Are you saving enough?

To many students, savings are something to be thought about later, after they finish university. And while financing your daily life through student loans, allowances and pay from part-time jobs seems hard enough, that later is now.

A new survey by HSBC suggests that millions of households in the UK have so little savings they could hardly survive until the weekend if they had to rely on them. On the other hand, information from Barclays Bank confirms that more than 50% of students hold a savings account of some sort.

Whether these are left over from students' childhood days when parents, grandparents and other family members topped them up on birthdays and at Christmas to create a little nest egg or the product of a conscious decision before going to university, most of these savings accounts aren't topped up enough.

The recommended 'salary cushion', according to HSBC, is the equivalent of three monthly salaries. However, the bank's study found that 19% of households have no savings at all and 12% have less than £250. Even for student households, these are scary figures.

So what should you do? Start saving, even if it's as little as £3 per week, the equivalent of a pint! Here's a handy guide to various savings products, but don't forget to check your own bank's options first. Being a customner already can help give you access to better deals and, you never know, you may just be able to work up to a little nest egg yourself.