How to Make the Most of Your Student Loan
Nights out, food shops, society stash, subscriptions, bills, the list goes on. As a student it can be so easy to spend big chunks of your loan without realising it. Below are a few useful tips on how to make the most out of your student loan.
Figure out your income?
Start by figuring out what your expected income is. It’s best to work this out monthly, as it’s easier to work out your budget in smaller increments. This can be from your student loan (divide the amount by the number of months it needs to last you), any income from jobs or side-hustles or any monthly payments from parents or carers. Once you’ve got this it is easier to work out what is affordable (it is always best to underestimate rather than overestimate).
Total up your expenses ?
Once you’ve done this you can subtract your monthly expenses e.g. rent, bills, tv licence. This is to make sure you set aside enough money each month for when they’re due. This is important as this will give you an idea of how much you can spend on other expenses. Also, if you’re looking for an easy and hassle-free way of paying bills using Student Places bills inclusive rent means you only have one fixed payment coming out every month and you won’t need to worry about setting up and cancelling contracts.
Sort out your direct debits ?
This means organising what you are paying for each month and accounting for these also whether this is your phone contract, Netflix, Spotify- don’t forget about these! Whilst you are sorting these you could see if you could reduce these direct debits as they can add up! For example, share a Netflix account with your housemates, or set up a Spotify family to pay less!
Budget!
You should now be left with an amount that you can use for food, takeaways, leisure, transport, university books and going out! Just don’t go over budget on this and you should be good to go!
