So I asked on my tumblr if anyone would like an updated
version of the top tips for students post I wrote previously and although the
response wasn’t overwhelming, one or two people said yes, so this post is for
those one or two! This is something I’ve been meaning to write for a while now
so that people don’t find themselves in the same position as me/my boyfriend.
I am now going into my second year with a solid 2.1 for first
year so I should be all smiles and excited to be going back, which I am but….my
boyfriend is graduating in two weeks and we had plans of getting a cheap flat
near the uni for the next two years whilst I study then moving somewhere to
find work and still be together. Typed out like that it all sounds like a
romantic fairytale but it was happening. We had savings, flat viewings, offers
on flats put down and a range of furnishings and little bits we had bought for
the flat. Then the worst thing happened, the overdraft. The nasty overdraft
that swallowed all of our savings whole making it impossible to afford to live
together.
Essentially what’s happening now is we are moving home for
summer to live with our parents (which conveniently is 3-4 miles away from each
other) but come September 22nd, I will be moving 120 miles away from
him and back into halls because I had not arranged a house with my friends
because of the plans for the flat. In 4 weeks’ time I will find myself homeless
in Stafford and be forced to quit my job (unless my managers are very nice and
will keep it on hold for me for two months until I am back) and move back in
with my parents. After two years of not living in the family home I can safely
say that this knock back on my independence will come as a shock for me and my
sleeping pattern.
This post is not about my life story though, it is a warning
so you don’t find yourself in the same position I am and have to rearrange
everything in your life and your plans to accommodate for the unexpected like
this. I am assuming everyone going into their second or third years of
university right now has somewhere to live come September and somewhere to go
in between now and September. Good. Make sure you do!
My top tip right now would be to start saving slowly to
prepare for the end of your third year when you will have to go out into the
scary world of work and try to make a living for yourselves, your family, your
partners. If you have a large overdraft, try reduce this slowly so that when
you are ready to graduate you aren’t graduating with a huge debt you have to
pay off and no way of paying it. Our overdrafts are £1000 each. I luckily have
other bank accounts which I get paid from my job into and the account with the
overdraft only has my student finance coming in and out of it. However I am
still halfway into my overdraft which I want to reduce come September so it is
not as large.
Another tip would be to get online banking. Keep an eye on
your ingoing’s and outgoings! You need to know where every penny of your money
is going and what you are spending. Print out a month long statement and work
out where each transaction has come from or is going to. You may find you are
spending way too much money on food when you end up throwing it away in a few
weeks due to mould. Shop at markets for fruit and veg and make large meals then
freeze leftovers. If you can’t afford food shopping one week you will have a
freezer full of meals to last you until you next have money! Stew is a
fantastic meal for this! All you need is stewing beef (couple of quid from the
butchers) two potatoes, an onion, a swede, three carrots, two-three parsnips
and gravy (about £3 from the market) this takes 60-90 minutes to cook but when
it is ready it makes approx. 6 meals. That works out at £1 a meal which is far
cheaper than buying takeaways. The good thing about stew is that it tastes
better over time as well!
I have started using a website called Topcashback (click the
link to get to the site) and the purpose of the website is to get you cash back
on your online purchases. There are a ton of websites affiliated with
Topcashback so if you are ever shopping online, sign in to Topcashback and
search for the shop e.g New Look, and it will return a search for deals. If that
website is linked up, click through and purchase your shopping as normal and
you will receive a percentage of what you spent in cashback through the
website. You don’t have to put any bank details in if you don’t want to, I get
my payments through paypal which is safe. The only downside is that some
payments can take a while to clear but if you think of it as savings it’s not a
bad thing.
These are all ways to save you money and to help you save. The
most important thing to be thinking about in your second and third years is
graduating with a degree you can be proud of and not starting off ‘life in the
adult world’ with no savings to back you up. You will need money to get you to
and from interviews and to find somewhere to live if you do not want to live
with your family. Try to pay off your overdraft whilst you have money coming in
from student finance and you will really thank yourself later! I cannot begin
to explain how emotional it is realising you have £1000 debt with no way of
paying it off, you have been relying on the money from student loans for the
last three years and suddenly that isn’t coming in anymore. I have witnessed a
huge change in my boyfriend’s outlook on life and his future plans and it is
not something I would wish on anyone. Be smart with your money and you can
avoid this, you can graduate with no overdraft left to pay and the only debts
to worry about are the actual course fees and loans which we all know you have
to be earning a certain amount before that even begins to be paid back.
If you have any other tips or money saving advice you want me
to add in to the post, don’t forget to comment! Share this post with your
friends to help them in there money saving adventures too! Last of all, enjoy
being a student! Work hard and do really well, you deserve to!
