Student Budget for University Life: Semester Costs, Rent & Shared Flats, Part-Time Income, Study vs Work Hours, Savings Targets & a Monthly Plan

What you'll build

What you will be able to do

Each lab ends with a concrete result that you build yourself and the checker confirms, cell by cell.

• List Jonas's first-year costs, turn every one of them into a monthly equivalent with a small lookup table, add up the average month and see how much more cash the very first month needs.
• Compare three fictional housing offers on the same basis: your share of shared bills, the total monthly cost including travel, the cash needed at move-in and the time cost of a long commute.
• Turn an hourly wage into gross and net pay per month, apply an invented grant rule that cuts the grant when earnings pass an allowance, and add everything up to Jonas's net monthly income.
• Build a 168-hour week, find Jonas's free hours, work out how many shift hours a target income needs, the wage that would make 8 hours enough, and check the plan against an invented work-hour limit.
• Count the days and months until each fictional one-off cost falls due, turn every bill into a monthly saving amount and find the next fee date with EDATE.
• Build Jonas's monthly budget from eight categories, show each category's share of income, set aside a buffer and a savings target, and find out whether the plan leaves a surplus or a gap.
• Total two months of Jonas's fictional spending log by category and month with SUMIFS and date limits, compare November with the budget and highlight every big single spend.
• Test Jonas's plan against four fictional what-ifs – a rent rise, fewer shift hours, a cheaper phone plan and all three at once – find the break-even work hours and chart the surplus or gap of every scenario.