Surviving on a student budget

Wondering how you're going to manage your finances when you start university? From getting your student loan in order, to making the most of the perks of student bank accounts, final year vlogger Olivia is here to give you her best tips for not only surviving but thriving on a student budget!

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[00:00:02] Olivia - student: Hi, my name is Olivia, and here are my top tips for surviving on a student budget. (Text on screen saying 'Get organised').

First things first, you've got to get organised, you've got to know what's coming in your bank, what's going out, how much you have to spend on things like food and rent. Personally, I just like to track this on my banking app. I can just see that live, what's coming in and what's going out and I know how much money I have to spend. I know it can sometimes be difficult, but if you can keep to a budget, especially for essentials like food, then that can really help you keep on top of everything. So in my account, I have a really good idea of what kind of money is coming in - so that's like from my student loan, from maybe part-time job and also what's going out. So I know exactly how much kind of I'm spending on food each week, how much I spend on clothes and takeaways and other things. And I really just try and stick to that budget as best as I can. I know it's not going to be exactly the same every single week, but if you kind of stay there or thereabouts, you can really stay on top of everything.

(Text on screen says 'Get a student bank account'). One thing that helps with that is getting a student bank account that way that money is separate from any other money that you might have. Also, sometimes you get perks with that, like sometimes there's a free bus pass or train pass. So have a little look around, see what best deal you can get and see if you can get any free perks as well.

(Text on screen saying 'Make use of student discount'). My number one tip is to make use of student discounts, you can get student discounts on almost everything Amazon, Spotify, student events, trainline tickets, literally almost everything in some way has a student discount. So look out for them and make use of them whilst you can. Some key discount sites you might want to look are UniDays, Student Beans and Totem. So surviving on a student budget really doesn't have to be that hard, just make sure you stay on top of things and making the most out of those discounts. Thank you for listening. [00:00:02][0.0]