10 Must-Have Apps to Save Money as a Student

Starting university is exciting, but it’s no secret that student life can be expensive.

From rent and bills to food, travel and nights out, costs stack up fast.

That’s why learning how to stretch your budget is just as important as attending lectures.

The good news? There are plenty of clever apps designed to help you save money without cutting back on everything you enjoy.

Here are 10 of the most useful money-saving apps for students, covering banking, shopping, travel and more, to help you take control of your spending and make your money go further.

Starling

Starling Bank is a fully digital bank with no high street branches, but a full banking licence lets you open a current account straight from your phone.

Like Monzo and Chase, Starling goes beyond traditional banking with budgeting and security tools designed for students.

For example, if you want to cap spending at £200 a month, transfer that from your main student account into Starling. Use the card for the month and track every purchase via the app.

The app sends instant spending alerts and sorts purchases into categories like food, shopping and bills. You can set budgets, view progress in clear graphs, and receive warnings if you overspend.

There’s no limit on multiple current accounts. Open a free Starling account and use it like a prepaid card to manage your money effectively.

Curve

Managing your spending across multiple cards can be tricky. Curve simplifies it by combining all your cards into one.

Here’s how it works: register your cards in the app, and once you get your Curve Mastercard, you can spend from any account using just that card.

Choose which account to pay with in the app, and it becomes “active” and ready to use. You can also withdraw cash at ATMs with your Curve card.

Curve offers several plans. The free option includes a debit card, the ‘Go Back in Time’ feature, and £250 a month at fair FX rates.

The app also protects you against all unauthorised transactions up to £100,000.

CheckoutSmart

One of the smartest ways to save on shopping is cashback.

CheckoutSmart gives you a daily list of items offering cashback, with symbols showing which major supermarkets the deals are at.

Simply buy the items, take a photo of your receipt, and submit it on the app. Just stick to what you actually need – buying extra items won’t really save you money.

Your cashback is credited straight to your CheckoutSmart account and can be transferred to your bank or PayPal.

One thing to note: you will be charged a 5% fee for withdrawals less than £20, so it’s best to let your earnings build up before cashing out.

Idealo

Nothing’s worse than buying something only to find it cheaper elsewhere. Idealo helps you avoid this mistake.

Before you spend, open the app and either search for the product or scan its barcode.

It instantly shows prices from other retailers, so you know where to get the best deal.

Sometimes a quick check, or even walking two minutes to another store, could save you a lot of money.

Always compare before you buy and avoid impulse purchases wherever you can.

Splitwise

Shared living can be tricky, but housemates are one of the easiest ways to cut costs.

Splitwise helps you track bills, groceries, and other shared expenses so nothing gets forgotten.

Add any cost to the app, and it calculates who owes what, making sure everyone pays their fair share.

You can settle up directly through the app, avoiding awkward money talk.

By keeping track of everything, you’ll save money, prevent overspending, and stay on top of your budget.

Split My Fare

Train travel can add up, especially if you’re making a lot of trips home or visiting friends at other universities.

Trainline may be good for providing real-time updates but the booking fees make tickets pricier.

Split My Fare is a great app for booking your train tickets and saving money on train travel, as it doesn’t charge any booking fees.

It looks for the cheapest train tickets by splitting your journey into separate tickets and includes any advance fares available for your route.

Big Oven

Big Oven is a great app for saving money on meals.

It has a ‘leftovers’ function that lets you input any ingredients you have and suggests what to make with them.

This helps avoid the situation of having to throw away inedible dinners by guiding you to make the best out of what ingredients you’ve got.

It also ensures that you can stretch out your food in creative ways, preventing constant trips to the supermarket.

Big Oven actually has over 1 million recipes for you to check out, but the leftovers function may be more helpful for university students.

Vouchercloud

There are lots of voucher code apps to choose from, but it’s easy to see why Vouchercloud is one of the most popular.

The simplicity of the app and easy-to-use interface are real plus points for any university student looking for the right discount.

You can either browse through the top featured deals to find the best around or use the ‘near me’ function to find out what the best deals are around your current location.

Get your discount by clicking the ‘Use voucher’ button when it’s time to pay, and a code will appear that you show to staff to redeem your discount.

My Data Manager

If you find yourself constantly running out of data, then this is the app for you.

My Data Manager is a great app to help you take control of your mobile data usage, make the most of your mobile data plan and prevent overspending on your phone bills.

The app sets up a local Virtual Private Network (VPN) service on your phone to block unwanted data usage, which is commonly background apps.

You can then track your data usage and see which apps are using up the most data.

For students, this is effectively a budget-making app but for your phone.

Meerkat

This money-saving app may not immediately strike you as one you’d use for dining out but with Meerkat Meals, students can make savings on some amazing restaurants.

All you have to do is take out a qualifying product, such as insurance or a new broadband contract.

You’ll then earn a year of discounts on meals at some of your favourite restaurants.

Deals include 25% off your whole bill at various new restaurants and 50% off pizzas from Domino’s, Pizza Hut Delivery and Papa John’s.

For university students, this app makes dining out more wallet-friendly.

Saving money at university doesn’t mean missing out; it means being smart with how you spend.

From banking apps that track your budgets to cashback, vouchers and travel savings, there are plenty of tools to make your money go further.

By using a few of these apps, you can cut costs on everyday essentials, avoid overspending and still enjoy student life to the fullest.