Hey everyone, I’m Uwa, I’m a medical student here at the University of Nottingham.
If you’d like to find more about me and keep up with my life as a medical student,
I’ll leave my social media here on the screen so, feel free to follow and check them out.
In today’s video I’m going to be giving you tips and advice to help you budget
as a university student. If you enjoy this video,
please give it a like and be sure to subscribe to our university channel.
So, budgeting at uni and being smart with your
money is essential and it's a really good skill to have.
No one is saying you have to be really strict with your money and stick to a
set amount of spends every single week. But, it is just good to be wise with your money.
As University of Nottingham students, we have free access to a website called Blackbullion
which has loads of great tips and resources to help you manage your money as a student.
It's designed in a really fun and engaging way and
it has loads of useful resources on a wide range of finance related things.
We are able to sign up to this completely for free,
using our university email. And that is one of the amazing perks of being a UoN student.
So, my first tip when it comes to managing your money and budgeting is to know where
your money is coming in from and how much you’re getting. So for example, the majority of students
will take a maintenance loan. Consider how you’re going to spend your student loan.
Taking myself for example, in first year of university, my student loan covered my
accommodation rent. That was literally all I spent my student loan on. I pretty much never saw that
money. But, knowing that I had my rent covered was pretty good. Back to the point I was making;
with your student loan, know how much you’re getting and know how you want to spend it.
You unfortunately don’t get it all at once, it’s split over 3 payments throughout the year.
So you want to organise your spendings in line with these 3 split payments.
And then you can also consider alternate sources of income. This can include your parents,
if they may help you out. Perhaps any bursaries or grants you may be getting. As well as any money
from a part time job if you can manage a part time job alongside your studies and your course.
Now I’m going to give you some tips to help you manage your money. First of all,
shop smart. So as a student, we’re sticking to your cheap and cheerful
shops. Personally I just go to Aldi and Lidl and that does it for me. They
are super affordable and as a student, they have the vegetables, the fruits,
the snacks – the bare essentials that I need to get me through a weekly shop.
Also, when it comes to shopping, actually buy what you need. So, we’re going to go the old
fashioned way and make a shopping list. And, we’re going to stick to that shopping list.
I understand that nutrient dense foods like fruits and vegetables can be quite expensive sometimes
but, a hack around this is to go for frozen fruit and veg rather than fresh fruit and veg.
Another tip and especially if you’re a fresher you’re going to hate me for saying this but,
it's to go out less. A big part of uni and getting stuck into uni life is going out and going
clubbing especially in Freshers’ week and the first few weeks of uni before the deadlines
start to come in. But, the novelty of this does soon wear off and going out every single night
does get very expensive. So, maybe after Freshers’ week, after the first couple of weeks, limit
yourself to one or two nights out a week – maybe one during the week and one or two at the weekend.
Of course, still go ahead and live your best uni life but,
also think about your pocket – we’re students, we’re counting pennies here.
If you are going to go out, maybe you’ve got a cute brunch planned with your mates. I’d
advise that you make the most of student deals and discounts. You can find loads of student offers on
Unidays and StudentBeans. You can also have a look on our SU website to see what they’re promoting.
I also advise that you get to know the student bars and clubs in Nottingham as they’re going to
be a lot cheaper and a lot more affordable for you than your standard bars and clubs.
Also, a massive thing at the university of Nottingham when it comes to nightlife,
is CRISIS – it's designed for students by students so its super affordable.
Something that I harp on a lot about is learning how to cook and learning to meal prep. This will
save you so much money. Sometimes it can be a lot of effort to cook after a long day of
lectures but if you meal prep and cook down for the week, this is going to save you a lot
of hassle and it reduces the temptation to hop on UberEats and order something.
If you buy some vegetables, pasta, pasta source, a bit of garlic bread,
cook a few different meals down for the week, you’re going to save so much more
money than ordering a takeaway several times. And, also, it’s a lot healthier for you.
Something else that’s going to burn a hole through your pocket as a student is
transport - public transport. It gets expensive.
There are buses in and around Nottingham that have student prices for weeklys and monthlys
on transport tickets and fares. Also, the tram is a great way to get about Nottingham.
We’re lucky enough at Nottingham to have hopper buses which gets you to our different campuses.
Another way you can save money is by splitting subscription costs. So these can be for stuff
like Spotify where you can get a Spotify family membership. This can be used as long as you and
your housemates or flatmates all live at the same address. Or, you can split a Netflix subscription.
So, I mentioned about how my student loan was used purely for my rent and one way that I was able to
successfully use it for my rent was by having a separate bank account. I opened up a student bank
account with Santander Bank. This just kept my student loan separate from my own personal money.
So for that reason, I do highly advise you open a student bank account. Another good
reason to get a student bank account is that there are certain perks of it.
Each bank does something different. With mine, I got a free railcard so this saves
me 33% on my travel costs every time I go on a train. You do get interest so,
the more money you have I think at the end of each semester, the more interest they’re
going to give you. Its not hundreds and hundreds of pounds but every little helps.
And also, student bank accounts offer you an overdraft often interest free.
One last thing before we round off the video is a really easy and
user-friendly budgeting strategy. And this is the fifty-thirty-twenty rule.
So your total income, you’re going to split into fifty percent, thirty percent and twenty percent.
Fifty percent goes on your needs, these are your essentials – your food, your toiletries,
stationery. The things you need for university, your bare essentials. Then thirty percent goes
towards fun stuff. So nights out, friends' birthdays, treats for yourself. Those sorts of
miscellaneous things. The things you want but you can realistically live without. And then, twenty
percent is going to go towards your savings. This can be quite difficult sometimes as a student but,
in the future you’re going to thank yourself for putting aside some money to have for after uni.
This can be a short term everyday saver that if you need to,
you can dip into. Or it can be a more permanent kind of thing, like an ISA.
So that’s the end of the video and those are my tips for budgeting and managing your
money as a student. It is a really important life skill and this goes beyond uni as well,
being able to manage your money and handle it well.
Anyway, a big takeaway message from this is that it is possible
to enjoy your uni experience and still be wise with your money.
Thank you so much for watching this video I hope you found it useful. If you did enjoy it,
please leave it a like and if you’d like to see more from student creators like myself,
be sure to subscribe to the University of Nottingham channel.
I’ll see you guys again soon. Bye!