Key monthly expenses

Rent (£563)

Bills (£70-£110)

Google storage (£2+)

Amazon Prime (£4.50)

My money

Budgeting

 Do you budget your money? If not, what do you do instead? 

I try to budget my money. I receive money from my parents monthly and from the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) termly.

I use my SAAS loan to cover my rent each term so that money goes straight into my account and back out. Then I use the monthly money from my parents for daily living costs.

I try to budget this well by setting aside enough money for monthly bills and groceries. However, sometimes there are larger costs involved such as train tickets, hockey subs or more socialising with friends, which means I am tighter for money by the end of the month.  

Managing money

How does your lifestyle fit in with your money management? 

Generally, I try to be good with money. I make sure that I do a weekly food shop so I can meal prep for dinners and make a packed lunch every day - which from the experience of buying meal deals every day of first year does save a lot!

If I am seeing friends during the week, we try to do a low-cost activity such as going for a walk or making dinner together.

This can help balance out when I spend more than I should on the weekends, especially now with friends that work, they tend to want to go to nicer places for eating out and so on.

Also, my boyfriend lives in London so having to buy train tickets around once a month can add up, especially as trains are getting so expensive now. 

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Living costs

How have you managed with the larger costs associated with coming to university? 

There are more costs than expected when moving to university. My loan doesn’t cover my rent so having to find an extra few hundred pounds each year is difficult. Also, house deposits are a big cost.

I am lucky as most of the time I can borrow money from my parents to cover it. Another big cost is sports equipment and subs. Each year I pay around £150 for hockey fees and around £100 fornew equipment. For my course, I have a subscription to PassMed, which is £30 yearly, and textbooks that cost about £30 each.

I usually bike to university to minimise the bus costs; however, it sometimes needs repairs,which can cost about £50 yearly.

All these costs can feel quite big on top of daily living costs so each month I check if I need to set aside extra money to cover them. 

My top tips

Activities

Try to do a low-cost activity such as going for a walk or making dinner together with friends.

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Day-to-day savings

See if there are ways you can cut out small costs, such as not buying meals for lunch or buying clothes on Vinted instead of new.

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Part-time work

Try and get extra income from part-time jobs, such as student ambassador work. 

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