Cost of Living Spotlight – How to budget over summer
Here at Winchester Student Union, we understand the stress of the current cost of living crisis. We’ve put together fortnightly spotlights with tips and tricks to help save your pennies.
This spotlight is focusing on getting you prepped for coming back to uni after the summer. Budgeting can be daunting if you don’t know where to start. The key point is to be realistic with yourself. It doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoyed your hard-earned money over summer, but it can give you a head start with some savings for September.
The first step is to set yourself a goal, a figure that you’d like to have when you return next year. Then divide this by the number of weeks or months you’ll be budgeting for. This number will be the amount you need to save each week / month. Keep this number aside for later!
Next you should make a note of how much you are / will be making.
Then you’ll need to work out what your outgoing costs are. This should be everything that you pay for, rent, bills, subscriptions, insurance etc.
You might then like to set some money aside for things like meals out, nights out, birthdays etc. This doesn’t need to be a lot, but it can be a good idea to do a small amount each week / month, even if you don’t have lots planned.
Once you’ve worked this out, you’ll need to add up your outgoing costs and subtract your incoming. Then check to see if the amount you wanted to save each week / month fits within this budget.
If it does, then you’ll be able to reach your savings goal! If not, you might need to revisit some of your outgoings and make sure your goal is realistic. Any left-over money can be put into your social budget, or straight into your savings!
There are lots of budgeting templates online which you can download for free, or you can take a look at our Student Union budget template.
If you need independent advice on money, you can contact our Student Union Advisor by completing our Advice Enquiry Form. Don’t forget to keep an eye on our Cost of Living Hub to see what we’re getting up to, to support you.
