Student Life Information

Student Budgeting

Budgeting is an area of student life that is a sure-fire stomach churner, mind number and is often the dreaded question your bank expects the answers to before they grant you that vital (often dangerous) student overdraft:

"How are you planning to spend the money that we lend you?" Before we delve any further into the issue, the most important word in the previous sentence is lend, you do have to give it back, eventually, often sooner than you may think. There is no such thing as free money, however they may dress up their student accounts with free mobile phones, portable CD players and cuddly toys!

It is important to realise from the outset of your academic career, that you will be living on limited resources. This does not of course mean that, as soon as you become a student you have to assume the stereotype and spend all your income on beer and live off 9p Value beans. It does however mean that if you organise and plan your money it saves you lots of worry and financial problems in the long run. The word "long run", "long term" and "the rest of your life/future" are phrases that by the time you get to university you are sick of hearing and have perhaps come to mean very little. However, to think of your budget not in the short-term, but in the grander scheme of things by practising good money management, you can minimise the level of debt that you are saddled with on graduating. Although the rather intimidating prospect of the "G" word may seem light years away, believe me, it creeps up on you sooner than you think!

So what exactly is budgeting? Budgeting is quite simply the art of balancing the amount of money you have coming in (your income) with the amount that you need to spend (your expenditure). By drawing up a budget plan you can come to a better understanding of your situation and thus make informed decisions about your financial needs. To do this is simple, find out how much money you have coming in, not only weekly but termly and annually. Do not deal in maybes here only list the money that you are certain to receive. Now the next step is the tricky bit, your expenditure. Be honest about what you are spending or may spend otherwise the budget plan is of no utility to you and your finances. Try and work out your essential first: Rent, food and travel costs. Result time….Now subtract your expenditure from your income to find out just how much money you have left over, if any. If you are lucky to have some remaining this is your surplus, some of which it may be useful to earmark for emergencies (do clothing crisis i.e.: the familiar call of "I have nothing to wear!", count as an emergency? Sadly not!). If you do not have a surplus then you have a deficit and there are two options left open for you and your budget plan. Number one is that you can go back over your expenditures and find ways to economise and cut back. The other option is to investigate ways to maximise your income…..Read on.

Let us assume you already have a student loan and you are still struggling to make ends meet. There are Hardship Loans available to such students. This is an additional means tested loan of up to £300 per year, which is available through your own specific university advice centre. But remember you must have applied for your student loan before applying for this money.
Access funds from your university are another way to help ease the financial strain; these are funded straight from your university. Such Access Funds are intended to provide help to those who are experiencing financial difficulties, to the extent that it may hinder their academic progress and success.

Many charities operate sponsorship schemes enabling students to go on to higher education even if this may not be feasible financially at first. Again it is important here to avoid short-termism, these are by no means quick fixes to financial problems and take time to research and apply for. The best place to begin such research is in the Directory of Education Trusts, which will be found on the Internet or in your careers/advice centre.

Another popular choice for students trying to bridge their budget deficit, is part-time work. However it is important to try to keep this in check as excessive amounts could adversely effect your academic work and after all that is what you are there for. If you do not think that you can juggle your academics and paid work in term time, you could always take advantage of the generous holidays from university at Christmas, Easter and summer vacation. You may be lucky enough to find work that pays and is directly related to your undergraduate studies. This is another long-term measure that you will be thankful for, when it comes to putting your CV together for the job of your dreams, on graduating.

So remember the secret to success in managing your finances, when you fly the nest for what may be the first time, is not so much maximising your income but more a case of realistically planning and organising the money you do have. If you can combine this with thinking slightly more into the future for instance, past that pair of trainers that you really want, to the impact that purchase may have on next week! then you are well on your way to having a fantastic university experience without the constant financial headache that may start to sap the fun out of your undergraduate experience. Have fun!