The Best Student Money Saving Tips!

fred · 10-06-2009, 05:08 PM

Sometimes, being a student can prove to be a hard life. After years of loving mummy's cooking, cleaning and getting in the food, you're out for yourself. This is why understanding the value of money is so important, and value is an important lesson to learn as a student. Anyway, here are some of our selected best tips for student money saving.

The number one money saving tip is to only spend what you can afford. That means be careful with loans, overdrafts and borrowed money. Remember, borrowed money is owed money. What they say about money trees is true, unfortunately. And the more you borrow, the more you'll have to pay back with interest. Curb your spending and save on the interest you would pay - get paid not to spend! Now let's get into some specific money saving advice.

Food

Get a free account on mySupermarket.co.uk to save up to 20% immediately.
Share food costs with flatmates. Buying in bulk is cheaper.
Don't food shop on an empty stomach.
Try a cooking rota with your flatmates. You all get variety and spend less time cooking! Plus you know exactly what you need, what to cook and how to cook it.
Freeze food – frozen food is cheaper, means you can buy bargains to eat weeks later and your food obviously lasts much longer.
Grow your own veg. Get a grow bag and watch the magic unfold.
Resist a greasy kebab after a night out, have something tasty ready back home before you go out. Leftovers from dinner are good!

Transport

Young Persons Railcard for £26 a year. Saves you a massive 1/3 on all rail journeys in the UK. (Top Tip: You can get one free with a NatWest Student bank account)
Book train tickets in advance from thetrainline.co.uk. It may also be cheaper to split a journey than buy one ticket, especially if you get your first train during peak times.
Get a bike. Once you've got it, it's free (and often quicker) to get around. Considering people pay £30 a month to go on cycle machines at the gym, and they ain't goin' nowhere!
Get a weekly bus pass if you use it more than twice a day.
Flying abroad? Make sure you get the cheapest flights using CheapFlights.co.uk.
Oh, and you don't need a car at uni. Do you?

University Books

You can save a fortune buying course books second-hand. Definately check on AbeBooks.co.uk

(they do free delivery too) and on our own student market.
Use the library more. Make use of the reservation system so you don't end up having to buy an in-demand course book. If you do buy one, split the cost with course mates and share it.

Shopping

Shop online and compare prices before you buy, such as Kelkoo
Use TopCashBack and get cash-back when buying online! Big savings especially on insurance and other finance.
Buy clothes from vintage and second-hand stores at the Northern Quarter (Manchester) or charity shops.
Always ask for a student discount.
Buy from other students in the student market place!

Health

Quit the gym subscription. Go jogging, swimming or cycling with friends. Join an outdoors society.

Going out

Beat the touts on sold-out gigs, use Scarlet Mist to buy spare tickets at cost “ethically”.
Orange 2 for 1 Wednesday cinema tickets. Get an Orange sim-card and switch it when you go to qualify without a contract! Smuggle in your own food and drinks too.

Hard Cash

Put all spare change in a jar. It adds up fast. When it's full take it to the bank and exchange for some crisp paper.
Don't use ATMs that charge you. You could be charged £2 for taking out a tenner. There is always a message shown if they do charge.

Even more student money saving

Don't get Sky, or even a TV. In the last year the major TV companies have most programmes available to watch online, for free.
Stop calling home, use Skype or e-mail for free.
Get OpenOffice for free to save on Microsoft's expensive Office package. I think it actually works even better.
Turn off lights, unplug phone chargers, turn off the TV.
Pass on gifts you don't want or use
Slice the bottom of toothpaste tubes to get that extra use out of it

Newspapers

Some of the broadsheet newspapers offer a significant discount off of their weekday issues for students. Like with the banks and their bait, these offers are also to hook students using the powerful tool of loyalty. Regardless, this is great for the money saving news weary student! If you're not a big reader anyway, and you may not have the time to read more than a few articles, remember you can get every news story on the web for free. Google News fetches headlines and stories from news websites across the world.

Please add your own money saving tips for other students! We're all in the same boat, as it were

Accessgrantedmanchester · 10-09-2009, 02:00 PM

To add to your going out section

Buy an Access Granted Wristband for £5 at the beginning of term, it will get you discounted entry/Q-Jump into over 25 clubs, 10% off Manchester Cars, Free drinks at various kebab places when you buy a burger/pizza/kebab and at the Village Restaurant (Curry Mile) will save you 15% off food plus a free bottle of wine for parties of 6 or more. Check out http://www.accessgrantedmanchester.co.uk for full details.

Cheers!

jakal · 12-09-2009, 12:22 AM

This is a great idea! and so cheap for so many savings!

jonty · 24-09-2009, 01:45 PM

How long does that band last for? Just freshers week I guess? Just bought the annual bus pass by stagecoach at the freshers fair which i'm thinking will save quite a bit this year instead of the weekly bus pass.

geo-fay · 26-09-2009, 06:37 PM

take your own coffee and tea to the library! (they charge you for hot water and then sneakily try to charge you for the milk and sugar - just pretend your having it black). especially aroudn exams does this money saving strategy help

bella7 · 28-10-2009, 04:22 PM

- spam removed -

jakal · 24-11-2009, 03:40 PM

all the best promotions are on this webiste though haha.