The option to study abroad is truly a unique experience. You’re completely out of your comfort zone in a different country that will help you to grow and develop in ways you wouldn’t imagine. In some cases, education can actually be better compared to what you might have received at home and the chance to explore a city you’ve never been before is an exciting prospect. On the downside though, it can be rather expensive to study abroad so you need to be able to manage your money well. Luckily, there are ways that you can cut cost without it affecting your experience. Here are ways you can save some money whilst you’re studying abroad.
Utilise Public Transport
Travelling around a county can be time-consuming, but it can also be expensive when you try to quicken your route to particular destinations. Instead of travelling in a taxi or Uber, utilise public transport instead. It may take a little longer but it’s totally worth it for saving a few euros or dollars. You’ll be able to make the most of travel passes and still be able to reach ideal destinations. You can even consider of renting bicycles or mopeds to get around the local city.
Find A Temp Job
Although you may want to focus on your studies, working a temporary job abroad will be useful for earning some extra cash. The benefit of temporary jobs is they’re not necessarily too demanding as you’ll have the option to do dog-walking or tutoring for example. It’s just a job that’ll help you get through your year. Just double check with your immigration bureau about the rules for working whilst studying full-time. In some countries, they have caps on how many hours that students can work whilst you study full-time.
Use Alternatives To The ATM
It can be great to have a little extra cash at your disposal, but using ATM’s abroad can smack you with fees that eventually build up and become extremely costly. This can come from the foreign bank or even your own bank so be wary of these. The best way to avoid this is to either take a budgeted amount of cash with you before you fly out to your destination or look into purchasing a card that doesn’t charge international fees for withdrawing or making transactions.
Make The Most Of Your Student ID
The privilege of being a student is that everyone knows that you’re short of funds. That’s why student discount should be utilised wherever possible. They can offer great discounts on clothing stores, restaurants, cafes and even travel bookings. Take your student card everywhere you go so you’ll never miss out on a bargain deal.
Plan A Budget Before You Leave
In any situation, planning before you go head into it first is always an option worth considering. Determine where your expenditure’s going to go out so you know what you’ll have spare or what should be essential payments during your trip. It can be difficult to do this for a country that you’ve never visited before though, so make the most of useful online tools and apps. They’ll be able to make comparisons of your lifestyle at home with the country you’ll be living in when you study abroad.
What’s great about this list is that some of it can relate to our lifestyle when you’re back home too, so you may just see the benefit of it in the long-term too. So, once you’ve completed packing your clothes, passport and any UK visa documents, consider your funds too so you can plan ahead and not worry about being out of pocket without Mum or Dad!