Saving money as a medical student

I've been busy this new year, but happy and productive, so there has been a paucity of entries. 

Though I noticed that moving money into my savings before paying rent made me end up with a pretty low checking account sum.

It created an "artificially low" checking account balance, and I now have the goal of living off that amount until I pay rent again. 

Taking on a lot of loans as a medical student is awful, but do your best to live modestly and within your means.  I've seen some students take out max loans each time and live with indulgence while others live more modestly.

I'm going to see how this new technique pans out, but other ways to save money are caffeine gum instead of coffee, cooking instead of buying meals at the hospital, carrying a water bottle instead of buying soft drinks, public transport or walking/cycling, and taking advantage of as many lunch and dinner conferences and meetings as possible. 

I've also started paying for a streamed music subscription because paying for albums got really expensive.  I hope the artists still make as much money.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I'll have a research entry on here later.