How To Do Uni On A Budget Part 2

How To Do Uni On A Budget Part 2

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Okay so in my latest blog post, I showed you 5 useful ways that you could do uni on a budget (Part 1) . Since then, I have been thinking a lot about my tips and tricks that I have implemented to live as freely as possible as a student. I know that budgeting at uni is extremely difficult to stick to and many of us cannot say no to a night out, that is why I decided to make a Part 2 that will hopefully help some of you to ditch your bad spending habits.

So here is a compilation of 5 effective ways to do uni on a budget.

1. Purchase a Railcard

Does your best friend go to uni 3 hours away? Has she been pestering you to go and visit her for months now?. Oh and let me guess you said you couldn't go because "you didn't have enough money", well buying a railcard will save you 1/3 off your train ticket (which means more money to spend on drinks and partying), aka you have no more excuses and you should definitely go!. A railcard will cost you £30 for the year and if you regularly get trains to go home or see friends then it's a no brainer. 

Having a railcard will definitely allow you to do uni on a budget and make some huge savings. 

2. Explore your city 

When you're not in lectures or out getting drunk with your friends, what are you doing? Probably feeling sorry for yourself for having such a horrific hangover and binge watching Black mirror on Netflix. Yes, we've all been there and there's no problem with doing this from time to time. But what's the point in living in a city for 3-4 years and not ever really exploring it?

Go fetch your house mates and explore the many wonders of the beautiful city that you reside in, most cities will have free entry to attractions such as museums and cathedrals which can take your mind of the 2,000 word essay that is due next week, which you haven't even looked at.

3. PRE DRINK, PRE DRINK, PRE DRINK!

Another way that you can do uni on a budget is pre drinking, I mean, are you even a student if you don't pre drink before you go on a night out? and inevitably pass out in the taxi back home?. Pre drinking is the easiest and quickest way of getting drunk without having to break the bank. For me, I could buy a £7 barefoot pink moscato rose and forget the entirety of the night but have the best time ever, for others with a higher tolerance you may need a couple of bottles to sort you out. 

Back in first year, I hated the concept of pre-drinking and could never keep up with anyone so I would wait until I got to my student union and would just shot straight vodka until it hit me. I don't think my liver has been the same since to be honest so now I take it a lot slower with pre drinks. Drinking games can also be a lot of fun too, I mean why wouldn't you want to find out your house mates deepest, darkest secrets? 

4. Ditching Ubers for the Bus

So obviously you can't do this all of the time because sometimes it could be too late to get the bus or there isn't a nearby bus stop, in which case you should share Ubers between your friends or even if you happen to meet people outside of the night club that are going back to campus/the same area as you, it makes sense to share a ride. 

Otherwise if you get the bus to uni everyday and you live off campus then it would make sense to purchase a bus pass. For me as I live in Bristol, I use an app called "First Bus M-Tickets" where you can buy 5 single student bus tickets for £5.00 and they're valid for a year which is so so good if you don't usually carry change on you and decide to get a bus somewhere last minute!

Catching buses instead of Ubers/taxis has definitely helped me to do uni on a budget and has given me extra money in my pocket which I can save for future nights out. 

5. Rent books from the library

 You've just started your course and your lecturer has given you a reading list of "essential" books for the year, there are about 5 books on this list and to buy them new would be £50 each. You know from your second year friends that you will probably only use them once or twice throughout the year so you're stuck on what to do?

First of all, if you want to actually buy the books you could have a quick search on Ebay or Amazon and see if you can find any used ones for sale that don't cost too much.  Otherwise, if you're not too bothered about keeping a book for good then try searching the name of it on your University library website and renting it out for a few weeks. I know a lot of books tend to get recalled quite quickly, so if you are able to get your reading list early then do this asap to save yourself some money.

I want to start writing a "University series" on this blog, where I give my advice and my anecdotal life lessons on a range of different topics, if there is anything in particular that you would like me to write about then comment below!

Thank you for reading, as per usual I really appreciate it!

Love Leah xx

How To Do Uni On a Budget Part 1

How To Do Uni On a Budget Part 1

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Okay so maybe you've just got accepted into university for this coming September ? or maybe you're already a uni student who can't quite tighten your purse strings?

It is no joke when they tell you that going to uni will make you broke and when I say broke I literally mean broke. The kind of broke where you can no longer afford fancy lunches out with your friends every week and the kind of broke where you decide to have a nap for dinner. Well folks, when I tell you that all is not lost would you believe me? Yes it is possible to do most (but not all) of the things that you want to do at uni if you budget more strategically, this means ditching M&S for Aldi and getting more for your money. 

So here is a compilation of 5 useful ways that you can do uni on a budget. 

1.  Finding cheaper alternatives

This can include anything from the likes of changing your regular expensive supermarket to shopping online and splitting the costs with your pals. If you find that you're an impulse buyer, like myself then this might particularly benefit you as you will not be tempted to grab loads of random items (that you don't need) from the till point. Sometimes you may find that you only need a few little bits, in which case clubbing together with your housemates to split the delivery costs may work in your favour. 

The way that I see it is if I budget around £30 for a week's worth of food then I can spend any additional money that I have left over on going out and doing fun things with my friends.

2.  Saying "No" 

Another way that you can do uni on a budget, is by simply saying "no" to plans that maybe you've been forced into going to and at the time you politely agreed but you don't actually want to go. I think this is a big problem with people at uni because many of you have only just settled in so you're still trying to "find your feet" plus you're lumbered with the struggles of moving away from home and being pushed out into the big wide world by yourselves. Some of you may want to impress your peers and be well-liked, this is fine but you should feel comfortable enough to say no to things without worrying about what the other people may think of you for not going. 

At the end of the day it is for you to weigh it up and make your own choices but for me I would much rather go to an event that I actually want to go to rather than going to something that I won't enjoy just to impress other people, plus you will save sooo much more money just by simply saying "no". I remember when I first started uni, I was a little bit like this because I struggled to say no to plans and went to everything just because everyone else was! Now, I will say no to a lot more events and not care about missing out at all. 

3. Depop, Depop, Depop!! 

Okay so lets suppose that your loan has just dropped and you have a dnb event on Friday that you still need to find an outfit for, what are you going to do? Well.. obviously head to Depop and spend the majority of your loan on some wavey garms.

Depop is one of the best apps for selling and purchasing quirky clothes at a discounted price. If you're looking to make some money fast and have a few key designer pieces in your wardrobe then you should definitely consider using Depop because you don't have to go through the whole auction process like Ebay and it is geared more towards younger people so you're more likely to get a response quicker! Alternatively, if you're looking for a few bargains and won't max out your overdraft then cop a few Depop garms and do uni on a budget. 

4. Pre-paid cards

Alright I will be honest, I am yet to try one of these bad boys but so many of my friends at uni have one and they say that it makes budgeting 10x easier. If you don't already know a pre-paid card is essentially a top up card and means you will always stay within your budget. The best thing about them are that you have no interest to pay back and no "unexpected" charges to catch you out. If you're wondering about going into your overdraft too much then a pre-paid card might be the solution for you. 

If you decide to go on a night out and don't want to spend endless amounts of money that you don't have on drinks for yourself and other people, then you can just take your pre-paid card along with you and then use the Uber app for taxis to get home. 

5. Sign up for UNiDays

So it is inevitable that by the time you finish reading this that you're thinking "I have a job or I have more money than the average student so I don't need to budget" or  even "I just really like eating out". Well if there's one thing that you should take from this blog post on how to do uni on a budget, then it's that you should all download the app UNiDays (unfortunately this isn't sponsored btw) but you can get so many good restaurant deals from the likes of Zizzi Italian, Ask Italian and Chiquitos.  It also means that if you're saving between 25%-40% off the bill that you can spend on some cool clothes or event tickets! 

My final piece of advice is not to restrict yourself from everything, if you want to spend half of your overdraft on a new coat and then not be able to pay your rent for the next month then you do that, just don't blame me when it goes wrong. Have fun and enjoy yourselves whilst you still can but don't over do it!

Do any of you go to uni? And if so do you have any useful methods of how to budget and most importantly do you stick to them? I would love to hear back from you in the comments below. Thank you all so much for reading, I appreciate it! 

Love Leah xx