HOW TO DO UNI ON A BUDGET PART 2





Okay so in my latest blog post, I showed you 5 useful ways that you could do uni on a budget (Part 1) . Since then, I have been thinking a lot about my tips and tricks that I have implemented to live as freely as possible as a student. I know that budgeting at uni is extremely difficult to stick to and many of us cannot say no to a night out, that is why I decided to make a Part 2 that will hopefully help some of you to ditch your bad spending habits.



So here is a compilation of 5 effective ways to do uni on a budget.


Does your best friend go to uni 3 hours away? Has she been pestering you to go and visit her for months now?. Oh and let me guess you said you couldn't go because "you didn't have enough money", well buying a railcard will save you 1/3 off your train ticket (which means more money to spend on drinks and partying), aka you have no more excuses and you should definitely go!. A railcard will cost you £30 for the year and if you regularly get trains to go home or see friends then it's a no brainer. 

Having a railcard will definitely allow you to do uni on a budget and make some huge savings




When you're not in lectures or out getting drunk with your friends, what are you doing? Probably feeling sorry for yourself for having such a horrific hangover and binge watching Black mirror on Netflix. Yes we've all been there and there's no problem with doing this from time to time. But whats the point in living in a city for 3-4 years and not ever really exploring it?

Go fetch your house mates and explore the many wonders of the beautiful city that you reside in, most cities will have free entry to attractions such as museums and cathedrals which can take your mind of the 2,000 word essay that is due next week, which you haven't even looked at.




Another way that you can do uni on a budget is pre drinking, I mean, are you even a student if you don't pre drink before you go on a night out? and inevitably pass out in the taxi back home?. Pre drinking is the easiest and quickest way of getting drunk without having to break the bank. For me, I could buy a £7 barefoot pink moscato rose and forget the entirety of the night but have the best time ever, for others with a higher tolerance you may need a couple of bottles to sort you out. 

Back in first year, I hated the concept of pre-drinking and could never keep up with anyone so I would wait until I got to my student union and would just shot straight vodka until it hit me. I don't think my liver has been the same since to be honest so now I take it a lot slower with pre drinks. Drinking games can also be a lot of fun too, I mean why wouldn't you want to find out your house mates deepest, darkest secrets? 




So obviously you can't do this all of the time because sometimes it could be too late to get the bus or there isn't a nearby bus stop, in which case you should share Ubers between your friends or even if you happen to meet people outside of the night club that are going back to campus/the same area as you, it makes sense to share a ride. 

Otherwise if you get the bus to uni everyday and you live off campus then it would make sense to purchase a bus pass. For me as I live in Bristol, I use an app called "First Bus M-Tickets" where you can buy 5 single student bus tickets for £5.00 and they're valid for a year which is so so good if you don't usually carry change on you and decide to get a bus somewhere last minute!


Catching buses instead of Ubers/taxis has definitely helped me to do uni on a budget and has given me extra money in my pocket which I can save for future nights out. 




 You've just started your course and your lecturer has given you a reading list of "essential" books for the year, there are about 5 books on this list and to buy them new would be £50 each. You know from your second year friends that you will probably only use them once or twice throughout the year so you're stuck on what to do?

First of all, if you want to actually buy the books you could have a quick search on Ebay or Amazon and see if you can find any used ones for sale that don't cost too much.  Otherwise, if you're not too bothered about keeping a book for good then try searching the name of it on your University library website and renting it out for a few weeks. I know a lot of books tend to get recalled quite quickly, so if you are able to get your reading list early then do this asap to save yourself some money.


I want to start writing a "University series" on this blog, where I give my advice and my anecdotal life lessons on a range of different topics, if there is anything in particular that you would like me to write about then comment below!


Thank you for reading, as per usual I really appreciate it!


Love Leah xx





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