How shared living helps students to save on student accommodation
This is a collaborative post.
Making the leap from student halls to a student house? Perhaps you’re looking for student accommodation that ticks all the right boxes for you, budget-wise? The good news is, there are plenty of modern yet affordable options when it comes to living at university – just look at the vast range of student accommodation Liverpool has to offer.
One thing that many first-year students worry about is leaving home to live with a group of complete strangers at university. Although your parents nag the life out of you back home, at least you know where you stand with them and you needn’t worry about stepping on anyone’s toes (literally!).
However, living with other students can really help you to save money on your student accommodation. It is easy to make your uni digs feel like home. After all, the bills will be split between you all, so it’s not just coming out of your student loan or maintenance grant!
Here we explain the benefits of shared living and offer a few simple tips for managing your money.
Why shared living?
Ok, so there’s no denying that sharing a place with people who you have never met before can be daunting. But we’re sure you’ll agree that having some company beats living alone.
To start with, you might not know if they share the same beliefs or values as you or what their interests are (i.e. what music they listen to, what football club they support, or what films they like to watch etc.). That’s why it pays to be sociable when you first move into your student accommodation so you don’t miss out on anything and you can get to know a little bit more about your housemates.
Plus, navigating your way around busy city centres like London, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester isn’t easy – and not something you want to be doing alone. Maybe one of your housemates is familiar with the area and can show you around? Or perhaps you could all go together?
Another perk of shared accommodation is that, 9 out of 10 times, someone is always at home. Perfect if you’re expecting a delivery but have lectures all day, or if the landlord is sending someone out to carry out maintenance work at the house.
But above all, the best thing about sharing uni digs is that you can keep a firm grip on your money. The rent is split evenly between all tenants, meaning you can go halves (or quarters depending on how many of you live in the house) on the bills too.
3 ways students can save money when living in shared accommodation:
- Align your living habits – people with different likes and dislikes all under one roof…surely that’s a disaster waiting to happen? But the key here is to understand each other’s needs and to make compromises where appropriate. Try and come up with a cleaning schedule and allocate chores fairly. Make sure everyone is doing their bit to keep the house clean and properly maintained to eliminate the need for repairs.
- Split the food shopping bill and cooking – going to university is all about being independent, don’t get us wrong. But eating together – even if it’s just once or twice a week – will save you some serious cash in the long-run. Buying food in smaller quantities often works out more expensive than buying in bulk. So, before you pop to the supermarket, sit down as a house and plan your meals. This will save you all stocking up on tins of beans, loaves of bread, butter, milk, cereal and, in turn, reduce wastages. And once you’re back, you can divide the bill equally. Win-win.
- Share essential household items – forever making trips to the corner shop for tea bags, bin bags, washing powder, toilet rolls and hand soap? Though they don’t cost much initially, it all adds up, which is why you should consider making a list of the essentials everyone uses, and take it in turns to buy them. An alternative would be to have a house kitty that everyone contributes to so it’s not the same person buying things for the house, week in week out.