Focus on the important
Find out for yourself what you want to achieve first – and what you need to achieve next week. You get plenty of time in school to dream about the future and career, so focus on the practical and the important things: Find a good place to live, get a handle on the study and the study environment. Make your everyday life work. Find the cheap supermarkets, buy a cookbook and make it a habit of yours to cook your own food. It’s a lot more fun, it’s healthier and it’s also cheaper.
Set a budget and consider insurance
Set a budget for an entire year, so you have control over both the monthly expenses for housing – and the bills that come quarterly such as electricity, gas, and water. Update your budget regularly. At the same time, create a budget account that you transfer a fixed amount to each month, so that you have some spare money if an unforeseen emergency happens, like a ruptured pipe or a broken freezer.
Consider buying insurance that can help you if you have a burglary or your bike is stolen.
Limit your material needs
Humans tend to have a hard time getting rid of things. Throughout life, most people have way too much stuff, that has no purpose in their everyday life. Moving is a great opportunity to get rid of some of the stuff that you have, but never really use.
Besides, less stuff means that the moving process is easier, and cheaper if you are using a moving company to help you.
Follow up on your spending
Try to store your receipts from the supermarket for some time. Calculate what you spend in a week – and set a goal that you can only buy groceries for a certain amount. As a single person and student, you can often make do with less than $50 a week in the supermarket.
An overview of your daily consumption will also open your eyes to expenses you did not think about at all – you may find that the many $ you spend on coffee in the morning are not worth the money.
Use your mobile for the internet
Consider whether it is smart to use your mobile connection – if it is good – for the internet at home. It is often cheaper to have a large data package for your mobile subscription than to have both a network connection at home and a mobile subscription.
Get a discount on your transport
Transport companies often have lots of discounts for you if you are young or a student. If you study, you can travel cheaply to and from school – and if you need to visit your parents or friends in other parts of the country, you can get discounts on train tickets.
Limit loans and credits
Overdrafts can be tempting but use them wisely. An overdraft should be the safety net you can use if the refrigerator breaks or you break a tooth. It is a pity to get in debt because of excess consumption.
Student loans are a very cheap way to borrow money but limit the loan as much as possible. Don’t loan money for anything that is not study-related, unless it is an emergency
Buy 1 or 2 shares in stocks
Get smarter before your life as an adult starts. You can consider investing just 50$ every month or less. This will force you to spend time researching and learning how the stock market works, which can be a great passive income in the future. Some companies also make special offers to their shareholders. Remember that you must be able to endure losing the money – or at least not gaining any. Don’t invest money that you cant afford to lose.
Take a tree with you
This might sound like a bit of weird advice, but bringing something that you need to care for, and that grows with you throughout life can be great for your mindfulness. You can even bring one of the trees with you in your old garden if you prefer that, just reach out to a tree surgeon, and have them transport it for you.
Live life – treat yourself
Life as a student should not only be sour. Remember that there must also be enjoyed in everyday life. Spend some money on good ingredients for the food, go out to eat once a month, or buy the jeans you have long dreamed of. As long as you think about and have control of your finances, it is fine to be inspired or impulsively buy things from time to time.
