Before going on night’s out, purchase alcohol from the supermarket and allow a couple of hours worth of pre-drinking time with house/flatmates before walking or taking a taxi into town. This helps to save money that may have been spent on more expensive drinks in pubs and bars. When you do eventually go to a club, take out just enough for you to get home and to buy a few drinks while you are out. Pre-drinking allows you to get merry and save money before going out into the pricier clubs. If you play your cards right, a tenner should be an ample amount for a night out (depending on how far away you live from the city centre).
 
Depending on your city, there are often a number of student deals on nights out, as in drinks for £1 or free entry deals. Try to not always take out your bank card and use it; what might seem a good idea when you’ve got vodka-redbulls swishing around your stomach, will not seem like a good idea when you wake up in the morning. Avoid cocktails as spirits are so much cheaper, always look for the deals.
 
Avoid clubbing at weekends in some cities, it can be cheaper, and more student-friendly on weekday nights. Lots of clubs have dedicated “student nights” which will take place during the week.    Most students can’t afford to go out more than once or twice a week but that doesn’t mean you can’t go out at all.   A couple of beers in the local pub and maybe a game of pool won’t break the bank. For those pre-night-out tunes, try not to buy albums, use the excellent Spotify & itunes share.
 
For eating out, there are some fantastic offers out there in your student cities! But it is important to stress that if you want to save money, you cannot be dining out at restaurants every night. They should be kept for special occasions like birthdays, or end of exams! Look around for deals. A lot of places accommodate for student needs; you can get a small selection of main meals for £1.99 in Wetherspoons on certain days, or in Yates you can get two meals for £6.95. Even places like Zizzis and Pizza Express, have printable vouchers that change monthly, one of the deals being 2 meals for £10. It is easy to save money when you spend the time looking for different offers, and if you can’t afford it, don’t do it! Also, why not order tap water in restaurant, its free and means if you want a pudding you can put the money you would’ve spent on drink towards this.

 For free theatre tickets sign up for A Night Less Ordinary. You can enter your details on the website and then get have a chance to win tickets. However, not everyone is lucky enough to win and so check out the  places/venues to visit links which contain a lot of theatre listings, some especially design for students and some which have cheap ticket prices for extremely well known west end shows in London. http://www.anightlessordinary.org.uk/ 
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 If you’ve been out clubbing twice already in a week, maybe go to the cinema instead, it’s cheap and can be a great night out with your mates as well. Don’t deny yourself social pleasures; there is nothing worse than being far from home and miserable because you’re being too frugal (Anna Walseth, Glasgow).   Be prepared to occasionally swap nights out, going to the cinema and eating out with friends, for cheap and fun nights in watching a DVD.

 Another cheap option is your local pub quiz! You may be surprised how competitive you get.   A lot of pubs hold quizzes throughout the week with worthwhile prizes such as money or booze.   To increase the competitiveness it is always fun to invite your neighbours along and have different flat teams and even if you don’t win you come away with a stupid team name and a night of endless banter. What more could you want?

Written by Students Love Uni Writers for www.studentsloveuni.co.uk a UK university city guide and information website.

Despite the dreadful Easter weather, many people still enjoyed their Easter break by deciding to go bowling.  The sport has seen a huge revival over recent years and of all the many places to go bowling London is one of the best with many bowling alleys to visit.

Modern ten pin bowling is not technically difficult thanks to automatic scoring systems that take the pain away from the complex scoring system, but it is a skilful game. You can have fun bowling even if you are not very good at it, but the better you become at the sport the more fun it becomes, so here are a few tips to help you on your way to becoming a great ten pin bowler.

Use the right ball
The most important thing in bowling is the ball, and there are many different sizes and types. Choosing one that is not right for you will mean that you will never be able to play at your best. You need to choose a weight that is easy to control and with holes that suit your hand and way of delivery and tempo.

Work on your approach
The first thing you need to do regarding your approach is to decide on the number of steps you take before delivering the ball. When you start out bowling, it is advisable to just take three or possibly four steps, and as you improve you can increase this to five for more control and precision. Your approach should be smooth and be at your own natural pace in order to generate the right amount of momentum.

Visualisation
Ten pin bowling is as much a game of mental skills as physical ones. It is important to visualise your approach and delivery so that you have a complete mental picture of what you intend to do and its outcome before you bowl. You need to mentally connect how you release the ball to how it behaves after you have released it. In your mind’s eye it should be one flowing movement.

Let your body follow your mind
Once you have developed a mental picture as described above, allow your body to put it into practice with one easy flowing sequence of approach, delivery and follow through. This can take a considerable amount of practice as the temptation is to break it up into independent stages, but ideally once you have visualised it is a single flowing movement, then there is no need for any further analysis.

Use the right amount of power
Too much power in your delivery will mean that the ball cannot be properly controlled, whilst too little will mean that the ball lacks adequate momentum.

Practice and practice again
You will never become a skilled ten pin bowler without consistent practice, so don’t be a stranger to your local bowling alley.

If you are hoping to be interviewing for a new job soon or have an interview coming up you may find yourself wondering about the questions that your potential future employer may ask you. Rather than worrying about that you should arrive well aware of the type of questions that they may not ask you.

There is a legal requirement to protect data that you provide to a potential employer and there is only a certain amount of personal information that they may ask you.

It has been reported recently that some employers in the USA have been asking interviewees for their social networking site passwords. Because of this the chief privacy officer of Facebook has suggested that the social networking site could take out legal action in the future against employers who request passwords and other personal information from the site. This is a violation of the websites terms and conditions.

While some of the legal implications of employers asking for this information is different in the USA compared to the United Kingdom it is still incredibly unlikely for employers here to be able to ask for this information due to the 1998 Data Protection Act. Obviously there are going to be people that are always going to adhere to any requests to try and help their job search be fruitful but it seems unlikely that employers would legally be allowed to ask for this information.

When attending an interview or before being offered a job a potential employer may not ask about any disabilities, how many days sickness you have had from a previous job (unless this is a necessary requirement of the offered employment) or any other health related questions.

Once you have been offered a job your new employer may make some inquiries with regards to your health but only to ensure that you are being offered support where necessary and to ensure that your role is adjusted according to any medical needs.

In addition to health related questions an employer cannot ask about your marital status, sexual preference, whether you have any children or dependants or whether you are planning to start a family or have another child in the near future.

An employer is also not permitted to ask for your age. Some employers may try to ask for your date of birth or ask age related questions such as what year did you leave school, what age you plan to retire and how many years you have until this.

When being interviewed for a job an employer should not ask about anything that may allow them to discriminate against you when making their selection for employment. This includes but is not limited to asking your race, first language, heritage, religious beliefs or where you were born.

Once you have passed thorugh the selection process there is a specific set of rules that employers must adhere to. An employer may hold information on your health, origins, race, criminal past, credit history, internet usage or other personal information. Said employer must ensure that they provide a copy of a personal file for anyone writing to request one, they must also correct or remove any information as requested if it may cause personal or professional damage to your reputation or your ability to get a job in the future.

An employer is only allowed to keep information on unsuccessful candidates for a reasonable length of time and this will usually be six months. Sometimes employers may keep this information should they have a similar or identical role in the future but you should agree to your information being kept for this purpose.