bulk is almost always cheaper than buying singular items. This only works for things with long expiry dates or won't go off.
8. Always signup to websites, loyalty cards etc for shops/sites you use. These are almost always free and generally give sites you signup to will send discount coupons from time to time and loyalty cards will just give you discounts for shopping at places you were going to shop at anyway.
9. Signup to discount coupon sites such as Shopback, littlebirdie (These sites show some of the best deals, coupons, discounts etc). Also, install Honey in your web browser (This will automatically apply coupon codes at checkout when buying online).

These are just a few tips I found to save myself some money whilst trying to survive as a Uni Student.

Shania32090215
  • 8th Apr 2022 03:07pm
Being a former uni student myself finding money to live and still have a social life and be happy is hard.

The best thing to do when it comes to any budget is to work out how much income...

Loyalty cards are always great- Woolworths rewards 10 dollars off was always so helpful

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