Nicole's Declassified Student Survival Guide #2

I work all night, I work all day to pay the bills I have to pay... 

Nobody likes budgeting. It's stressful, hateful and restrictive. If you're a student like me, whereby it's the last 4 weeks before your student loan comes in again, your previous one in either gone and you're living on your part-time job wages or you're left with the bare minimum to live on for the rest of the month. 

And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me....

D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. 

I have a dream, I have a plan!

To help you out, I've created a top 10 tips list to help you manage your money when you need it the most....

1. BILLS- They don't go away. They have to be paid or you get charged for it. Simple. Prioritise what needs to be paid and how soon. Some bills are due on the 1st of each month, some on the 15th. Things like rent, credit cards, WiFi, phone bills (if you are on contract) and electricity are essential to pay first so make sure that if you get paid weekly, you have the funds to cover the bills due to withdraw from your account that week. Maybe make an Excel sheet or a table on Word of all of your outgoings, dates and a tick box for whether they have been paid or not for each month so it's impossible to forget a bill?

2. Set money aside for upcoming bills. I have recently made myself a savings account where I transfer my money for each upcoming bill. For example, I will transfer £38 this month to my savings account labelled 'August Phone Bill' and I will transfer it back into my account when it is due to be taken out. This is just an obstacle to stop me from overspending which would leave me no money for my bills. There is no card for my savings account so if I was tempted to spend that money, I need data or WiFi to login, transfer the money back to my current account then pay by card or take the cask from an ATM. It just makes temptation seem too complicated and in the time it takes me to do that, I usually have talked myself out of those nice shoes I fancied.

3. Stop taking your card everywhere. On nights out or girly shopping trips BUDGET. Take the cash you need and leave that card at home. If you're worried you'll get carried away, stash your bus fare or train fare money in your shoe to get home. Yes, it sounds weird but how likely are you going to take your shoe off at the till to pay for anything? Your bra, your separate pocket and your separate compartment in your bag are just too accessible for temptation to resist.

4. Buy alternatives to the usual food you usually get. Set yourself a challenge. How many food items can you replace with £1 food alternatives. My shopping list last week is shown below and all of that can last me a week or in some cases more! Poundland will be your best friend 🙄

5. Similarly to number 4, buy alternative beauty products or get them on sale.  Admittedly I'm a bit of a hypocrite with this one and have yet to try my own theory. I have been buying MAC foundation for almost a year and LOVE IT. Luckily for me, I am constantly in airports with NCS and visiting my boyfriend's family in England being 3 trips a year alone so I buy my foundation from duty free... Every £5 saved counts! I also use the Body Shop Seaweed Collection religiously! I usually buy it when I can get two full sets for the price of one from a Home Sales Consultant. 

*PRO-TIP : Home Bargains and B&M have class offers on toiletries like Tresemme hair products and shower gels. If you don't have one near you Savers is also great for getting every self care product you could possibly need at a really cheap price*

6. Loyalty cards can be a blessing and a curse... Whilst the likes of a Tesco clubcard is great for added benefits whilst you shop for your essentials, is the coffee shop loyalty card REALLY doing you any good or is it encouraging you to spend your cash on ANOTHER coffee closer to the 'free' one? I mean you could just make your own and bring it with you in a reusable coffee cup and save yourself ££s. If you spend £3 a day on a coffee for 5 days a week that's £15 you could be saving! The same logic applies to packed lunches!

7. On that topic, in some shops you can get reduced coffee prices if you use a reusable cup and save those 5ps by reusing the plastic bag collection that we have all gathered over the years...

That way you're helping the environment and saving money 💪🌳

8. Cut out those takeaways!! This is pretty similar to point 6 but if you budget right, you could get almost 2 dinners out of the money you spend on one takeaway plus delivery. M&S have some fabulous pop-up deals like Dine in for 2 for £10. Emmm... Who says you need 2 people when you have you to feed for 2 days (PLUS there's the added bonus of the bottle of wine that comes with it). They also do other pop-up deals like Pizza and Prosecco for £10. So, what's not to like?! 

AND

9. Explore the reduced sections in Tesco and Spar etc. You could find your dinner for under £5 that needs eaten on the same day. I've managed to get beef and gravy pies for £1 thanks to these gifted sections in shops 🙏

10. Work hard on the things that matter. Do the hours in work that you need to do to cover your expenses. This will not be forever. Work at your course so one day you won't struggle for the basic needs in a house. You don't need to kill yourself with hours and obsess about making money. The whole point of this post is about being smart with money not making more and more. You still need rest to recharge so your energy is directed to the right areas! I learnt this the hard way so don't let that happen to you.

All the things I could do if I had a little money...

Now any money you save by following these helpful tips, you can gather in a moneybox for a night out, a holiday fund or that pair of shoes that you almost spent your phone bill on. The shoes just have to wait a bit longer but the bills can't 🤷

DISCLAIMER: I am not a financial advisor nor a budgeting expert but I get by with the help of these few habits so maybe they can help you too! I still break these rules alot of the time because I'm not perfect, in fact I'm pretty bad at self-restraint with money but when I do stick to them in my toughest times, they do help alot!!

I hope this helps at least one person out there! That's one less person left crying with stress at the end of the month or semester!

NPK X