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Food will be a key expense but some meals may be included with your
accommodation.

Often how much you spend on food will be determined by what you have left
after other things have been covered, but if you are entirely self-catering you will
need to make sure you have enough money to eat properly each week.

You could use an online supermarket to put together a basket of goods to get a
figure to put into your budget. Bear in mind that your first shopping trip is likely
to be more expensive than subsequent weeks’ if you are buying things such as
salt and sugar that could last the whole term.

Think about other one-off expenses you want to cover. Will you go home or visit
friends over the coming weeks? For this term, maybe you will want money for
Christmas celebrations and gifts. Do you want to hold some money back at the
start, or will you be able to earn it or have a birthday, say, when you could get a
gift?

Add up all of the costs for the term and subtract them from the money you will
have to cover them. When you are doing this, remember to work out first how
long you need the money to cover. Are you planning to go home in the holidays,
or will you need food etc, during that period, too? If the answer is negative – your
costs outweigh your cash – remember you are likely to have access to an interest-
free overdraft, assuming you have, or take out, a student bank account.

Bear in mind things can change when you start your course. It could be that at
the start of term you are able to walk from your accomodation to school but in
the winter you want to get the bus. You could lose your coat. Don’t think of your
budget as set in stone – tinker with it as you need to.

The Save the Student website has a budget spreadsheet you can download and
use throughout the year – you can input income and expenses on a weekly or
monthly basis. Before term begins, you can use expected figures to see how
far your money will stretch. Your bank may offer budgeting tools, particularly
if you use an app-based bank such as Monzo. To keep track of your spending
and whether you are keeping to your budget, you could try an app such as
Goodbudget.

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