University Budgetting

Managing your money at university: stop debt!

When it comes to going to university, you need to be organised to manage your money.

The first thing you need is to get an understanding of the money you have, your fixed costs and then you can see how much money you have to spend. This fun process is called budgetting.

The quicker you get organised, the easier this all becomes, so don't delay - get onto it straight away.

Before you go to university you need to make sure that you have applied for your student loan and completed all the necessary paperwork if you decide to go down the loan route (and most have to, unless you are an entrepreneur or will be relying on financial support from your parents to get you through university).

First of all work out the total of costs such as monthly rent for where you live, bills for phone, electricity, gas and so on, and any other fees that you need to pay. Then estimate how much your food will cost each month and try to stick to around that level.

Split your loan cheque amount per term into a weekly amount and work out the weekly fixed costs. This then tells you how much money you have left to play with for things like going out (shock, horror) as well as those necessary costs such as buying books and clothes and the occasional treat.

By budgetting strictly like this and sticking to it you will make the most of your money and stop the debt getting too high.

Discipline with Money

You should be disciplined with your money. This means no rash purchases at the start of term when you feel rich - as you will soon feel very poor for the rest of term.

Also if you have a credit card forget about the credit limit on it even if in the thousands of pounds. If it is above a thousand pounds then seriously consider getting it reduced to stop temptation. You should not need a limit of more than a few hundred pounds when you are at university!

Student Bank Accounts

Make sure that you get a student bank account and not a generic one as there will be more attractive perks. Usually you get a larger and better interest free overdraft and this is much more important than the freebies associated with the account however attractive some of these may seem at the time!

Try to always stay within the overdraft limit as otherwise you will start to get hit with high charges, and ensure that you keep tabs each year on the overdraft limit as it may change.

The bottom line is that through careful management you can make sure that you have enough to get you through university whilst still having fun and disposable income, and without mounting up huge debts!

University Budgetting

Author: Fred

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Last Updated: Sep 19th 2006

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