Bin diving, nights in and finding a new found love for charity shops How can you live well on a budget while studying at university? Adjusting to the student lifestyle is hard, lets not beat around the bush. Paying rent, cleaning our own clothes and buying our own food are all things we must adapt too. We all know food is a feel good factor but how do you indulge on luxuries when living on a budget? How do you buy outfits for freshers parties when all you have to spend is £20? There are some simple but effective steps that, as students, we can all do to ensure we fill our tummies, dress to impress and enjoy the occasional day out without emptying our bank balance. Step one - eating out on a fiver Eating well doesnt have to mean spending a fortune - you need to be clever and know the market. Study the restaurants in your university town until you know them inside out, know when they do a curry and pint night, eat out for a fiver deals or two meals for the price of one. So many restaurants and pubs offer cheap evening meals, be sure not to pass up the opportunity of eating out with only a ten pound note needed in your wallet. Step two - invite your mates round and dine in Who said you had to go out to have a good time? Inviting friends round for dinner is a really good way of spreading the costs. Make a night of it and ask everyone to bring round one ingredient and all cook the meal together. This creates a social event in the calendar and means you can enjoy a tasty banquet for as little as £5 a head. Step three - keeping charity shops on your radar I have fallen in love with charity shops. Keep them on your radar and know when they re-stock their clothes. You want to get in their first so you can take your pick of what you may or may not want. Better still, get friendly with a dab hand on a sewing machine so you can buy something that may barely fit and get it adjusted. Charity shops are amazing places for woolly jumpers when you cant afford to put on the heating, fancy dress and quirky Christmas gifts for the family. Step four - bin dive Not everyones cup of tea but something I highly recommend. Most well-known supermarkets chuck hundreds of items of food away every day and the bins are never too hard to find. Why waste perfectly edible food when we have stomachs to fill? For me and my three housemates this activity is something that has kept us going. We have lived off luxury apple pie for a week, discovered a love for sweet chilli dipping sauce and carried so many bananas home one evening they were falling out of our arms. Never say no to free food. Saving money doesnt have to be a slog, living on an average of £75 a week doesnt need to seem like a strain. By saving the odd pound here and there, getting your friends to cook dinner with you at £5 a head or raiding the charity shops for their best outfits you can save lots of money and make your few nights out even more enjoyable than ever. Work hard, think wise and your wallet will never be in a state of despair.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 23:37:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015