Student Budgeting

It's a good idea to put together a rough plan of your income and outgoings each month. If you need help with this, your university should have student advisers in the Students' Union that can help you. Alternatively ask the student adviser at your local bank. It might work in your favour if you find yourself in trouble later.

Do some research online on the best student bank accounts. You will need to look at important details like overdraft allowances, repayment plans (when you graduate) and how supportive they will be if you end up in financial trouble whilst studying. You might want to use a monthly budget planner to get you started.

Below is a template to help you get started on calculating your budget. Excel spreadsheets are probably the best software to use for budgeting, although drawing up a table with a pen and paper, is just as good as long as you're accurate about all your outgoings! Complete the table below to indicate the amount of income you will have this year, against the amount of money you will spend.

Income per month	Amount
Income from work	£.........
Student loan	£.........
Grant	£.........
Scholarship	£.........
Building society/bank interest	£.........
Parental contribution	£.........
Other	£.........
Total monthly income	£.........
Total annual income	£.........

Expenditure per month	Amount
Rent or mortgage	£.........
Food shopping	£.........
Lunches or meals out	£.........
Spending money	£.........
Bills (gas, electricity, telephone)	£.........
Public transport	£.........
Car costs (fuel, tax, insurance)	£.........
Loan repayments	£.........
Medical, dental or optical costs	£.........
Clothing, shoes etc	£.........
Other	£.........
Total monthly expenditure	£.........
Total annual expenditure	£.........

After completing your budget, one of the following situations may apply:

You have a comfortable surplus
Your income is much greater than your expenditure

Either of the these situations usually means that although you may not worry about your finances, you still consider it important to think about your financial goals and save for unexpected costs.

Or you could find that:

Things are a bit tight
Your income and expenditure are similar
You have a significant deficit
Your expenditure exceeds your income

If you find yourself relating to one above sentences, the need for on-going budgeting and money management whilst at university is essential. To ensure that you financially survive the academic year you should explore ways of reducing your expenses, and strategies for increasing your income. Some important decisions will need to be made about issues such as significantly cutting costs, securing a student loan and/or finding part-time work to support your studies.

Back to Student Finances

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