Funding your year abroad is a big step to finalising your plans, making sure you can afford your city and enabling you to really make the most of your time there, without worrying too much about money. Many grants and schemes are available, as well as the chance to get to grips with various other forms of money-saving ideas. Here is our definitive list of what you should keep an eye out before you whisk yourself off to other countries:

Packing for my stay in Mexico, I realised something: aside from the fact I’d have to pick which shoes/dresses/hair products to bring, I’d also have to make a tough decision regarding which literature I could fit (carry) in my two suitcases. Yes, hand luggage was still an option, but my bag was already bulging with my laptop, charger, camera, passport and important documents, a couple of packets of sweets (no Percy Pigs in the airport), my over-filled diary and more clutter I care to recall. What to bring? How do you pick between Molière’s dramatic comedy, Ruiz Zafón’s page-turning novels and Pratchett’s sarcastic fantasy? What about all the other loves in my life, the Arabic classic literature, the socio-economic tirades of South America, the sharp wit of America’s finest authors, or the Renaissance literature of Britain?