How to Save Money During Study Abroad – Top 10 Hacks

Managing your finances while studying abroad can be one of the biggest challenges given the super-expensive lifestyle and travel costs involved in studying abroad. Here’s a guide on how to save money during study abroad.

Before moving out to a new country, you might have to do many things. From shopping for clothes and other essentials to spending time and energy on getting your flights and accommodations booked, the list is endless. However, if you organize everything systematically, you might have some extra money with you, and you can explore the place in the new country where you are living. Here are the techniques on how to save money during study abroad. 

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Finding a Good Price for the Airfare

Finding a great deal on tickets for flights is not difficult. The only challenge is to find the appropriate ticket price, but by the time you decide on booking it, the tickets are either sold or get expensive. To avoid such inconveniences, you can check some sites like Orbitz, Kayak and JustFly. It would not just find you fantastic deals but also incorporate price adjustments, and the added advantage is that the prices won’t change while you are browsing. Here’s how these sites will help you to find flight tickets according to your convenience. 

1. Search with your departure and arrival dates and locations
2. Offers notifications whenever the price drops or to get a call over the phone for assistance.
3. Get options like a lower price on alternate dates and lists the most popular flights.
4. Use credit cards to pay the money as many banks offer rewards either in cash or points to use their card. Also, many sites provide big discounts to customers who pay using an Airline credit card. 

Get Yourself a Frequent Flyer Account

It is better to make a frequent flyer account with an airline you prefer. It can be accessed for free, and you can use the ID number you had received while signing up. This will help you track flight changes or delays and unlock various rewards. 

Make Travel Insurance

Though some might consider it an unnecessary expense, travel insurance would cover your medical expenses, lost belongings or luggage, flight cancellation or other travel-related problems. While many universities abroad require you to have travel insurance, even if not needed, you can make it and save a lot of money from the resulting bill.

Make Use of Free Wi-Fi and Use Cheap Phone Services.

While studying abroad, you need to make local as well as international calls, and if you do not pay attention to the phone bills, then it is bound to skyrocket in no time. You can use applications such as WhatsApp, Google Duo, Skype, etc., which facilitate free online calling. To use these apps, you can use the free Wi-Fi facilities available at various places. To make a call to your home country, you can use services like GoogleFi, Rebtel, etc. 

Make the Most Use of Student Discounts

You can get an international student ID card (ISIC) to avail of the discounts on travel, events, admission activities, etc. You can also ask a vendor or cashier if they offer a student discount. If you take public transportations, you need to check if they offer monthly discount passes.

Many cities abroad offer bikes for rent, and if you use them for less than 30 minutes, it is free. Therefore, to know how to save money during study abroad, you can use these bikes to get around the town and that too free of cost. If you want to travel out of town, you can opt for Megabus options and research how to travel most inexpensively. 

A Local Bank Account to Help you Save Money

Exchanging the money of your home country to another currency requires a lot of ATM fees. It is better to open a local bank account to mitigate the challenge. Then you can take the maximum daily limit money out of your home bank account and transfer it to the account of your local bank. This would require you to pay the ATM fees only once, and you will be able to use the money in local currency.

Find Out a Smart Way to Save Money

Being a student abroad, you might make many friends and go out with them on the weekends to enjoy the nightlife. However, to enjoy spending more than what you can afford, you can look out for open-air cinemas, street festivals, museum days and some other cheap events. This would help you to get a taste of the culture without burning a hole in your pocket. 

Cut Down on the Cost of Textbooks

When you think about how to save money during study abroad, you might think of the costs incurred on buying study materials for your course. You can purchase second-hand textbooks or buy them online to reduce the price. Literature students can find a lot of classics for free on Gutenburg online, which is a growing database for books.

Learn Cooking, Especially the Local Cuisines

While abroad, you might not always get the food of your home country or the ingredients to cook it. Also, ordering it all the time might cost you a lot of money. Therefore, it is better to learn cooking, and you can prepare your week in advance and take a maximum of 2-3 takeouts out of the preparations you made. This would save you money, customize your diet and help you live a healthy lifestyle.

Find Out Cheap Accommodation for Yourself

Apart from the university tuition fee, your accommodation cost will take up much room for your expenses. If you can find the right accommodation for yourself, then living off-campus is a much better option. You can also find some roommates so that you can reduce the accommodation cost. 

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