How to Manage Money While Studying Abroad?

Managing your finances can be quite challenging and not to mention nerve-wracking, if you are a student who is aspiring to study abroad. As an international student, you are required to save up a huge chunk of money before you embark on your overseas education journey. This is because you never know how money truly works in an unknown land until you get there!

Deciding to study abroad is a life-altering step by itself, as it could be both an exciting as well as agitating journey. Let's face it, the expenses are definitely going to be on the higher end. You need to make sure that you're well prepared to manage the expenses in a country where the currency and cost of living is different from your home country.

But, worry not! This article is here to help you to manage money while studying abroad and guide you through making a perfect budget throughout your stay in your dream country. 

Managing your Finances When Studying Abroad - Where to Begin?

As tedious as it may sound, it is not that difficult to plan your finances ahead of time. All of the destination countries these days have made things easier for international students to spend as well as make money while studying abroad.

As much as it can help you live a stress-free life as a student, planning your finances can also help you make travel plans without any hesitation when you're living abroad. You can live a balanced life of spending money and saving up for emergencies, once you come up with a proper budget to use your money wisely.

Realising that you are on your own and you need to step up to make things easier for you is the first step towards knowing how to budget.

In addition to that, the simple steps below can help you manage your money as a study-abroad student. 

1. Make Use of Your Student ID

This is one of the perks of being a student in a foreign country. Once you receive your student ID from your university, you can easily show that at places such as restaurants, theatres, transportation, grocery stores, and so on, to get some amount of discount on your purchases.

2. Beware of Your Expenses

Believe it or not, your tuition fee is not going to be your only expense when you are living abroad as a student. There will be unavoidable expenses apart from this and you need to be well informed about all this before you even decide on your college and course.

Some of these expenses include:

• Transportation including your flight travels, taxis, Uber, trains, and fuel if you are planning to have your own vehicle for commuting.
• A valid health insurance that can cover all your health expenses in case of emergencies.
• Money that you will be spending on your groceries, shopping, clubbing, and eating out.
• Your vacation expenses whenever you plan a little weekend getaway.

Expenses can surprise you big time even when you plan them very carefully. So it is always better to understand how much you will be spending before you start planning your stay there. This way, you will have the upper hand when it comes to managing your money, and can also make you feel more empowered. 

3. Keep an Eye on Your Funds 

Most of us have the habit of spending impulsively and regretting it later. And some of us don't have the habit of keeping track of such transactions and understand how and where we have spent that particular amount of money. Keeping track of what you are spending on and regularly checking your funds will help you avoid such impulsive spending and motivate you to save better; who knows, this little amount of money that you will be saving could become your lifesaver at difficult times!

Once you start paying attention to how much money you are spending on a daily basis, you will be able to budget your expenses accordingly and this will help you reach a point where you will not spend more than what you thought. 

4. Plan Your Accommodation Wisely

Spending money on rent could be one of the major expenses you might have to face each month during your stay abroad. To avoid spending more money on this, check if there are any on-campus accommodation facilities in the university that you have chosen as some universities might have it as part of the tuition fees.

A wiser option is to find a roommate with whom you can share the place and also your monthly rent so you will end up saving half the money that you might have spent otherwise. 

5. Find Alternatives For Your Credit Card

Swiping your credit card wherever you go might sound easy when said, but there are a lot of practical challenges that come along. If you have a family member who is supporting you financially, it is better to use the remittance method rather than letting them pay for the credit card bills since credit card interests are much higher than what your remittance fee could be.

6. Go Easy On Your Eating-Out Habit

Another convenient way of spending money that can double up your monthly expenses is your restaurant takeouts and the sudden urge to eat at a new restaurant near your residence. As a student who is living on your own, you might want to think twice before spending money on outside food every now and then. Start cooking your own meals at home, let it even be a simple salad! Learning to cook your own meals is one of the most important survival skills that you need to have. Apart from the fact that you will be saving a huge chunk of money, this could be one other thing that can show how you take ownership of your expenses and your health.

7. Open a Local Bank Account

Transferring money every now and then from a Thailand bank account to a foreign one could be a hassle as this can make you lose a certain amount of money as part of the transaction fee. Once you reach there, make sure to open a local bank account, preferably the one which is associated with your college.

8. Know the Exchange Rates

It is important to understand how the exchange rate works as it keeps changing time and again. Make sure to remain updated and receive transactions during the times when the exchange rate is low.

9. Use An Affordable Phone Service

While staying abroad for quite some time, you cannot be without talking to your people back in your country. Apart from phone calls, there are other free online communication tools such as skype, google meet, and whatsapp calls but they do require a proper mobile data service or a strong wifi connection. Choose a cheap phone service that does not make your phone bill go up every month.

10. Manage Your Socialising Skills

One of the exciting parts of student life is friendship. Social networking is an integral part of life and making new friends means spending more quality time together and making memories. The bitter truth is, quality time with friends does not come for free! Most of the weekends you will be asked to go out with them and you will have to spend money when you go as a group.

To avoid this from happening every single weekend, you can invite your friends over every now and then and organise a get-together at your place. This way you will all cut down on your expenses as well as get to spend the quality time that you wanted with your friends. 

11. Do A Side Hustle 

Part-time jobs come as a solution to most of your financial problems when you are a study-abroad student. Take up a part-time job or check with your university if they have any on-campus jobs. Make sure that the job that you are about to take up does not collide with your studies and other commitments.

Some of the other ways in which you can save money are:

• Restricting your shopping sprees to a time when there is a discount sale going on.
• Purchasing furniture in flea markets instead of actual stores.
• Having a student discount card in hand to help you during a time of need.
• Taking up cheaper commuting options or going by walk if it is a manageable travel distance.

You could be new to the concept of saving money and budgeting your finances but we all are new to everything before we learn how to do it, isn't it? There is nothing to worry about as long as you realise that you have to manage your money before you execute your study abroad plan. 

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