Studying at university is expensive. Now studying at a university in London is
even more expensive. Hey guys, my name is Alphie and I'm a fifth year med student and
today I want to talk about how I try to budget as a student living in one of the
most expensive cities in the world. Hopefully you find some of these tips useful but before
I go into that I just want to give a little bit of background information to kick things off.
So I feel like sometimes money is a little bit of a taboo topic that people are kind of scared to
talk about but I actually do think it's something really important that we should discuss. I know
that I definitely would have found it really useful to have seen how other people have tried
to budget their lives in London before coming here in my first year which is all the way back in...
2016. So, for a little background information, currently as a fifth year med student I try to
budget £350 a month for all my expenses that exclude accommodation and school fees and so
this £350 is dedicated to traveling, for food, which includes groceries, and for personal
stuff which includes going out with friends or getting anything for myself. Now this used to
be a little bit less when I was in my pre-clin years where I actually lived closer to uni
and this was at £250 a month. So this works out to be about £87.5 a week now and it used to be
£62.5 a week. Based on this estimation by University College London for how much you should
try and budget for your expenses living in London, you can see from this table for all the things
I've mentioned like food travel and personal stuff that you should try and budget about £88 a week or
£352 a month for all these different things. So I personally know some people who are getting by
on less than that. I think that just shows you that there's a spectrum of how you can kind of
approach this. Anyways, with that out of the way let's jump into the tips. So my first tip is to
plan your expenses. Now when I say this I don't mean be so strict for yourself where you have to
track every single penny you're spending. What I mean is try and roughly work out how much you want
to allocate to different things in your life. So, for example, for me I know that because I have to
travel in and out a lot going to the hospital and things like that then I need a travel card
and that works out to be about £100 a month which I know is steep but back in the pre-clin days when
I lived close to uni and I could just walk to uni I knew that I didn't have to get this and I knew
I could kind of just top up whenever I needed. Now for food this is where I splurge I guess a little
bit. I try to allocate £30 to max £40 a week for my groceries and whatever's left I can use to go
out with friends - back when you could go out with friends - and if I ever need to get anything for
myself I try to use that for that. But as you can see that's a pretty simple outlook for how I try
to break it up. It's not, 'Uh, okay today I can only spend this much and that much and do this.';
it's not trying to live in that kind of way. My next tip is keep yourself accountable and for
me the way I've done this is I've used an online bank called Monzo and the great thing about Monzo
is it's a debit card which links in with this really great app that you can have in your phone
that helps you track everything you're spending so you don't have to count everything and it'll
just do it for you. And the great thing about it is it just helps with the first tip of planning
expenses because you can see how much is going towards food and travel and whatnot and you can
make minor adjustments for how you should better spend your money. And on top of that you can set
a budget every single month, it will do the math for you and tell you roughly how much you should
be spending each day and then from that it can tell you when you start to spend a little bit over
or if you're under and then you can give yourself a little bit of freedom in that way.
It doesn't matter what you use as long as you can use something that helps you stay organised
and helps you stay accountable. So my next tip is focusing on getting groceries and cooking more for
yourself. If you really want to save at university the best way to start is to step up your game of
cooking and to focus more on buying groceries as opposed to eating out all the time. Don't worry,
you're going to start off with pasta just like everyone else and all it really takes though is
just, with time, just try out new recipes, try out things you like, try finding things
that are you know easy and simple and slowly you'll get the hang of it. Eating out in London
is expensive. I feel like if I went to a restaurant I wouldn't be surprised if I'm
spending anywhere from £10 and above for something I'd say which is fairly decent. Obviously there
are places you can go to which are a little bit cheaper and obviously if you're getting takeout
for maybe lunch and things like that it might not be as bad but what I'm trying to say is try
to minimise how often you do so if your focus is to save money. I know that it's more convenient
to just get takeout but it's not necessarily as good for you as cooking for yourself and you
can kind of look after your wallet and also your health a little bit better when you're cooking for
yourself. An app that I can really recommend that I guess kind of ties into this whole food thing
is Too Good To Go. Essentially it's an app that you pay a little fee - so sometimes that's £3,
maybe a little bit more, a little bit less - and you go to a restaurant nearby you near its closing
time and you can collect a takeaway bag of food. Some places obviously give a little bit more,
some places give a little less, there's an element of luck in terms of how good your haul can be
but I've had especially good luck at the YO! Sushi near where I used to live in first year,
second year and third year so I can strongly recommend that. My next tip is getting a
part-time job. I think the best thing you can do if you're trying to save money is to give yourself
a little bit of freedom and a little bit of leeway by earning a little bit of money. Personally, I've
worked in retail during my gap year where I worked at Hollister but when I got to uni I knew that I
couldn't work those kind of hours in a retail store so instead I focused on doing some private
tutoring. I feel like by doing part-time work, whether that's fnb or retail or working at your
university at the café or helping out for tours and stuff like that, I feel like you can pick up
so many new skills so I definitely recommend doing that. When it comes to getting a part-time job you
do have to be careful with how many hours you do. You want to make sure you're not overdoing it and
tiring yourself out to the point where you can't even spend time with your friends or with your
family or doing things that you actually want to do. And my last tip is just to review things
every once in a while. So what I mean by that is, after a couple of months of trying to plan
your expenses, trying to cook a little bit more, focusing on groceries rather than eating out,
trying to keep yourself accountable, see what's working, see what isn't. Like really ask yourself,
'Am I working too much at my part-time job?' or 'Am I being too strict on myself?' or 'Actually,
oh okay, I'm actually able to save myself a little bit, maybe I can be a little bit nicer to myself
and give myself a treat every now and again.' It's asking questions like 'Oh, do I really need this
coffee every single time I go to uni? Could I just make a coffee at home?' The whole point of that is
just after a couple months once you try something you can kind of take a step back and just see
what's working. But before I do go I want to end on this point: everything you do, whether it comes
to saving money or really anything in life, is about balance. Saving is important but you
shouldn't feel the need to turn down opportunities where you could spend time with friends,
make new memories, meet new people and things like that just because you're worried about a couple of
pounds. I guarantee your budget will be all over the place in freshers but that's the whole point
of freshers; it's getting to know a new place, meeting new people but also getting to know
yourself and the ways you spend money and the ways you could save money. Well anyways, I hope you
guys enjoyed that. Thank you so much for watching and until then, I'll see you guys in the next one.
Peace.