Where can I get help & guidance for the rising cost of living?

A bank account is essential to managing your funding and your bills; we recommend having two separate bank accounts, one for your personal income from your job and your savings, and the other preferably a student account, for the money you receive from your student finance provider or your main sponsor/funder.

This will prevent you from spending the money that should otherwise be going towards your rent and will assist you in budgeting each month.

Remember to link your Oyster card to your National Railcard so that you can save money on off-peak travel prices. Off-peak times are 09:30 to 16:00 and costs will be lower.

Keep track of how much you’re spending from the start. It’s easy to overspend when you don’t know how much you’re spending.

Set up a system to manage your money yearly. If you have a place dedicated to keep track of your money it is easier to maintain the habit. Try setting a monthly budget; there are apps which can help with this.

Try your best not to burn through your money during Welcome Week. There are many ways to socialise without spending money; try to make friends that have similar interests, so you can spend time together without spending too much.​​​

Sign up to lots of societies and engage with their socials and events – this will allow you to meet lots of new people outside your course and make new friends.

There’s no obligation to stick with the society until the end of the year so try joining quite a few at the beginning and then cutting down.

Sign up to any free societies at the beginning of the year and look out for free KCLSU events (often with food) through the year to get involved and meet other students.

Make sure to sign up to any supermarket reward schemes. This will help save money on groceries, as you may start buying a lot of groceries.

When figuring out your budget remember to include some contingency money each month just in case an unexpected expense pops up.

Savings accounts can be essential for this; you can have one ‘easy access’ for emergencies and another for large expenses you are saving towards, for example a housing deposit. If you have surplus money now, you may not in the future, so get into the habit of saving some in an easy access, or even an ISA to earn more interest tax free.

To find out more about banking and terminology used around finances, check out Understanding banking and financial terminology.

Coffee and food on the go can be expensive in London. Try to make your own coffee at home, or buy some from the KCLSU cafeterias; it’s one of the best and cheapest you can find in central London.

Make sure to check out the student discount schemes that are offered by Student Beans, UNiDAYS and Totum, as they can be very helpful to save money when shopping.

We recommend researching and making a list of all the apps that offer good discounts for students before you before term starts.

If you are a Home student, remember to claim all the funding you are entitled to, which includes completing the means test for student loans in order to be eligible for the King’s Living Bursary.

Just because you qualify for the student loan, this does not mean you have to take out some or all of it, but you could be missing out on free funding if you don’t.

Also, if you are a Home student parent or disabled student, we advise checking your eligibility for welfare benefits.

To reduce the impact of the high cost of living on our students, King’s Food have re-designed menus and worked meticulously with suppliers to keep costs as low as possible. In addition, we have fixed prices in our food outlets for the rest of the academic year, to enable the King's community to plan their food spends whilst on campus.

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