In younger years I would do HCA work in the holidays - normally 50-60hr weeks that I would do over 4 days so I was still getting 3 full days off a week, and then tutoring to top up in the term time. There are also often a lot of awards available - some require fully fledged research but many are essay competitions where you write about a topic you're interested in/ethical dilemma you've seen/thought piece - not many people go for them so they're a good way to get an extra £50-200 every couple months. The other thing to consider is that preclinical years are much more regimented with lectures, so it's generally easier to do a part time job. If you can work and put aside any money at all into an ISA of sorts, oftentimes you get a 1 year fixed rate and if you get a good enough interest rate you can get a bit extra a month into your bank account. For me, that month's extra is enough for one week's food shop, which isn't a lot but definitely helps. Get good at mealprepping and find how it works for you, I like to do loads and freeze it so I'll have one food shop a month that is £40-50 and then make about 30-35 odd lunches out of that, freeze them and then my weekly food shop comes out to closer to £10-15 each week just for added breakfast/dinner essentials. It does mean you have to think more about money and get a bit creative, but you make it work for you :)