How To Save Money For Travel As a Student: 11 Effective Tips

The complete guide to save money for travel as a student abroad, filled with tips to live in a hostel, budget better, eat more healthily and more!

How to save money for travel as a student abroad?

Great question – some will talk about the best student budgeting apps, and some will go into their full study abroad experience.

What I’ve decided to do is to tell you all about money management for students studying abroad in as much detail as I can.

I haven’t been a student in a long time, but I have been freelancing for quite a few years and I guess the only difference is that you’re, a) younger, and b) have access to student discounts even when you’re studying abroad.

This is not the case if you’re a freelancer and digital nomad, believe me.

If you’ve been here before, you know that my passions include finding new amazing cafes to work in London, coffee shops to study in Rome, and quite any city that my feet will take me.

I talk about student productivity and success here, and I talk about the best daily safety tips to follow when you’re working from home so your work performance isn’t impacted.

Now, I want to talk about how to save money for travel as a student abroad, because you’re definitely going to need that cash as you meet more and more people.

How to To Save Money For Travel As a Student: 11 Effective Tips

When you first decide to embark on a study abroad experience, you know what you’re getting into – except you don’t, really.

Learning how to save money for travel as a student abroad is one of the most important lessons in money management for college students you’ll learn for life, that’s for sure.

While you’re studying abroad, you might be tempted to use the best student budgeting apps but really, there is much more than using an app or website for a study abroad experience.

Maybe you will want to look into health insurance for study abroad students – even if in my opinion, nothing can protect you from life anywhere you are in the world,

In this guide, I will tell you my effective best tips to budget your student money per week, save money on accommodation and food, and many more of my personal tips on how to save money for travel as a student abroad.

To be fair, this is also a guide that could double for freelancers and digital nomads working abroad.

So, if you are a freelancer and not a student anymore, by all means pick up all the tips that are useful to you.

Then, hopefully, your working and living abroad experience will be the best it can be!

How To Save Money For Travel As a Student: Stay in Hostels

I wrote a full guide to the best tips to life at a hostel a while back, and of course, if you’re looking for how to save money for travel as a student, I’m going to have to start with that.

For a complete study abroad experience, I think there’s clearly nothing better than staying at different hostels, long-term if possible.

That’s one of the best tips for money management for college students, as not only will you pay for a cheap bed in a dorm, but you’ll also have the ability to pay in bulk, weekly or monthly.

And if you’re looking to manage your student money per week or per month, then paying in advance will really help you with accounting.

I’ve never lived such strong moments as when I was a digital nomad in a foreign country – to be fair, even if I’ve got my own room in London, I’m still a digital nomad abroad.

And I’ve made quite a few very good friends while living in hostels in Rome and London mostly, because I was staying there long-term.

That’s the best thing I can recommend, but if you’d like to know how to survive life in a hostel, you should definitely check the guide I’ve put together for you.

We want to know about money management for students abroad, yes, but we also want to know how to choose the perfect hostel for the best study abroad experience.

Save Money For Travel For Abroad Students: Budget Student Money Per Week

As a freelancer, it’s a bit trickier to manage money when working abroad. It’s the same as if I were back home: you never know when the next paycheck is going to come in.

Budgeting your student money per week and per month will help you figure out whether you’ve got some room for unexpected expenses.

You need to take into account the hostel or your apartment’s rent, as well as food and transportation for both going to uni and unexpected outings.

Then, you have all the budgeting for your phone plan and any other subscriptions you may have online (like Netflix for instance), and everyday expenses like the laundry, if you don’t have a washing machine in your house.

While you’re living abroad, you might not want to use your card too much, so make sure you always have some cash with you.

That will help tremendously with budgeting your student money per week, and you should definitely keep your card for emergencies only.

That’s one of the best tips for money management for college students abroad I can give you: break down the budget monthly, then weekly, and be mindful of any bank fees that may incur if you use your credit card.

How To Save Money For Travel As a Student: Find Meal Deals

One of my best tips if you’re looking into how to save money for travel as a student is to find the cheapest supermarkets and meal deals around.

It’s not even just a travel abroad experience tip, it’s actually also important when it comes to usual money management for college students.

Later on, I will write about the cheapest supermarkets in London, Rome, Paris, and other cities around the world to help you out with that.

What I would advise is to make a budget for your student money per week and look around for all the supermarkets available close to you.

The best student budgeting apps will not help if you’re not willing to see what’s really available and in your budget around you.

Look at what’s around within walking distance from the hostel you live in or your apartment, and if you have to take a bus or a metro to travel to a cheaper supermarket, try and figure out if the overall budget will still be cheaper when you take into account the price of the round-trip ticket.

For instance, if you’re looking into how to save money for travel as a student abroad in London, you might want to see which supermarket has the cheapest meal deals.

Tesco or Sainsbury’s?

And if you get all of these items separately in Aldi or Lidl, wouldn’t it be cheaper?

Money management for college students abroad means you’re going to have to work around fake discounts too, but once you know how to shop on a budget, your study abroad experience will become that much less stressful.

How To Save Money For Travel As a Student Abroad: Meal Prep

I have written about easy meal prepping for college students a while back on The Working Line.

If you’re looking for ways to improve money management for students, that’s another guide you should take a look at before you even plan anything in terms of study abroad experience and traveling.

One of the best gifts for study abroad students might very well be a subscription to one of the best student budgeting apps, or even a great student cooking book.

Whatever you do, whether you live in a hostel, on your own, or with new flatmates, you’re going to have to learn how to cook – at least the basics. Why?

Two reasons: first of all, you’re going to know how to cook healthily for yourself, thus saving you tons of health issues later on in life.

How to save money for travel for students abroad is important for your life later, when you’re not alone anymore.

You need to think on a larger scale about your health and your future, even if you’ve just graduated and living on your own for the first time.

That also means that when you have a family – if you want one, you’ll already know how to take care of one person’s stomach.

The second reason is you’re going to save tons of money.

A meal deal is alright for just one or two days a week when you’re short on time and/or your hostel doesn’t have a proper kitchen and fridge.

But in the long term, it really adds up and you’d be much better off trying out new salad recipes that you can keep for two days in the fridge.

So, whenever possible, buy in bulk and learn how to meal prep easily.

I promise you’ll enjoy that food and the extra cash much more than a sandwich and soft drink.

It’s not only money management for college students studying abroad, but also a great tip for any digital nomad trying to live a healthier life.

How To Save Money For Travel As a Student: Find a Student Job

Of course, one of the best ways to figure out this whole how to save money for travel as a student abroad thing is to get a student job.

That will solve many of your budgeting issues, that is if you can get a student job.

I am a firm believer in getting different jobs to find what you’re most attracted to in life, as sometimes, you will choose a course or a path that you absolutely don’t like.

If you want to stay on this course, all good for you.

But a study abroad experience should be an experience in all sorts of ways, especially if you’re looking seriously into how to save money for travel as a student abroad.

If you can get a job without needing a visa or specific papers, like working in a hostel cash in hand or in exchange for the room, then that will be one of the best student jobs you can ever have.

You will meet lots of digital nomads, families on vacation, and students studying abroad just like you. That means that while working at a hostel, you might find friends for life and work buddies.

You can do some tutoring, either in your mother tongue or online tutoring for people a few years behind you.

If you can get a registered job at a local supermarket, at a coffee shop, or at your uni if you are an Erasmus student, that will be even better, as this is real life and you will come to know life in a hostel often feels like it’s not real life.

If you’re looking for tips for budget management for students abroad, well, making more money will definitely help you save more money while you’re looking into how to save money for travel as a student abroad.

Get a part-time job, even 10 hours a week just to have a feel of professional life.

That will also help you with becoming a better student and teach you discipline as you have to juggle two things at the same time.

Money Management for College Students: Open an Online Bank Account

How to save money for travel as a student abroad?

Think finance, now.

One of the best decisions I ever took before moving abroad from France to the UK, from the UK to Italy, and back to London was to open an international bank account online.

That is one of the best tips when you’re looking into how to save money for travel as a student abroad, as I have come across many students who were looking for ways to manage and budget their student money per week but still paid lots in fees.

Opening an online bank account when you choose the right bank means you’ll have one of the best student budgeting apps at hand all day every day.

I personally use both Monzo and Revolut. If you’re all about money management for college students abroad, which I suspect you are at this point, these are two banks that offer an online account as well as savings vaults, cashback, and even the ability to invest, in Revolut’s case.

The reason why I opened a Revolut account was so I could have both the UK and European bank accounts at hand for transfers since I’m a freelancer.

For your study abroad experience to be the best it can be, it will be easier for you to budget your student money per week when you have such helpful budgeting apps always available for you to check.

Plus, it means that you will avoid tons of fees that you would have to pay for daily expenses if you had a foreign bank account.

How To Save Money For Travel As a Student: Use Student Discounts

One of the best tips on how to save money for travel as a student is to actually use the student discounts you’re entitled to. I remember not using my student discounts that much.

Yet, for budgeting your student money per week/month, you should definitely look into all the ways you can save money for necessities as well as unexpected expenses like restaurants, fast foods, and even shops in some countries (think Unidays in the UK).

Student discounts can be one of the most helpful gifts for study abroad students and even if they are more usual in some countries than others, like the UK or France, you should definitely ask around when you first move to the country.

If you are afraid of looking stupid or a bit ashamed, you can always look online to see if the shops you visit on a daily or weekly basis offer student discounts.

How many times as a student in my hometown in Paris I have used my student discounts at fast foods like McDonald’s but also at the movies?

I’ve been able to enjoy quite a few euros off the final bill. If you’re looking for ways as to how to save money for travel as a student abroad, that’s one of the first things you should do.

It will help you save tons of money that you can use on other things during your study abroad experience, like visiting more local restaurants and discovering more new places – especially if you get a train card on websites like Trainline.

How to Save Money For Travel as a Student Abroad: Use Public Transportation

How to save money for travel as a student abroad?

The answer is simple: when you live abroad for the first time, I know for a fact that your study abroad experience will be that much better when you use both your feet and public transportation.

I’m not talking about anything like Ubers or taxis, I am talking about mingling with the crowd that uses everyday transportation.

Not only will you save money, but you will feel like a local straight away, even if you get lost the first few times.

One easy way to budget your student money per week is to know about the public transportation system in the city you’re living in.

For instance, in Paris, you can buy a daily ticket that encompasses the bus, the tram, and the metro or you can buy a Pass Navigo that ensures you are set for a full month/year depending on what student program you have chosen.

How to save money for travel as a student abroad means you know how to look for transportation deals, that’s for sure.

In Rome, there is no such system, and you will most probably pay daily for transportation.

However, it is also among the cheapest in Europe, so you will not spend that much money on public transportation such as the metro which currently costs €1.50 for a single trip.

How to save money for travel as a student abroad very much depends on how focused the city is on freelancing and digital nomadism, in my opinion.

In London, one of the most famous student cities in the world, you will be able to get either a Travelcard or an Oyster Card that you can top up to use as you go.

When you know you’re not going to take the bus or the Tube that much during the month, there are also weekly and monthly Travelcards that you can top up your Oyster card with.

If like me, you know you’re going to travel to uni and then to a part-time job, the easiest way for me to travel around London is to use my credit card.

It is easy, as you can tap it on the London tube and bus gates without necessarily having to buy an Oyster card.

Money Management for College Students: Plan Out of Town Trips in Advance

I feel like one of the best gifts for study abroad students should be a subscription to whatever train company or bus company you have around you.

If you want to know how to save money for travel as a student abroad, I’d start with this: you’re going to want to have day trips out of the city, whether you’re in Barcelona, Paris, Rome, or Prague.

So keep this in mind, as it will help you with money management: book as early as you can.

Try to choose a cheap country to live in in the first place, like Italy, Spain, Portugal, or Eastern Europe.

Surely, you don’t need any of the best budgeting apps for students to understand that Italy will be cheaper to study in than the United Kingdom.

Either book as much in advance as possible, make good use of student discounts or let the wind carry you away with last-minute tickets and seasonal offers.

I always use the same websites when I travel: Skyscanner to find out the best flight prices, Trainline for cheap train tickets, and Flixbus for cheap bus tickets.

You might still want to check out other companies, like National Express or Megabus for buses, and I even sometimes use Google to find cheap plane tickets as well.

How To Save Money For Travel As a Student: Ask For Necessary Gifts

There are lots of amazing gifts for study abroad students, and if you’re smart enough about managing your money before moving abroad, you could ask friends and family to chip in for necessary gifts.

Of course, you’re going to want to make sure that you can take those gifts abroad, but in any case, those are sure to help with your study abroad experience.

For instance, to help you manage your student money per week or per month, you could ask for a life planner.

You could ask for a beautiful branded notebook to jot down your ideas when you’re out of town on a weekend.

You could even ask for a pillowcase, so that when you’re at a hostel, you already feel a little bit more at home.

That can also be a new pair of comfortable sneakers so you can roam the city on your days off uni.

It’s really easy to get into money management for college students when you know you already have some of those necessary things covered.

I will be writing a full guide to the best gifts for study abroad students very soon, so you’ll know what I’m talking about, and you might even find some ideas that you didn’t even think you needed before you move abroad.

Money Management for College Students: Talk To Other Students For Tips

If you’re really serious about how to save money for travel as a student, then you should get on the PC and start talking to other students.

I would definitely use Quora and Reddit when it comes to money management for college students whether you’re about to study abroad or stay in your own town.

These are two platforms that I trust blindly when it comes to tips and hacks about life, that’s for sure.

People on both Reddit and Quora write the most detailed answers about life, whether you’re looking to budget your student money for the week, are looking for gifts for study abroad students, or health insurance matters.

There’s just anything and everything you might need on there, so if I were you, I’d get to typing as early as possible.

If you’ve already arrived at the hostel, then make new connections by asking questions. It never hurts to ask questions, and you might make lifelong friends by breaking the ice.

Ask people how they meal prep, how they manage their money, how they manage to stay productive and performant with work, what cheap activities they do around the city, what student budgeting apps they use…

There’s so much to learn from other people, and that’s also a reason why you should stay at a hostel when you first study abroad.

How to To Save Money For Travel As a Student: 11 Effective Tips

There you have them, my best tips and hacks as to how to save money for travel as a student.

From staying at a hostel to meal prepping and finding the best meal deals, you have here some of the best tricks for money management for students abroad.

Don’t be afraid to plan well in advance with a beautiful planner, while you’re still at home.

Try to think of everything when it comes to budgeting your student money per week/month, from the laundry to the food, from the transportation to the hostel fees.

Do also check out the best student budgeting apps you can find, and do try quite a few so you can compare and find the one most suited to your lifestyle!

Until next time!

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