Few students have significant savings in their account before moving out for the 1st time. Student Housing Australia would like to suggest seven different ways to improve your budgeting skills and bank balance.
Prepare a budget plan.
Planning out your daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly budget can save you plenty. Listing your expenses and allocating money towards rent and utilities, allows you to understand how much you can spend on outings and travel. Using banking apps and spreadsheets can make this task much easier, whereby you can enter your income and expense figures and it will calculate your budget for you.
Use your student card when you can.
At the cinema, sporting events or on public transport, you may be eligible for special student discount prices. This gives you the opportunity to enjoy regular outings at a cheaper price. These days every cent counts so the more discounts you seek out, the more you will see these savings add up in your bank account.
Walk, walk and walk!
Owning a car or using public transport can be very expensive. For certain trips during the week, why not take a stroll to your destination and save some dollars, while also enjoying the health benefits.
Earn some extra money.
Why not earn extra money by doing little tasks around your area. Apps such as Airtasker can advise people what skills you have and help you earn some extra money. Furthermore, selling items that you don’t use, will not only free up some space, it’ll give you more cash in your pocket.
Don’t keep buying lunch.
Meal planning each week will not just benefit your health but also your wallet. Planning out and pre-preparing your daily meals ahead of time will help you to not give in to those random fast food cravings that can be costly. But for those coffee lovers, why not bring your own coffee from home and you will start to see some significant savings adding up each week.
Student Nights.
Looking for cheap drinks and meals as a student? Well why not check out your local restaurants and bars for weekday specials. You can use this as a reward with your study groups to celebrate a productive day’s work while supporting local businesses.
Supermarket Discount
Supermarkets will discount many products when they are close to their use-by date. You can save plenty by heading down to a supermarket at the end of the day to pick-up some great discounts, but be wary that you don’t buy too much that it can’t all be consumed before the use by.
SHA has passed on seven handy tips for student budgeting, now it is up to you to make the moves. You can take on all the tips above, or just one, but as you develop your budgeting and saving skills, you will see the benefits in regularly reviewing and refining your budgeting.
