Especially ideal for Freshers or those about to start a new year at University, the Student Calculator is a tool to help students work out how much money they will have at university, and how much they will need.

Designed for those studying from England only, you need only answer a few simple questions to get an estimate of your student finance entitlements.

Then just record your income and spending by year, month or week to find your overall balance.

If you follow our money saving tips you can then track your results and see how much you’re (hopefully!) better off.

> Visit the calculator website

There’s also an international version for overseas students.

Here’s some helpful student living tips from a bizarre source.

The stars of The Only Way Is Essex including Joey Essex and James ‘Arg’ Argent have got together to share some hand life hacks.

In research commissioned by me, mobile energy, almost a fifth (17%) of this age group admitted they had fallen out with an ex or current housemate over bills, with the majority (51%) saying that paying online or via an app would make their lives easier.

To help with those little everyday jobs around the house, me – a new energy service delivered entirely through an app – has recruited the expertise of Joey Essex, Arg and Diags to share some of their shortcuts.

These ‘life hacks’ range from tips in the kitchen to expert folding up skills, and even include a solution to arguments around bills.

me makes managing gas and electricity bills easier. As a me customer you can manage all aspects of your account at the touch of a button. You can even split bills between housemates so you know who owes you what. Meter readings can also be submitted through the app and households can get an estimate of their next monthly bill helping them to plan their finances.

me is part of British Gas and is available to download from the App store and Google Play. For more information, visit www.mobileenergy.co.uk.

And what’s best is you don’t even need to know many details, just plug in your annual household income and details about your course and living arrangements to see how much you can get in loans and grants.

All students are eligible for a tuition loan of up to £9,000, which is paid straight to your University.

As well as that, a Maintenance Loan – the amount of which depends on whether or not you’re based in London – is also available to all students.

Depending on your household income, your Student Finance application may also entitle you to an extra Maintenance grant, which doesn’t have to be paid back.

This official government Student Finance Calculator will also check if you’re eligible for extra grants given out to those who may have children, studying certain courses or have disabilities.

> Start the Student Finance Calculator

Remember, this isn’t an application for Student Finance, just a guide to show how much you can get.

Be sure to apply for Student Finance online before the deadlines!

Spices make things interesting!

Spices can make even the blandest of foods interesting. Things like rice and pasta may be dirt cheap, but they can get boring after a while. Fortunately, a huge host of spices and seasoning can improve that, and they’ll usually last a heck of a long time, too.

You’ll no doubt already use salt and pepper, but look into things like oregano, cumin, paprika, curry and chilli powder. Do your research online on what to use or just be adventurous and experiment!

It’s not just for the savory either, with something like cinnamon turning french toast into a whole other brilliant experience.

Reduce your waste!

Throwing away food is practically throwing away money, so don’t do it! Understand what fills you up and keep your portion sizes enough to stop you being hungry, but no more. If you do have leftovers, save them or reuse them! Leftover meat especially can be used in all kinds of meals.

And of course, keep an eye on use-by dates for your products. For cupboard items, this won’t be an issue, but fresh products may only have a few days before they starting going off, so eat them before you have to bin them.

But just because something is going off, doesn’t mean it has to be binned. If you’re not going to eat it, freeze it: Meats, bread and even milk can all be frozen and kept beyond any dates printed on the packaging.

Try veggie alternatives

Next time you go shopping, take a look at the vegetarian options or research from veggie recipes. You may find that some meals in particular may be cheaper and yet still taste exactly the same. Veggie recipes can also be cheaper to make and allow you to explore and improve your cooking skills beyond the usual meat and fish. Nut roast, anyone?

Plan ahead

Plan your meals ahead in a bid to give yourself time to search for the best and cheapest goods, as well as taking advantage of bulk savings and no need to regularly make trips to the shops, also saving you cash on petrol or bus fares.

Use comparison sites

Use websites like MySupermarket to compare you weekly shopping basket to see which store is offering the cheapest prices right now.

Supermarket prices change all the time so be sure to check regularly even if you’re always buying the same products.

The website also has a handy tool to look for cheaper alternatives, but a drawback of the site is that it doesn’t search every supermarket, with neither Lidl nor Aldi included.

Get quick and easy recipes

Use websites like our sister site Student Eats to find quick, fast and cheap recipes designed and tested for students, and a student kitchen!

Here’s a quick money saving resource that can help you save a few quid here and there.

While MP3s are hardly the most expensive of things, generally priced around 99p each, shopping around can still get some big discounts.

Rivals to iTunes such as Amazon’s MP3 store and 7Digital are often cheaper, and sometimes substantially so – a 59p MP3 is a rather large 40% discount from one priced 99p.

Fortunately there’s a rather handy website called Tune Checker which will give you the cheapest price for the song or album you want, including pointing out special promotions.

Just head over to Tune Checker, plug in the song name, album or artist and see which retailer has the best offer!