Hello!

As it is nearly Christmas / mid way through our final year, we thought we would write about the topic of money as it seems to be a big thing right now.

When you go to uni, whether you get a loan, a grant, a bursary or neither, learning how to budget your money becomes one of the most important things you will learn how to do. When we both first started uni, initially it was quite hard to budget our money in a way which gave us enough to do what we wanted to do for example – money for food, drink, bus tickets, train tickets, nights out, washing power etc etc. After a while you do get used to it but initially it is a bit weird as you find yourself thinking about things that you probably haven’t thought about before: like washing powder, tea bags, milk, cheese, bread etc. Buying things like washing powder, washing up liquid, bin bags etc are all very mundane but also very important so it’s always good to make sure you have enough money to buy them when thinking about money. In regards to food shopping – one thing to do is to take advantage of any deal or offer in a supermarket as you can actually save quite a lot of money in the long run. It’s good to buy non-branded stuff as it really is so much cheaper and it’s also good to makes sure that you don’t buy more than you need.

In terms of nights out: you genuinely can have a good night out in Lancaster without spending much money. Entry into the LUSU club is usually around £3/£4, and if you drink at pre drinks, you don’t need to spend much when you’re actually in the club. In terms of taxis, a taxi from town to campus is usually around £10 or there is the free sugar bus home after a night out which is always so handy to use and so you don’t need to splash out a lot of money to have a good night out.

We both have railcards and the are probably one of our best purchases ever. You can literally save so much money with them – whether you are travelling home or just getting the train somewhere for the day – you save 30% which really does make a big difference!

It is quite hard to explain what ‘money’ is like at uni, as everybody has different experiences but, money does become quite an important thing and as long as you spend it wisely / keep an eye on it, then you won’t have anything to worry about.

Merry christmas and happy new year!

Becky and Katie x