National Student Money Week 2026
Each year, the National Association of Student Money Advisers (NASMA) delivers National Student Money Week and universities and student unions across the country join together to promote information and events on money management.
For National Student Money Week 2026, running from 2 - 6 March, the theme was ‘Future ready: Money skills for success’.
We had a stall in the Students' Union plaza where students had the chance to take part in activities and win prizes. This included our money tree where students gave us their top tips. Of the 90 tips we had, here are some of our favourite ones:
- Try and walk everywhere you can! And buses are cheaper than Uber
- Cook meals with your housemates and split the cost
- When shopping online leave your basket full for 48 hours and see if you still want it all
- Put the cost in terms of hours worked
- Get a big tesco delivery with your flat
- Separate your going out money from your weekly expenses money
- Buy food from the reduced section and eat/freeze it
- Pre-make packed lunches at the start of the week
- Make the most of free meals and community fridges and always ask for student discounts
- Use coaches instead of trains when going home
We had experts from NatWest deliver two of their Financial Foundation online sessions, aimed to help students get to grips with the money basics.
- “Building Blocks” was about understanding payslips and tax, budgeting methods, borrowing and credit scores. See the takeaway notes from the NatWest “Building Blocks” session (PDF, 597KB).
- “Changes and Choices” was about saving accounts and strategies, pensions, rainy day funds and paying off debt. See the takeaway notes from the NatWest “Changes and Choices” session (PDF, 493KB).
The Student Advice Centre hosted a shopping basket challenge, where students were asked to guess the difference in the cost of the shopping from two different supermarkets. One basket was from express shops in Broomhill and cost £36.81 including loyalty card discounts), compared to another from Aldi which cost £21.92, which goes to show that knowing where to shop can really make a difference! One lucky student with the closest guess won one of the baskets, with the other donated to the SU Community Hub.
We conducted a survey to better understand students’ experiences of part-time work and how they fund their studies. A total of 138 responses were received, and one student won the prize draw of a £50 voucher! 42% of students reported having a part-time job and 58% did not have a part-time job. The survey findings suggest that while a significant proportion of students undertake part-time work, many either struggle to find suitable employment or feel unable to balance work with their studies. For those who do work, employment is primarily used to support both essential living costs and lifestyle expenses, with some students also recognising the longer-term benefits such as savings and CV development. Students without employment most commonly rely on student finance and family support to fund their studies.
We also conducted a focus group with our Student Experience Panel to find out more about how confident students feel managing their finances and where they currently seek help; their awareness of the financial support, information and guidance available to them; and the information and guidance they find most useful. We heard from home, international, undergraduate and postgraduate students and got some great insights to take forward.
Thanks to those who took part: this will help us as we continually refine how we deliver our service, the information we provide to students, and our plans for next year’s National Student Money Week.
If you want any further information and guidance on cost of living and money then please visit our money matters hub.