Student budget checklist
Split across the whole term from day one, so the first loan or grant instalment doesn't get treated as the whole term's money rather than a third of it.
15 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- Loan or grant instalment dates confirmed against term datesThe gap between arriving and the first payment landing catches people every year.
- Rent and any deposit budgeted for the full term
- Bills split and agreed with housemates before moving in
- A weekly food budget set, based on a real shop rather than a guess
- Course materials and equipment costed
- Travel costs budgeted: term-time and journeys home
- A student bank account or overdraft understoodAn interest-free overdraft is not free money — it still needs paying back eventually.
- Part-time work income budgeted realistically against study time
- Subscriptions and memberships reviewed for genuine use
- Social spending given an actual weekly limit
- A small buffer kept for the week rent and a big shop land together
- Textbooks and equipment bought secondhand where possible
- Bank statement checked monthly against the budget
- End-of-term costs planned for: storage, travel home, deposits returned or lost
- Summer between terms budgeted separately, if income stops
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- What's the biggest budgeting mistake in the first term?
- Spending as if the first loan instalment is the whole term's money rather than a third of it. Splitting it out by week from day one avoids the last month running dry.
- Is an overdraft a sensible way to cover a shortfall?
- An interest-free student overdraft can help temporarily, but it still needs repaying — treating it as extra income rather than borrowed money is how it becomes a problem later.
- How much should go towards social spending?
- Whatever's left once rent, bills and food are covered, given an actual weekly number rather than left open-ended — an unlimited category is the one that swallows the rest of the budget.