Your own personal tool for keeping track of your money and your studies, while keeping a close eye on your budget and your wellbeing.
This is the beta version. If you have a suggestion or something you'd like to raise, use Send feedback in Settings.
Your data stays on your device. Your budget, studies and plans are stored in this browser and are never shared. The only things we keep are the email address and first name you sign in with.
Tell us your first name and email address, and we'll email you a sign-in code. Type the code in on the next screen and you're in. There's no password to remember.
First time here? The same code sets up your account. Your name is only used to say hello.
Enter your code
We've emailed a sign-in code to . Type it in below. Keep this page open while you check your email.
AdminDidn't get the email, or the code won't work?
Wait a minute, then check your junk or spam folder.
Make sure the email address is spelled correctly.
Each code works once and runs out after about an hour. If you've asked for more than one, use the newest email.
If the email has a sign-in button instead, pressing it works too. Open it on the phone or computer you want to use the app on.
Moved to a new town? These are the jobs everyone forgets. Tick them off as you go. More detail
Moon tonight
Your stars
Quick task
Trains in the next hour
Your day
Focus timer
25:00
Focus
Local news
UK news
Useful sites
Feeling alright?
University
Sport
Your money
Update your balance whenever you check your banking app. Everything below recalculates from it.
Log spending
This month by category
Date
Category
Note
Amount
Money in
Add your student loan instalment dates, wages and anything else coming in. The next one sets how long your money has to last.
Date
Source
Amount
Bills
Due
Bill
Amount
Paid
Food shop
Your list
Tick items off as they go in your basket. Prices you enter are remembered, so the next time you add the same thing it fills in by itself.
Finished shopping?
Enter your receipt total. It's logged as Food shop spending in your Budget, and ticked items are cleared from the list.
Things you buy
Everything you've bought before, with the last price you paid. Press one to put it back on your list. Change a price here and it's used from now on.
Quick add
Tap a staple to put it on your list.
Cheap meal ideas
Simple meals that use cupboard basics and make more than one portion. Add the ingredients to your list in one go.
Tasks
Add a deadline
Deadlines
Add a class
Your week
Projects & Roadmap
Grades
Travel
What's near you
What's near you
Guided set up
Red arrows walk you through connecting everything, one step at a time.
Location
Set this once. It gives you the right weather, sunrise and sunset, and your nearest train stations. Currently:
Your calendar
This app doesn't ask to read your calendar, and it never will. Connecting one would mean handing over permission to everything in it -- where you are, who you're seeing, appointments you'd rather keep to yourself -- and that's a lot to ask for the sake of showing a list.
It works the other way round instead. Key dates below builds a calendar file of your term dates and deadlines that opens straight into Google, Apple or Outlook, so the reminders land in the app that already nags you. Nothing to connect, nothing to approve.
Trains
Your stations follow the location you set above, so you only say where you are once. Right now that's . Change your location and your stations move with it.
How trains work
Trains: the Home Page lists every train leaving your stations in the next hour, in every direction, in departure order. Each shows its platform, how many minutes until it leaves, and its status: On time, Exp 14:32 (running late, with the new time), Delayed or Cancelled. It refreshes every minute. Disruption notices from National Rail show in yellow at the top.
Station codes: the app picks the stations nearest your location on its own. If you'd rather choose, every station has a 3-letter code you can look up on nationalrail.co.uk: Manchester Oxford Road is MCO, Piccadilly is MAN, Deansgate is DGT and Victoria is MCV. Type up to three, separated by commas, and press Save and test. To go back to automatic, empty the box and press Use nearest to me.
"Live trains aren't available" means live trains haven't been turned on for this copy of the app yet. Questions? Email support.
News
Headlines on the Home Page: one list for your area, one for the whole UK, one for sport and one for your university. They come from BBC News where it's available, and other UK news sites when it isn't, so the panel keeps working if a feed goes down. Whoever published each story is shown under the headline, and pressing it opens their website.
Start typing and pick yours, or type any college or school name. Leave it empty to turn the University panel off.
Optional. Search your university's site for "wellbeing" or "counselling", then paste the address here. Talk to someone will link straight to it instead of a web search. Search for it
Break reminders
A pop-up reminding you to get up, stretch and rest your eyes, with a daft fact to take your mind off work for a second.
Display
The background colour of the app. The text stays black either way. If a white screen is harsh on your eyes, or you're working late, try the grey.
Background picture
A photo of your own behind the app. It's faded down so everything stays readable, and it's saved in this browser only -- it never leaves your device and it isn't part of your backup file.
Off, and your picture only shows around the edges. On, and it comes through the panels as well. Turn it off if anything gets hard to read.
Star sign
The day and month you were born, for the Your stars panel on the Home Page. No year, so this isn't your date of birth, and like everything else it stays in this browser. Currently:
Key dates
Term dates are set by your own university, and they're different everywhere, so type yours in once from your university's term dates page. Everything else follows: the Key dates panel on the Home Page, when your loan instalments are roughly due, and a calendar file you can load into Google, Apple or Outlook.
What goes in the calendar file, and what's guesswork
The file holds your term start and end dates, your own deadlines, and the national dates below. Open it and your calendar app asks whether to add them. They go in as one-off entries, so if your term dates change, clear the old ones out of your calendar and download a fresh file.
Exact: the dates you typed in, and the UCAS deadlines, which are set nationally.
An estimate: the loan instalments. Student Finance pays around the start of each term, but not until your university confirms you've registered, and the real date sits in your online student finance account. Scotland is different again: SAAS pays monthly on the 7th, so no instalment entries are added.
Not included: reading weeks, exam periods, resit dates and graduation. Those vary by course as well as by university, so add the ones that apply to you in Deadlines.
Your account
Signed in as . Sign out when you finish on a shared computer.
Send feedback
This is the beta version. Got an idea, or found something that isn't right? Email it over and it'll be looked at.
For the person who runs the app. Students don't need this.
Admin mode is on for this browser.
Theme tester shortcut: Ctrl or Cmd, Shift and D. Changes only affect this browser and are never sent to anyone.
Share your music list
Send this link to a friend by message or email. When they open it and sign in, they can add your tracks to their own music list.
The link only contains your YouTube links and their titles. Nothing else from the app goes with it, and nothing is stored by us. Anyone you send it to can pass it on.
Music shared with you
Someone sent you their music list. Add it and the tracks appear in Music, ready to play. Anything you already have won't be added twice.
Keep your data safe
Everything you add is saved in this browser as you go.
Your browser's copy can be lost if you clear your browsing data, switch device, or don't open the app for a week or so on an iPhone or Mac. Save it to a spreadsheet as well, and you'll have a copy you can open in Excel and restore from any time.
Auto-save to a spreadsheet
Save a copy now
Edits made in Excel aren't read back into the app.
Talk to someone
Everyone has a rough patch at some point. None of these will judge you, and you don't need a reason.
Right now, any time of day
Samaritans — free, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. You can call about anything, not only a crisis.
Student Minds is the UK's student mental health charity. Their pages walk you through what help exists and how to ask for it, written for students rather than about them.
Nightline is run by students, for students, and open at night during term. Anonymous, and they won't tell your university. Not every university has one, so check yours.
Every university has a wellbeing or counselling service, and it's free. They deal with this every day, and asking doesn't go on your record or affect your course.
Your doctor
A GP can refer you for talking therapy, and you can register with one near your university even if your family home is elsewhere. If you need mental health help urgently and it isn't life-threatening, NHS 111 has a mental health option.
Remember to get up from your chair, stretch, and gently move your head around to relax your neck muscles and get your blood flowing. A 10 minute break helps your concentration when you come back.
Did you know?
What's new
A few things you can do now that you couldn't before.
Live bus times
Go to Travel and press Live next to any bus stop on the list. You'll see the next buses from that stop, the bus number and where each one is going.
Find the next bus to where you're going
Type a place in the Where to? box on Travel, like Windsor, and press Find bus. The app tells you the next bus going there, which stop to wait at, and how long until it comes. Press Send to my phone to take the details with you, or Remind me to get an alert before it's due.
Your own wallpaper
Put a picture of your own behind the whole app. Go to Settings, find Display and choose a picture from your phone or laptop. It stays on your device.
More on the map
The map on Travel also shows hospitals (and which have an A&E), GP surgeries, pharmacies, libraries and museums near you. Use the tick boxes to choose what you see.
How to use Life - Student Edition
Your money, deadlines, classes and grades in one place. Everything stays on this device.
Get started in five minutes
Sign in with your first name and email address. The app says hello by name at the top of every page.
Go to Settings and type your town or postcode, so you get the right weather.
Go to Budget and enter how much is in your bank account and when your next payment arrives.
Add your classes in Timetable.
Add your assignment and exam dates in Deadlines.
Put your term dates into Settings, then download the calendar file so your dates land in the calendar on your phone. Your trains are already sorted by the location you set in step one.
Prefer to be shown? Guided set up points to each step with red arrows.
What each tab does
Everything fits on one screen, so there's no scrolling. Budget, Food Shop and Settings have more than one page. Switch pages with the buttons at the top of the tab. Long lists scroll inside their own box.
Home Page
Your home screen. See how much you can spend today, your classes, what's due soon, the next trains, your calendar, local, UK, sport and university news, useful links and a focus timer, all on one screen.
Press Hide on any panel you don't need. Press Arrange at the top right to drag panels where you want them, or to bring hidden ones back. Press Done when you're finished.
Budget
Type in your bank balance whenever you check it. The app takes off bills that are still to pay and tells you how much you can spend each day until your next payment.
Add your loan and wages under Money in, rent and subscriptions under Bills, and log what you spend.
Food Shop
Make a shopping list, add cheap meal ingredients in one tap, and see an estimated total before you go. Tick things off in the shop, then enter your receipt total and it's added to your Budget.
Tasks
A simple to-do list. Add a due date and it shows on the Home Page when it's coming up.
Deadlines
Add assignments and exams. Each one counts down and turns amber a week before and red three days before. Add to my calendar puts them on your phone with a reminder.
Timetable
Add each class once with its day, time and room. The Home Page then shows which class is on now and which is next.
Projects
For big pieces of work like a dissertation. Break it into steps with dates, keep notes and save links. The bar fills up as you tick steps off.
Grades
Add your modules and marks to see your average and degree classification. Pick the grade you're aiming for and it tells you what you need on the rest.
Travel
A live departure board for each of your stations, like the ones at the station: times, platforms, delays and cancellations with the reason. It refreshes every minute.
Focus timer
Press Start and work until the chime, then take a short break. After four sessions you get a longer break.
Music and break reminders
Press Music at the top and paste a YouTube link to play music while you work. Add & Play starts it straight away; Save for later just puts it on your list without interrupting anything. Hide tucks the player into a small tab in the corner, and the music keeps going — press the tab to bring it back. To send your list to a friend, press Share my list under your tracks. A reminder pops up every 15 minutes to get you moving. You can change or turn it off in Settings.
Step-by-step help
Get your dates into your phone's calendar
This app doesn't ask to read your calendar. Connecting one means handing an app permission to see everything in it, and for the sake of showing you a list you already have, that isn't a fair trade. It works the other way round instead.
Go to Settings and fill in your term dates under Key dates.
Press Download calendar file.
Open the file that downloads. Your phone or laptop asks which calendar to put the dates in.
Your term dates, your deadlines and the national dates all go across in one go, and your usual calendar app does the reminding. They go in as one-off entries, so if your term dates change, take the old ones out of your calendar and download a fresh file.
What's coming up also shows on the Home Page under Your day and Key dates, without going anywhere near your calendar.
Set up trains
There's nothing to set up. Once your location is saved in Settings, the app picks your nearest stations on its own and shows their departures on the Home Page and on the Travel tab.
The Travel tab also has a map of what's around you: where you are, your nearest stations, the bus stops nearby and the nearest supermarkets, each with how far it is and roughly how long it takes to walk. Press anything in the list to find it on the map, and use the tick boxes to show or hide each kind.
Bus times: next to each bus stop there's a Live button. Press it to see the next buses from that stop right there: the time, the bus number and where it's going. Look for your destination in the list, like Windsor. "Live" means the bus is being tracked; "Timetable" means it's the planned time.
Find a bus to somewhere: type where you're going in the Where to? box above the list, like Windsor, and press Find bus. The app checks your two nearest stops and tells you the next bus going there, which stop to wait at, and how long until it comes. It works by where each bus says it's heading, so if nothing comes up, try a bigger town nearby or press Live on your stop to see everything that's due. What you type stays on your device.
Send it to your phone: under the answer, press Send to my phone. On a phone it opens your usual share menu, so you can text it, WhatsApp it or save it. On a laptop you can email it to yourself or copy it. The message has the bus, the time, the stop, a map link to the stop and when it was checked. Remind me adds the bus to your calendar with an alert before it's due.
Live bus times are shared between everyone using the app and there's a small daily allowance. If it says they're used up for today, they come back at midnight.
To use different stations, go to Settings, find Trains and type the 3-letter codes, separated by commas. Manchester Oxford Road is MCO, Piccadilly is MAN, Deansgate is DGT and Victoria is MCV. For any other station, search for it on nationalrail.co.uk and the code is shown next to its name. Press Save and test.
To hand it back to the app, empty the Stations box and press Use nearest to me.
Back up your data or move to a new device
Everything is saved in this browser only. If you clear your browser data, change browser or get a new laptop, it won't come with you unless you've backed it up.
Go to Settings, find Your data and press Back up.
On a computer with Chrome or Edge, choose Choose Where to Auto-save and pick a folder, like OneDrive or Google Drive. Every change is then saved there automatically.
On anything else, press Download Spreadsheet to save a copy. Do this every few days.
To move to a new device, open the app there, press Back up, then Open a Saved Spreadsheet and pick your file.
Just moved to a new town?
The Settling in panel on the Home Page has all of this as a tick list. Here's the detail behind each one. None of it is urgent on day one, but all of it is easier now than when you're ill, skint or being chased for council tax.
Do I have to change GP?
If you've moved to a different area for term time, yes, in practice. NHS practices only take patients who live inside their boundary, and you can only be permanently registered with one practice at a time. Registering where you study means your records move across and your new GP can actually refer you locally.
What happens when you go home for Christmas? You're not stuck. Any practice can give you emergency treatment for up to 14 days, and beyond that you can sign on as a temporary patient for up to 3 months without losing your main registration. It's a short form.
If you're living at home and commuting, nothing changes. Keep the GP you've got.
If you take regular medication, sort this in your first week rather than when the prescription runs out. Do the same with a repeat prescription before you travel home.
Dentists are separate, and NHS dental treatment isn't free for most students. Get on a list early, they're long.
A pharmacy for coughs, rashes, hangovers, emergency contraception and advice. No appointment, and they can prescribe for some things themselves.
NHS 111, online or by phone, when you're not sure. It's free and it tells you where to go.
Your GP for anything ongoing, mental health included.
An urgent treatment centre or minor injuries unit for sprains, cuts and small breaks. Much faster than A&E.
A&E or 999 for chest pain, serious bleeding, breathing trouble, a head injury, or anything you'd call life-threatening. Meningitis symptoms too: it moves fast, so don't wait it out.
Your nearest hospitals, GP surgeries and pharmacies are on the map on the Travel tab. Worth looking at them once now, so you're not searching for them at 2am. Note that not every hospital has an A&E department, so check before you set off.
Two free jabs are worth chasing if you missed them at school: MenACWY and two doses of MMR. Both spread easily in halls.
Council tax, voting and the TV licence
Council tax: full-time students are normally exempt, but councils rarely take your word for it. Ask your university for a council tax certificate and send it to the council for the address you live at. If you share with anyone who isn't a full-time student, the household may still get a bill, usually a reduced one.
Voting: takes about five minutes online. As a student you can be registered both at home and at your term-time address, but you can only vote once in a general election. In local elections for two different councils you may be able to vote in both.
TV Licence: you need one to watch live TV on any channel, or to use BBC iPlayer at all, including on a laptop or phone in halls. If you only ever use Netflix and YouTube, you don't. Don't let a flatmate assume the hall covers it.
Your address: tell your bank, student finance, your phone provider and the DVLA. Student finance is the one that stings if you forget, because letters about your payments go to the old address.
Contents insurance: some halls include basic cover, most private lets don't. Check what a stolen laptop would actually cost you.
Your data and privacy
Where is my information kept?
On this device, in this browser only. Your account is just your email address, used to sign you in. Your budget, tasks, deadlines, timetable, projects and grades are never uploaded to us. If you choose to back up, the file goes wherever you save it, such as your own OneDrive or Google Drive.
Can dPaul Studio see my data?
No. We can see the first name and email address you sign in with and when you last signed in, and nothing else. Your first name is only used to greet you, and you can change it any time under Your account in Settings. There's no tracking or advertising in the app. We can't see your money, grades, plans or calendar.
Can this app read my calendar, email or contacts?
No, and it never asks to. There's no Connect button for any of them, so there's no permission to grant and nothing to take back later. Earlier versions had a Google Calendar connection; it was taken out in v6.3 because reading somebody's whole calendar to show them a list they already had wasn't a fair swap.
Dates travel the other way instead: the app makes a calendar file you load into your own calendar app, which needs no permissions at all.
Does anything leave my device?
Only what's needed to fetch live information, and only when you use that feature:
Signing in: your email address and first name go to Supabase, the service that sends your sign-in codes and remembers that you're signed in. Keeping your name there is what lets it greet you on a new phone or laptop.
Weather and map: your saved location goes to Open-Meteo for the forecast and to OpenStreetMap for the map. A postcode you search for goes to postcodes.io.
Trains: your station codes go through our train service to National Rail. It doesn't record who asked. Working out which stations are nearest happens inside the app, so your location isn't sent anywhere for that.
The map on Travel: to find the bus stops and shops near you, your location rounded to about 100 metres goes to OpenStreetMap's public map service. Your exact position is never sent, and the answer is kept in this browser for a month so it's only asked once.
Bus times: when you press Live next to a bus stop, only that stop's code goes through our bus service to TransportAPI for the next departures. It doesn't record who asked. Sending a bus to your phone uses your own share menu, text or email app, so the app never sees a phone number.
News: only your news area (like Berkshire) goes through our news service to the news sites it reads, never your exact location. It doesn't record who asked. Opening a headline takes you to whichever site published it, shown under each one.
Music: nothing at all is asked of YouTube until you press play and agree. After that the player uses YouTube's no-cookie address, and YouTube's own privacy rules apply. You can change your mind under Privacy and cookies in Settings.
Like any website, these services see a normal web request, which includes your internet address.
How do I sign in and out?
Type your email address on the sign-in screen, then type in the code we email you. You stay signed in on that device until you press Sign out in Settings. To sign in on another phone or computer, ask for a new code on that device.
To close your account, email support from the address you sign in with.
What's in a music share link?
Only the YouTube links in your music list and their titles. It's built into the link itself, so nothing is stored by us. Whoever you send it to can see those tracks and pass the link on, so only share it with people you're happy to.
How do I delete my data?
Go to Settings, find Your data and press Delete all my data. Clearing your browser's data for this site also deletes it. Any backup files you saved are yours to keep or delete.
Is it safe on a shared or university computer?
Press Sign out in Settings when you finish. Your information still stays in that browser after you sign out, so on a computer other people use, it's safest to use your own device or browser profile, or press Delete all my data before you leave.