Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Managing your money
This might be the first time you're completely managing your own money. Here's a few tips to help you get started with budgeting and financing your studies.
Budgeting
When working out your budget, start by writing down everything you expect to spend money on over a year. Split it into essentials and non-essentials. Then take down all your income and work out the difference.
If your income is smaller than your spending then you can work out where you can cut back. Many students also get part-time jobs to help top up their money throughout the year.
Your spending and money saving ideas
- Rent (see our rent prices page to get an idea for your preferred accommodation)
- Food - this can vary a lot but we would expect about £30-40 per week
- Bills - most of these are included in your rent, but factor in things like your phone contract
- Travel - buses, taxis, bike hire
- Course materials
- Nights out (drinks, club entry, taxis, takeaways)
- Eating out
- Hobbies (cinema tickets, gigs, festivals, books)
- Clothes
- Gym membership
- Haircuts and other beauty expenses
- Subscription services (Amazon Prime, Netflix)
- Travelling (flights, hotels)
- Gifts and charity
Money Saving Expert is full of great money-saving guides, vouchers and discounts. They send out a weekly email full of the latest offers and there is an active forum - there's even a section dedicated to Student Money Saving.
Once you have your student email address you'll be able to sign up to discount sites full of student offers where you can get discounts on food, entertainment and fashion retailers such as Asos, Topshop/Topman, Domino's and Waterstones to name a few.
Here are some of our favourite sites:
- Totum (formerly NUS Extra)
- UNiDAYS
- studentbeans.com
Student support
Our university has some great information on how to fund your studies or if you would like to speak to someone over the phone, there is a Student Money Advice team. They can give you confidential specialist advice about student funding and can also help with general information about budgeting, debt and welfare benefit entitlement.
