Being a student can be challenging at times. You have to juggle your academic studies, exams, social life, finances and anything else at the same time. Then there’s the fact that most students are broke and don’t have money.
Well it doesn’t have to be that way. In this article we are going to show you how you can save money as a student without having to miss out on anything.
- Buy Food Close To Expiry Dates
When you are doing your grocery shopping it can all add up. The next thing you know you have spent £98.31 on one grocery shop.
A good way to save a bit of money is to buy food close to expiry dates. Most major supermarkets will put food cheaper everyday for certain foods that are close to their expiry dates. Legally they cannot sell anything past it’s expiry date. So instead of chucking the food away, they sometimes sell at 1/10 of the original price.
Normally they will do this in the evenings so make sure you remember as this stuff doesn’t last long!
- Ditch Paid TV Channels
Cable TV and other paid TV channels are a luxury some students cannot afford. If you live in the UK, SKY television can cost upto £30 per month, which equates to £360 per year. That’s money that would be better in your pocket instead.
I’m not saying you should not watch television while at university or college but instead you can get Amazon Prime free for 6 months. Not only does this give you a near endless amount of movies, television shows and live sports events but you also get next day delivery, free books and much more.
To get your free trial all you need to do is use your university or college email. Click here to get your free 6 month Amazon Prime trial (UK only). If you’re in the US click here to get your free trial.
- Install Honey
When shopping online you can almost certainly save more money.
Honey is a browser plugin that you can download to save you money. How does it work? Simple. When shopping on your favourite website, Honey automatically detects any coupons and applies them for you. Honey searches the internet for any valid coupons across the internet.
This is a simple, free and easy way to get up to 20% off your order at times. The best thing about it is that it only takes a minute to install.
- Get the best student bank account
Getting a bank account is vital when you are a student. After all, you are now independent and can’t rely on your parents anymore. When looking for a bank account you’ll want to shop around and compare different bank accounts to each other. Many of them will have different rates and you’ll want the best one for yourself.
You’ll also want to make sure you get an interest free overdraft so just in case you do go over you’re covered.
- Save Money On Textbooks
Textbooks can be very expensive to buy. So much so you may need to take out a mortgage. Okay, maybe not that much. But they are still very expensive. Especially when you are a student.
You don’t need to buy every book that your lecturer recommends you get. Yes, some are required books but others are optional. To save some money you can also buy books second hand. These books are normally good as new and would have just been read by previous students.
Some places you can buy used textbooks are Abebooks, JustBooks, Amazon and Ebay.
- Take Advantage of Being a Student
As you are a student there are so many discounts available to you from so many different places. You can apply for a TOTOM card (formerly known as NUS Extra card) for only £14.99 per year or £24.99 for three years.
The card gives you student discounts to over 300 retailers. You’ll get money off on nights out, eating out, fashion, entertainment, travel and much more. There’s plenty of big name’s on their as well such as Apple, Samsung, Dominos Pizza, ASOS and LegoLand
- Get Cashback When you Shop Online
With Cashback websites you get a small percentage of the purchase price back to you. For example if you take out broadband with Sky using one of these cashback websites they may give you up to £100.
You can find cashback deals on almost anything from food to fashion and broadband deals to car insurance. The most popular sites for this are either TopCashback, Quidco or Swagbucks.
- Get Cheaper Train Tickets
If you travel a lot using the train, you’ll have discovered the fact that using the train can get expensive. But why pay full price for train fares? And no, I’m not talking about getting on a train without buying a ticket. That’s fare evasion and is illegal.
You can actually get ⅓ of your train fare everytime with a 16-25 railcard. The railcard only costs £30 per year and actually pays for itself after a few journeys. If you commute regularly then it’ll make sense for you to get a railcard.
- Free Stuff
In today’s day and age it is hard to believe that you can get something for free. Well you don’t have to worry because there’s a lot of stuff you can find for free. You just have to look in the right places.
If you’re looking for free furniture and things for your home then check out Gumtree and Freecycle. If you’re in the USA try Craigslist. Another good place to try is Facebook groups. There’s plenty of groups on Facebook where people are giving their used furniture away.
- Freebies & Samples
Not only can you get free stuff like furniture but you can also get freebies from brands and companies. You can get great free stuff like Red Bull drinks, Washing up liquid samples, food samples and more.
Magicfreebies.com is one of the sites that offers free stuff. All you have to do is sign up with your email and they’ll send you free offers. You can claim stuff like free vouchers, cinema tickets and enter to win holidays. For some things you may have to fill out surveys or complete some action to redeem the offer.
You can also sift through various freebie Facebook groups as at times they have some good stuff.
- Get a roommate
If you are living near university, to make it cheaper for yourself you can get a roommate to split the rent and bills with. This will save you a ton of money on rent and bills. You could get a friend to move in or someone from your course.
If you are renting a house or a bigger flat you could advertise and look for roommates. You could try putting a notice on the noticeboard of your university or college. Or you could look on Airbnb for someone. You may want to look at the contract to see if you are allowed to sublet the property.
- Set a Budget
If you want to make sure you don’t get skint in the first few months of university then setting and sticking to a budget may help. You want to work out how much it would cost you including your bills, going out, food, groceries, and any other spending each week and only spend how much your target is for that week. If that means limiting yourself and not going out as much then you should do that. By doing this you will have to have some discipline but it can help you to save money.
Some apps you can download on your phone to help you do this are Mint and Pocketguard. Both apps are free to download and available for both Android and iOS devices. The apps will help you set financial targets and help you reach them.
- Get a Job
While this won’t exactly help you to save money, it can help you make more money. When you make more money, you’ll be able to save more money too. During term time there are plenty of jobs you can apply to get such as office work, working in a shop, restaurant or hotel, working at university or anything else.
To look for jobs you can check out your university/college job board. They usually have local jobs listed there. Or you can search sites like Indeed and TotalJobs.
- Start a Side Hustle
A side hustle is a business, job or vocation you start in your free time in addition to your main job. This could be either another job that you start, so for example, as a Uber Eats delivery driver. Or you could start a business such as selling things on Ebay. Check out this article for other business ideas.
- Shop around for Utility Bills
If you live at university and you are responsible for the bills then it is always good to shop around for the best deal available to you. Who knows, you could be paying more for the electric or gas bill.
You can use any one of the comparison websites to look for a better deal. All you have to do is enter some basic details and they’ll find cheaper deals for you. Two of the best comparison sites we found were Uswitch and Confused.com.
- Software Freebies
If you’re at uni or college chances are you’ll need software like Microsoft Word to complete your assignments and other work. But it is about $150 per year. If you’re a student, that can add up. If you’re a student you are able to get Microsoft Office for free. However if you’re not eligible you can always use free alternatives such as Google Docs or you can download LibreOffice.
You can also download a whole bunch of free open source software by going here.
- Looking for a holiday?
Have your exams finished? Do you want a break from all the stress? Then you should go on holiday. But don’t just book with any website. Remember it’s almost always cheaper when you use a comparison site.
A site you can use to find cheap flights is lastminute.com. This website finds cheap flight and hotel deals for you that you’ll be able to get cheaper than elsewhere. Another website you can use is Skyscanner.net which is another type of comparison website to find cheap flight and hotel deals.
- Have a goal in mind
Just like with budgeting you need a goal in mind into how much you are going to save. This can just be a monthly goal into how much you are going to achieve. You want to make sure your saving goals are SMART. As in Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
Having a goal of ‘I want to save some money’ isn’t good enough. Instead you should have a goal like ‘I want to save £3000 a year by October 15th 2022. This makes your goal specific and it has a deadline.
Two apps you can use to help you with your saving goals are Way of Life and Habitica. Both are free to download for Android and iOS devices and are fantastic apps.
- Make Meals in Advance
This one can help you in two ways. Firstly, it can help you save money as you will be less likely to spend on food when you go out. Secondly if you are looking to get in shape, because you’ll make portions of your food in advance you won’t have to worry about eating more.
- Do free stuff
When you are a student money can be tight at times. Not everyone can fork out money every time they go out. Good thing there are loads of free things you can do. You can join student events or clubs that interest you to find like minded people.
You can also search meetup.com to find free things going on that are local to you. You could also go to your local park, museum, library or even get involved in community sports.
If you have some more free time you can also learn tons of free stuff online like learning how to draw, learn to code, basic graphic design and much more.
If you’re wanting to learn more you can listen to free audiobooks with a free with a Audible trial.
Conclusion
Going to university or college can be expensive but that doesn’t mean you can’t save money. If you follow the tips contained in this article there is no reason why you can’t save money. If you do even a few of these tips you’ll be surprise to how much money you can actually save!