Trying to save money, it’s not an easy feat. Life happens, online shopping happens, and sometimes it can be hard to build up those savings. And as a student, you have a whole host of other things to deal with as well. With lockdown ending and summer looking like a viable option, now is the perfect time to try and save some money. But how do you even begin?
We’ve put together some simple money-saving tips to try so you’re sorted this term…
Bulk Buy with Your Flatmates
When you’re living with strangers for the first time, you can often feel the need to keep things separate. That’s fine for some people but it also means that everyone’s buying smaller portions of individual ingredients. Have a meeting together and see what you can all agree on buying, whether that’s a big bag of pasta and a bottle of oat milk once every two weeks you’ll find you’re spending less money on these things.
Give Credit Cards the Cold Shoulder
Credit cards are an attractive option once you turn 18 as you’re finally able to spend money you normally wouldn’t have. Try to avoid these unless absolutely unnecessary. Your source of income might not be reliable at university, so even if you can afford to make the minimum payments now, you might not be able to in a few months.
Try a No Spend Day
The idea of a no-spend day is slightly more complicated than it sounds. Pick one of your down days and elect not to buy anything extra; this includes those little extras like popping to the shop for some crisps. Or try it on a day when you’re too busy to spend, prep your lunch and make sure you’ve got your travel sorted the days before and elect not to buy impulsively while out and about.
Try a One Week Budget/Money Diary
Setting a budget or tracking your spending are two of the most significant ways to save money. You’ll be making sound financial decisions in no time. But this can be a big commitment, and when you’ve got other things like exams going on, you can feel a bit overwhelmed. So instead, try to see if there’s anything you could find out from one week of data. Putting together a week of what you’ve bought can show you the little things you’re spending money on day-to-day, which can add up to quite significant expenses.
Use the Apps
There are plenty of helpful money-saving apps out there designed just for you. They can help your savings stack up without having to do anything. Apps like Moneybox automatically round up the money you spend every day on things like coffee and puts it into a saving account; that way, you don’t have to think about saving it’s happening without you having to worry about it.
Saving money is not an easy feat, especially if this is the first time you have money of your own. So, don’t beat yourself up if saving money isn’t something you’re good at it. Try not to compare yourself to some of your friends everyone’s circumstances are different. Like everything, it takes practice to get good at, and you’re only going to get better with time.
