Money saving tips

By Sam | Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:37 | 1 comments

How to live on the cheap side

Going to the supermarket without a shopping list is financial suicide. You’ll end up blindly purchasing random ingredients without any real plan for how you’ll ever use them. This is a particularly risky strategy if you go shopping on an empty stomach.

Walk places

It’ll save you bus fare, and will also help you fight the freshers’ podge, which is good, because we all know that fat people spend more money on food than thin people.

Get free NHS dental care, prescriptions and eye tests

As a student you may eligible for free healthcare, but only if you fill in an HC1 Form first. You’ll be able to get a form from your doctors, dentist or optician. It age to fill out, an age to be processed, and only lasts 6 months once it’s been approved. It will save you money though.

Four Eyes

If you wear glasses, buy new frames online. For whatever reason, they’re much cheaper than highstreet opticians, and will normally have a bigger range of styles available.

Bulk Buy

Invest in bulk bags of pasta and rice. The bigger the bag you buy, the cheaper it will cost you per kilogram.

Go shopping at 7pm on Sundays

This is prime discount time. Supermarkets will clear out all of their soon-to-expire goods and put them on the hallowed reduced shelf. Half-price Coleslaw, yes please.

Come Dine With Me

If you and your housemates devise a weekly Come Dine With Me cooking rota, you will only have to pay for and prepare one or two meals a week.

Return library books on time

Set a reminder on your phone to return your books on time to avoid library fines.

Pre-drink at home

You would have done this anyway; we don’t need to encourage you.

Avoid the cornershop

Try and do a proper supermarket shop once a week. Odd trips to the cornershop to buy bread and biscuits will cost you considerably more.

Work your Student Discount

Shops knows that students are poor, so many offer discounts.

NUS Card/University ID

Students are eligible for a discount of around 10% in a number of shops, including Topman, New Look and Cineworld.

Student Discounts Card

Register on http://www.studentdiscounts.co.uk and they’ll post you out a card for even more discounts.

International Student Exchange Card

Perfect for anyone going travelling or spending a year abroad, the ISE will give you discounts all over the world in museums, attractions etc. Also comes with medical benefits, apparently.

Student Beans

Student Beans is the king of online discount sites. They have an offer for absolutely everything. Over 500,000 students use Student Beans every month, and you should too.

Get a Yellow Card

Yellow Cards are perfect for people who like to get drunk. They can only be used in Scream Pubs, a student-oriented pub chain, but most university cities will have one somewhere. Find out where your nearest one is at http://www.screampubs.co.uk

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Get a Nectar Card

A Nectar Card gives you points every time you shop in Sainsburys, Amazon, Argos and loads of other stores. Once you’ve built them up, you can redeem your points and get free stuff.

Get a Tesco Clubcard

The same as a Nectar Card, except it only works in Tesco, obviously.

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