Cost of living at uni

Hey guys,
Im a uni student at MMU and I’ve found it tricky to manage my budget for uni for with the cost of living increase ( like a lot of you I’m sure).
I’ve discovered some money saving hacks like:
Prepping and Freezing my veg
Getting into making home made soup ( it’s a lot cheaper to make)
Going charity shopping to get some more layers, so to save on the heating bill.

Has anyone else come up with any ?


Emily <3

Hey there!
Here are a few things that I do to help budget.

1 - Buying value packs of essentials...
I opt to buy bigger packs of the things I need, even though they cost more at the time as it'll save me more money in the long run. For example, I buy value packs of chicken and sausages and then freeze them separately in freezer bags and they usually last me a good month before I have to buy more. I also do the same thing with toilet roll and cotton pads because they cost more at the time but save more money in the long run. I find that buying toilet roll from supermarkets is more expensive than buying it from places like B&M or Wilko's. The same thing with branded items, I've swapped out a few for the supermarkets own that I don't necessarily need and if I do buy branded things I always go for B&M or HomeBargains prices rather than the supermarket's.

2 - Setting myself a budget...
When I get my monthly allowance, the first thing it usually goes on is Circuit Washing. I base how much I need to top up off how much I've spent the month before as I don't want to be adding too much that could go on other things. I then use a cashbook to try and stick to a budget for my food shopping (these are relatively cheap, Paperchase is having a closing down sale right now). It helps when switching out brands and things like that and it's usually easy to add up as I'm going around the shop. I also find planning out my meals for the week helps with budgeting because I'll then write a shopping list from that so that I'm not picking up anything I don't need and there's minimal food waste.

3 - Ignoring the overdraft...
It's so easy to have an overdraft and constantly dip into it. Then when you're in your overdraft, it's easier to spend more because you think it's your money and then you can't pay it back. I always aim to keep a minimum of £50 in my student account at one time and treat that figure as my baseline. If I go under this, I then need to pay it back until there's £50 again. Having a minimum number, no matter what it is, helps you realise what's your money and what's not because once you start going into that overdraft, it's impossible to get out.

4 - Doing it with friends....
The only way that I've found that helps me stick to my goals is having someone to do it with. If you have a friend whose trying to save money as well, you can both help each other and tell each other when a purchase they're making is unnecessary. If you're strict on each other then it will be easier to stick to. I've also found that deleting apps that were tempting me to spend money has helped me to not make unnecessary purchases such as UberEats and clothing websites, or even just turning the notifications off. I used to automatically see the sale notifications and think that I needed whatever they were selling, even when I didn't.

Hope this helped!
Lucy - Digital Student Ambassador SHU

Hey guys,
Im a uni student at MMU and I’ve found it tricky to manage my budget for uni for with the cost of living increase ( like a lot of you I’m sure).
I’ve discovered some money saving hacks like:
Prepping and Freezing my veg
Getting into making home made soup ( it’s a lot cheaper to make)
Going charity shopping to get some more layers, so to save on the heating bill.

Has anyone else come up with any ?


Emily <3