From homebrew to haggling, these are
Conor Pope'stop 10 money-saving tips for students
1Learn to cook: Forget pricey takeaways and ready meals and cook your own food – we're talking idiot-proof stuff, such as curries, chillies and tomato-based sauces. It's not only better for you, it'll save you a packet, too. A tin of tomatoes, a clove of garlic and an onion cost 50 cent all in; a jar of processed tomato sauce containing much the same ingredients, with extra sugar and salt, costs three times more and tastes half as nice.
2Haggle over rent: Rents have fallen by more than 10 per cent in the last 12 months. You should be paying at least €1,000 less in the 2009-2010 academic year than last year, according to property website Daft.ie.
3Pay less for light: Make sure your landlord has switched to the cheapest electricity provider on the market. Make sure they've signed up with Airtricity or Bord Gáis Energy because it will save you at least 10 per cent on your electricity charges.
4Brew it yourself: Homebrew beer is back in a big way. Spend €70 on a kit and within weeks you can be drinking good quality wheat beers at a cost of less than 40 cent a pint (thehomebrewcompany.ie, thehomebrewcentre.com).
5Sign up: Join the best-funded, most-well-organised club or society in your college, even if it is of only marginal interest to you. It will have the biggest budget, the most regular drinks parties, and you'll get to meet a whole bunch of potentially nice folk.
6Discount heaven: Scores of clothes shops offer substantial discounts to students, while cinemas offer cut-priced tickets at certain times of the week. Always carry your student card, stay informed about what's on offer, and always ask for a student discount.
7Just say no: Don't get a credit card until you leave college and get yourself a full-time job. It will turn into a millstone around your neck. If you need to buy stuff such as airline tickets or books online, use a 3V visa voucher (3v.ie).
8Brought to book: Join a public library. It's very old school but it also happens to be a very cheap form of entertainment. A newly released paperback will set you back as much as €15 while a hardback costs at least twice that amount. By ploughing through five paperbacks a month and a single hardback, readers could spend more than €1,200 a year on books, most of which they will only read once. Join a library and it'll cost you nothing.
9Surf's up: When you get older, couch-surfing is precisely the kind of thing you'll regret not doing when you were a student. The couch-surfing movement, couchsurfing.org, enables people to find free accommodation – and it doesn't have to be a couch – all over the world. With cheap-as-chips flights to hundreds of destinations across Europe so readily available, a long weekend away can be yours for less than €100.
10Track it: Keeping a close eye on your finances might sound a little dull, but it is hard to control your spending unless you know what you're spending.
Work out exactly what your income is and what your outgoings are, including all costs such as laundry, rent, food, nightclubs, tattoos and books. Then for a month keep a spending diary of all incidentals, such as coffees, bars of chocolate and pints of snakebite, so you’ll have a full understanding of where your money’s going and what you need to do to make it last longer.
cpope@irishtimes.com
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