Money Management

My student loan made its nest in my bank account last Friday so I promised myself that starting the Monday just gone, I would become 'money conscious'; a phrase that most students would probably have to look up in a dictionary. I've heard horror stories about students blowing their £2000 in mere weeks and then having to live on Tesco Value pot noodles until the New Year.

My grandad calculated that I roughly have around £75 to live on every week, which is a damn sight more than I've ever had before. I have to bear in mind though that I also have to buy my food and other such essentials too, which I've never had to do before. Before, if I had £75, I would spend a majority of it on DVDs, CDs, clothes and other random, useless things.

There are two ways in which I could approach the management of my money and I'm giving one of them a trial run this week. If I kept the extra £5 in the bank every week, I could save up quite a nifty sum which I could ultimately use to treat myself with in a few months time or that I could use in case of emergencies. That would leave me with £10 a day. So far, this seems to be working well. However, it makes things like catching the train and going out for dinner a bit difficult as £10 is quite a tight budget to stick to. It also makes my weekly shopping trip difficult because that most definitely costs more than £10. However, if I have a good day, I'll have change left from my £10 which I can add onto the £10 of the following day. So far, I haven't managed to save enough change to warrant mentioning. Perhaps I just need self-control. I'm only in my third week of being independent and I sometimes find all the money I've been given overwhelming; we live in a consumer society where you can literally buy anything and I sometimes find myself buying food or other such things just because it's there and looks good. I don't actually need it.

I'm giving the second method of managing my money a try next week. Again, I keep that extra fiver in the bank but this time, I withdraw £20 a week for my food and essentials. That should be more than enough when I can buy cheap products from Tesco, Iceland, the Arndale Food Market and Bodycare. My weekly food shopping at Tesco comes to around £12 usually so that gives me £8 for everything else, including the launderette downstairs. Then I shall withdraw £10 for my traveling expenses...trains are £1.50 for a return into town (and that's without my rail card which is due to arrive soon) and even cheaper in the evenings, ranging between 25p and 75p, so in theory, this should be more than enough. This will then leave me with £40 for socialising and  such. I won't be going out and doing something every night. There will be a couple of nights no doubt where I go to the SU bar or a couple of days where I have lunch out after one of my lectures or seminars. I'll probably also go to the cinema every couple of weeks or so too. Any change I have left over can go towards next week's fund or can go towards treating myself or my brother and sister.

Personally, I think the latter method will work best but I guess I'll know for sure in 2 week's time!