Student money saving tips

It's all fun and games until the uni bubble bursts - and although going out into the world might still seem like a long way off, you don't want to come out of your degree with more debt than just your student loan. Follow my 15 tips though, and you'll be saving without even thinking about it, guaranteed.

1. Use The Student Calculator

This site can help you whether you're about to rush off to uni, planning on going in the future, or you're there already. It'll show you how much you could potentially get in terms of loans and scholarships, and you can put in your potential outgoings. So you'll know exactly how much money you can blow the day your student loan reaches your accounts… just try not spend it all in one night!

2. Get a 0% overdraft

You're in such a privileged position as a student, and all of us non-students are jealous of your incredible overdrafts! Trust me though, you'll need one. While you've got the chance, try to get the highest 0% overdraft you can. This means that if you ever get into any trouble and need some money quickly, you won't be charged on your overdraft.

Here's a glance at some of the best accounts for students right now. Always weigh up whether the freebie offered by the bank, or the higher overdraft will be more useful to you! Nine times out of ten, it'll be the overdraft you'll want.

• Santander - their 1|2|3 Student Current Account offers a free four year 16-25 railcard as well as a £1,500 overdraft if you have £500 paid into your account each month.

• HSBC - offers an 'up to' £3,000 overdraft which starts at £500 and goes up on a case-by-case basis, with most students qualifying for about £1,000. They also offer a £60 Amazon gift voucher if you sign up before 31st October 2014, and have a student exclusive portal with some great savings and discounts.

• Lloyds Banks - Up to £1,500 overdraft and a free NUS extra card for up to 3 years.

If you want to compare more, savethestudent.org has a nice table with all the major banks, their 0% overdraft limits, freebies and any fees.

3. Don’t upgrade your laptop to a Macbook

First off, you have alternatives. Check out the Chromebook which is infinitely cheaper, let's you take notes in class and basically does everything you'll need it to do as a student (unless you need it for games, in which case why were you even going for the Mac in the first place?).

Ok ok, if you really want your own Mac or Macbook, WAIT until you've been accepted into University. You can buy one with some pretty decent discounts through the Apple Education Store, but only if they can verify you're a student (or a parent buying on your child's behalf). Apple are notoriously bad at giving out any kind of deals or discounts so this is probably the best time for you to buy. You can save up to £32 on an iPad, or up to £175 on a new Mac.

4. Get free software

Why bother paying for Microsoft Office when you can get free alternatives that are just as good? LibreOffice is the best alternative I've found that's compatible with a bunch of other document formats, like Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Publisher (so you can still open documents from friends and lecturers). Then there's always Google Docs, which keeps everything together and easy to share.

If you're desperate for Microsoft Office though, there's a University edition for only £59.99, or a Student and Home edition for all of you starting A-levels for £109.99 with a £25 Microsoft Store voucher.

5. Council tax discount

Living off campus? If you're in a house that only has other students in it then you don't need to pay any council tax, and if you get a bill then you should apply for an exemption. Most uni's are pretty good at sorting all that stuff for you though. If you're living with other's who aren't students, then you might still qualify for a discount, so it's definitely worth checking out.

6. Do you really need a TV licence?

First up, here's a quick warning. Never try to watch TV without a licence, the £1,000 fine just isn't worth it. You need a TV licence to watch anything live on any device, you don't need one to watch any catch-up TV or online exclusives.

If you're not bothered about watching any live TV then you might not even need the licence. If your TV screen is just a monitor for your games, DVDs and watching non-live TV like BBC iplayer, then you're fine. Even if you use Netflix or Youtube, you don't need the licence. You'll need to fill in a quick form to let the TV Licensing Agency know that you're honestly never planning on watching any live TV, and then you're sorted.

Pssst - Netflix is only £5.99 a month which makes it £72 a year. A TV Licence is £145.50. If you're not into live TV then Netflix is a great alternative.

7. Get money back for an unused TV licence

So you did need the licence. Now you're frustrated because you've realised that for at least 3 full months of the time you're paying for it, you'll be back home with your parents for the holidays. That's no problem, if you're paying by direct debit you can cancel it, or if you paid in advance then you can request a refund.

8. NUS Extra Card

So you've probably been told about this little beaut a million times by other sites by now, but it's £12 for a year, and with all of the places that accept it, you'll probably find it worth the money. Here are a few of the places that accept it:

• Amazon.co.uk - 10% off clothes and 5% off everything else.

• New Look - 10% off

• Pizza Express - Up to 40% off

• Virgin Media Broadband - a 9 month contract that doesn't need a phoneline

• McDonald's - a free hamburger, cheeseburger or McFlurry with any Extra Value or Deli Meal.

P.S - flash your NUS Extra Card EVERYWHERE you possibly can. Even if you think the place doesn't do a discount, you might be surprised!

9. Get A 16-25 Railcard

If you know you're going to be taking more than £30 worth of train journeys in a year, you should get a railcard. They cost £30 for a year, or £70 for 3 years, and they are well worth the money you'll be saving. Check that the bank account you're going for doesn't offer one as a freebie (here's looking at you Santander) before rushing out to grab one though. If you've already picked up your NUS Extra card, then you can weasel an extra 11% off too, you lucky thing you.

10. Sign up to UNiDAYS

This is basically your way to get money off absolutely everywhere online. Just sign up with your student number to get access to a ton of great deals from some of your favourite retailers, like:

• ASOS

• Currys / PC World

• Missguided

• MyProtein

• Waterstone's

• HP

• Topshop

• Paperchase

• Spotify

And a crazy amount more. Usually once you've signed into your account on whichever retailer you want to buy on with your UNiDAYS account, you'll even be able to use cashback sites and still get your discount. Which means more money in the bank for you.

11. Join Amazon Student

You might want to save this one until you really need it (like around Christmas). Amazon offer free one-day delivery, with discounted express and evening delivery options and a bunch of awesome student offers for six months for any student. After the six months you'll have to pay for Prime, but you'll get a 50pc student discount. This'll mean keeping everything you had for the first six months, as well as getting access to Prime Instant Video, and their Kindle Lending Library. You can cancel anytime though, so you could take the free six months and never pay for Prime.

Don't forget to try your luck on Amazon's Warehouse and Outlet Store. The Warehouse has discounted returned and damaged items - some are perfectly fine with only a previously opened box, so are well worth the savings. The Outlet Store features any over-stock Amazon wants to get rid of, so all of these items are brand new with absolutely no defects.

12. Always Check On A Price Comparison Site

Before you buy anything online or on the high-street, make sure you're getting the best price. This might sound tedious, and if the difference was just in pennies I'd agree. But just searching for a toaster I wanted on Scoperks I found £14 off the one I was after just from buying it from a different shop!

Using a site like Scoperks you can even get cashback on certain purchases. If you use it for long enough the money really mounts up; some people have reported earnings of over £400 in a year just for buying things they wanted already on cashback websites! And that'd fund quite a few nights out….

13. Add things to your basket

Had your eye on something new, but it's just slightly out of your price range? Don't just close the tab you had it on, add it to your shopping basket on whatever site you're using. Some retailers (like Amazon for example) really don't want to potentially lose you as a customer when you've gotten so close to buying, so they'll email you some vouchers for whatever it was in your basket to entice you back. Patience really does pay off - if you're not desperate for that new thing, give it a couple of days and see what happens.

Sign up to their newsletter to be updated with regular vouchers and discounts from a whole load of different retailers, as well as to get a list of the best Amazon deals of the week. The Facebook and Twitter will both keep you up to date with the latest deals, so you don't even have to search for them yourself..

14. Check if your contents are covered

Don't do what I did. I rushed off to get myself some contents insurance after hearing horror stories about students from the years above being burgled. I didn't stop to check if I was already covered by my parents contents insurance. Turns out I was, and I'd just wasted a chunk of money buying exactly the same thing.

If you're not covered under your parents' insurance, then don't assume that student insurance will be the cheapest out there. Use sites like Compare The Market and Confused.com to compare different insurance types and find the one that's the best for you.

15. Humble Bundle Games

If you're into gaming, you'll burn a hole in your pocket pretty quickly with all the new releases that come out every year. Keep an eye on Steam and Green Man Gaming for any deals and sales (and try not to waste ALL of your student loan on the Summer and Christmas sales…), but for games in the meantime check out Humble Bundle. They do huge flash sales on some really popular games - in the past I've picked up Deadspace, Battlefield 4 and Terraria through some of their Jumbo sales. You pay whatever you want in dollars, all the way down to 1 cent, and whatever you do pay is split between the game devs, 2 charities and the Humble Bundle staff. If you pay over average you get extra (normally better) games too.

There are so many more tips I'd love to give you, but I'm pretty sure we'd have to make them into a book if it got any longer! Do everything above and I'm sure you'll be saving without even thinking about it soon. For even more advice, the Scoperks blog is a great place to find out things like the best alternatives to Beats by Dre headphones and how to make 12 incredible cocktails at home.