While studying at school, you might have had a summer job or weekend job that gave you a little bit of pocket money. When you join university, you might be taken back by the amount of money you receive if you get a student maintenance loan. It can be difficult to spend wisely when you've got such a large sum in your account. However, you need to avoid splashing it all at once.
"When you first receive your student loans, it can be difficult, especially at a younger age where you're not used to having so much in the bank account, for it to feel like an endless amount, until it starts dropping rapidly," Jeremy Helm, financial analyst for MWB Solutions , says. "It's why most studies show the rate of expenditure from the start of the loan until the next loan coming in involves 65 percent of spend occurring in the first month."
Instead, Helm recommends setting out the number of months you have until your next loan or bursary, work out your basic costs, for example rent and bills, and then breaking up the disposable income into set months or weeks. "That way you won't go over this amount and find yourself struggling near the end. You can open a separate bank account to put these savings in, so it's out of sight and out of mind until absolutely necessary," he says.
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