Great 'Your Top Tips For New Uni Students' Hunt

Ok my top tips:

1. If you already have a weekend/evening/holiday job see if they can arrange a transfer to a convenient branch. Means you will have a job all set up for money when you are at uni and will probably find transferring back during the hols easier too. It is well worth working through uni, you will certainly have time, it will be sociable and will earn/save you money, if you work throughout you should be able to save enough to support yourself without working for the last term before your finals.

2. NEVER NEVER NEVER sign for a shared house on one contract where you are "jointly and severally liable" this is a recepie for financial disaster. Find a house where each tennant has a separate contract. It can be slightly more difficult to find a landlord content with this but you do not want to risk being liable for another student's rent and bills if he clears off or drops out part way through the term.

3. READ your contract before signing for a rented house. Don't be afraid to ask for changes to be made if you are unhappy with any clauses and check the inventory before handing over your deposit. It wasn't until our letting agent laughed at us for doing this and complained about law students that I realised how many people don't do this. It is important you are aware of what you are agreeing to.

4. Don't take loads of kitchen equipment with you, it only makes for extra washing up and potential arguements. You won't have much storage either. Buy the bare minimum and if there is anything that you haven't got between all your housemates you can always head to wilkos.

5. Books could be your biggest expense, work out how to get these cheaply, whether you can pick some up second hand or get discounts. Try getting a job in a book shop for staff discounts. Also get together with housemates on your course and buy 50% of the books each and share if you aren't likely to NEED your own personal copy. We each bought a copy of the compulsory texts and then each bought a different one of the additional texts and pooled resources.

6. Before you rent a property check out proximity to the train station, and your local bus routes.

7. Get comfy walking shoes and a waterproof coat before you go, walking is the cheapest way to get around and will keep you fit too.

8. Take your NUS card everywhere you go and ask everywhere whether they do student discount. Lots of places do but don't advertise it.

9. If you get on well with your housemates consider a kitty system and sharing things like milk and bread, or buy full loaves of bread and freeze them in quarters so your bread doesn't go off before you use it and buy small cartons of long life milk.

10. Keep a record of your meter readings from when you move in and out even after you have supplied them to the electricity company in case of disputes. Send a copy to your landlord/letting agent.

11. Check you have the necessary TV licence. A fine is not good money saving. If you have a TV in your own private lockable room (like in halls) you probably need an individual licence, if you have a shared house then you probably just need one for the whole house.

Hope some of that helps.

In no particular order:

•Never buy textbooks before lectures start - the course info may have some recommended reading, but the lecturer will usually tell you which are the best books to get. When you do have to buy books, check the noticeboards in your uni (union, the building your lectures are in etc) and the charity shops nearby before you try anything online.

•Make sure you have a tin-opener. And a bottle opener. And a pair of scissors.

•If you like the idea of eating fresh veg, but not the time it takes to cook exciting things, buy yourself a double-decker bamboo steamer from a chinese supermarket. Should cost about £5 (or less!), and it cooks vegetables really fast!
Just boil some water in a big pan (just a couple of cms in the bottom, not enough to cover the base of the steamer). Thinly slice some potatoes and a leek and put in the bottom layer with some fresh parsley*, salt and pepper, and put the bottom half in the steamer (with the lid on). While that's cooking, chop a big carrot into matchsticks or rounds and put in one side of the top layer of the steamer. Squeeze some lemon juice and maybe a bit of hyoney onto the carrots. Add peas to the other side, and sprinkle with chopped fresh mint*. If you can think of a third veg, stick that in the space left to you, and put the top layer on. Give it about 10-15min, and check the potatoes and carrots are cooked. Serve with the meat, fish or soya product of your choice! You can also cook fish or meat in the bottom layer, but don't forget to scrub it out when you're done and make certain it's properly cooked. Even better, you can get cheap bags of frozen veg and just steam it straight from frozen.

• *Grow your own herbs from the supermarket - just buy them when they're reduced (but not yet dead) and repot them into a bigger container. Stick on the windowsil, water daily and voila, fresh herbs! Mint is the easiest to grow, basil is okay, parsley relatively easy so long as you keep it watered, and corriander is a pain in the backside

•Don't buy groceries that you think you 'ought' to have, only what you're actually going to eat/use. Sounds obvious, but most people have experienced the shock of discovering that they don't actually use 12 eggs a week, or a giant carton of yoghurt. Try and make a plan of what you want to cook and buy groceries accordingly.

1) Don't be tempted to buy one of those kitchen starter packs with hundred of spoons, pans, plastic boxes etc- they may look like good value but you'll not use 90% of it. Don't take more than a large saucepan, a frying pan, a wooden spoon and spatula, a really cheap set of cutlery and a couple of cheap plates/bowls.

2) Don't buy a kettle, sandwich toaster or toaster. The chances are that everyone else in your flat/halls will have had the same idea and you'll have 6 toasters knocking around the kitchen for the next year. If it turns out that nobody has bought one it's easy enough to pop out on the day you move in to go and buy the cheapest possible ones on the market: don't get anything good as somebody will inevitably break it.

3) Don't buy anything 'nice'. When I went to university I was bought expensive pans, cutlery etc to last me for years after university. It's not fun when a drunk housemate decides throw the tupperware they've just melted in the microwave into your good wok thus ruining it.

4) Start the year with one of those huge 3kg bags of dried pasta. You'll never go hungry at any point. A large supply of 8p noodles also does the same job (actually it's been a while- they might be as much as 10p a pack these days)

5) As soon as you get there see if there are any union jobs going- student ambassadors, bar work etc. All the second and third years know how and where to get these jobs so you'll need to beat them to it before they are all gone. These jobs run by the SU tend to be much more flexible than employers in the local town centre.

6) Don't waste any time in getting involved in clubs/societies/student media/student politics. They can sometimes lead to jobs (being president/vice president etc) with the union at the end of your degree and the more experience you've got at the end the better.

7) Remember that anything you put in the fridge or freezer is pretty much a free for all. Don't expect it to still be there when you go to eat it.

8) Don't assume the SU bar is the cheapest place for a night out and shop around. When I was at uni the local Wetherspoons was cheaper.

9) Use the library for course books at first. If there's a book you really need find out if there is a second hand book shop/service on campus and if not look at amazon for second hand books and even better try and 'book share' with someone on your course and pay half each.

10) If you've got nice housemates try and share things like bread and milk.

In my first year I joined a good group of friends who all lived in the same hall complex. After a month or so we created a cooking collective. Each person cooked an evening meal once a week. The washing up was done by the person who cooked the day before. All leftovers were bagsies for lunch the next day. We also pooled together for cleaning supplies (it means you can buy a bigger bottle - works our cheaper - and there's less waste) and general day to day stuff like milk, eggs, bread and condiments. Plus one of us worked at TESCO so got a staff discount. It's lasted three years and has been great.

I would definitely recommend new students to try and start one up. Oh and make friends with students with a staff discount at a supermarket!