Crafty Student Money Saving Tips

Your bank balance is dramatically reducing before your very eyes and you have absolutely no idea why (all those nights out and impulse shopping purchases didn’t cost that much surely?) After frantic googling, you’ve tried all the normal money saving tips and you’re still struggling. You have rent to pay, carnage is next month and you were supposed to head home for a mates birthday. What are you gonna do? Read this blog, check out our top sneaky money saving tips – ones that you might not necessarily have thought of!

Cutting Costs

Starting with the Slightly Obvious…Get a Travel Card

If you’re travelling regularly, be it train or tube then you need to really maximise your discount. Natwest offer a free railcard for those under 25 with an account with them, which ensures a third off all train tickets! The card also provides you with opportunities to enter a variety of competitions and access loads of different offers, including West-End theatre discounts and holiday.

If you’re not with Natwest then fear not, these tickets are available for purchase. The 16-25 railcard is designed for those in full time education and you can purchase a card for either 1 or 3 years. As of 2012, a one-year card costs £28, and a three-year card costs £65 – but this really is nothing compared to the money you’ll save for a regular traveller. Buy it online at: Railcard. And if you can’t get hold of a discount card and you usually travel in a group, or you’re making a one off trip as a group, most rail companies have a group money-saving deal – for example, three or four adults can travel for the cost of two adults.

If you get the bus to uni, some universities have free buses which are great. If you live outside the free bus route, but still get the bus to uni then why not check out yearly or even weekly passes from the local bus company?  Massive amounts of money saved and it stops you having to faff about for spare change!

For those of you in London, I’d imagine that you already have an oyster card, but if you don’t…where on earth have you been?!

Buy a Printer

Printer

There is nothing worse than being in the library on deadline day waiting for your assignment to print out in a queue of what seems like thousands of angry students. Buying a printer, though a one off cost, is an investment which will save you a lot of time and stress. Some universities offer limited free printing credits, but many don’t and so you’ll have to buy printing credits. Save the hassle and the effort of getting up and going into uni to print something by having a nice printer under your desk. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy, just something that does the job! Buying a printer has a number of benefits: you can turn up to lectures with your lecture notes printed which means uber organisation…or minimal listening, whichever you prefer, you will never miss a deadline due to faulty uni printers and you’ll save yourself a fortune.

Don’t Buy A TV Licence!

The TV licence website states that :

“If you don’t watch or record television programmes, or you only stream TV programmes online after they’ve been broadcast – through on-demand services like YouTube, BBC iPlayer and 4oD – you don’t need to be covered by a TV Licence.”

Which means that catch up TV and on-demand TV doesn’t require a TV license! Don’t waste your money, buy a HDMI to HDMI cable which links your laptop to your TV and settle down the day after (you’ll just have to stay off all forms of social media til then to avoid spoilers!) If you don’t have a tv license, get yourself some snacks and curl up in bed on a Sunday catching up on all the telly you missed during the weekend! Time to chill and get involved in all the TV discussions! If you do need a TV license, then make sure you claim back any months where you’re not actually in university! This could mean a rebate of around £37 depending on if your licence is valid for at least 3 full calendar months and don’t require it again before it expires.

Other Tips…

*Get free condoms from your local GP or many pharmacies (if you’re a bit of a Casanova this could save you a lot of money)

*Pre drinks are essential. Why not split with your housemates? Cheaper and more alcohol!

*Try and cook your meals together

*Ebay is your friend, if you don’t want it – sell it

*Embrace your vintage side at charity shops

*Freecycle – you can get some great stuff for absolutely free!

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