If, like me, even the mention of the word budget sends a shiver down your spine, you’ve probably been putting off figuring out the best way of managing your money now you’re at university. Keeping track of how quickly you’re spending your student loan is important though if you don’t want to end up broke.
It's taken me a while to master, but here are a few hacks I’ve learned along the way that should help you budget for your first semester.
Start by looking at your expected income and splitting it into a rough budget
This may seem a pretty obvious way to ensure you don’t run out of money but most people don’t even get this far. Look at how much you spent on clothes, food, nights out etc. before coming to university and try to come up with a conservative budget for each type of expense. The trick is to ensure the total across all of the different types of expense doesn’t exceed the money you’ll have coming in.
Keep track of your spending
This could be in a spreadsheet but I much prefer writing my budget out. This is by no means the only way to do it, but I use a page for each month. At the top, I write the monthly and weekly amount I can spend on each category. Then, I write the dates of each week and the total actual spend on each thing just to keep track of how much has been spent through the month. Then I use the rest of the space to write each individual thing bought.
This is quite a long method and, if you copy it, you’ll have to keep it up throughout the month, but if you get into a routine, it really works.
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