Going on Erasmus is a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Being fully independent, travelling, partying, making new friends from all over the world. However, all these things also bring a financial burden to them. Keeping an eye on your financial situation is important before and during your Erasmus since you do not want to find yourself in a situation where it starts to be difficult to make ends meet every month. Having financial problems can really take the fun away from your Erasmus, and you might not even be able to join in on all the trips everyone has planned anymore. To not let this happen to you, we have gathered some information to help you with your costs during Erasmus.

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Living costs on Erasmus

How much you will spend every month heavily depends on what city and country you will live in. Living costs in Eastern Europe are quite low when compared to the price of rooms in London. Do a bit of research about the prices of rent, food and transport in your Erasmus city. This will give you a better image of what to expect will be your fixed expenses every month. Not really sure yet which country to choose?

Create a daily or weekly budget

Once you arrive in your new city, it is a good idea to take notes on how much you are spending on everything every week. Once you know this, you will be able to set a budget for yourself and try to stick to that. That way you know that you will not be overspending and be completely out of money during the middle of the month.

Start saving

Probably one of the best tips we can give you to prevent potential problems with costs during your Erasmus: start saving now. Try to set some money aside every month specifically with the intention of using it during your Erasmus. This will help you with the first expenses, like accommodation, fees, etc. Do not have that much money left every month? Try to get a job! Just sign up for a student job/internship or a part-time job. You will not be the first one to do so and later you will be happy that you did.

Discount cards

One of the great advantages of being an Erasmus is that you can get discounts for almost anything. Flight tickets, accommodation, restaurants, you name it. With all these discounts you could cut back quite a lot on your expenses for travelling and other activities. Some of the major student discount cards are the International Student Identity Card (ISIC) and the ESN Card. Both offer a lot of benefits and discounts for adventures all over Europe!

Erasmus+ Grant

Of course, you are not completely on your own. When you are from a country within the European Union and you do your exchange in one of the partaking Erasmus countries, you will also receive the Erasmus+ Grant. This is a certain amount of money you receive every month to help you a little with all your costs. The amount of money depends on the country you are living in since you will need more money to live in the Netherlands than, for example, you do in Bulgaria. Erasmus+ has divided all the Erasmus countries into 3 groups (high, medium and low living costs). Below you will find the currently allocated grants.

Source retrieved from https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/higher-education-student-and-staff-grant-rate
Disclaimer: This information is applicable to students from the United Kingdom, and it is meant solely as an example. Your grant could be higher or lower depending on what country you are from. Extra financial help might be applied from your sending institution and/or government and receiving institution.

Although getting some extra money for your exchange helps a lot in covering your expenses, keep in mind that your Erasmus Grant will not cover all your costs and things might be more expensive than you first thought. Maybe your flight tickets are pricier than you thought they would be or unexpected things such as a hospital visit could happen. Normally you should be able to cover 50% to 80% of your costs with your Erasmus Grant, but this is still not guaranteed.

The reality is that living abroad is more expensive than just living in your home country where everything is familiar. Especially in the first few weeks, it will be difficult to know where the cheaper places to eat and to shop are. Not to mention all the costs for parties, travelling, souvenirs and other fun things. Making sure that you have enough money saved before your adventure starts, will be something you will thank yourself for later. Erasmus should be a time where you are free and independent and not constantly have to think about whether you will be able to afford everything.

Still got questions? Need to send your luggage to your Erasmus destination? Contact us! We are here to help.