#BUDGET PLANNING FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS FULL#

In other words, this is how much money you've got to spend on all those non-essential things each week.įor example, if your income across the first term is £3,000 and your essential expenditure adds up to £1,500, you would have £125 a week (across a 12-week term). You've now got your weekly student budget. Divide the number you're left with by the number of weeks in a term.Minus your essential expenses for the same period.Work out your total income for a term at university.Brace yourself, as this is where it starts to get real. Once you've got all your expenses laid out before you, it's time to break it down into a weekly budget. Use our data on the average student living costs as a guide to how much you could be spending. You can either look back at your bank statement to tot up all your previous purchases or simply input a rough estimate of how much you think you spend on each category. Next up you need to figure out where all your money is going. Extra money from bursaries for students.Remember that your Maintenance Loan will come in three big instalments throughout the academic year, so it's up to you to budget this out across that period.

This will set the parameters of your spending, so think carefully about every possible source of revenue. Whether you're trying to save up for a big spend like a summer holiday or a new games console, or whether you just want to be prepared for emergencies (we're talking broken laptops and smashed phone screens), a strong budget is exactly what you need.įirst up, you need to work out much money you've got to play with. It helps keep the water level consistent so you can continue to spend money on the things you need and enjoy (within reason, of course). Then you have to start plugging those holes (your spending habits).

However, there is a problem if the water level gets too low. The water level will constantly be changing, but as long as there's always enough water in the bucket at any one time, there's no problem.

#BUDGET PLANNING FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS FULL#

Every now and then, a tap opens to fill it up – this is your income.Īnnoyingly, your bucket is full of holes that are leaking your money. Imagine your bank account is like a leaky bucket. Budgeting might seem pretty boring (something your parents told you to do but you never quite got round to), but there are loads of benefits to tracking and controlling your spending.

Budget planning for college students