Student Accommodation Gillingham

Students can waste their money on all sorts of things and at the same time complain about the lack of funds they have in their accounts. Given all that you have to pay for when you're living away from home you'd think you would be more thrifty and wise with your money! So we thought we would give you 5 common ways students waste their money and hopefully this will help you cut back on your spending!!

1. Eating Out/Take Out
From my experience as a student it was a tendency of mine to buy hot meals every other day on campus. Although the meals on campus were not bad value they still cost quite a bit more money than it would be if I’d made something at home. Deciding to swap out a campus lunch with making a sandwich or bringing leftovers to eat a couple of times a week will definitely aid you into getting more out of your budget. 

Getting a take away or eating out with friends is always great and there's nothing wrong with getting a meal out occasionally - but this is something students do way to frequently, with Subway and Dominos at your fingertips there's no wonder your bank account is looking a bit sad. You might be used to "Take Away Fridays" at home but uni that might be a luxury that you can't afford.

2. Library Fines
While taking books out of the library will help save you money in the long run, it will almost certainly not help you if you’re not good at getting them back on time. Although the initial fine of an outstanding library book may seem small the more days you let go by before you return it will end up with you spending more money than you anticipated. 

Make sure you keep a reminder in your phone or post it to remind you of what you have out on loan and the date it needs to be back by.

3. Food Shopping When Hungry
Many students take a very relaxed attitude to shopping, and wander around the supermarkets filling up their trolleys with whatever they fancy at the time. Already dangerous this can be made worse by you feeling hungry and wanting to appease your appetite. 

Plan your meals in advance and write a list of what you need - this way you won't waste money on copious amounts of chocolatey goodness and won't judge yourself harshly for the choices you made.

4. Unused Memberships
So you signed up for the gym about 6 months ago and you’ve literally only been twice (the first time was your induction ) maybe you should think about actually getting the most of your money or cancelling your membership! You don't really need to go to a gym anyway! Go for a run, or join a uni sports team. 

And are you forgetting about that subscription you have to Spotify that you’re not actually using because you’re still playing all your music through YouTube… yeah, it's time to say goodbye.

5. Nights Out
As a uni student, your social life can be especially important, but you can easily waste money by overdoing the spending on nights out. Undeniably, alcohol is expensive - so if you plan on doing both “pre-drinks" and drinking at the club make sure you go for the cost effective option: 

Do most of your drinking at home this way you know exactly how much you've spent and won’t have to go through the agony of trying to work out how much money you lost last night to Jaeger Bombs and Sambuca shots. Or... you could go one step further and cut out drinking and save even more money (but that's the crazier option!).