Indeed, the life of a university student is one of a tight budget. Your bank account is literally empty. Your tax return that you received a couple of weeks ago is all gone. Your credit card is maxed out, or close to it, with Bills to pay left right and centre. Sound familiar? GradTips provides you a list of handy hints to improve your financial situation, without pulling out teeth and selling them to the tooth fairy.

On May the 7th, 2008, Macquarie University announced a new curriculum to force students who enroll past 2010, to study humanities and sciences, along with the requirement that students are to perform volunteering work whilst studying. I believe this is a great idea for students as it broadens their minds not only to learn about areas outside their thinking box, but to also recognise the needs of others who may or may not be as fortunate in life.

Simple equation. Income - Spendings = Savings. That’s all there is to it. Yet, many people forget the simple equation of savings, often wondering where all their cash and income has gone.

GradTips offers 9 tips that deal with savings and expenses, in order to optimise the much needed bandwith your wallet requires.

1. Withdraw more cash

The best part about being a student is that you have all the time in the world to decide what you want to do in the future. You don’t really need to wake up in the morning for that 9am lecture, nor do you really need to study for exams consistently. In fact, I’m sure there are a lot of students out there that believe cramming is the best way to learn. But in the real world - there’s an underlying expectation of consistency being the best delivery. The following article (which is split into two parts) provides some insight on ways I have used to get motivated, by managing time and setting career and life goals.

Drinking 2-3 cups of coffee a day starting becoming a social norm at work and university, just about when lunch started to be something people “do” instead of “eat”. But is drinking so much coffee in the day really damaging anything? Does it really give you the right wake up call when you start falling asleep in lectures or even at client meetings?

Of course it does. But is Coffee the new smoking habit of the 21st century? I’m sure there must be a better way.

Need to celebrate your anniversary, but out of cash? No time to earn money due to other commitments? Fear not, money isn’t everything when it comes to romance. In fact, the most romantic things are the simple things in life. You really don’t need to spend money to enjoy your time in Sydney, and if you take the time to look around, you will realise this.