How to Handle Your Money as a Student

As a student, money can be a scary topic. It’s usually the first time you’ll be living away from home. It’s a huge shift and it can be very daunting.

Here at Student.com, we’re here to help where we can with getting you the very best accommodation for our range of excellent accommodation partners. Here are four tips to help with your money during your time at university!

Tip 1: Getting your groceries the cheapest possible way

Let’s face it, you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to different supermarkets in the UK. We have some really good options but which is the best value for money? ALDI is generally considered the very best value for money with the average weekly shop being the cheapest in the UK, followed by rival Lidl. You’ll typically see lots of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons but Aldi are the cheapest overall.

The vegetable section in a supermarket — You can save a good amount of money by going to cheaper supermarkets.

Tip 2: Buy second hand rather than buying new

You can often buy hardly used products on second hand websites nowadays often for a lot less than going into a shop. There are numerous second hand websites such as ebay and Vinted that can list the items you are looking for at a much cheaper price. For example, I wanted a pair of blue Converse and in a shop they were £60. I looked on Vinted and I bought the same pair that had been worn once for £22. I had to pay a delivery fee of £3.95 but overall this was a lot cheaper than buying brand new from the shop.

A flea market — Buying things second hand, either online or in-person, can save you a lot of money.

Tip 3: Spreading your accommodation rental payments with Housing Hand

Some accommodation providers will ask for the full rental payment in one or a handful of instalments. The later you are booking (July to September), the fewer instalments you would tend to pay to the provider. In the UK there are services like Housing Hand where they can pay the larger instalments for you and you can pay them back in instalments every month. Click here to check them out.

The Housing Hand office — Housing Hand will help you pay your rent in smaller instalments.

Tip 4: Student banking in the UK

When you’re sending money to a UK bank account, there can be extra fees along the way. To help minimise any costs, we’d recommend using a Wise Student Account. With no monthly fee and your own debit card, you can use money sent to this account in the UK from a specified local currency. Click here to check it out.