Tips for Student Budgeting 

• Spend some time planning your income & expenditure
• Prepare or use a budget sheet
• Recognise what you might be worrying about, what you might overspend on, what your needs are, how your lifestyle affects your money etc. Dealing with money is very emotional!
• List essential expenditure at least once a month, maybe when your bank statement comes in.
• Try to keep a record of everything you spend, including bank & credit card statements. This helps identify regular & occasional spending patterns & you may need them to apply for emergency funds from your college or university.
• Consider setting up standing orders & direct debits where you can, e.g. for telephone, utilities bills & other regular payments. These can help you to plan and ensure that you are making consistent regular payments to all the places you need to.
• Save (where you can) & plan for extra expenditure such as start of year costs, special occasions, family birthdays etc.
• If you have debts, or feel you are getting into debt, or are about to borrow money but worry about paying it back, don't ignore the situation. Go for advice as soon as possible to a welfare rights or money advisor in your college, university, local authority or Citizens Advice Bureau. They will help you to deal with the priority debts & help you make the best decisions & manage your budget.
• If you need to borrow money, use only interest free overdraft facilities, where you can & if you have to pay interest, check you are getting the best rate. Compare bank & commercial loans with credit cards & other forms of credit.
• Open a student or graduate bank account if you haven't already got one. If you are unable to get an account with overdrafts because of debts or any other reason, consider a basic banking account.
• Try not to withdraw money too often, for example, withdraw money for the week
• Consider where buying books is essential & check out second hand options, libraries & sharing. Also, check out food prices as supermarkets may be more expensive than other shops or markets.
• Check out all student discounts & find out about emergency financial help, including Learner Support Funds (FE), Access to Learning Funds (HE), Financial Contingency Funds (Wales) & money advice in your local college or university. The website may also have useful local information

Useful Web Links for Student Budgeting

• Advice for students - financial survival tips - includes help with working out expenditure, from University of Sussex
• BBC Onelife - simple & useful money management information & advice including general budget calculator, useful archive section of past questions answered
• Budgeting Tips - useful advice from London Metropolitan University
• Budget Planning - tips & links to other sites from AimHigher
• Budgeting & housing - suggested student budget & online budget calculator with helpful student categories, also useful housing quiz to help understand your rights, from University of London
• Budget Planner (DfES) - personal monthly budget planner to print out, for calculating monthly expenditure, includes family expenses, on the Career Development Loan page
• Cost of living calculator - online interactive budget planner, aimed more at adults with families, to make it easier to plan your finances, from Aim Higher
• Mature Students' Guide to Budgeting - advice on calculating income & expenditure & advice on saving money
• Money Matters to Me - a good online practical guide to family finance, which includes what records to keep, making short, medium & long-term decisions, issues relating to different life changes, also, very clear interactive tutorials on how to use an ATM (cash machine), how to read your meters, tips on saving money around the home & word games on money issues. The site also has a pop-up calculator, interactive budget, interactive calculators for savings, loans, mortgages repayments, a link to a pensions calculator & an automatic letter for creditors within "useful tools"
• nusonline - large amount of essential information for students, from the National Union of Students, including advice sheets, section for international students, managing your money & budgeting, fee & loan rates, avoiding cheque fraud, good advice on insurance issues, credit cards, bills & debt, income & tax & lots more, including health, housing & education advice
• Personal Budget Calculator - interactive budget calculator with general headings from the FSA
• Student City - discounts for students in Manchester
• Student Finance - information for HE & FE students in Ulster from the NUS (Northern Ireland) site which also includes a chart to help with student budgeting & some tips
• Studentmoney.org - site includes good interactive tools for calculating monthly repayments for student loans & other loans, for budgeting, a wage predictor & a search for scholarships & awards, also database on financial aid, how much you might earn with your career choice
• Student Money Net - advice on financing further education, including borrowing, saving, scholarships & sponsorships, insurance, accommodation, lifestyle, budget planner, investment calculator, investment property guide & links