Is money tight? Save some cash using these top tips from fellow Portsmouth students. Plus next week is your chance to get help with your finances from the Student Finance Team, following Talk Money Week, an annual campaign to get the nation talking about money.
Money saving tips from Portsmouth students
Food
- Meal prep - make something like curry or chilli family-sized and freeze or refrigerate the rest for later
- Group cooking with your flatmates helps to keep the food bills down
- Do your shopping before you get hungry - shopping on an empty stomach means you’ll spend more
- Buy frozen and dried foods like pasta, frozen veg, rice and sauces - healthier than takeaway too
- Delete Deliveroo, Uber Eats or other takeaway apps
Budgeting
- How to budget: Work out how many weeks until the next student loan, wages etc. Divide your income by that number to give you a weekly/monthly budget - for example £600 by 10 weeks is £60 per week
- Whatever you don’t spend from your weekly budget can go into a savings account
Saving on your spending
- Reduced sections are always the best place to shop for bargains
- Skip a night out occasionally (when that's possible again!) - your bank and grades will thank you
- More places have student discounts than you’d think - a lot don’t advertise it so much, so ask
Talk Money with the Student Finance team
The Student Finance team is on hand to give you information, advice and guidance at a series of events next week. Each afternoon they can talk to you about different finance subjects:
- Put your money where your mouth is - the importance of talking about money. Monday 16 November, 3.00pm
- Computer says no - What is credit scoring and how do you improve your score? Tuesday 17 November, 3.00pm
- Earn easy money by doing next to nothing - sounds too good to be true? That’s because it is. What are Money Mules and why they are targeting students? Wednesday 18 November, 3.00pm
- HELP! – how can we help you if you are in financial difficulty. Thursday 19 November, 1.00pm
- Live Q&A - ask our Student Money Adviser James Quinn questions relating to money, student finance, bank accounts and any other student finance. Friday 20 November, 3.00pm
Join a session
To join, drop in using the below link on your chosen day:
Get help with your finances
The Student Finance team can help you year-round with issues like putting together a budget, checking your funding is correct, advising you about benefits and supporting you if you are in financial difficulty.
And when it comes to being in financial difficulty, we want you to know that we will not judge you, we will listen to you and will do our best to advise and support you.
Why not book an appointment with an adviser and have a financial health check? You can do this by emailing studentfinance@port.ac.uk or calling 02392 843014.