A Student Budget for the Costs Beyond Rent

The weekly side of studying, like getting to campus and eating between classes, fits into each pay much like any other cost. The one-off costs need a different plan, because a reading list doesn't wait for payday.

List every cost the semester will ask for

Your unit outlines are the best list you'll get. Each one names the required texts and any software, equipment or clothing you'll need, such as a lab coat. Your student portal shows the fees you've been invoiced and when each is due.

Before buying anything, it's worth checking what the university already provides, since the library may hold the text and some software comes with enrolment. Whatever is left goes on your list with its price and the date you'll first need it.

Tuition doesn't include any of this. There's also the student services and amenities fee, or SSAF, a separate charge for non-academic services on campus. If you're eligible, SA-HELP lets you defer it onto your study debt, as long as you apply to your provider by the fee's due date. Deferring your tuition with HECS-HELP doesn't arrange this for you. Our HECS-HELP guide explains how that debt is repaid.

Then add getting there. Your timetable tells you how many days you'll be on campus, so you can price the fares or parking and the food on long days. Being a student doesn't make you eligible for every state's transport concession, so check the rules where you study before budgeting the cheaper fare.

Most of it lands in the first fortnight

Meet Ella, a made-up first-year science student who works casual shifts. Her tuition is on HECS-HELP and her provider has confirmed SA-HELP for the services fee, so neither needs cash this semester. Her outlines ask for $240 of required course items before classes and a $180 lab kit by her first practical in week 2. Travel to campus costs her $20 a week.

The two big costs are the part to plan for. Ella wants them and the first month of travel ready before classes start, because her roster won't settle until her workplace has her timetable. From week 5, travel comes out of each pay.

Spread the gap over the pays before semester

Ella's summer savings cover part of the target; the pays before classes have to cover the rest. The savings goal planner does the same sum with your own numbers.

Only count money that will be in your account before the cost is due, such as savings you already hold and take-home pay from shifts you've actually been given. A support payment or scholarship counts once its amount and payment date are confirmed.

A Student Start-up Loan can help if you get Youth Allowance as a student, Austudy or ABSTUDY Living Allowance. It's borrowed money: you repay it once your income passes a threshold, and indexation can add to the balance. Keep it on a separate line from money you've earned, and count it once it's paid. An approval that comes through in week 3 doesn't buy a book you needed in week 1. For a laptop your course needs, a No Interest Loan is another option, repaid fortnightly with no interest.

In Clova, our budgeting app, the semester costs can be a savings goal with a target and a date, sitting beside everything else each pay has to cover.

Plan for quieter shifts around exams and breaks

You may want fewer shifts in exam weeks, and the break between semesters can bring more work or much less. Your phone bill and groceries carry on through both. Planning on what a quieter fortnight pays you and keeping the extra from a busy one takes the edge off those dips. Our guide to budgeting on an irregular income works through how.

Once semester is under way, it helps to see what it actually cost. Clova puts each purchase in a category, so the printing top-ups and the book nobody mentioned in O-week are easy to find instead of disappearing into everyday spending.

Next semester's list will be quicker to write, because this one shows what was missing. If a busy week in the break leaves something over, a sinking fund can make a start on it. The lab coat, at least, is already paid for.

A note from us

The first week of semester should be about the course, not about which cost to pay first. Clova asks where leftover money should go after each pay, so a quiet week mid-semester can start next semester's costs.