1. Make a Budget
Keeping track of how much money you get and when and where you spend it will give you a good indication of what you can cut back on if you need to. You need to have a realistic idea of how much money you spend so you can avoid phoning home to ask for money.
Start by making a record of everything you spend in a week or month (depending on how regularly you get paid). Take stock of what you’re spending your money on and then, based on your actual expenses, make a budget. There are some great apps and websites to make this as painless as possible such as mint.com.
2. Take Advantage of Student Discounts
While student discounts are very prominent around Freshers’ Week, don’t forget about them. Restaurants and cinemas have weekday deals and many barbers, book and clothes shops offer between a 10% – 15% discount with a valid student I.D.
Also make sure to check the back of any membership cards you have from the societies you join, many also offer student specific discounts on presentation of the card.
3. Get some Loyalty Cards
So now that you are shopping for yourself, make sure you sign up for club cards and rewards schemes that the vast majority of shops do. You can receive vouchers for money off or half price items.
4. Learn to Cook
If you don’t already know how, learn to cook. Food is expensive and no one can afford to eat out all the time. The better and more creative you can be with food, the cheaper your college culinary experiences will be. There are loads of websites online aimed specifically at students cooking with a budget; start with BBC Food.
Try not to throw food out, if you have a strange assortment of food and don’t know what to make simply put all the ingredients up on Pinterest and you are bound to find a recipe using the ingredients you’ve got.
5. Don’t Buy New College Textbooks
This is a huge money saver and you will find many students lamenting that fact that they forked over close to €100 for a college textbook they only used once or twice that was a core textbook for one module in one semester: Don’t be that person, that person clearly didn’t read the Observer’s Freshers’ magazine!
Most books you need can be found in the library or have older editions available online at Google Books or Amazon. You can also buy second hand college textbooks through the UCDSU website or in Chapter’s on Parnell Street. Don’t buy them new, if at all. It is also a good idea to wait to buy your books until your lecturer tells you you need it, rather than trusting what it says on the module information page.
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