By now, most of you will be living in off-campus student accommodation in Lancaster centre, meaning you’re already independently taking care of yourselves. However, when a lot of students move out of their family homes, or student halls, they find that they have a lot of life skills to learn. There are no lessons in school on keeping a home clean and how to budget, and it’s perfectly okay to be unsure on how to do these things. That’s why the team at Escape Campus have put together some tips that might help you adjust to adult life.
Cooking
Whilst it’s almost part of student culture to eat copious amounts of takeaways, supanoodles and ready meals, this may not be the case for everyone. If you’re wanting to learn to cook, or just to get into a better routine then don’t worry, we can help! Cooking in your student home gives you a great life skill for the future, and it’s often also healthier to eat home cooked food, as well as cheaper! You can cook in bulk for your housemates or freeze the leftovers to have another day. BBC Food has a brilliant selection of student proof meals, that even the most inexperienced chef can tackle. The bonus of these is that they’re also budget friendly, which is perfect for our Lancaster students. Why not start off with something easy like pasta and slowly build up your confidence when cooking, you never know, you may even build up to cooking a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings! Visit our blog page to find a list of student friendly recipes to suit everyone’s preferences.
Cleaning
Being able to clean is a skill that can be fairly easy to learn. Whether it’s keeping your room tidy, or a complete deep clean of your Lancaster student property, being able to look after your home is a key life skill to have. Creating a space that’s clutter free and clean not only improves your physical health but also your mental health. Simple things like emptying the bins when full, doing your washing up as soon as you’ve finished eating, wiping down the countertops before bed and keeping on top of your washing can make a huge difference to both your physical and mental health. Instead of having to do hours long deep cleans, doing little bits more often and keeping on top of it means you don’t have to miss out and spend whole days cleaning. You may only be living in your Lancaster student accommodation for a year (some of you even longer!) but that doesn’t mean you can’t put these skills to the test and keep it clean and tidy. Living in student accommodation with your housemates can make keeping your home tidy and clean tricky if you live with people who don’t help as often as they should! Making chore charts, splitting up the jobs and working as a student household can often help you overcome most issues you may face with messy housemates.
Money
One of the most fundamental life skills to learn when you are younger is how to budget, something that’s most fitting for Lancaster students. We know that for a lot of you, your student loans will only cover so much, therefore learning how to budget your money is key to getting by whilst still enjoying student life to the fullest! One of our biggest tips for Lancaster students would be to use your student status for a discount wherever you can. Not everywhere offers student discounts, but it’s worth asking as some shops and restaurants offer a whopping 20% off for students. We even have a blog on the best spots to eat in Lancaster on a student budget. It may be a small city, but lots of our Lancaster students get part time jobs to give them a bit of extra money. Another great tip is making sure you’re doing your big shop in the right places, luckily for those of you living off-campus in Lancaster town centre student accommodation, there is both a Lidl and a Aldi right in the centre of town, these shops have great offers and deals on produce. And as we spoke about earlier, learning to cook and making meals can help save money you may have once splurged on a takeaway or eating out.