Budge Up

A Revolution in Student Budgeting.

Most budgeting tools expect you to have a monthly paycheck, a boring job, and a predictable life. But being a student is a series of high-stakes, 100-day survival missions.You get a lump sum on a Monday, and you're expected to keep it going until the end of term. Your rent comes out quarterly, and you only work shifts during the holidays. Oh, and that number in your bank account? It doesn't really tell you whether you're sticking to that budget you set for yourself on September 15th.One week, you're practically a millionaire. Next, you’re staring at a £4 balance and a 3-week gap until the next loan. Existing budgeting tools are failing us. It's time to take this into our own hands.

• The Manifesto
• Institutional Partnerships
• Student Empowerment

The Budge Up Manifesto

We're here for one reason. To fix a broken system and bring money clarity to student life.No Monthly Cycles: From termly home Student Loans to £30k international tuition fees sitting in the bank – we speak the language of the student situation.EEI (Eventual Expected Income): We coined this phrase because often students will have the cash, just not yet! We don't just track what you spent; we factor in the money you don't have yet, but need to survive.The "£0 Date": We find your financial "cliff edge" before you fall off it. When it comes to avoiding the red (or maxing out your interest-free overdraft!), we do the maths so you don't have to.

Institutional Partnerships

While we win the hearts of students, we protect the University's bottom line. Financial stress is one of the leading causes of "Silent Withdrawals". When a student drops out, the individual loses a future they aspired towards, and the University loses up to £15,000 in tuition.Triage to Money Advice We deliver students to your team already equipped with the clarity to identify the support they need and when they'll need it, reducing the administrative burden during peak periods, and enabling a proactive approach to student support.Retention Infrastructure: Our pilot provides anonymised, faculty-level data to help you identify student financial "crunch points" weeks before they become drop-out risks.Free at the Point of Use: We believe financial clarity is a right, not a luxury. That's why Budge Up is 100% free for students. Instead, we operate on a B2B SaaS licensing model with University partners who benefit from improved academic engagement and reduced drop-out rates.

From Crisis to Clarity

For students: Budge Up lies low as a pocket assistant for day-to-day spending decisions. But when a laptop breaks or a parent stops sending money, Budge Up steps up instantly show options A, B, and C. By giving students clarity, we put them back in control.For partnering institutions: Budge Up is a forecasting engine built to protect your students from reaching financial crises. In just three simple steps, we bridge the gap between student anxiety and institutional support through a private, self-referral model.1) Forecast: Students forecast their balance so they can easily work out whether they are on track with financial goals.2) Alert: When a financial crisis is identified weeks in advance, Budge Up prompts the student to self-refer to University support.3) Connect: Students overcome any denial and arrive at support appointments with financial clarity, making triage 5x faster for staff.

The 2026/27 Research Pilot

This September, we plan to deploy a year-long study on the impact of our financial forecast tools on student wellbeing, academic outcomes, and attrition.What our Partners Receive:The Financial Pulse Report: Anonymised, aggregated data trends showing when and why your students are most at risk.HESA Metric Protection: Direct intervention strategies to improve student persistence and close the attainment gap.Collaborative Governance: We hope to work with the Student Union and Student Reps to ensure the highest standards of student trust and engagement.

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Institutional-Grade Security & Compliance

We prioritise student privacy and institutional trust above all else.Aggregated Insights: Universities receive high-level trend data only. No personally identifiable information (PII) is ever shared.Data Minimisation: We only collect what is essential. We strictly don't sell or share identifiable information with third parties.Bank-Grade Security: Data is protected by AES-256 encryption and TLS 1.3 standards.Regulated Connectivity: Our read-only Open Banking (Sept 2026) uses FCA-regulated providers.Non-Custodial: We are an insight tool to give students agency, not a bank. We never hold, move, or manage student funds.

Want to Try the Prototype?

Traditional budgeting methods, from banking apps to spreadsheets, just show you the past. How helpful is it to see how much you spent on food last month when you've got no money in the bank?"Just going off vibes" is actually more forward-looking and works for some people – except for when accurate maths matters most. Budge Up gives you forward-looking financial clarity with zero stress and zero effort. It gives you the agency to spend and save guilt-free.What you actually get:The 2-Minute Forecast: Link your accounts (not yet, only our manual web prototype is ready for now!). See exactly how your decisions today affect your end-of-term balance and savings goals.No Shame, Just Priorities: We don't judge you for the 2 AM pizza. We'll just show you that you might struggle to pay rent in April.Private by Design: We use bank-grade AES-256 encryption. We don't sell your data, and we don't tell your University your bank balance. We just give you the financial clarity to stay in control.

• Try Budge Up V1