Being a more frugal student
Being a student in Lancaster is for many their first taste of freedom. You are your own master… hate that brand of cereal your parents always bought? Well it doesn’t matter any more…you buy what you want.
The downside of this freedom is that you suddenly start to realise that things cost a bit more money than you thought, and there are some things you need to pay for that you didn’t even know had to be paid for…water bills are surprisingly expensive, and that cereal you wanted?..well that’s actually £4.20 and only lasts a single sitting after one of those nights (you know the kind)
Here are some things we learnt along the way that may help you out, we’ll keep it brief…
Finding the right student accommodation
With Unipad you’re all set, everything you need to stay alive (apart from food) is included, a utility allowance, maintenance and cleaning. If you aren’t in one of our lovely student properties, make sure you put money aside for utilities at the start of the month or when your student loan comes in..they can cost more than you think.
A great way of saving money on accommodation is sharing with friends, choose wisely, whilst P-Man is a great laugh, could you cope for a whole year with his rather messy kitchen habits?
Pre Drinks
Even the student friendly bars around Lancaster can be expensive, a lot of your student loan can just disappear into tasty liquid. Minimise drinking and be consciou of your finances.
Don’t buy all the books you need
At the start of the year you may get a reading list. But do you really need to buy all those books fresh spanking new? Checkout eBay and amazon marketplace for second hand bargains.
Go Food Shopping!
Stock up on the cheap boring things – you know them, beans, cheese, bread, eggs, potatoes, even with just those few things there you could really nicely feed yourself for ages. Whilst Dominoes is nice and they have epic deals (although it always costs you £20) if you get into the habit you can easily see your student loan disappear into bread dough.
Why not try the KF Oriental Food Supermarket near Tesco express?, just out of the centre of town…if you steer clear of the fancy stuff you can pick up some fantastic bargains, we’re talking noodles. We also managed to pick up some Beef Manifold for £1.20 – which isn’t to everybody’s taste (nor ours it seems) but lasted for weeks
Earn some extra income
If you do have time why not try to earn a bit extra on the side? Lancaster is a university town and has loads of openings for supermarket staff, bar staff etc…Sainsburys near the river is a great place to work – and you get a discount on that expensive cereal you want. You can also earn commissions from Unipad for referring new students to us. If you’re a bit of an expert at social media why not approach us about what you can do to promote our brand.
We’ll leave this here but we have a loads more and I’m sure you could be spending your time doing something better than reading our blog when you could be looking at our awesome student accommodation!
