Finance
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A Simple Guide to UK ISA’s
ISA’s are the best place to keep your savings and a great starting point for investing in the UK. ISA stands for Individual Savings Account. They act like tax bubbles for your money, meaning that any interest gained is completely tax free. Every UK resident over the age of 18 can save up to £20,000 each tax year into one or more types of ISA’s. Tax years run from the 6th April to the following 5th April. The only exception to this rule is Lifetime ISA’s, where you can only contribute £4,000 out of your allowance each tax year. Example: You save £10,000 in a year, £4,000 into a Lifetime…
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How Much I Spend – Student Spending Diaries #1
The one thing I wanted to know before going to university, was how much I would need for spending each week. This number was hard to find online, so I wanted to create something that I would have gained value from. From this thought, this series was born; Student Spending Diaries. Each entry will go through a week’s worth of spending, starting with this week – where I threw a mini party, got an allergic reaction and watched hours of Grey’s Anatomy. Monday Monday was a pretty routine uni day, meaning I spent the majority of the day doing research reading for my dissertation. I finally left the flat at…
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How To Save Money and Still Have Fun
You don’t need to sacrifice everything to save money! But you do need to get real with your spending and reevaluate where your money is going each month. First things first you need to realise that having fun and amount of money spent are not related. You could spend hundreds on a day out and absolutely hate every minute of it. Or you could spend an afternoon on a hike (free!) and love every minute of it. In this post I will go through 5 tips to help you save money and still have fun at the same time. Embrace Free Activites Having fun doesn’t have to cost a fortune!…
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5 Ways To Improve Your Credit Score As A Student
Having a good credit score is important when it comes to applying for credit in the future, such as a loan or mortgage. Your time at university is the perfect to start looking at building up your credit score. In this post we will go through what a credit score is, how to improve your credit score and where you can find out your score for free. What is a Credit Score? Investopedia perfectly defines a credit score as “a number between 300–850 that depicts a consumer’s creditworthiness. The higher the score, the better a borrower looks to potential lenders. A credit score is based on credit history: number of open…
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How to Make Money as a Student
Student loan not enough? Want to save for a gap year? Whatever your reason for needing extra money, there are loads of ways for students to earn money on the side of your studies. University is also a great time to develop a side hustle that you could continue after you graduate (see #3 ;)). Disclosure: Please keep in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. I link to these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision…
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2020 Money Review: How I Saved 54% Of My Income
2020 was the first year that I tracked all of my spending – and I mean ALL of it to the penny! In this money review, I will be sharing all the figures and how I managed to save the majority of my income. At the end of 2019, I was fed up of not knowing where my money was going. I hated the feeling of having no money left at the end of the month. So, I made the pledge that in 2020 I would track everything I spend to see what I’m actually spending my money on and how I can save more. I’ve decided to share all…
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Your Ultimate Guide to Student Finance
When I started thinking about applying for university I had no idea how student finance worked. My biggest worry about going to university was taking on this huge amount of debt, for my case it was going to be around £55k. I spent so many hours researching and trying to understand how it all worked. This post will save you all of that time because I am going to explain everything you need to know about student finance in England. And yes they are slightly different to student loans in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. All figures are accurate as of December 2020 HOW DO I APPLY? Applications usually open…
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3 Simple Budgets to Try
Have no idea where to start and how to adopt a budget – read on and try one of these simple budgets. Budgeting may seem like a mindfield to some, but it doesn’t have to be. Most people see budgeting as restrictive and boring, I want to change this misconception. Budgeting is a great way to make sure you are spending money on things you actually value rather than getting to the end of the month having no idea where all your money went. Below are three simple budgets to adopt to make sure you are getting the most out of your money. Already got your budgeting down? Why not…
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SwagBucks Review: Waste of time?
Disclosure: Please keep in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. I link to these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours. SwagBucks is the site that offers it all. This isn’t just a survey site, there are so many other ways to earn points called SB. Such as cashback deals, playing games, discovering great deals and searching the web. I started using SwagBucks earlier this year and to begin with I only took…
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Branded Surveys Review: Is it worth your time?
Branded Surveys was the first survey site that I used and actually made money on. This means I don’t want to give up using it even though it isn’t the best site out there. Whilst it may take longer than other sites, you can still make some money using this survey provider. Further some of the surveys will take you onto bigger and better things. Like a 2 day evaluation of a new series I qualified for from a survey on Branded Surveys, which paid £45. Although I’m not checking this site now as much as I did when I first started taking surveys, I still use it from time…
