It is a long long time since I was a student however, I think that good financial housekeeping is often learned and ingrained during those student years so I have asked a fellow blogger who is a Student to give me a hand and she is going to do a regular monthly Student Finance Tips post.
So let me hand you over:
Hello! I am Siân, AKA
HelpfulMum. I am a full-time mature student and hope to give you some
money-saving advice and tips for managing your money as a student. I think I
should concentrate mainly on money management first.
I think I
should concentrate mainly on money management first.
You will be paid in
three instalments of your student loan. One in October, one in
January and one in April. The instalments in January and April will be the
biggest (it was in my experience anyway). The only exception to this is the
final year, when the April payment will be lower.
What I have found works best
for me is to have two separate accounts, one where the loan goes into, kind of
like a holding account, and one which I put a monthly amount into. This really
helps to budget each month. It means that you know exactly how much you have to
spend each month. It also means that you don't spend your entire loan straight
off, you have a reserve of money to see you through until the
next instalment.
Get a good bank account. Look
around, do your research. Check out the comparison sites and make sure you get
a bank account with a good overdraft. The majority of student overdrafts are
interest free and some increase with each year of your degree. They are usually
interest free up to around £1,700. Don't forget that you will have to pay interest
on it once you graduate. Then I recommend getting a pre-paid debit card and you
can put your monthly allowance on to that.
Once you have your account
set up, use your holding account to top up your pre-paid debit card. That way
you now have a set budget for the next month. Effectively, you are basically
paying yourself a salary every month. I have found it really useful to manage
my money like this because I know what is there every month and I am less
likely to spend all of my loan straight away. Obviously this doesn't work for
everyone, but I would imagine that it will also help with budgeting once you
graduate and hopefully find full-time work.
I need to sort this out - especially the holding account now my maternity pay has finished - in fact I'm going to log in to my bank account RIGHT NOW!
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