 Hi everyone and welcome back to another vlog. My name is Claire Carmichael and I'm a newly qualified general practice nurse and today's vlog is all about how to save money as a student. I was the money-saving queen as a student nurse. I'm not going to lie, I even struggle now to spend my money but then I do spend it on rubbish sometimes as well. So first tip is obviously student discounts. Get your NUS card. I think I paid £30 for the whole three years because it worked out cheaper and then you're covered for three years with your NHS discount card. However, you don't actually need to buy that because there are free apps such as uni days or student beans. I'll put the links below so you can have a look but they are free to sign up. You just register with your uni email address and that will get you your student discount as well when you go into places. So don't worry too much about paying for an NUS card because you can get free apps to get a load of discounts due. Next tip, prioritize. I know we prioritize our workload and organize ourselves in that way but financially we never think about priorities. We always think oh my god there's a sale on and need to buy this. Everything looks amazing, everything looks attractive but when you go out shopping or when you're looking online for something just think in the back of your mind do I really really need this? If the answer is no, don't get it. Just don't. Something that I heard actually I can't remember who said it. I think it was Martin Lewis the money man actually that said sales are only a good bargain if you actually need it because if you don't need it actually you're spending more than you need to so it's not actually a sale and that that phrase is always in the back of my mind when I go shopping when I go out I go do I need this? No okay probably not let's put it back but also sometimes I forget it and I do buy crap. Get free books. Do not pay for books. Have a look on your Facebook pages, on marketplace, on ebay, on all of your Facebook uni groups. There will be somebody selling books out there or not even selling but some people give them away. I gave away a few of mine books so please take a look at social media first put a message out there ask if anyone's got any books that they don't want anymore that you can have just yeah save yourself 40, 50, 60 however much quid that you're going to spend on amazon or waterstones or anywhere else that you want to buy your books from save your money guys get them for free or on the cheap. Also for the nursing students I'm going to say this again because I keep telling people this get a free bnf this is your British national formulae so this is your medications bible you can get it free from any pharmacy just go in say that you're a student nurse and say have you got any spare old bnfs done freebie right there do not pay for it 50 quid I think they are maybe even more don't pay it you can get it free stop it also there's a free app you don't need to buy that okay don't free app free website and you can get freebie from your local pharmacy budgeting so you want to make a list of all of your in goings all of your out goings and that's it just make a list you know what you've got coming in and it's going to cover what you've got going out so then that will tell you how much you're going to have every single month or every single week to spend on yourself or food or anything that's not on your list and it just it that really really helped me because I used to get into all sorts of financial messes when I was younger and the minute I wrote that list so I knew what was coming in what was going out and how much I physically got to spend really really helped so have it mine's on my phone I still look at it today and it's just the best thing I ever did simple one shop cheap I know don't go to waitrose or marks and sparks other supermarkets are available but these are the more higher end priced ones I love marks and sparks food but it is expensive but it's tasty but you are a student you're going to learn to budget very very well probably live on beans on toast for example when you're really skinny one week but just budget I always went to Aldi and Lidl and Azda they were my three things again other supermarkets are available but they were the cheapest places to go for me so I found when I went shopping there I had a lot more for my money and it wasn't half as bad as going elsewhere but yes just shop cheap guys don't be too proud or too embarrassed to go into the Aldi or Lidl oh and Iceland I forgot to say this I went into Iceland recently again other places are available um but I spent such I spent like 30 quid and that covered me for like two weeks I have no idea what happened but normally I spend about 60 that is my average spend per week on food shopping just for like dinners and lunches and things like that I went to Iceland I was just so cheap I mean a lot of it was frozen stuff but I mean it seemed like good frozen stuff and they do salads now they do vegetables they do these really nice big bags of quinoa spicy quinoa mixes that you can steam or shove in the microwave or sometimes I open it and fry it up as well with whatever I'm cooking like if I'm doing a stir fry or something I'll just add it um but yeah it was so good and it was really really nice and tasty food and it's cheap oh yes no shame in shopping cheap guys next tip is if you're going into uni or placement or anything like that make sure you make lunch to take with you because that can really save you money as well it saves you a lot of money you go into your canteens or your local coffee shops and things like that for lunches and on your breaks take a flask as well I know at Birmingham City University if you take your cup teabag sugar and everything they will fill you up with hot water for free but you do have to pay for milk if you want some milk and I think it's 25p unless that has changed with inflation in the past year so check with your local universities and your coffee shops and see if they would fill you up with hot water for free fingers crossed something else I also do actually while I was talking while I was talking about food um is I normally if I'm cooking dinner I will make sure I have enough to take with me for lunch the next day so if I'm doing a stir fry I'll make extra if I'm doing a cottage pie or a shepherd's pie I'll do extra if I'm doing I've roast dinner for example I will do extra so I've got to take that with me as long as you've got a microwave or whatever to heat it up unless you want it cold but I find doing that as well really saves money as well because you're cutting your prices in half almost a thing by doing that also by bulk cooking as well a lot of people make big bulk pastas or chilies and stuff like that and just put them into the freezer and that just it all just all saves so much money then we go on to travel so if you are getting the bus or training it's far cheaper to get like an annual pass or a monthly pass or a seasonal pass also they do really good student discounts as well so it's much cheaper and much better to do that if you're getting public transport for example that is a much cheaper way of working out that's what I used to do I used to just get like a monthly pass and I didn't have to remember to take change with me and stuff like that because I just had my pass and I would show it and that was it so it was just so much easier and cheaper so if you are a student you can download word microsoft package on your laptop or probably your phone as well for free do not pay for this package do not subscribe to anything you get it for free using your student uni email just go onto the microsoft website sign up as a student free whilst you're a student it's all free please please please do not sign up do not pay any money save it you're a student come on guys accommodation time so if you're debating whether to live in halls or live out of halls what's going to work better for me it works better to live out of halls because halls is really expensive consistently supposed to be a student accommodation how do they justify asking people for like 415 pounds for rent that's not okay to me I don't know how people afford it what are you all doing to afford that but I I lived in a shared accommodation it was a really nice big house there was five of us living there we had our own room we had a couple of bathrooms we had the whole house to share and I was literally paying 350 pounds that includes all your bills and everything it was so much cheaper well 75 pound cheaper that's 75 pounds that you've got spare for a meal out or something like that so think about it logically and sorry to universities for saying that that's the only bad thing about universities is it's expensive to live in so lastly I just want to run through what are my in goings where as a student and my out goings just to sort of help you out a little bit and sort of get an idea of what you might be paying or getting paid or whatever but it might be different because everyone's different but literally I got the NHS bursary so that was about 450 and then I got the student loan on top of that which is another 200 a month so I got about 650 a month and that was it that's all I had however I didn't have any bills or anything like that at the time so I had nothing going out just literally my phone bill and my rent so my phone bill and my rent together were about 400 so that left me with 250 pounds a month to live on which is kind of hard when you eat a lot so let me tell you that but I ate a lot of pasta and rice to be honest I just bought pasta rice things like that and then just add different sauces and mixes and meat if I wanted meat or bed but yeah I only had 250 pounds a month to live on and that was literally for my travel and food it's not a lot guys 50 pounds a week for your food and 50 pounds for my travel it was tough so I had to work alongside my course to get money so that was when I did my hca work so as a hca I think I got about nine pounds an hour because it was bank shifts nine fifteen something like that nine something an hour I used to get so I would work my little bum off to get some money to actually be able to go out and enjoy life and that's what I did I worked hard I worked all of my annual leave I worked my weekends I worked my days off it was exhausting but I had to do it to get through the course and it was absolutely worth it so it's fine I managed to work and get enough money to pay my bills pay my rent pay my food and go out and have a nice life and I actually went on a couple holidays as well so yes you can absolutely do it if I can do that anyone can do it but on that note I do know that if you live with your parents still if you've got different circumstances if you're married and you've got kids you'll be on a completely different pay scale and amount that you get so everyone is different so it's about working out your in goings and working out what you've got going out as well and how much you've got left at the end of the month to spend and how much you're going to need to make up if you need to make up anything and how are you going to do that and lastly if you are really struggling financially then please get help from university that is hardship funding available through your university hopefully they've got something that you can apply for also if you are a hca healthcare assistant for example and you are struggling in financial hardship the cavill trust will help you out I'll post all of the links from today below so that you can look at them up but the cavill trust and also the rcn foundation they've got money as well there's loads of places that actually has funding to help you out so please look into it don't struggle don't honestly don't stress about it it's not worth your health and well-being just seek support open up and be honest about your financial struggles and get help don't be too proud because again it's just it's not worth it and that is it from me I think I don't think I've got any other tips if I do then I'll post it below because my mind has just gone at the minute but I hope you all have an amazing week and I shall see you next time