Let’s Budget!!!!!!!!!

Introduction

Let’s face it unless your parents are super generous, you’re more or less lacking in the finance department. You’ll likely spend most of your student finances on rent which leaves you with not much to go on. Speaking as a totally-not-an-expert, I might just offer you a step by step guide on managing your finances.

The Guide (NB: You may need a notebook for all of this)

1. Find out how much money you get from student finance and what your rent is – It’s good to find out how much money you’ll end up with each term.
2. Figure out how much money you can spend per week – Do this by dividing the number of weeks you’re at uni that year by the total amount of money you have
3. Divide and Conquer – Decide how much of the total you are going to spend on essential foods, snacks and fun student stuff. You won’t need to worry too much about the first one if you’re on a meal plan as the meal plan has sorted that out for you.
4. Plans for over/underspending – Your weekly budget is exactly that, weekly. You should reset it every week. If you exceed your budget for that week, you’ll have to deduct however much you spent from next week’s budget. Likewise, if you underspend, you will add however much you didn’t spend onto next week’s budget.
5. Find sources of income – The most obvious one of these is a part-time job. Obviously, find a job that doesn’t clash too heavily with your studies. If you’re disabled, you can also apply for a Disability Students Allowance (DSA) so long as you have proof of said disability should they ask for it. Mental disabilities such as autism are acceptable.
6. Take Halloween and Christmas into account – Trust me, you will be spending a lot on either costumes or Christmas presents for your family. Please make sure to adjust your weekly budgets accordingly.

Conclusion

That is pretty much all I’ve got for financial advice. You might wish to consult your parents and other more sensible people on how to manage your finances.

And commenters, if you’re any good at economics, now is the time to give your own piece of advice to any financially struggling students out there.

I’ll see you guys again for Halloween. Until then, fare thee well good people of the internet.