Budgeting

While planning a budget isn't the most exciting thing you'll ever do there are a number of benefits to planning your finances and sticking to a budget:

  • it puts you in control of your money and allows you to identify danger points throughout the year where your money may be stretched
  • you can make informed choices about your spending
  • it helps you to identify areas where you overspend
  • it allows you to be independent and financially capable
  • it helps reduce the stress which can be associated with money
  • it allows you to make the most of your time at university and enjoy it
  • it can help to reduce the long term consequences of unwise spending decisions.

Planning a budget

Resources

The key to successful budgeting is honesty - be realistic about what you do spend and include even the small things like the odd glossy magazine or morning coffee, it all adds up.

If you aren't sure where to start you could monitoring your spending habits for a week or two using our daily tracker form (PDF: 92.8KB) or you could try using Credit Action's Spendometer which allows you to keep track of your spending using your mobile phone - there really is no excuse for not being able to monitor your spending!

You can also:

  • Plan your finances for the whole of the year with our cashflow forecaster (Excel doc: 127KB) Save a copy to your PC to make it easy to update and keep track of your finances.
  • Identify your income and expenditure for the academic year and plan ahead using our termly budget planner (PDF: 153KB)

You might find the following funding calculators useful when you start thinking about budgeting:

Sticking to a budget

Once you have worked out a realistic budget, in order to make it work for you there is a certain amount of self-discipline involved. By following some easy steps it could help you to keep on track:

  • withdraw your weekly allowance in cash and use this to pay for everything
  • avoid using debit or credit cards for purchases as this makes it difficult to keep track of your spending
  • use online banking and check your accounts regularly
  • always open bank statements and correspondence and check through them thoroughly
  • regularly review your budget - is it still realistic?
  • don't give in to temptation or peer pressure with and spend more of your weekly allowance with the intention of getting back on track the following week
  • if you have some spare cash left over out of your weekly allowance allow yourself the occasional treat to increase your motivation

Don’t despair if you have an overall shortfall of cash. Help is available if you need some advice. Also see the sections on how to:

If you want to work out your own personal budget and would like some help with this contact the Student Finance Adviser.