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Ultimate student savings tips
10 key savings tips to make your money go further during your studies.
Depressingly low bank balances are a sad reality of student life for most people, especially with cozzie livs continuing to rear its ugly head.
Thankfully there's plenty of ways to save as a student:
1. Start a budget
It's bland, it's boring, but it can be the key to saving money. The humble budget is the most effective way of getting on top of your spending and saving, and the one habit from university you can take with you guilt-free for the rest of your life.
2. Make the most of student discounts
Never again in your life will you have access to so many amazing discounts on everything from transport to tech.
Trust us on this one, there'll come a point in your life when you'll pine for the days your student card saw action.
3. Get government support
If you haven't looked into it, it's high time you checked if you're eligible for any form of government financial assistance like Austudy, Youth Allowance, ABSTUDY, or a number of other payments designed to help out students.
4. Keep debt to a minimum
Do you really need to take out a loan to buy that new car you've been eyeing off or get that credit card to cover your next holiday?
Unnecessary debt not only costs you lots in the short-term (through interest payments), it also has a huge impact on your ability to save and grow your money going forward.
5. Buy a coffee machine
The daily coffee can be a hard habit to break, but luckily there's a cost-saving workaround.
Say you get a $5 coffee every weekday. That's $25 a week, or $1,300 a year. You can easily pick up a more than decent coffee machine on sale for around $600-700.
This means it'll pay for itself within a year max, once you throw in the cost of buying your own beans.
6. Buy second hand
Second-hand shopping has never been more accessible. Whether it's clothes, cars, electronics, books (including textbooks), think of an item and chances are there's someone reselling it somewhere at a great price.
7. Use a budgeting app
If you're struggling to get on top of your spending and saving, there's a range of apps that can help you create a budget, analyse your spending or find you a better deal.
8. Meal prep
Good meal prep is a modern miracle. It can save you money, time, make you healthier and even teach you valuable cooking skills. If meal prep was a drug it would be illegal.
9. Buy in bulk
You can save serious money simply by buying items you use regularly in higher quantities, especially costlier items like cosmetics, toiletries and cleaning products. Adopt this as a general rule and you can't go wrong.
10. Shop smarter
Another general rule that will hold you in good stead. Make it your mantra to wait for sales, shop around before buying and checking the clearance aisle at your local supermarket.
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