Managing Money at University
If you’re like me and have a toxic obsession with spending money on endless items of clothing and food, then this is the blog for you!
Managing your money sensibly at university is so important because you don’t want to reach the end of the week with no funds in your account to buy food for the week ahead or to go out with your friends (MAJOR FOMO MOMENT!!!) Putting time aside to plan your money-handling and budgeting is key to avoid the issue of going into overdraft or not having enough money for next week’s food shop.
In my first year, I was quite fortunate to have budgeted well… with the help of the lockdown because it meant that I stayed at home for term 2 and didn’t need to spend money on food, clothes or going out… because there was nowhere to go! However, fast-forward a year later to non-lockdown times with full access to restaurants, clubs and retail shops… it will come as no surprise to anyone, but my student budget went out of the window very quickly at the beginning of year two. To be completely honest, I think the majority of people’s student budget goes towards clubbing/alcohol which all adds up in the end. I’d say it is perfectly reasonable to go out for the first few weeks of term and make the most of ‘freshers week’ because it’s quite natural to want to go out with your friends after a long summer of not seeing them. In a bittersweet way, I’m quite glad that my workload throughout the term quickly began to pick up considerably, because although it was quite stressful having to manage numerous deadlines and keep on top of lecture content, it meant that I didn’t have to think about spending money on going out every week, when actually if you think about it, going out every week isn’t always the healthiest nor wisest option at university.
There are ways to compensate for expenses: find a job, apply for internships, work a part-time job, sell clothes etc. From my experience, when my funds were running low to the point where I had to consider asking my parents for money, it made me realise the importance of being proactive in making my own income. I run my own Depop page where I sell some of my second-hand clothes. This is a growing industry and particularly popular within the student network, so I would definitely recommend this to you! Also, throughout the summer, I looked online for small jobs and roles that the university were advertising, to which I was successfully offered several opportunities alongside my degree. I’ll be discussing my jobs with the university and roles within the institution in a later blog, however, I would highly stress the importance of being productive and resourceful when managing your money and income during your time at university.
Now you may be reading this blog thinking, Jess is basically saying not to spend money or go out – this isn’t the case at all. Going out to socialise and spending money does not in any way mean that you will be broke by the end of the week. But what I am emphasising is the importance of being money-conscious and aware of how often you go out/shop – there are ways of having fun without having to spend extortionate amounts of money… just find the right balance for you.
