How to Save Money
Managing your own money is one of the hardest things about university and living alone. Whether you’re an financial novice or a seasoned master, saving money is always tricky, the art of saving (and spending) money remains a challenging feat, especially when faced with the allure of social activities and the excitement of Fresher's Week. Our guide is here to steer you through the labyrinth of savings and the realm of wise spending. Get ready to conquer your financial journey with wisdom and wit!
Set a finance tracker
Whether you’re a Notion girlie or an Excel finance bro, make a finance tracker! You don’t realize how much you spend until you start keeping track of each and every pence that leaves your bank account.
Here’s my personal tactic on budgeting: once you get your tracker set up, try predicting how much you think you’ll spend on each category and, thereby, in total (tip: I try to give myself about £50 leeway for unexpected
purchases). Then, comes the best part, go spend! Once you’re done with the month (or week, depending on how you formatted your tracker), check to see how accurate your predictions were. Did you spend more on transport than you thought? Maybe it’s time to stop taking Ubers everywhere. Spent less on groceries? Reallocate the money you spent on eating out on groceries!
During the first few months of university, you'll end up spending more than you usually would with moving in and socializing. But don’t worry, after you’ve settled in, these expenses are bound to die down!
2. Don’t be too hard on yourself
It’s going to be hard sticking to a rigid budget. There’ll always be last-minute expenses like a broken laptop or an impromptu day trip to Birmingham. After all, you can’t just rot in your room. If something unexpected pops up in your budget, just take it into account next week.
3. Abuse those student discounts
One of the best things about university (apart from all the exciting and totally not boring lectures of course!) is the number of student discounts there are from dessert to even new Apple products. Here are some apps you can download to get student discounts:
UniDays
StudentBeans
Totem
Also be sure to get a Railcard so you can get a third off on any and all train travel across the UK :) if you find yourself commuting to London
frequently, you can connect your Railcard with your Oyster to carry on the discount to your tube travels too!
4. If you don’t need it in a week, don’t buy it!
Here’s a trick my Asian mother taught me. When you hear the voices of retail therapy calling out to you, resist that immediate urge. Set the item aside, remove it from your cart, or close that tempting browser tab. If you still find yourself thinking about that item a week later, then maybe (just maybe) it's worth considering purchasing. However, if the memory of it has vanished, well, you've just saved yourself some money! It's a little mental hack that's surprisingly effective.
My addition to this take is to create a “wishlist” page on Notion (or Google Docs, whatever suits you). Some might argue that putting the item on a wishlist defeats the purpose of forgetting about it, but I see it as a method of reflection. As I put down the item and see it on my list, it makes me question: "Do I really need that extravagantly priced Lego set, or do I just need to get off Tiktok and go outside?"
5. Consider getting things second hand
If you really can’t control the retail therapy demons, the next best thing is to shop secondhand! From time to time, Warwick will have huge kilo sales in the SU building where you can cop a bunch of cute clothes for cheap prices. If you prefer something with less going outside, I’d suggest getting secondhand apps like Depop and Vinted. Not only can you get cute clothes for under £10 but also sell your own clothes!
There are also a lot of great companies in the UK that sell secondhand/refurbished phones, laptops, etc. Personally, I’d suggest buying refurbished technology instead of secondhand so you have the assurance that any complications have been looked after.
6. Think in the long run
Some purchases like a Britta or a drying rack may seem daunting at first but it’s purchases like these that save you money in the long run!
For example, the cost of 1 drying cycle on campus costs £1.70 (last year at least). Let’s assume a drying rack costs about £15 and that you do your laundry once every 2 weeks. That means 1 drying rack is equivalent to the cost of about 9 cycles or 18 weeks' worth of laundry so roughly the first term of university and maybe a bit of the winter holiday if you don’t fly back. With 22 weeks of the academic year left, you’d be saving £18! Not to mention, it’s a great investment for when you move out in the second year and may not have a dryer anymore.
That being said, it’s up to you to decide which purchases are going to be valuable investments in the long run. If you don’t care about drinking tap water, then don’t buy the Britta. If you’re the type of person to cook every day, then invest in better pots and pans! There’s no right or wrong way to spend money so remember that no one knows you better than you.
