Welcome to your monthly guide from UNIAID, to student's charity. UNIAID. Here to help. To keep you in the know.

This month: New UNIAID Student Calculator launched!

Ever wondered where your time and money go?

UNIAID has teamed up with NUS to relaunch the UNIAID Student Calculator – an essential budgeting tool to help students cope with their finances.

With new case studies, clearer information, updated figures for 2007 and great NUS advice and tips, the Student Calculator lets you calculate your loan/grant, work out expenditure and provides a summary of your time and money. You can save your budget – and as the year progresses you can amend and update as you wish.

Try it for yourself at www.studentcalculator.org.uk

How to have a great summer and not spend a fortune!

It’s nearly summer, so how do you keep yourself amused on a budget?

Apart from free activities like going to the park or the beach, what else can you do for free or on the cheap?

As a student, your NUS Extra card can be your best friend for discounts if you fancy going shopping or seeing a film. Discounts are available at Amazon, Ticketmaster, Bella Italia and HMV to name but a few. Check out www.nusextra.co.uk for more details.

If you want to travel around the UK, a Young Persons Railcard gets you a discount on train tickets; if you travel off peak and book in advance, there are some real bargins to be had.

Other places to save money:

Cinema – Most offer student discounts, and if you or a friend have a mobile phone with Orange, you can get 2 for 1 tickets to the cinema on Wednesdays with the Orange Wednesday offer.

Museums – Free entry is available to 50 museums all around the country, including the World Museum in Liverpool, the Science & Industry Museum in Manchester, the Brighton Museum, all four Tate galleries, and most big museums and galleries in London.

Music – There are many free music festivals being held across the country over the summer, including the Matthew Street Festival in Liverpool and The Bowl 2007 at Crystal Palace – and free tickets can be won for London’s iTunes Festival.

Theatre – Tickets from Ł5 can be found on www.lastminute.com and www.showsavers.com. If you go to a theatre an hour before the shows starts, then discount/student rush tickets are usually available.

Days out – Many Students’ Unions sell discounted tickets for Alton Towers.

For more ideas, visit www.wherecanwego.com

Loans hit Ł3bn

Interesting news from the world of student finance – Ł3.4bn has now been lent to UK students, Ł386.5m of that in tuition-fee loans. Provisional figures from the Student Loans Company predict that students will have average debts of Ł30,000 when they graduate; this is an increase of Ł18,000 in 4 years (Barclays bank reported the average student debt to be Ł12,000 in 2003).

The National Union of Students has estimated that studying costs Ł15,000 a year in London and Ł13,000 a year elsewhere – and this was what the UNIAID team found when creating the case studies for the Student Calculator. Due to the generous support loans, grants and bursaries, many students have large incomes and expenditures to manage.

For more information about this story visit the education sections on the Times, Guardian or Telegraph websites.

How you can help UNIAID

UNIAID has teamed up with search engine Magic Taxi to raise money for UNIAID.

On the top of the UNIAID pages, you will now find a search box which means a donation will be made to UNIAID every time you search the internet. A magic taxi toolbar can also be downloaded for your browser so you can continue to show your support and help raise money for UNIAID.

Off to uni in September?

If you’re off to university in September, this new government website might be of use. It includes all the major deadlines you need and advice on what do while you’re gearing up for freshers’ week.

http://countdowntouni.direct.gov.uk

Save money on textbooks!

Want to save money or raise a bit of extra cash? Then Sellstudentbooks.com could be the answer. Sellstudentbooks.com is the current sponsorof UNIAID’s Student Survivor competition.

Sellstudentbooks.com gives students the opportunity to sell their old textbooks and buy new or used textbooks through its site. It has over 900,000 books covering all university subjects from Law to Accounting, Geography to Psychology. Textbooks are a necessary expense at university, but sites like this mean you can reduce those costs.

So, why not clear out your old textbooks and make some money in the process?

www.sellstudentbooks.com

PROMOS

Want a hassle-free summer before you head off to uni?

Get your Student finances sorted with the HSBC Student account - visit www.hsbc.co.uk/students

Congratulations to Christie Walker – this month’s lottery winner! An iPod nano is yours!

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