Videos Budgeting your money as a student Admin 4 weeks ago Transcript 0:03 Hi I’m Llinos and I’m here with Hannah. Me and Hannah are going to talk about budgeting, 0:08 student finance and give you a good idea of what to expect when going to uni. 0:12 How have you found budgeting as your life as a student? It was hard the first time round. 0:17 All of a sudden you’ve got this big massive money, and then your rent goes out and you’ve 0:20 got a bit left over and you’re like, well what do I spend this on? And the first term 0:24 I found really hard because I didn’t know how much I’d spend on food, I didn’t know how expensive 0:29 things were. It was the first time I’d lived on my own. But eventually you do learn how 0:34 much you spend a week on food and what you’re likely to eat, and what you’re favourite things are to cook, and the quick things. 0:40 So you know how much you want to save aside to be 0:42 going out on a night because you get to know your town. So don’t worry too much in those 0:46 first few weeks where the money is going, just allow yourself to settle down and learn 0:51 how much you’re going to spend, and after that you can start to work out your budgeting. 0:54 You are going to spend more in the first few weeks anyway than you would in the rest of 0:58 the year. Yes, definitely, with freshers. Yes exactly, it’s a big week so there’s a 1:00 lot going on, and you just gradually get used to how much you spending and when. But if 1:05 you have a rough idea it makes it easier to budget afterwards. But there are loads of 1:09 different ways you can save a lot of money as well like getting student railcards and 1:13 discount cards and stuff. What kind of things have you got? I’ve got a railcard, which I 1:18 bought the three year one cos it’s a lot cheaper than buying three times over, and I can save 1:23 so much money on train fares. It’s ridiculous. So I have that and then I have loyalty cards 1:28 for different supermarkets so I save up my points and then I get sent through discount 1:33 which is always great and it’s just a little bit of extra money that I save. As well I 1:37 have a NUS card and although you have to pay for that, it does give you more discounts 1:42 in more places. you definitely get your money back for what you pay for it. And, my student 1:46 card as well, I always ask everywhere do you have student discount? And a lot of the 1:51 time, it’s surprising where they do, such as Nando’s. I didn’t know Nando’s did it until 1:55 the other day. Geniunely you’d be surprised what you’ll get student discount for, and 1:59 one of your favourite phrases is going to be ‘do you do student discount?’ and it’s 2:03 always worth giving it a go. You can save anything 10% – 50% off in certain places like 2:08 travel, food, drink, cinema tickets, entry to nightclubs and loads of different stuff. 2:13 So it’s always worth asking about student discount before you go anywhere. Also, 2:18 it’s always a good idea if you find you’re really poor at budgeting to find if there’s 2:21 a student money advisor at the uni, and the amount of people who buy flat screen tv or 2:26 technology with the first student loan and then can’t eat for the rest of the term is 2:30 ridiculous. So don’t do anything like that. Be sensible and think about where you’re spending 2:36 your money. And food obviously is another cost that you’ve got. There’s various different 2:40 ways you can save money on food. A lot of my friends when they were at uni used to do 2:44 like value weeks where they just buy all the value brands for a whole week and then decide 2:49 which ones they liked. And then carry on buying then and supplementing them with brands and 2:54 stuff afterwards. Or if you cook with your flatmates that’s going to save you a bit of 2:58 money as well. So instead of cooking for yourself every single night, cook for a few people 3:02 and then they can cook for you. And if you’re a really bad cook, that saves you having to 3:06 eat your own food as well! Having a freezer was actually a big way to 3:09 save money because buying fresh food was nice and it was healthy but a lot of the time you 3:14 can buy frozen stuff, it’s a lot easier and cheaper and doesn’t go off as quick. It saves 3:19 a lot of money and you’re not throwing away good food. 3:22 Obviously socialising is going to another big thing that you need to spend you money 3:25 on isn’t it. Yes definitely. Saving a bit of money for going out. Even though you are 3:30 budgeting you are allowed some fun now and again. But there is free activites around 3:34 for example, we have beaches here which we can go and like have a walk on, and there 3:38 are different things you can do. Just having a picnic for example is one thing that really 3:42 fun and free. And you pass your time without spending too much money that way. And one 3:47 other thing that people really forget about and don’t always factor in is books and course 3:51 equipment. So you are going to spend some money on that whilst you’re a student as well. 3:57 So there’s always handy thing you can do to save money, like if you can buy second hand 4:01 books from second or third year students, because they always want to sell them, and 4:04 if you want to buy them cheaper, everybody’s happy. But these are going to be your main 4:08 costs whilst at uni. You should always avoid any store cards or credit cards and ideally 4:13 avoid an overdraft as well shouldn’t you? I mean having an overdraft I’ve found is actually 4:18 quite useful because sometimes my rent would come out before my loan came in, so having 4:23 that overdraft meant that I wan’t going to be in trouble for not paying my rent. I could 4:28 use it, but I knew I had to pay it back immediately. Whenever I do go into my overdraft it’s an 4:33 emergency situation, and it is good to fall back on and it is good to have, but don’t 4:39 take that as free money – it’s not, and you’ve got to pay it back as soon as you can. It 4:44 is a good buffer like Hannah is saying but you don’t want to let it there and get larger 4:48 and larger. Especially if you open a student bank account, they’ll entice you with loads 4:52 of different deals like you can get free railcard or itunes vouchers or that kind of stuff. 4:57 but you just need to double check the terms and conditions as well, cos quite often the 5:00 student overdrafts are free of interest but the minute you stop being a student you can 5:04 whack a really high interest on there. So you don’t want to be massively in your overdraft 5:08 either when you graduate because then you have to be paying for it as well. And you 5:11 work as well don’t you to earn some money whilst you’re a student? Yes, it’s really 5:15 good having a part-time job. I end up having three at the moment – all small hours but 5:19 there are all spread out along the week. And I’ve managed to get a job with the University 5:24 as well, which is great. A lot of universities offer jobs for students, and being in term 5:29 time as well means you can go home over the summer and it’s not going to affect it. What’s 5:32 good about that is you don’t have to sign up to regular hours all the time either if 5:36 you work for a uni, it’s just as and when you’re available. And if you’ve got a job 5:39 at home over the summer it might be worth checking with a company if they are based at the uni 5:43 you are going to, whether you can transfer over with them. So we hope you found this 5:47 video really useful and there are lots of tips available for your finance at university. 5:50 If you’re a student or you’re getting ready for university, leave us a comment and let 5:54 us know your worries or what your tips were, any budgeting things, and share them with 5:59 other people. Make sure you come soon for some more videos and helpful tips. and take 6:04 a look through the channel and sure you subscribe so when you know when we upload a new video.