There are many simple ways to make everyday life cheaper and here are just a few! This is perfect not only for students but for anyone wanting to save a few pennies here or there.
Hot drinks. I am a huge lover of both tea and coffee but tea especially. With me having 10+ hour days sometimes at University, I crave tea and need caffeine to help me stay awake through the occasional exceptionally boring lecture. If you've been a student or are a student, you will understand how hard it is to stay awake in lectures sometimes! I'm sure long days at work are just the same. Some sort of caffeine boost to help get through those last few long hours is a must.
With all these cravings whilst I'm not at home, the only way I could get a hot drink is through cafés on the highstreet as there are no hot drink-making facilities at University apart from the odd coffee machine dotted around. I used Greggs for tea (it is a good cup of tea I have to admit!) which costs £1.20 for a large which I would sometimes get twice a day. I'm only in University two days a week but buying this tea adds up to almost £5 a week which doesn't seem a lot at the time but over say 10 weeks, that's almost £50 spent on tea alone which is a lot of money for a student such as myself! I also used to get Starbucks every so often which again adds up over the weeks.
To try and save money, I have recently purchased a flask which has to be one of the most useful purchases I have bought in a while. At £4.50 from Asda for a 1l flask, you can't really go wrong. This flask kept my tea warm for 10 hours which is far more than I expected! Although it is a little bit of hassle carrying the flask around at University, I would rather save money plus carrying around another kilogram of weight will tone up my arms surely? Of course at work you are likely to have some sort of kitchen area with hot drink-making facilities but if you're like me and don't particularly like using utensils that other people use and possibly don't wash properly, then the flask is the perfect alternative for you.
Packed lunch. Again with long days out of the house, you are bound to get hungry but instead of going and buying a Meal Deal from Tesco, make your own sandwich at home! You can make more, make it exactly how you like it and of course it will be cheaper and healthier.
Bulk food shopping. This saves me so much money honestly! Being a student these days, its very rare to own a car - I haven't even had a driving lesson yet! So walking and public transport it is which isn't the most useful way of doing a week's shop. I used to just go to the local Tesco Express a few streets away for ease rather than walking to the big local supermarket but this was a lot of hassle especially if you're on your own and you have to carry a week's worth of shopping which can be quite strenuous! Not only is it strenuous but it's not cheap with it only being a small local shop intended to buy the odd item - not a full week's worth of food!
I tend to shop online at Asda as it has the cheapest minimum spend online of £25 with most other big supermarkets having a minimum spend of £40. I manage to spend around £30 on food which lasts me 2 weeks. Not only can it be done from the comfort of your own home whilst watching TV, but you get to see every single offer that the shop is offering so you can get the best deal for you. You can sometimes miss these deals when going out and physically shopping. Of course food doesn't last forever so after around a week, I usually have to go and get some fresh bread, fruit, vegetables and milk which are quite cheap anyway.
Online shopping. Online shopping is my worst habit! Whenever I'm bored, I end up browsing through fashion websites like Missguided, ASOS and Boohoo and if I see an item I really want, I buy it, even though most of the time I don't actually need it. To stop me doing this, I have recently started to create a list of every item of clothing I would like onto a Word document and I check the website with that particular item once a week or so. This way you can see if there are any sales on or discount codes or even free delivery, just to make it slightly cheaper!
Takeaways. Anyone who knows me knows how bad I am when it comes to Dominos, I think I must have had around 9 already this year which is shocking! Anything that you can get from a takeaway or fast food outlet you can make at home, not only will it be cheaper but it will also be healthier and there will be more! You can always freeze any extra you make for future use. As soon as I've got the time, I want to have a go at making my own pizza and southern fried chicken. If they end well I will write a post about them so keep your eyes peeled! Of course the odd takeaway every so often is perfectly acceptable though!
Do you find you end up spending a lot of money? Do you have any other money-saving tips?