Starting out and need help!

First thing for you is a proper, written down budget, and learning to stick to that. You could use the SOA calculator we point people to in here - you'll find the link in the "Sticky" post at the top of this board - fill it out as accurately as you can, using 12 months bank statements will help you to be sure that you're not missing anything out. Normally we'd say make sure it reflects the way things really are right now for those who are in debt as this makes clear where their spending issues might be - for you though I'd say the situation is a bit different so give some thought to things like car maintenance that you may not have thought about budgeting for previously.

I find it handy to have online savings accounts running straight off my current account to set money aside for annual expenses - we have them for car costs, household costs (contents insurance etc), presents, and holiday savings among other things. At the start of each month once our pay has landed we have automatic transfers going out to each of the savings accounts so money that is budgeted for things ahead of time just goes there without us having to think about it.

On things like insurances & car tax remember you are charged a premium to pay them monthly so look to start setting aside money in advance to pay these upfront. (Road tax has an option to pay 6 monthly or annually on most bands - it's only the monthly Direct Debit that costs you more). TV license is different in that if you pay quarterly you get charged extra - but paying monthly is just a straight 1/12th of the annual cost.

For any extra savings you are able to make then a regular saver type account is a good bet as they usually pay higher interest as already mentioned.

Once you've put together the SOA if you want to post it in here we can have a look and see if there is stuff we feel you've missed, or under or over estimated.

For extra earnings if your current pay relates to the finding for your PhD research then is there the possibility of you taking an evening or weekend job? Alternatively to just earn a little extra there are things like online surveys and focus groups that might work for you - have a look at the "boost your income" boards on here.

Silver_Queen wrote: »

If you're in your final year of PhD you're probably absolutely swamped, I commend you, it's not an easy thing to do!

If you post and SoA on here people will be able to comment on how you can cut back.

I would suggest a survey site such as Prolific Academic. As a more academic sort myself, I actually quite enjoy the surveys as they're often for scientific research which I find much more interesting that the bog standard market research "what's your opinion on this toothpaste" sorts.

I'll second Prolific as a decent one too - make sure you run through and do all the pre-screening questions as it's easy to not realise you have to do that.