ZRTutoring

Money, money, money. One of the main stressors at university is managing your finances.

Budgeting is a key way to reduce the anxiety and uncertainty about your money and where it’s going. Student loan may be a student’s first time receiving a large sum of money and then realising it must last for the entire term is another issue. Some students may have parents that can support while others do not.

It’s completely natural to worry about finances, with a budget and forecasting you can anticipate any shortfalls and issues.

How to create a budget

In the most general terms it’s about anticipating what money is coming in vs leaving your accounts. Many university onboarding guides have rough estimates of common expenses which can serve as agood basis.

A common example of money coming in would be: student loan, part-time work versus expenses such as: rent, laundry, clothing, books, stationary, societies, sports.

Listing your items on a granular level will help indicate which areas are the big spenders. If you like going out but spend £100s at the bar, perhaps some steps need to change if this doesn’t fit in your budget.

There are many free templates available online and what should help you chose is the purpose and what information you need. You can always amend the template to personalise too!

With the expected items, I put a miscellaneous section and add a 20% buffer to all anticipated values. It can then be a pleasant surprise when you’re under budget, it also accommodates for unexpected and unanticipated emergencies.

Create an actual vs projected

With your budget you can split this by time. So you can do a projection on a weekly, monthly or termly basis. For me, I anticipate that Christmas period and my birthday period will be more expensive so I’ll need to budget more for those times. Create an actual spend on the similar time basis.

As you go through the month you can understand more about your spending habits. For me, eating out at university was one of my biggest expenses. If you notice that your projected is larger than your actual you’ve made savings, if not, you’ve overspent. If you’ve overspent then it’s time to reflect on what caused this.

For example, if you notice that you spend much more on laundry than expected perhaps you’ll need to adjust the general budget as it’s more expensive than anticipated or it could be the fact you are overwashing and not managing when you do your laundry.

From here, it’s also important to improve the accuracy of your actual vs projected as the closer it is to reality the more reliable you can predict your cashflow. So you can amend the projected to better reflect your actual behaviour. I.e. you’ve anticipated spending £100 on groceries one week but you’ve spent £50 instead, the £100 was from the first week when you had to buy a lot of staples at one time.

With large projected costs you can put aside a specific value of money to make that sum. An example could be a deposit for moving house. This can be more than 1 months rent at one time and the longer in advance you’re aware of it, the longer you can save and the less impact you’ll have on your day-day.

From your prediction, you can now anticipate any potential issues going forward and you can troubleshoot and the actual, understand where and when your money is going and work your habits.

What happens if there are issues?

Most universities have some financial assistance in the forms of bursaries, scholarship or hardship funds. Scholarships don’t have a repayment parameter but may have specific criteria to be eligible. Bursaries are usually needs-based and dependent on your circumstances while hardships funds may be used in times of emergency. These factors are available on a university’s website.

Part-time work opportunities

In university towns and cities, a lot of company’s anticipate the seasonal nature of students and are accommodating. Most universities have a career portal which will give opportunities on and off-campus. Freelance work is also a great  aspect, however, remember the ultimate focus is your studies. If the amount of work you’re doing is negatively impacting your health and studies, it’s important to check if this is right option for you.

In conclusion, budgeting and finance can be a large hurdle as a student, but taking these proactive steps will turn it from a worry to a manageable problem and give you life skills going forward.