How to Make that Student Loan go Further

When your student loan comes into your account it can be an exciting time. All that money sat there and what will you do with it? There are always the stories of spending it all in the first weekend, going on a night out every night for a month or buying the latest FIFA.

Whilst all of these things are tempting, there are necessities that you will need to spend your loan on. Hopefully some of the tips below help making those pounds go further.

Tip Number 1: Eat well for Less

No, SAS Teesside has not teamed up with Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin to plug their TV show but we can definitely learn a few things from them. Have a think about your weekly food expenditure, plan ahead and batch cook meals and even though those named brands may be the ones that are in the cupboard back home, some of the own brand products taste the same for a fraction of the price.

Tip Number 2: Bulking not sulking

Bulk out your food with healthy, nutritious add ons. If you are making a chilli or a chicken dish, add a tin or two of beans. These could be baked beans, chickpeas, butter beans or lets get it started with some black eyed peas. Buy these tins which cost less than buying more meat and they will make your meals go further. Oh and they also contain loads of protein and fiber to keep those hunger pains away to keep you going for longer.

Tip Number 3: Budget

Now, I am sure many times you have seen that you should put in place some kind of budget. But here is our quick and easy way of working out rough estimates on how much money you have.

Step one – Subtract all fixed costs that you know about for that time period. This may be things like rent, mobile phone bill etc. You cannot change these amounts so plan ahead and don’t include them in your weekly spend amount and take them out early doors.

Step two – Time frame. Work out how long you are going to have to live off this student loan. Some terms are longer than others so count the weeks.

Step three – Divide and conquer. Divide the amount that you have in your account (minus your fixed costs) by the number of weeks that you have to live off this loan. You will then have a weekly spending amount which you can try to stick too. Sometimes you will have a good week and spend less than this, other weeks you may spend a little more but have this figure in your head and you can ensure you get to the end of the term.