Budgeting 101 for Exeter freshers

At university it’s tempting to spend money all the time. There’s drinking, new clothes, snacks on campus and more that make it so easy to drain your bank account. Being away from home for the first time makes being responsible with money ten times harder. As a second year, here are my top tips to avoid financial worries while still having fun. 

Planning and meal prep

Planning is essential when budgeting and saving money.

First, give yourself a weekly budget, then plan your week. With your week organised, you can gauge how much you’ll be spending each day. For example, if you have scheduled your food shop on Wednesday, you know it will be a pricier day. This means you should plan to spend less money on Monday or Tuesday to ensure you adhere to your weekly budget. 

Another way to save money through planning is by meal prepping. In your weekly plan, include your meals. This means when you do a food shop you are spending money effectively rather than just choosing meals off the shelves. You can plan two meals involving the same ingredients, such as fajitas and red pepper pasta which both use peppers. Creating a meal plan helps you minimise the spending of your weekly food shop. 

By meal prepping, you can also plan to cook meals with multiple portions, which will hopefully prevent the temptation to order takeaways. If you know you have meals in the freezer, why spend money ordering in?

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Budgeting fun money

A large part of university is the social aspect, which often involves money. Going to the pub, the club or out for lunch is a great way to spend time with friends, even though it unfortunately can be a bit expensive. To ensure you can still have fun with friends and save money, work your ‘fun money’ into the weekly budget. Pub trip on Friday? Schedule it in to the budget. Though you may also want to account for the inevitable spontaneous night out as well. Once again, planning, where possible, is essential to making sure you are budgeting successfully. 

Discounts and Offers

A big portion of your weekly budget is going to be a weekly food shop. A way to limit the price of this is by signing up for your supermarket’s members’ card. For example, Sainsbury’s has the Nectar card, which gives you discounts and offers that you can use at checkout. Other supermarkets have similar schemes such as Morrisons’ More Card and Tesco’s Clubcard. 

One of the benefits of being a student is getting a student discount, my personal favourite way to save money. By using the UNiDAYS app or your student ID, you can get discounts online and in-stores. Don’t be afraid to ask if stores are participating or not, because best case scenario, you get money off your purchase!

Budgeting may be hard but totally doable. Don’t always go for the pricier brands at the supermarket, limit your night out spending, and most importantly plan! If you follow this, you can simultaneously enjoy university and be financially responsible.