Living independently means finding a budget

Budgeting is a skill that you learn. It can take time to work out what your budget is and how you can manage your own spending habits. Having a budget isn't as tricky as what it sounds, it's just a case of working out how you'll best spend your money.

Here’s some advice for creating your budget: 

Set aside just half an hour 

It shouldn't take too long to work out what your budget will look like. Half an hour of planning could save you lots of time and money in the future. It's ok to draw up a first draft of your budget, sometimes you can overcompensate or undercompensate so it's ok to be flexible with how your budget will work as you learn what more about what you need to spend your money on.

Figure out what length of time your budget is going to cover

Often you'll be working to when you'll receive your student loan as well as when you might be paid for any part time work you do at university. Your maintenance loan will come in September/October, January and April. Your part time work, however, may pay you weekly, fortnightly, monthly. Try to start with a 'monthly' budget and then work out from there what you can afford to spend each week.

Write out your income and your expenses

If you’re keeping a weekly budget, write down how much you have to spend that week as well as what expenses you have e.g. grocery shopping, hair cut, train tickets, birthday meal out. The University's Money Advice and Guidance team have advice on how to set your budget and taking control of your money here.

Compare your income and your expenses to find out if your budget balances

If your total expenses are equal to your total income, then your budget is balanced. If your income is higher than your expenses, you’re in surplus — but if your expenses are higher than your income, you have a deficit. If you have a deficit, you might need to find ways to reduce your spending, like eliminating unnecessary expenses, identifying cheaper alternatives, or looking into ways to increase your income. If that still doesn’t help, you might need to look into what kind of assistance is available here.

There are a lot of different ways to keep a budget, like the envelope method, the 50/30/20 budget, and others. Your style of budgeting might look different to your friends and that's fine. It's also ok to share tips, hacks and advice that you've found helpful.

Save the Student have a super handy guide to calculating your student budget here!

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