Many students feel that the level of student funding made available to them isn’t enough to live on.

The Government makes two broad assumptions about how students would top up their funding at University if required;

• Access to financial support from parents or a partner; or
• Supplement loan/grant income through part time work (in the holidays and or during term time) or use personal savings.

Or a combination of some or all of the above.

Understanding student living costs - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Students need to budget by first working out incomings how much they have coming in i.e. student funding, parental contributions, savings, any additional funding and earnings from part time work and then realistically prioritising essential outgoings, or essential expenditure i.e. rent, food, essential bills before considering non-essential expenditure i.e. socialising, takeaways and subscriptions.

Use the Student budgeting planner - including spreadsheets to help you budget - MSE (moneysavingexpert.com) to help with this.  You can find more information about some of the alternative sources of funding and guidance on how to budget for university on our cost of living page.

In Summary:  

• Careful budgeting can help student funding go further Budgeting advice & resources
• Contact the Careers and Employability Service to find out more about finding and securing part time work. You can also register with one of the various employment agencies such as INDEED or Total Jobs.
• Book an appointment with a Student Money Adviser contact us via the Student Enquiry Point