How to budget your money as a uni student

Being a student is expensive, and oftentimes uni students live pay check to pay check. I’m going to give you my best tips on how to budget your money as a uni student, how to stay financially organised and smart, and how to still enjoy your life.

I track all of my spending and budget all of my money on my notes app on my iPad. There are most likely apps that do the work for you, but I like to write it down myself.

I have been doing this since September 2022 and have saved more than £2000 in 6-7 months (after paying for essential stuff). Which is quite good considering I have a 12hr part time job and am still at uni.

1. What are you spending your money on?

Look at the previous month, from the first day you got paid, to the day before your next pay, and track everything you spent.

Tip: it is helpful to look at a few previous months of spending, to get a greater overlook on what you are spending.

You will shock yourself with how much you spend on certain things when you aren’t keeping track of your spending.

This is the first step to becoming financially organised.

Track everything from £2 bus fares to meals out, and write it all down.

WHY IS THIS HELPFUL?

• You can see how much you usually spend per month
• You can decipher what you don’t need to be spending your money on
• You can see what you need to cut back on
• You make sure that you know where all of your money is going
• You can now start to make a budget plan

2. Categorise your spending

Now that you have tracked everything that you are spending, you can see what was anomaly’s and what you consistently spend your money on every month.

Start categorising and putting things into groups. P.s this could be essentials, or daily coffees. Whatever is consistent, make it into a category.

Some group examples:

• Food shopping
• Meals/drinks out
• Travel (Bus, train etc)
• Uni (food, equipment)
• Car (petrol, parking)
• Subscriptions (Spotify, Netflix)
• For yourself (clothes, makeup, skincare, bags, etc)
• Savings

3. Make a savings category

I make sure that no matter what, I am putting money into my savings account every month at the start of my pay day.

This not only means that you have your back covered in emergencies, but you can save for fun things too like holidays or something you really want.

Putting consistent amounts of money every month, means it is attainable and isn’t overwhelming when thinking about affording a holiday, or presents for your family at Christmas.

Breaking a massive sum up by 12 month intervals sounds a lot better than trying to find one big payment when you want to go on holiday, or pay for a big present etc.

Student Debt

If you have debt that needs paid off, have a non negotiable amount every month that comes out until it’s paid for is essential.

As a student, I make sure to add money into a ‘student finance’ category, even if it’s only a small amount like £10. You can slowly start to pay your student finance back.

I know it would take me the rest of my life and longer to pay back my student debt with £10 per month, but the more money I make, the more I can add to this category!

P.s. I know people solely depend on student finance. So if you are unable to have a job (because I know the workload of some uni courses are too much to even consider a part time job), then you can start doing this when you start earning your own income.

Savings example

I have different categories within my savings:

• Holiday
• Student finance
• Emergency fund
• Investing (this could be into learning resources, stocks (I haven’t invested in any personally but I want to), your business, you mental health)
• Presents (Christmas, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, anniversaries etc)

Each of these categories gets a set amount of money every month depending on my goals.

E.g. I have already added a lot of money towards my holiday, so I have cut down the money I add into my holiday savings, and increased my investing and present savings.

Tailor it to your life.

P.s. having a presents category in my savings that I add to every month literally saved me. You don’t realise how much money you spend on presents every year, it will honestly shock you.

Think about it, there’s Christmas, birthdays all year round, anniversaries, Easter and probably more that I can’t think of!!

Start early and prepare for presents all year, so that it’s not so much of a shock when you realise how many people you need to get christmas and birthday presents for.

4. Budget your categories

Now you have determined the categories in which you spend your money, you can decide on a budget for them.

Look at how much money you have been spending on each of these categories, and base your budget around that.

The essentials I tend to keep the same as what I was previously spending, as they rarely change. However the non essentials I give myself less money for, as I realised I was massively overspending on stuff I don’t even use.

I split the categories into 2 sections: essential and non essential.

Essential (for me) includes:

• Car (petrol & parking)
• Uni (food & bus) basically everything I spend from travelling to uni and the food I buy at uni (if I buy food)
• Subscriptions (Spotify & Netflix)
• Savings (holiday, student finance, emergency fund, investing, presents)

Non essential includes:

• Going out (food & drinks)
• For myself (clothes, makeup, other)

Making sure you have money for the things you enjoy every month, means that you don’t have to feel guilty about it and you can still enjoy doing the things you love.

P.s. I make sure I have money left over, that I can get to easily, in case of emergencies.

Here’s an example:

Finding out how much I’m spending on these categories every month, I have chose my budget based off that.

Adding a ‘left’ section means I can see where all of my leftover money from the month has come from.

You can set your budgets based off your lifestyle. I don’t go out drinking very often, so I know my budget for that can be less. If you go out drinking more, you can add more into that, and take out money from something else.

5. Track EVERYTHING you spend

I have a designated page where I write down absolutely everything I’m spending, because then I don’t loose track of where my money is going.

This helps if you forget to add anything on your budget page, and means you can add them to your budget page at the end to see your overall spending.

In this page I have different sections: Date (of purchase), Spent on, Price, Category and Bank (money left in bank after purchase).

I love this page because it gives me a good overview of what I’m spending.

6. Monthly overviews

The last day before I get paid, I add up everything that came into my bank and everything that came out. This helps me see if I’m actually saving money.

If I have money left over, I will put it into certain categories in my savings account (recently I have been putting it in my holiday savings because I’m going on holiday this year).

If you have any debt, this is also a good time to use that left over money from the month to pay off even more, and get ahead.

As you can see from the image, depending on if I have worked overtime or the pay period is longer, my monthly income varies.

I have budgeted my savings so that even the lowest amount I get paid from my job means I can still add £249 into my savings.

This could be a lot of money to you, or it could be very little. This is good money for me at the minute, whilst I still live at home and am still in uni <3

Tips on saving money

• Bringing a packed lunch to uni or work, rather than buying food.
• Making your own drinks and bringing a waterbottle.
• Get the bus instead of driving (for me, it’s much cheaper than petrol and parking).
• Use the money you have left over from the month (if any)to buy something you want for yourself. It may take months, but that could also help you decide if you definitely still want it.
• Tupperware any food you don’t finish in a container and have it the next day!
• Pre drink before you go out so you don’t buy as much when you’re out.
• Go through your wardrobe and see how many outfits you can make out of your clothes, so you can see if you need anything.
• When buying a piece of clothing, think about how many outfits you can make with the clothing you al ready own, and how many places/occasions you can wear it.
• If you take money out of your savings to pay for something, pay yourself back, even if thats small amounts every month.

If you are stressed about uni, read my post on: http://bigsisterera.com/how-to-reduce-stress-and-anxiety-at-uni/

Thank you for reading

I hope these tips were helpful in allowing you to budget your money as a student, or just become more financially organised and aware.

I am not a financial advisor, just a student trying to stay organised with my money and hopefully helping you! If you are really struggling please reach out to someone.