How to manage your money
Learning to manage your money effectively is one of the important life skills that you can learn whilst at University.
Make sure you are getting everything you are entitled to:
- Familiarise yourself with the funding which is available to students
- Check that you are getting the maximum level of funding available to you (or email studentmoney@chi.ac.uk)
- If you need or want to supplement your income with part-time employment, our Careers & Employability Service may be able to help you find work.
- If you have children or a disability, claim benefits during your study.
- Open student bank accounts with overdrafts if you are starting a full-time undergraduate course. These can be a useful resource but it is important to remember that this is a way of borrowing money from a bank and you will need to pay it back (usually after you finish the course).
- For students who are experiencing financial difficulty, the University has a Support Fund and an emergency loan facility. Please see the information on our Money advice: money worries help page for more information on these and how to apply.
Prepare a budget:
Planning ahead and preparing a budget is a good strategy when it comes to managing your finances.
There are many benefits to using a budget, the primary one being that it will help you to live within your means.
It also helps students to help their funds to last and avoid the pitfall of spending large sums of money at the beginning of each semester only to struggle at the end of the semester.
The University has its own budget planner or alternatively you can find other example budget planners and money calculators.
Reduce your expenditure:
- One way to improve your personal finances is…to spend less!
- Full-time students are exempt from paying Council Tax, as are some part-time students. You’ll get information about this at the start of your course.
- Make sure that you are not paying too much Income Tax. Most full-time students don’t earn more than the Personal Allowance of tax-free income.
- Assess your essential travel needs; for most students, paying for a car becomes a financial burden. Chichester and Bognor Regis are relatively easy to travel around on foot, by bike or using buses. The University subsidises a bus service (see the ‘Travelling by bus’ section) which links the two campuses.
- Be cautious when signing contracts for mobile phones as you are often then committed to paying at the same rate for up to two years. These payments can become a burden so look for a competitive rate and make sure you will be able to afford it before signing up.
Ask for help if you need it
The University has a Student Money Advice Service which supports students to keep them informed about student finance, help with applications and assist with any problems you experience with your finances as a student.
Students can email the student money team or visit us at one of our drop-in sessions.
Our Support Fund helps students who experience financial difficulty despite accessing all the support they can get from Student Finance England (or the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish equivalent funding body).
The aim of the Fund is to help alleviate financial difficulty and enable the student to complete their course.
Useful pages:
