University budgeting: living costs, etc.

I'm lucky that I got a good student loan so that I didn't have to have a strict budget. What I do for a food shop is put things in my basket on their website and see how much it comes to so when I go to the store to buy it I have a rough idea of what I'm expecting. Also if I'm not planning on buying anything when I go out I will leave my purse and cards at home so even if I see something I want I can't buy it. Next month I am also going to start a spreadsheet and track all my purchases and then review it every month to see where I can cut down. My guilty purchase is chocolate after work. Oh also when food shopping buy own brand foods (only brands I buy are Nutella and Batchelors super rice) everything else own brand. It's cheaper and still tastes good. Try and cook from scratch as much as possible and make enough of a meal to last 2-3 meals, so much cheaper and you develop good skills.

Many thanks this is great, I will try do this when the time comes!

I would advice working out how much you're going to get from student loans/bursaries/parents if you're that lucky and then deduct major expenses like rent/bills. After that subtract some money as deposit for a house next year (usually about 1 months rent and a few hundred pounds security deposit), then divide the rest by 52.

Now you have a weekly budget to stick to. If you think you can live within that then great. If not then consider getting a part time job, I'd advice going for one at your favourite supermarket. This is because they tend to pay fairly well (most pay under 21's the same as over 21's which means at least £7.50 an hour and usually more) and you can make use of their staff discount.

If you still need to save more money then look into if you can get someone to refer you to a bank or other bills company, which can save you a few hundred quid (e.g. Nationwide offer £200 to share when you refer a friend and Virgin media offer £50 off your next bill when you refer someone).

Hey I'm also going to Uni this year and I've been looking around at ways I can budget and just general research. I've googled a few budgeting tips and templates and I've sort of merged them into one. I've come up with categories for items (e.g. - food, clothes, alcohol, travel expenses) and once I've got my student loan figures I will divide them up into weeks/months and subtract however much I need to spend on accommodation and then divvy the rest up into the other categories. If I don't have a reasonable amount of money for each category then I'll have to think about getting a job or another way to get money in, but yeah...

That seems like a good plan to me, I guess I will have a better idea of making a plan etc once I get figures on my student loans too.
York seems pretty affordable anyway, or at least I hope it lives up to that rumour lol

I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on how to budget as I will be going to uni this september - or an insight into how you budgeted during university and how you dealt with food costs and the likes?
Thanks!

Hahaha hopefully!! I'm either going to Leeds or Hull... I just really wanna know how much money I'm gonna get so I know whether to start crying now or later lmao

take how much money you will be getting from sfe etc, take away how much your rent is then divide through by how many weeks you need that money to last (some peoples parents supported them over the summer, some dont so for the ones that dont it is 52 weeks)

then this is how much you have per week, split some of it off for food + uni supplies, some for social, a bit for emergency money and put a bit away each week for when you need to pay your next years house deposit, summer rent, admins fees etc

To reduce food cost

- cook your own meals
- take home made lunch with you rather than (ie sandwhichs etc)
- get mostly own brand foods (stay away from big brand names) and try some of the cheap version of own brand foods
- try to eat out/get takeaway only on special occasions

I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on how to budget as I will be going to uni this september - or an insight into how you budgeted during university and how you dealt with food costs and the likes?
Thanks!

Ahh that seems like a good method, thanks!