Why most student budgets fail in week six

The usual budget divides the term's money by the number of weeks and stops there. It fails because spending is not flat: the first fortnight carries deposits, equipment, books and the cost of meeting people, and the final weeks carry travel and deadlines you cannot cook your way through.

Build it the other way round. List the fixed things first — rent, bills, transport, phone — take them off the total, and divide what is left across the weeks. That number, not the total, is what you actually have.