Pasta and Possibility: The Art of the 400€ Finnish Student’s budget
Your monthly spending can broadly be categorized into three sectors; groceries, rent and transportation.
Let’s break it down, shall we?
The elusive 70€ Grocery run
Trust me, it’s more than possible to restrict your food costs to 70€. You just need to know where to look and embrace some legwork. Protein will take up almost half of the allowance but you can mitigate it by mixing in lentils and beans for an alternate balanced diet. The trick here is to understand volume. So be it pasta or rice, make sure you are full at the end of the day. And the best way to do that is buying in bulk. Get that 10 kg bag of rice and literally be set for a couple months. Don’t worry if the cashier gives you weird looks seeing your massive heap of pasta bags. You’re the one winning here. Buying your staples in bulk saves you both time and future hassle. From the collage you can see that I easily kept my groceries + protein budget within 60 euros, and the 10 euro extra is for refills of milk, bread and eggs.
Living on a student budget in Finland isn’t about deprivation, it’s about finding creative ways to stay healthy. And I recommend walking around every shop and taking mental notes of the prices of your staples. You’ll find vigilance to be your best friend in finding the absolute best deals. Sometimes, the best deals for eggs will be in a completely different store than the one for pasta.
Pro tip 1: My Weekly MVP (Most Valuable Purchase): A big bag of frozen mixed vegetables. They’re cheaper than fresh, never go bad, and can be thrown into pasta, soups, or stir-fries to instantly up your ‘adulting’ game.
See the collage? That’s not a list of items; that’s a week of tiny victories.
The 300€ Elephant in the Room (Otherwise Known as Rent)
Ah, rent. The 300€ monthly reminder that I live in a country with fantastic insulation. You can’t bargain with it, you can’t skip it, but you can reframe it. I don’t just pay for four walls and a sauna (okay, the sauna is a pretty great perk). I pay for a warm, safe basecamp for my adventures. And for a gym hound like me, the Mikontalo (my building) Gym is pretty sweet! Rents may range from 275€ to all the way up to no-no land but 300€ is a safe average. Just make sure to apply super early for a cheap apartment.
Pro tip 2: Work the sauna and gym into your schedule as much as you can. Trust me, it’s a mental game, but you’ll feel better about the rent.
You’re a marathon walker now
Transportation costs can easily be a substantial amount in your budget or absolutely negligible. It solely depends on your travel habits and movements. I’d suggest walking to and from class if the campus is within 10-15 mins of your home. It saves quite a bit and also great for your health. Another useful tip for you is to check which campus is delivering the courses, if its in a different campus (for me, Finnish 2 course was in City Centre campus) choose alternative groups. I chose online independent study to avoid the tedious journey 3 times a week for one class. And if the walk seems too tiring, you can find secondhand bicycles available for dirt cheap (I got mine for free) on Tori (another lifehack/used goods website here for us). And if its absolutely inevitable, we have a 30 euro room in our budget to accommodate for it.
Pro tip 3: Plan your shopping trips beforehand to faraway shopping malls so you can use one 90 min ticket for the whole trip
Living on a student budget in Finland isn’t about deprivation; it’s a trial-and-error process of creativity. It’s about finding joy in balanced nourishing cooking, the triumph of a well-planned shopping trip, and the deep connections forged over a shared, simple meal. So, welcome. Your wallet might feel a little lighter, but your life, your friendships, and your sense of capability will be so much richer for it.
Onnea matkaan! (Good luck on your journey!)
