Student Budget Calculator | University Budgeting FAQs

Check out our student budget calculator and top university budgeting FAQs. If you’re looking for more information surrounding budgeting at university, including how to budget as a student, how to create a budget spreadsheet, what to include, how much a student will typically spend on food/general living, as well as some amazing money-saving tips, then you’ve come to the right place!

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Why is budgeting important for students?

Many students can relate to being short of money. One of the best ways to get a hold of your finances and help ease any financial worries is by creating a budget to track your incomings and outgoings. You can think of your bank account as a bucket. Three times a year, a huge amount of water is poured into the bucket – this being your student loan. However, because your bucket is full of small holes, water is inevitably going to leak out as time goes on. If the water level gets worrying low, you can stop the leaking by plugging holes – and altering your spending habits.

Even if you aren’t a student, budgeting still allows you to be aware of how much money is needed to comfortably get by on a weekly and monthly basis. When planning holidays, budgeting helps ensure you don’t jet off abroad while seriously short of cash.

How do you budget as a student?

To begin budgeting as a student at university, here are a few steps to go about devising a budget:

1. Work out how much cash you currently have and how much you’ll be getting from your student loan, as well as any other sources throughout a term of university.
2. Next, work out how much you’re likely to spend throughout a single university term.
3. Subtract your outgoings from your income to give a rough idea of how much money you’ll have to live off for that term of uni. To get a weekly figure, divide the previous number (outgoings minus income) by the number of weeks in a uni term.

How do I make a budget spreadsheet?

There are a few different ways of making a budget spreadsheet, including through mobile phone apps (such as Monzo, Squirrel and Splitwise – both of which work on iOS and Android), building an online spreadsheet or by using good old-fashioned pen and paper.

Put simply, your budget wants to contain all of your incomings and outgoings. Incomings include your student loan, work income, support money from parents or other relatives, any money you’ve saved up, or any grants, bursaries, sponsorships or scholarships. Outgoings can be much more varied but usually include household costs (bills, food shopping, essential household supplies), travel expenses, university-related fees and anything else you might spend money on like eating/drinking out, hobbies, clothes and subscription services.

Create a table that includes all of these ingoings and outgoings. Then, work out the difference to know how much money you’ll have leftover. Depending on the timeframe you’re interested in, this table could help you budget week-on-week, month-on-month or term-on-term (if you’re a student).

Alternatively, you could use our student budgeting planner which includes the vast majority of common ingoings and outgoings (for students and otherwise). With our budget spreadsheet, you can plan your spending on a weekly and monthly basis to see how much money you’ll be left with.

How do I track my expenses?

Once you’ve got a spreadsheet (or something similar) set up – whether this is a standard budget planner or student budget planner – then all you need to do is input your income and expenses into the empty spaces, before working out the difference.

For some extra context, here’s a list of different expenses that you may want to consider tracking:

Household

• Gas, electricity and water bills
• Broadband
• TV licence
• Mobile phone contract
• Contents insurance
• Food shopping
• Other household supplies like toiletries and cleaning products

Travel 

• Train/tube/bus/coach
• Car-related costs (including fuel, insurance, servicing and MOTs)

University (if relevant)

• Tuition fees
• Accommodation costs
• Course supplies (such as textbooks, stationery, printing costs)

Other

• Eating and drinking out
• Hobbies
• Clothes
• Haircuts
• Subscriptions such as gyms, Spotify, Netflix and other streaming services
• Birthday and Christmas gifts
• Festivals
• Holidays
• Other large one-off purchases like bikes, cars, laptops or computers

What’s the 50-30-20 budget rule?

The idea behind the 50-30-20 rule is to spend 50% of your income on needs, 30% on wants and save the other 20%.

Needs refer to the essentials, including rent/mortgage, bills, food and work transport. Wants are non-essential bits of spending for your enjoyment, such as eating/drinking out, clothes shopping, holidays and subscriptions. The 20% of savings could go into a savings account, investment/pension fund or can be used to pay off any debts.

To work this out, calculate your average monthly salary (along with any other monthly income you may have). Then, split your monthly salary into three groups; one worth 50%, one worth 30% and the other worth 20%. From this, you can get a rough idea of how much money should be spent across needs, wants and savings each month. While the 50-30-20 divide is just a guide, it does still provide a great benchmark for budgeting and saving.

How can a student save money fast?

There are loads of ways that students can save money while at university. Aside from getting a part-time job to boost your income, here are some of our favourite money-saving tips for students:

• Get a TOTUM card to unlock numerous deals and offers, including cheaper phone contracts and Co-op discounts
• Spend less on train and tube tickets with a 16-25 railcard
• Have a look at which banks are offering the best incentives for switching to them. Many will hand out bonus money, free railcards and other vouchers
• Rather than buying new books for your studies, try finding the resources you need on specialist websites like JSTOR. You can also find cheaper books on Facebook selling groups, eBay and Amazon

For more information, check out our student budgeting article on how to budget as a student and the best student budgeting tips.

How much does a student need to live on a month?

According to Save the Student’s National Student Money Survey, the average student living cost per month is £810 (or £187 per week). We’ve outlined some of this figure’s biggest components below:

• Rent = £421
• Groceries = £101
• Going out = £47
• Takeaways and eating out = £41
• Household bills = £40
• Transport = £34

Some of the other expenses that made up £810 total included clothes and other shopping (£34), course materials (£17), phone bills (£15), health and wellbeing (£15), holidays and events (£14) and gifts/charity (£13).

How much should a student spend on food a month?

There’s no set answer to this, given that the cost of food varies from city to city (and will also vary slightly from student to student, depending on specific dietary requirements and personal tastes).

With that being said, the most recent Student Money Survey estimates that UK students spend an average of £101 on food shopping each month. This doesn’t include takeaway and eating out, which add on a further £41 to the bill. 

Listed below are a handful of UK universities and the average amount that their students spend on food shopping each month:

University of Birmingham – £106

University of Cardiff – £102

University of East London – £112

University of Edinburgh – £132

University of Leeds – £107

University of Manchester – £82

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