Budgeting for a university student is another important life skill…Whether they track their cash in a notebook, by a smartphone app or taking cash out and keeping it in little brown envelopes, if they can budget, this will lessen the burden when they leave Uni and go out into the wider world.
There’s a huge amount of helpful smartphone budgeting apps. A couple of higher scoring apps are:
MoneyWiz – £2.99 (Score 4.5/5)
http://bit.ly/1cMElTt (Apple)
Toshi Finance – Free (Score 4.3/5)
http://bit.ly/LGBgtG (Android)
http://bit.ly/1eMeUy4 (Windows)
While looking on-line for helpful tips and hints, we came across Alvin Hall…and liked what he was saying. Alvin is an internationally renowned independent finance expert and author, so we think he’s got some valid information to share.
ALVIN HALL’S TOP MONEY TIPS FOR STUDENTS
(parents, feel free to pass these off as your own!)
1. Strike the right balance. Don’t make your budget so tight that you feel constrained because then you’re more likely to swing over and go into a spending binge.
2. Be your own person. If you’re with a group of people who are going out and flashing the cash, you don’t have to do it. When you start running out of money or you fell under pressure, just say that you’re a little short. I guarantee you someone else among your friends will feel the same way and will appreciate you having drawn a line in the sand on the spending.
3. Live like a student: As a student you get specialist banking services, discounts at stores, cards and vouchers that give you discounts. Use them all because it increases the spending power of your money.
4. Be savvy: Read the details of your overdraft, your bank account, any credit cards you have so that you can find the deal that’s most suitable to you.
5. Be cash happy: When you go out at night with friends, put only the amount of cash in your wallet that you can afford to spend.
We hope you get chance to visit the websites we’ve recommended – look out for our next blog on student bank accounts...
