Student MoneySaving Club!

violetviolin

Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone would be interested in having a little club on here, where us students can discuss how we're saving our money and any little tips and ideas.

We could maybe have challenges so that we have enough for fun stuff in the holidays - there's a lot of discussion about how to budget for essentials like food in this forum but not much is said about how to make sure you have enough for the extra things that a lot of students would like to do, like Christmas presents and holidays with your friends. Like, in my case, I didn't budget very well in my first year, as I didn't take into account I'd be paying rent on my new house over the summer, which has left me rather low on funds during the holidays...:o

So I thought if we had a thread where we could say how much we're saving and so on, then it might encourage us all to be a bit more careful with our money
Would anyone like to join me? :money:

scottishlass

I think its really good idea would have been very useful when I was at uni and I'm sure would be extremely handy when you get to your final year and realise you're faced with a smaller loan than previous years.

violetviolin

scottishlass wrote: »

I think its really good idea would have been very useful when I was at uni and I'm sure would be extremely handy when you get to your final year and realise you're faced with a smaller loan than previous years.

thank you! do you have any advice now that you've left uni - maybe things you wished you'd known when you were at uni?

scottishlass

The way I learnt to cope with christmas was to work over the Summers and then put away a % of what I earnt for Christmas.

For birthdays and Christmas for Uni friends we used to do collections and Secret Santas with a price limit.

Also when I went out on the night I always had a budget of what I would take with me anything that was left at the end of the night went in a jar read to go towards balls and other expensive nights out etc

One of the biggest money savers I found was to get my books from the library rather than buy them - lucky for me I seemed to be the only one who did this on my course and ended up with the books for the majority of the term.

violetviolin

thank you, those are great ideas! i want to save up for things by putting my change in a jar - what do you do if you have more than one thing to save for and you want to keep track of how much you've saved for each - do you keep two jars? use a notebook?

and i definitely second the library books one - my course seemed to emphasise getting this or that book, when there's about five copies of most of the books in the library! if the book is necessary for a module, there generally will be spare copies in the library. i'd check out the reference section of the library too, as there'll probably be a copy of the book there all the time as you can't take the books out from that bit, so unless someone is reading it, you could read it yourself in the library and make notes whilst you're there. it really forces you to get your work done - if you took the book home, maybe it'd be only on your floor the whole time :P

influence

That's interesting. I actually have a HSBC online saver where I will deposit all my coins. Since there is no interest if I withdraw, it restrain me from taking out what i have deposited. SO far, I manage to save a couple of hundreds for the past months.

You will be surprised how much coins you generate each money.

I also use a PAYG mobile to keep my mobile bill lowest and packet my lunch to school.

Got my accomodation next to my campus in London so save alot on transport cost/time. Go for the best value. not always the cheapest.

Budget your expenses each month. I did mine and keep to it.

I also have an empty wallet but keeping myself with £5 in coins. So I have the emergency fund but no extra cash to dump.

Visit this forum 'cause there are alot of saving tips around hidden.

My share.

pixiedust_2

Count me in!

I'm off to uni in September, after 3 years of working - will be struggling to survive without my lovely wages every month! However, got my budget all worked out... All I need to do now is stick to it - not easy with a serious weakness for beads and craft equipment...

Any bright ideas I come up with, I'll let you know

Pixie x

violetviolin

yay! nice to meet you all! :beer:

so do you have a separate account for when you're saving for a certain thing? i'm not sure how's best to keep track of saving for certain specific things.

pixiedust_2

I've just opened my student account, that'll deal with rent, studio fees (I have to pay a materials and studio fee for my course at the end of each term - the only problem with an art/design course!), and day-to-day stuff. The DD's I already have will continue to come out of my current account, and I have an ISA that I use for saving whatever spare cash I have, usually made up of left over change that ends up in a big money box until there's enough to bank (£75 last time I emptied it!). I can't cope with having too many accounts, I forget to transfer money around and end up without having the right amount of money in the right places!

influence

I think it depends on individual but i guess 1 bank account is needed (we aren't having tons of money to deposit anyway). The one big no-no for me is to touch the overdraft facility. I see OD as like drugs. Once addicted, it will stick with you for life. So I am ok for my bank to impose a high OD charge to penalise me if ever happen. I don't mean they are right on charging hefty fees but I don't really been too bother about such charges in my case.

That's a very good point on ISA. I realise alot of students don't know that we can save in ISA including myself. so it might be something that can be looked into.

While I consider myself well equiped to restrain output, i am now looking into increasing my input (so as to increase my wealth accumulation:P). Due to my commitment in my graduate studies, anyone know of any kind of freelance job (in general) that I might commit to for a couple of hours? I am an chem eng graduate by profession. Any suggestion? maybe this will help others as well.

freebie_junkie

a very good idea!

im a graduate but im doing a 1 year post grad in sept.

as a graduate i think the best pt income is using your skills- i do poetry readings/ drama & poetry workshops and i also buy and sell stuff on ebay and markets as in a former life i was a retail manager.

savings-wise, i alway save stuff thats not easy to spend- tesco deals tokens, boots, whsmith, nectar & fraser card points, pressies bought in sales, vouchers from pigsback, my market change etc.

totally agree with having an ISA too!