Saving money on your bills as a student

Once you move out of your student digs at university, you’ll have to start paying your own bills in your own place.

This can be a shock to the system if you’re used to having your bills included in the rent for your student accommodation, but it doesn’t have to be damaging to your finances for other things like beer, beer and, erm, more beer.

If nothing more, it gives you great experience for your future life to look after your outgoings for a while – university is not just about gaining new academic skills, you’ll (hopefully) also come out more financially organised at the end of your degree.

Living on your own at university is not cheap, but there are things that you can do to save money for the more enjoyable aspects of student life.

The first thing you should do before the first semester has even got underway is compare gas and electricity prices on websites like moneysupermarket.com, because this is by far the quickest and easiest way to save money on your bills.

All you have to do is input the details about your living arrangements and requirements and the site will do the rest for you, presenting you with a list of the deals available to you.

You just then need to choose the best one for you.

To save money as a household, you might want to try to make sure everybody’s on the same page as you go into the next year.

Just mention it in passing when you’ve all moved in, if, of course, you’ve got new housemates, to plant the seed that a lot of money can be saved for beer if everybody makes an effort to save energy.

The law of averages means that you will probably get a housemate who forgets to turn the light off in their room every time they go out or leaves the TV on in the living room when they go to the shop, but if you mention it early (and, if necessary, regularly) enough, they might be more conscious.

You’ll also save money in the long run if you opt to pay by direct debit when bill date comes around.

On average, you can save around 5 per cent on your energy bills if you choose this method of payment, which doesn’t sound a lot at first but, after a year, you’ll have been able to afford more hangovers because of it.