Ok.
I've been saving this post for about a half a year, because you didn't actually start studying when you came back from the US. Bot now (I think? I went to sleep while you were still trying to figure out how the things work) you will start taking classes, which means you can start getting student allowance (though you first have to fill in the forms saying you want some), which means you will be joining the thousands of university students in Finland living off of 470 euros a month. (Yes, the allowance is actually about 500, but they take out 30 euros of taxes, in case you'll have to pay some taxes. You'll get it back in the next tax return).
For the record, in Finland, if you live alone and earn less than 1080 (is the last figure I saw somewhere maybe a year ago, might have changed) euros a month, you're by definition poor. Students in Finland get half that. Unless they also work, which is something a lot of us actually do, because 470 euros is a really miserable amount of money. Then again, we don't have to pay for studying like almost every one else in the world and instead get money from the government for studying, so I guess we're doing ok.
Anyway. You pay 300 euros of rent. That leaves you with 170 euros to use for everything else each month. That's about 6 euros a day. So here's some tips on how to make that money be enough for the whole month. (Let's face it, it's not, really. 30-40-50 euros more, and it's doable, and not even too hard.)
1. Don't buy anything you don't actually need. Every time you're buying something, ask yourself, if you actually need it. If you don't, don't get it. It's harder than you think. There are things that you don't actually need, but that you really want, because they make your life a little easier, and that makes you feel like you need them. The point is, think before you buy anything.
2. Eat at the university. I don't know about Helsinki, but here you can get a whole warm meal for 2.60. And if you eat some time between two and four in the afternoon, you don't really need another proper, warm meal.
2.2. Also, when you do eat at the university, especially if you're really hungry, eat something that doesn't have a number limit, like chicken fillets or meatballs usually have. It's rice or pasta and sauce. That you're allowed to eat as much as you can fit on the plate. If you want more meatballs, you have to pay extra. Though usually the portions you can have are big enough. For me, that is.
3. Don't drink juice. Or ice tea. Or soft drinks. Or actually anything other than water. Tea is ok, since you can buy like 40 bags for 5 euros, and get 20 litres of tea out of that. 25 cents a litre isn't too bad. Milk you can have for baking (which is unnecessary and takes money, but it's the cheapest way to get something good when you really feel like it) or to eat with cereals, but if you always drink milk, you'll end up spending a quarter of your monthly budget on that. Other drinks you could buy are even more expensive. Definitely don't drink alcohol. I've never understood how all the students who go partying every two weeks can afford it, because alcohol just costs so much compared to pretty much anything.
4. Don't eat candy. Of chocolate, or chips, or really anything that you don't need to eat to not be hungry. Or maybe once a month. The good thing is that when you're a student, you simply don't have the money to gain weight. If weight is something you're interested in. Though if you really try hard to eat as cheap as you can and gain weight, it's possible. But it's stupid, so.
5. Use the bike or walk. Though in a city the size of Helsinki it's a little more difficult to not use public transport ever. So walk and use the bike as much as you can. Never ever use taxis of the night bus.
6. When you cook, cook for a lot of people. If you always cook for just one person, it takes more food than cooking for seven people at once. Partly because bigger packs usually cost less to the size and because a single person just simply eats more than each person in a seven person group. I have no idea why that is, though. And this isn't really a problem for you, since you have two roommates, and if you just cook enough for a couple of days for all three of you, you'll get off the cheapest.
7. Noodles are supposed to be the food for students with no money. It's not. Noodles are surprisingly expensive. Macaroni on the other hand doesn't cost anything. You can get macaroni for half a dozen people with the money you get noodles for one.
8. Eat vegetarian food. It's possible to make expensive vegetarian food also, yes, but if you for example start replacing minced meat with soy, it's so much cheaper. A pack of meat costs about the same as the pack of soy, but the pack of soy never empties. Well, maybe it does, but you can eat out of that twenty times, compared to twice from the pack of meat. Lentils don't cost too much either. Also eggs are amazingly cheap.
9. Buy what ever is cheap. I mean, even if mom always buys Oivariini and won't use Keiju even if there's some in there fridge, you shouldn't do that, because it's just so much cheaper. And it's not bad like she believes it is. She's just weirdly insistent on using saturated fats in everything. Which are not only expensive, but also bad for you.
Ok, nine is enough, I think. You may notice that most of there are about food. That's because if it's not food, it's something you don't really need right at the moment, and thus you shouldn't buy it unless you've come across some extra money. Or if it is something you actually need then it is something you actually need, and you have to get it whether you have money or not. There's not much saving from that. Oh, I do have one more.
10. Try to get student discounts from everywhere. Apparently you can get discounts from surprisingly a lot of places without anyone knowing about it. Of course not places like grocery stores, but still. Other stuff. There's never any harm in asking if you can get a discount in a certain place.
Ok, now it's enough.
Oh, and a comment to your post: how is "Global warming is real for real" news?
~matu
PS. Could you take that Christmas hat off the tardigrade now that it's not Christmas any more? I would do it myself, but I don't know how to do that.
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