Hey hey, it’s me again!
I hope you’re all okay and have got all your Halloween costume prep sorted. This week is AberSU’s Student Money Week, which means it’s time for my second blog post and second round of tips - this time all revolving around saving pennies. For many of you this will be your first time of dealing with many of the new expenses that comes with university life, whether it’s simple things from food shopping to paying rent - which can be quite hard work. So, here’s my suggestions that I hope will help you out a bit:
- Get a Totum card and/or join UniDays - Both of these give useful students discounts for all different sorts of things including travel, technology and food. Totum cards costs £14.99 for the year, but UniDays is free - you just need to download the app!
- Check your bank statement regularly - This will help you keep track of your spending and prevent you from going into your overdraft, if you have one. Downloading a banking app makes this quick and easy. Also, some banks can send you alerts if your funds reach a certain point.
- Make a budget - This might seem like a chore, but it doesn’t take long and is worth it in the long run. The hardest part is sticking to it!
- Leave your bank card at home when going on nights out - You can withdraw however much cash you can afford to spend on your night out in advance. This ensures that you don’t go crazy with your contactless once you’ve had a few too many drinks and also eradicates the chance of you losing your card.
- Shop Sustainably - There are few shops in town that offer zero waste refill points. So you can buy all sorts of products from pasta to shampoo, in whatever quantities you want. The prices are really reasonable and you get an extra discounts if you take your own containers to fill. So not only will you be saving money but you’ll also be reducing your plastic consumption and therefore helping the planet!
- Download the Olio app - Olio is an app where people can share unwanted food or other items for people in their area to collect for free. So again, this tip saves money and waste!
- If you have bills and/or rent to pay every month, make sure you pay them on time - Doing this at the beginning of every month helps you to get into a habit, and also enables you to see how much money you’ve got to spend for the rest of the month. Also, most letting agents/landlords will charge you extra if your rent is late!
- Cook with your flatmates - Not only can this be fun and a great way to bond, but you can club together to get ingredients - saving time and money. Cooking big batches is also a good idea as you can then put the leftovers in the fridge or freezer to save waste, and eat at a later date when you maybe don’t feel like cooking.
- Hold off on buying all your course books - It’s tempting to go and buy all of your books for the semester so that you know you have everything that you need. But the library should have all of the books on your course’s reading list that you can loan for free. If you do need to buy some books then buying them second-hand is much cheaper.
- Check out the value ranges when shopping - The packaging may not look as appealing, but the supermarkets value ranges are usually much cheaper than their standard range and often the difference in quality isn’t even noticeable.
If you give most of these tips a go then hopefully you’ll be quids in. But if at any point you do find yourself in a bit of money troubles - don’t worry, you don’t have to struggle on your own and there is help available. Just get in contact with either the University’s Advice Information or Money Service based in the Student Welcome Centre, or our Advice Service.
Happy saving!
From your Wellbeing Officer, Lydia :)