At Savzz, we help UK shoppers find working discount codes across hundreds of retailers, including everything students spend money on from groceries and clothing to subscriptions, mobile phones, and skincare. Student finance is one of the most stressful parts of university life and most of the stress comes from the same problem, not knowing exactly how far the money actually goes.
That is why we built the Savzz Student Budget Calculator. Enter your student loan, your rent, whether you live at home or in halls, and your typical weekly spending across eleven categories. The calculator tells you your weekly leftover, your term-end position, and whether your current spending is comfortable, tight, or heading for a shortfall.
Who Is This Calculator For?
This tool is designed for UK university students at any stage of their degree, but it is especially useful if you are:
- About to start your first year and want to understand what your maintenance loan actually covers before you arrive and start spending
- Already at university and finding that money runs out faster than expected, with no clear picture of where it is going
- Living at home and want to see how your budget compares to students paying rent, and where your savings are going instead
- Considering a part time job and want to see exactly how much of a difference a set number of weekly hours would make to your term-end position
- A parent helping a son or daughter plan their finances before they leave for university
- Doing Dry January or cutting back on alcohol and want to see in real numbers what that saves over a full term
Who Is This Calculator Not Suitable For?
- Students outside England. Maintenance loan amounts differ in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The calculator works for any loan amount you enter but the default and the England maximum reference are specific to England.
- Postgraduate students. Postgraduate loan amounts and structures are different from undergraduate maintenance loans. Enter your actual loan figure and the calculator will still work, but the default assumptions are based on undergraduate finance.
- Students with complex financial situations. If you have dependants, disability allowances, or other specific grants and bursaries, this calculator covers the basics only. Your university’s student finance or welfare team can give you a more detailed picture.
- Anyone needing official financial advice. This is a planning tool, not a regulated financial product. For serious financial difficulty at university, contact your student union or the university hardship fund.
How to Use the Student Budget Calculator
The calculator has three sections.
First, enter your income. This includes your maintenance loan for the term, how many weeks the term runs, and any weekly earnings from a part time job. The calculator converts your lump sum loan into a weekly figure automatically.
Second, choose your living situation. If you live at home, rent drops to zero. If you are in halls or private renting, enter your actual weekly rent. This single figure is almost always the biggest variable in any student budget.
Third, adjust your weekly spending across eleven categories. Use the toggles to zero out anything that does not apply to you. Parents provide food, you cycle everywhere, you do not drink, all of these are one click to remove from the calculation. The traffic light result updates instantly as you go.
Fill in your details below. Use the toggles to skip anything that does not apply to your situation. Everything updates instantly.
Your Income
Where Do You Live?
Weekly Spending — Adjust or Toggle Off
£0
£0
£0
£0
Budget status
Comfortable
How Much Is the UK Student Maintenance Loan in 2026?
The maximum maintenance loan for English students in 2026 to 2027 depends on where you study and your household income. Here are the key figures:
- Living at home: up to £8,877 per year
- Living away from home, outside London: up to £10,227 per year
- Living away from home, in London: up to £13,348 per year
Most students receive less than the maximum because the loan is means-tested against household income. The average maintenance loan received by English undergraduates is around £6,500 to £7,500 per year depending on circumstances.
Divided across three terms of roughly twelve weeks each, the average term instalment is somewhere between £2,150 and £2,500. The calculator uses this as a starting point but you should enter your actual figure for an accurate result.
What Does the Average UK Student Spend Per Week?
NatWest’s annual student living index and the National Union of Students have both tracked student spending in detail over recent years. Here is what the data consistently shows:
Rent: £110 to £200 per week. The single biggest expense for most students. University halls average around £130 to £160 per week. Private rented accommodation varies enormously by city, from under £100 per week in some northern cities to £200 or more in London.
Food and groceries: £30 to £60 per week. Students who meal plan and cook from scratch sit at the lower end. Those who rely on convenience food, regular takeaways, or do not plan their shopping spend a lot more.
Social and alcohol: £30 to £80 per week. The most variable category and the one most students underestimate. A single night out including pre-drinks, entry, drinks at the bar, a round, a taxi home, and late night food can easily cost £40 to £60 in one evening.
Transport: £10 to £30 per week. Students who cycle or walk keep this near zero. Those commuting to campus by bus or train, or travelling home regularly, spend much more.
Subscriptions: £10 to £20 per week. Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, a gym membership, and Adobe all add up quickly. Student versions of most services are typically 40 to 50% cheaper than standard pricing.
The Biggest Student Budget Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Treating the loan as a lump sum rather than a weekly allowance.
The maintenance loan arrives in three instalments and the temptation to treat each one as a windfall is real. Dividing by twelve immediately and setting a weekly budget before spending anything is the single most effective student budgeting habit. The calculator does this division for you.
Not counting alcohol as a budget line.
Most student budget guides list food, rent, and transport then add a vague social category. Alcohol is rarely called out separately. For students who drink regularly, it is often the second or third largest weekly expense after rent. The calculator has a dedicated alcohol line so you can see exactly what it costs per term and per year.
Buying textbooks at full price on day one of term.
New textbooks from university bookshops can cost £30 to £80 each. The library has most reading list books. Previous students sell last year’s editions in Facebook groups for £5 to £15. Digital editions are usually cheaper. Most students who plan ahead spend a fraction of what others spend on the same reading list.
Not checking for student discounts before buying anything.
UNiDAYS and Student Beans give verified students 10 to 20% off at most major retailers including ASOS, Nike, Apple, Spotify, and hundreds of others. Not using them is leaving money on the table on almost every purchase. The Savzz discount code pages cover many of the same retailers and brands with working codes.
Underestimating end of term costs.
The end of each term typically brings costs that feel unexpected but are entirely predictable. Travel home, Christmas or birthday presents, a deposit for next year’s house, a replacement for something that broke during term. Building a small weekly savings amount into the budget from the start, even £5 to £10 per week, prevents the end of term cash crisis most students experience at least once.
Living at Home vs Halls vs Private Renting: The Real Cost Difference
The living situation toggle in the calculator is the single biggest driver of the budget result. Here is why the difference is so big.
Living at home removes rent entirely and often reduces food costs too if parents cover meals. A student on a £7,500 annual loan living at home has around £625 per month of disposable income after transport costs. That is a comfortable student budget in most UK cities.
University halls at an average of £140 per week consumes around £1,680 of a twelve-week term loan. A student receiving £2,500 per term has around £820 left for everything else across twelve weeks, which is roughly £68 per week for food, transport, social, clothing, and all other costs. Manageable but tight.
Private renting is often cheaper than halls per week but comes with additional costs including a deposit, utility bills, and internet that halls usually include. Students in private accommodation need to factor in bills on top of rent, which the calculator accounts for through the ability to adjust the rent figure to include estimated utility costs.
Does a Part Time Job Make a Meaningful Difference?
Yes, it really does. The job income field in the calculator shows this clearly.
A student working ten hours per week at the National Living Wage of around £12.21 per hour earns roughly £122 per week before tax. For a student earning under the personal allowance threshold (which most part time students do), this is essentially tax free.
Added to a weekly loan income of around £200 per week, a part time job at ten hours per week takes weekly income from £200 to over £320, a 60% increase. Over a twelve week term that is an additional £1,464.
Most students find ten to fifteen hours per week manageable alongside studying without it affecting academic performance. Beyond twenty hours per week the impact on studies tends to become noticeable.
How Alcohol Affects the Student Budget
The alcohol toggle in the calculator lets you see exactly what drinking costs per term and per year. For many students this is a genuinely surprising number.
A student spending £30 per week on alcohol spends £360 per term and £1,080 per academic year on alcohol alone. That is before accounting for the taxi home or late night food that typically follows a night out.
Switching the toggle off shows the term-end saving immediately. For a student on a tight budget, reducing alcohol spending from £30 to £15 per week frees up £180 across a twelve-week term, enough to cover a month of groceries.
This is not an argument for not drinking. It is an argument for seeing the real number and deciding whether the current level is the right balance for your budget.
Student Discount Codes Worth Using Every Week
The Savzz discount code pages cover most of what students spend money on regularly. Here are the most useful categories for student budgets:
Grocery discount codes cover supermarket delivery services and online grocery retailers where codes can reduce the weekly food bill meaningfully.
Men’s clothing vouchers and women’s clothing deals cover ASOS, Boohoo, and other fashion retailers students use regularly. These stack with UNiDAYS discounts on some retailers.
SIM card and eSIM discount codes are particularly useful for students considering switching to a cheaper SIM-only plan, which is almost always the cheapest way to run a smartphone.
Vitamins and supplements promo codes and skincare discount codes cover the personal care products most students buy regularly without thinking to look for a code first.
Hot drinks deals cover coffee subscriptions and bean delivery services that are much cheaper than buying daily from a campus cafe.
The Smarter Way to Budget: Calculate First, Then Cut Costs
The calculator gives you the picture. Savzz helps with the second step. Before you buy anything as a student, checking for a discount code takes under a minute and on regular purchases like clothing, subscriptions, and personal care products, the savings add up a lot across a full academic year.
Whether you are buying your weekly groceries, upgrading your phone plan, or stocking up on skincare, search Savzz before you checkout. There is a good chance we have a code that will save you something.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should a student spend per week in the UK?
After rent, most students have between £60 and £150 per week to cover food, transport, social, clothing, and other costs. The exact figure depends on loan amount, living situation, and whether they have part time income. Use the calculator above to get your specific weekly figure based on your actual numbers.
Is the student maintenance loan enough to live on?
For most students not living in London, the maintenance loan covers rent and basic living costs but leaves little room for social spending without careful budgeting or part time income. Students in London on the maximum London loan have more room but face higher rents. Students living at home are in the most comfortable financial position.
How do I make my student loan last the whole term?
Divide your term loan by the number of weeks immediately when it arrives and treat that as your weekly income. Set a non-essential spending limit and track it weekly using a banking app. The three categories with the most flexibility are alcohol, social spending, and clothing. Reducing these while protecting food, transport, and essentials is the most effective approach for most students.
Should I get a part time job at university?
Ten to fifteen hours per week is manageable for most students and makes a real difference to the weekly budget. Use the job income field in the calculator to see exactly how much a set number of hours would add to your weekly income. Campus jobs, bar work, and retail positions are the most common and most flexible options for students.
What is the cheapest way to eat as a student?
Meal planning before your weekly shop, buying own-brand products, batch cooking and freezing portions, and using grocery discount codes consistently produces the lowest weekly food spend. The average student who plans meals spends around £25 to £35 per week on food. The average who does not plan spends £45 to £60 on the same diet.
Who built this calculator?
The Savzz Student Budget Calculator was built by the team at Savzz.co.uk, a UK discount code and money-saving site. We built it because most student budget tools online are too simple to be genuinely useful. A calculator that only does loan divided by weeks ignores the biggest variables in student finance, living situation, part time income, alcohol spending, and whether parents cover food. This calculator accounts for all of them. It is completely free with no sign-up required.
