Most first-year budgets are built from tuition and rent, and most first-year financial trouble comes from everything else. The gap between the two is predictable and therefore plannable.
Model the true total before you commit to a shortlist, because a cheaper university in an expensive city is frequently the more expensive option.
The costs people forget
Proof-of-funds requirements that lock up money before you can spend it. Security deposit and first month in advance. Health insurance where it is not included. Visa and biometric fees. Flights and excess baggage. Winter clothing, which for students from most of Pakistan is a genuine and immediate expense. Initial setup: bedding, kitchen basics, a phone plan, a transport pass.
Together these commonly amount to a substantial fraction of a first term.
City, not country
National averages are close to useless. Rent in a smaller German university town and in Munich are different propositions, as are Manchester and London, or Adelaide and Sydney.
Budget against the specific city, and check whether living slightly further out with a transport pass is genuinely cheaper once the pass is counted.
Work income is a supplement
Work rights are real and limited. Treat any earnings as a buffer, not as part of the plan. Visa officers assess held funds rather than projected income, and a budget that depends on finding a job quickly in an unfamiliar market is fragile in exactly the way first years punish.
Assume it takes a term to find work, and check that the budget survives that assumption.
Currency and transfers
Exchange rate movement over a two-year degree is a real risk for a rupee-funded budget. Understand how you will transfer money, what it costs, and what happens if the rate moves against you.
Building a modest contingency into the model is not pessimism. It is the difference between an inconvenience and a crisis.