Money (Cost) Saving Tips For Immigrants Students
Moving to a new country to pursue higher education can be a daunting task, both emotionally and financially.
The lifestyle change, expectations, and mannerisms are going to be different from your home country. Homesickness is bound to begin soon along with major expenditures.
For those who want or need to be frugal and cost-effective with their spendings, here are some tips:
1) Cook at home
Unless you are planning to eat using the Saver Menu at McDonald’s, going out to eat on a regular basis can be exorbitant. The best way to save money is to shop at supermarkets like Tesco where you can get food in bulk for cheap. This way you can ration the food and cook at home. More importantly, making food at home is a much healthier option as well.
2) Use public transport
The UK has an extensive public transport system in place and one which is relatively affordable as well. The options include trains, taxis, ferries, and buses. For trains, you can get a Network Railcard for the Network Rail or an Oyster card for London Underground, also known as the Tube. You may use the traditional Taxis or Uber for travelling between Point A and Point B within a city but buses might be the best way to go when you’re on a tight travel budget. Use Megabus or CheckMyBus are useful sites to shop around. If you are trying to travel to neighbouring countries on a budget, taking a ferry would easily be one of the best ways to go.
3) Invest in a bicycle
If none of the options mentioned above seems attractive to you, making a one-time investment in a bicycle is the next best alternative. You will not have to worry about following a schedule, it is great for physical fitness and you can sell it to another student when you are done with your education.
4) Register with General Physician(s)
Make sure that you are registered with your General Physician during your orientation. This sounds like a rather simple thing to do but if you miss out on getting this done then your insurance might take forever to reimburse you. Also, some General Physicians only take patients from a certain area or even worse, might be full. In this case, you will need to register with more than one place. For the uninformed individual, the Healthcare system in the UK can be confusing and it is imperative to be proactive and do all that is needed in advance to avoid paying unnecessary bills or fees.
5) Use library books/second-hand books
One of the most dreaded feelings for all students is getting the list of books needed at the beginning of the semester and calculate how much they will have to spend on books this time. It can be put a heavy dent in your budget and sometimes even dig deep into your savings. To avoid this from happening, be ahead of the game and create accounts on websites like AbeBooks, BetterWorldBooks, Alibris where you can shop for second-hand books. University, as well as Public libraries, are a resource that is often forgotten where obtaining books is concerned. Ebooks are a great option as well because they tend to be cheaper and you can use Kwikpay to make those purchases.
6) Use student discounts
As someone trying to save money, you will be remiss not to make full use of student discounts. Tesco gives student offers that you can avail using your student ID, most public transport options have student discounts available, select theatres give a certain amount off during various seasons of the year, Holland and Barrett and Boots, both have loyalty programs for students to sign up for. Spotify Premium has a student discount that you can get using your University email address. Once you have that, you can use the Kwikpay app to do an online top up for your account whenever you need to.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
