If you’re cutting deep into your monthly allowance, you may be wondering if you’re overspending. Schooling is an expensive venture, and money management is necessary to survive through the trying university years.
One smart way to determine if you’re overspending in the university is by looking at how much other students spend per week. Using the average, you or decide if your monthly allowances are too low or if you’re simply mismanaging your money.
To save you the stress of asking your friends, we’ve compiled how much we think you should be spending every week and how to save money on daily expenses in the university.
How Much Should A Uni Students Spend A Week
University is expensive; there are no two ways about it. While tuition fees scare students the most, it makes a minuscule part of your total expenses.
With careful calculation, you’ll notice that students spend a lot more on books, housing, and food. If you can save money on these secondary expenses, you’ll be saving a lot more than you spend.
The amount you should spend per week as a student depends on what you’re spending on. While some students buy their textbooks and pay their tuition fees, others don’t have to worry about that, thanks to a scholarship.
Also, the university you attend will have an impact on the amount you’ll be required to spend per week. If the university is located in an area with a high cost of living, you’re more likely to spend a lot higher than someone attending other universities.
With everything being equal, students should spend money on rent, groceries, commutes, random school item purchases, clothes, drugs, and entertainment.
Sometimes, random miscellaneous expenses might pop up, and it’s important to plan for those too. Despite all these expenses, students should always strive to save a portion of their monthly allowance.
In terms of raw figures, students spend anywhere from $50 to $500 per week, depending on the factors that I’ve previously mentioned.
Students in California for example, spend $2,020 per month on average. This brings their weekly expenses to about $505, which isn’t extraneous by California terms.
However, spending $500 weekly as a student may be outrageous where you live. You should only decide on how much you should be spending based on your income and the average cost of living for students around you.
How to Spend Less Money a Week as a University Student
As a university student, you’re always on a budget. Surviving in the university is an endless race of living within your budget every month without cutting into your budget.
If your budget never seems to be enough, you may just be terrible at money management.
In this section, you’ll learn how to restructure your budget to spend a lot less money as a student. Here, we’ll list some of the things you’re most likely to spend on and how to save money on them.
- Accommodation
Unless your tuition fee is somewhat outrageous, you’ll most likely be spending most of your budget on accommodation. The costs of accommodation vary greatly across locations, but it’s not cheap anywhere.
In your first year, you’re most likely to be living in the more expensive campus halls. While campus hall prices differ across universities, you’re most likely to find a cheaper private rental around.
While private apartments cost a lot lesser than living in a campus hall, you may end up spending more to live outside the school campus if you’re not careful.
The cost of renting a private apartment depends on where you live, but houses in rural areas generally cost lower than those in the city. Going too remote is not recommended, however, as you may have to spend a lot more on commuting, bringing the costs to almost the same in the long run.
To cut costs on accommodation, consider renting the same apartment with other friends. Sharing the rent makes it a lot cheaper to afford a private apartment, helping you spend lesser per week.
- Internet, water, gas, and electricity
If you’re living on the school campus, you may not have to worry about any of these. But once you move into a private apartment, you start to pay for every one of these utility bills.
If you’re lucky enough to find a home that includes these in the utility bills, you may not have to worry about it, but the chances are high that you won’t rent one that does. It only shoots up the rent figures to a point where you genuinely think you’re being ripped off.
When looking for a house to rent, you should check out what’s included in the fee. Ask other students how much they pay per month, subtract it from the rent (if it includes the utility fees), and decide if it’s even worth it.
- Food
Food is one of the major expenses you’ll cover apart from accommodation and tuition. Most of what you spend every week is actually on food purchases.
One of the smartest ways to save on food costs is by buying groceries and making your food yourself. This way, you get the healthiest food without having to spend an arm and a leg.
Certain grocery stores and most online stores will offer you a student discount on food purchases. You should always take advantage of those to avoid spending extraneously high on grocery purchases.
Finding other students willing to buy foodstuffs and partnering with them will enable you to buy in bulk, saving even more money when you stack that on top of your student discount.
Conclusion
University students are pseudo-money savers. They live a budget life on an endless race to avoid cutting through their budget before the next monthly allowance comes in.
If you’re a parent trying to determine how much you should give a university student as their weekly allowance, we can help. This article has listed some of the most important things students have to spend on, and how much they need.