Money Saving Tips

Sainsbury’s:

http://www.sainsburysgifts.co.uk/meal_ticket_cards.html

This is pretty simple. Your parents put money on this say, £100 and then you go spend it on anything at Sainsburys.

Asda:

https://cards.asda.com

Exactly the same as the Sainsburys one but they have a card too so they can put the money on their card and you’ll get it.

Studentbeans:

www.studentbeans.com

They give you 20 top student deals and money savers every week. They’re from everything to anything. It’s a good idea and there are some brilliant saves.

Nectar card:

http://www.nectar.com/collect.points

You collect points of your everyday shopping whether it’s on a treat, food, accessories, or clothes, you collect points and these build up to money where you can spend it on anything like, cinema, theme parks, Eurostar, homebase and eating out.

Quidco:

www.quidco.co.uk

You buy something, and get cash back for it. There’s also voucher for the hundreds of different retailers.

Boots Advantage card:

http://www.boots.com/en/Advantage-Card/Why-Youll-Love-Your-Advantage-Card

When you buy anything in store, you get points for them. The points then become money that you can use on anything else in store. Yes please!

Budget:

Take all of your receipts and add them up to see how much you’re spending a week/month. This is help you figure out what you spend too much on.

Group Meals:

For group meals, if you want to, go to a large wholesaler shop like Bookers, Costco as it will mean literally pounds for you all to eat a good meal. Spaghetti might end up costing you about £1.20

Websites, Facebook, Twitter:

Sometimes websites, especially Student based ones, are brilliant for finding top tips and saving money. There are loads about,

Remember Twitter, Facebook, they’ll help loads too if you know where to look. All you have to do is type in the right words, like, Student, money, saving, tips, and there’s bound to be some brilliant little saves.

All these are on Twitter:

• Young and Poor
• Save the Student
• Food for Students

Check out my Twitter if you want some more.

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The Pre-Lash!

Want a good night out without spending too much?

Good. So does everyone and it's called the 'Pre-lash.'

At university, it’s essential that you have a 'pre-lash' before you head on out.
It's like having a party before you actually go out and party. I bet you do it already when you're getting ready – having a couple of beers/ vodka and cokes just to put you in the mood – but, you might be missing out on how good pre-drinking can actually be...

Go buy some Sainsburys vodka (joking! – don’t buy it unless you are that cheap…)
Snake bites! It’s a must in our house, it consists of beer, any type of cider (the stronger the better though) and blackcurrant juice/cordial. It gets you drunk quicker and once you had two the horrible after taste goes and leaves you with a weird tasting blackcurrant juice.

The best way to use Snakebites is to have a certain ‘surprise’ thought up by our own Snakebite expert, Bradley,* the only housemate who can make a proper Snakebite and ends up making them for all seven of us. The surprise can be any shot of anything alcoholic you have in your house.

Another favourite is the music drinking game, for the fact that there are so many you can choose from, here’s a few:

Roxanne – The Police - Girls drink for every ‘red light’ that is said, boys for ‘Roxanne’ and if you want to take it a step further, listen to the live version of 6 minutes.

Rollin’ – Limp Bizkit - Drink for every ‘Rollin’’ and swear word.

Boom Boom Boom – Vega Boys - An oldie but it has to be done, drink on every ‘Boom’.

Jammin’ – Bob Marley - For every ‘Jammin’’ drink.

Build me up Buttercup – The Foundations - For every ‘you,’ ‘buttercup,’ ‘build’ drink.

Bird is the word – Family Guy - Drink for every ‘Bird’. This gets very hard.

Now, put this in a play-list and try and do it all in one night for a brilliant drunk night in - My house-mates have tried to do it and it's ended in a certain someone (myself) putting one of them to bed. 

The said house-mates did six songs and apparently are not going to attempt it for a while because of said livers needing time to heal and actually get said alcohol out of their system.

I did try to conquer the play-list myself but only succeeded in doing three... Shame on me really.

There’s always the odd card game or four; ‘Ring of fire’ gets you horribly drunk and the ‘Jenga card game’, where you have to place a card with two corners hanging off the edge of a ‘dirty’ pint glass. The person who fails has to down three fingers of the ‘dirty’ pint and whoever makes the pile collapse has to drink the contents.

‘I Have Never’ is great way to get to know new people if you’re at a house party or if you want to learn some secrets about your housemates.

‘Fuzzy Duck’ is brilliant, it sounds really silly but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it! Someone starts off by saying “Fuzzy Duck” round a circle until someone says “Ducky Fuzz” and reverses the circle. It gets harder if you introduce ‘does he’ into the game and you’ll all end up saying “F**k he does,” or “does he F**k” a lot!

So plug in your iPod, turn the music up and get those snakebite surprises going but just remember this is just a pre-drinking session, and you still have to go out after.

Take a look at this website for more drinking games:

http://www.thesite.org/travelandfreetime/goingout/drinking/fiveclassicdrinkinggames

*I told Bradley that if he helped me with the Snakebite section I would put his name in this post... Charming, ain’t he?!

P.S. My house-mates who were mentioned in this post were jealous that Bradley got a special mention so Ethan & Henry - You've now been mentioned as the very drunk house-mates that had to put to bed.

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Food Top Tips

Pre drink!

You’re going to have to – if you don’t already. Basically, get drunk enough to still be able to walk in a straight line.

Pasta!

Believe me, after my four years of University I’m going to be fed up of pasta but it’s just so easy to make and there’s so much you can do with it: pasta bakes, bolognaise, carbonara, tagliatelle, ravioli, macaroni etc…

Cookbook!

You will need one – but that’s a given. Your cookbook should contain meals in less than 30 minutes and have different sections.

Learn to make big dinners you can have again and again and again and again until you want to be sick (I’ve already done it with macaroni and cheese).

It’s okay to get ready made meals and to have Pizza Hut BOGOF (buy one get one free) deals once in a while but make it a treat to save money.

OR

Group meals. But only if you and your housemates have all run out of food otherise it can get tricky. It’s definitely you should look into if you can, go out and buy large bulk of food (rice, mince etc) and make it together. A great way of getting to know your housemates better and also it can equal out to something like 50p for a main meal!

No Kebabs at the end of the night!

Make a meal before you go out so when you get in your less likely to grab that kebab that will ultimately make you feel worse in the morning. It could be anything from a snack to a sandwich that's waiting for you when you get back or a pizza nice and cold (I love cold pizza) or in the oven waiting for you to turn it on... (However, I've used a oven when I was drunk and I have the scar to prove it: BE CAREFUL)

Shopping Hungry: A No Go!

Don’t go shopping hungry. I did it and came back with loads of chocolate goodies for myself that I loved at the time but I didn’t really need them.

Plus!

Always be on the lookout for deals in local supermarkets and of course, shopping… 30% off plus your student discount = BARGIN!

I’ve found this website (the little yellow star on certain sauces) that gives you recipes that are good and quite quick.

http://www.greatlittleideas.com/theme/140/student-grub/

Add your own little comments if you have any more suggestions J

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Fresher’s Top Tips

I might have stolen the idea out of the magazine I found at my University but mostly it is me…

Look at deals (obviously)!

I admit I wanted everything brand new and expensive because I was the first one off to university. But alas, I saw the error of my ways and searched the internet for deals.

www.bhs.co.uk

BHS is great for student deals – you can get up to 10% off

www.wilkinsonplus.com

Wilkinsons (if you have one near you – I found mine at University and I am always raving on about how good it is)

www.roompacks.com

www.unipacks.com

For those people that really can’t look for individual bargains and want them all done in packs there’s two great websites.

www.whsmith.co.uk

For accessories there’s good old WHSMITH’s

www.ryman.co.uk

For all your stationery needs

www.laptopsdirect.co.uk

Great for all things computer and accessories

And not to mention,

www.ikea.co.uk

Who could forget Ikea..?

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Quick Update

I know that there's still some posts that need to be addressed like; Bank accounts, Unilet/Halls: the difference, Homesickness, cooking, part time jobs etc... But it is coming!

AND, also! a follow great Twitter-er, @Universityru, has asked to feature my blog on their website, http://paper.li/Universityru/the-university-round-up
I am so honored and excited - considering I have 3 followers and a Twitter account, UniSSurvival !!!

Everyone check them out & I will update ASAP.

Survival of a University Student =)

What To Pack

When you have the answer to this, tell me.

I have no clue whatsoever.

I narrowed it down to 2-3 per things. So like, three duvet covers, pillowcases, sheets and two hand towels, bath towels...

The best thing (apparently) is to wait until you get into your place before really shopping around for your kitchen utensils and food but, if you’re like me and get a tiny bit paranoid maybe you can pack a plate, bowl, cup, knife and fork, spoon...

But because you’re on Freshers’ you'll be ordering out a lot, pizza, kebab, curry, fish and chips, McDonald's, KFC, kebab, burger king, pizza, alcohol etc, you can eat most of those with your hands.

And look out for those discounts!

That’s really all I can say…

Bring some toiletries with you but try to get your parents to get you everything you need after you arrive (maybe even get them to do a week shop for you)…

I can safely say that I took my teddy bear with me. I’m not ashamed. There are some things that I just had to take with me but be prepared to leave things behind. It could be a teddy bear and your old horrible tracksuit bottoms that have holes in. Leave some of your favourite things behind or at least a set of clothes so it gives you an excuse to go back home.

Some good links are:

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/

http://www.bhs.co.uk/

http://www.unipacks.com/

http://www.roompacks.com

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