Student Costs

[Eng274]

One piece of advice, don't drink. I'm astonished by how much money goes on alcohol every year. I gave it up completely, and suddenly was able to stay within my £50/week cash limit. I also cut back on takeaways, reducing to one per week (if there's any spare cash), reduced the ammount of film I use (costs a fortune) and got an annual bus pass. Some of my clothes date back to school (12-14 years ago) and a lot of the rest are hand-me-downs from various family members. The cost of living in Scotland is possibly lower, though.

Edinburgh's cost of living is horrendous - not quite London levels, but its one of the more expensive places to live. Demand for housing far outstrips supply which doesn't help.

Like Ivo, I'm also staggered at how other students could afford to drink several nights a week. I did a fair amount of it myself, but not at the rate some students manage.

 

[LE Greys]

Edinburgh's cost of living is horrendous - not quite London levels, but its one of the more expensive places to live. Demand for housing far outstrips supply which doesn't help.

Like Ivo, I'm also staggered at how other students could afford to drink several nights a week. I did a fair amount of it myself, but not at the rate some students manage.

Aberdeen's not bad, comparatively speaking.

My flatmates seem to have an incredible capacity for drink. I've had to contribute to some of their flat parties sometimes (raiding some very old presents to do so) but I've seen entire bottles of whisky/vodka/brandy/whatever disappear in about half an hour. Still, most of them are medics, so they are getting funding. They're also younger (third-years while I'm on an MSc) so fair play if they can afford it.

Another bit of advice on loans. The rate is fairly good, so stick it in the highest interest account you can straght away and only draw on it when you have to. I turned a profit on mine, and still haven't paid it back, but pay off the interest every year to avoid it ballooning.

 

[Gathursty]

The above posts read like a horror story. At Lancaster, I've been in halls for four years in standard accommodation and the rent has been increasing from £68/week to about £87/week this year.

My budget gives me change from fifty quid and I have restricted myself to <£10 train journeys for station bagging which I do about once a month.

I use about £20 on shopping and go out once a fortnight on average. This being my final year, my dissertation takes up my time so I don't have time to go out to cinemas or meals as much as I used to.

Being frugal, I've got a little bit to tie me over after uni until I find a job. (Sooner the better I hope!)

 

[LE Greys]

The above posts read like a horror story. At Lancaster, I've been in halls for four years in standard accommodation and the rent has been increasing from £68/week to about £87/week this year.

My budget gives me change from fifty quid and I have restricted myself to <£10 train journeys for station bagging which I do about once a month.

I use about £20 on shopping and go out once a fortnight on average. This being my final year, my dissertation takes up my time so I don't have time to go out to cinemas or meals as much as I used to.

Being frugal, I've got a little bit to tie me over after uni until I find a job. (Sooner the better I hope!)

Mine's £107/week self-catered.

 

[radamfi]

When I went to Bath University (1991 to 1994) everyone else seemed to be broke, but I seemed to do OK, mainly because I didn't drink and didn't pay for accommodation through the summer and chose to live with the landlady after the first year on campus, which meant no bills.

There were no tuition fees and I got a student grant of £2265 for each of the three years. Student loans were introduced in my first year and I decided to take the loan out for the whole three years even though I didn't need it, because the interest rate was lower than what I could get in a savings account. My loans totalled about £2000 by the end of the course.

My rent was nowhere near as expensive as Ivo pays now. My first year's rent was £35 a week in the then new Eastwood housing and I didn't have to pay for the summer holidays as you had to move out your stuff so that they could be used for conferences. People who lived in Wessex or Norwood Houses (tower blocks on top of the university) didn't even pay for winter or spring holidays, although they had to move all their stuff out at these times. In my second and third years I paid £40 a week rent living with the landlady.

Of course, there was no telephone, internet or TV service in the rooms in those days and no one had mobiles.

 

[Drsatan]

Edinburgh's cost of living is horrendous - not quite London levels, but its one of the more expensive places to live. Demand for housing far outstrips supply which doesn't help.

Like Ivo, I'm also staggered at how other students could afford to drink several nights a week. I did a fair amount of it myself, but not at the rate some students manage.

Exeter is also a very expensive place to live compared to other university towns. Research carried out by Shelter stated that renting a property in the city accounts for half of the average take-home pay: http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/City-unaffordable-area-region/story-13556439-detail/story.html

In first year I could afford to go out twice or three times a week, but that was because at the start of each term, I paid the cost of accommodation upfront (as did most people) and lived in the most affordable catered halls of residence on campus, which means that you can devise a weekly budget without having to account for rent. Nowadays, as a final year student, I either don't have the time or am too skint to go out two or three times a week!

There are freshers who blow most of their student loans on booze, clubbing and takeaways within the first month of uni and then panic when they've used up their overdraft, discovering they don't have enough to buy books or even food! Admittedly to save money a lot of students buy the cheapest booze available - I'll admit to buying a bottle of cheap cider from Tesco at £2 then drinking it before a night out (makes me feel old!)

 

[WelshBluebird]

Yep - Bath can be stupidly expensive. It just comes with the territory. It is very annoying knowing that friends in other unis are paying significantly less than £300 a month for rent, including bills, and are getting a very very nice house, while I'm paying £335 a month excluding bills for a pretty normal house.

My first year's rent was £35 a week in the then new Eastwood housing

wow.
I lived in Eastwood during my first year (im in my 4th and final year now), and it was around £84 a week. Its around £100 per week now.

People who lived in Wessex or Norwood Houses (tower blocks on top of the university)

Wessex house now doesn't have any accommodation in it afaik, and Norwood has just been refurbished so they have bumped the price up by quite a bit.

 

[Ivo]

Having spoken to the Money Advisor today, he responded to the expenditure figures I provided by saying that they were LOWER than he expected! He suggested a more realistic figure for food was anything up to (but probably not exactly) £40 p/w, and was not at all surprised when I told him I have only one meal per day probably five times out of seven in any given week.

In times like this, I like to have a go at Labour as you all know. It was their idea to make University accessible to all, and to make it adequately cheap for everyone. Instead, I am way out of my depth with money, and have been since the day I moved here - when they were still in power. There is still such a thing as "too poor for University"

 

[NY Yankee]

Universities in America are also expensive. There are public colleges that are less expensive, but the top universities (Harvard, Yale, Columbia) cost over $50,000 a year (I'm not sure how many euros that is).

 

[ainsworth74]

but the top universities (Harvard, Yale, Columbia) cost over $50,000 a year (I'm not sure how many euros that is).

Not that that would mean much to us on here as most of us use Pounds Sterling not Euros

But $50,000 would be about £31,000. Certainly puts £9,000 per year into perspective (or £3,000 in my case as I'm on the old system of student finance)!

 

[Ivo]

Not that that would mean much to us on here as most of us use Pounds Stirling not Euros

Actually most of use use Pounds Sterling

Universities in America are also expensive. There are public colleges that are less expensive, but the top universities (Harvard, Yale, Columbia) cost over $50,000 a year (I'm not sure how many euros that is).

For the record, the current Exchange Rate between USD and EUR, seen as you mentioned it, is approximately 1 USD to 0.75 EUR.

Now I'm getting adverts for Exchange Rates :roll: Still, better than those super-annoying ones I used to get, which still pop up occasionally!

 

[ainsworth74]

Actually most of use use Pounds Sterling

Oh hush

 

[142094]

One thing I know for sure is that if I was leaving school this summer, I would not be going to university in September when tuition fees alone will be approximately the same amount I was paying for everything in one year when I was an undergraduate.

 

[Nym]

Actually most of use use Pounds Sterling

More for the record, the value of the pound hasn't been based on Sterling for a very long time now...

 

[LE Greys]

More for the record, the value of the pound hasn't been based on Sterling for a very long time now...

But as everybody knows, the Thane of Stirling has big ambitions!

 

[DarloRich]

Welcome to the real world

You should have gone to uni somewhere cheap. Like Middlesbrough or Newcastle. That way you could have done what I did at uni, drink lots of beer, eat take aways and fail to sleep with increasingly unattractive women!

Sorry to say but you either need to budget better, and cut your cloth accordingly as they say, or get more income in and that means a job. I thought I was really careful at uni but when I lost my job I found out how tough things are when you get very little income and your savings have run out. I would suggest the following:

1) Shop at Farm Foods, Netto or Aldi (if you can/have any near you)
2) Buy things like meat and fish from the going out of date section of your supermarket. Break down the product into daily portions and freeze on the day of purchase
3) Keep your bread in the fridge. This will extend its life for toast and things for up to 10 days (worst comes to the worst just cut the mould off)
4) Don’t eat prepack meals. Cook wholesome stodgy filling meals. Batch them up and freeze them
5) Don’t go home as often/ever ( hard but necessary)
6) Turn EVERYTHING off. Leave nothing on standby. Even turn the microwave off to save money on running the clock. Become a Nazi on energy efficiency
7) Don’t use a tumble drier - they cost a fortune
8) Cut down everything extra you don’t need. Sky/fancy phones/Cable/Gyms/broadband package, whatever it is dump it or change it downwards (if the contract allows)
9) Close all the doors in your house. It will keep your rooms warmer longer. Sounds silly but I bet your rented house doesn’t have great insulation.
10) DONT use those little Tescos or Sainsburys. They rip you off in the name of "convenience"
11) Walk or cycle everywhere you can
12) "Borrow" as much stuff as you can from uni. Charge your phone, I pod, e book etc there and not at home.
13) Sell anything you don’t need on Ebay
14) Darn your socks! (My feet rot socks and shoes!)
15) Don’t pay for anything you don’t need – don’t get food delivered, walk to the shop and get it yourself!
16) Use markets for fruit and veg. Even meat and cleaning products you can save a fair bit doing that.
17) Take your own lunch to uni. Cut out the pre packed butties and the takeaways
18) If you have a credit card get rid of it if you can. It is too much of a temptation to use it for things you shouldn’t
19) If you can shop around for your energy supplier.
20) See if you can get a water meter fitted.
21) List out what you need for your food shopping. Stick to it and don’t buy that nice looking pie or cake! Silly but it really helps focus on your spending
22) If you have insurance think if you really need it or if you do whether you can move to a cheaper option. Ask those meerkat people!
23) If you have a car get rid of it if you can. I have no car now and seem better off not having to fork out for petrol!
24) Learn to say no to things and stick to your decision.
25) Look on the net for money off vouchers for your day out.
26) If you smoke try and give up!
27) Don’t do the lottery or gamble (if you do) – you wont win often enough to make it worthwhile (Although I used to live on my nudgie winnings!)

I guess you have done all of this but it does help sometimes to see it written down.

 

[LE Greys]

I can add a few things to that:

28) A television needs a licence, a radio does not, you don't really need pictures
29) No need to buy branded cleaning products, own-brand stuff is usually just as good
30) Watch out for promotions/special offers
31) Always carry your student card, there are lots of student deals on things. watch out for them
32) If you must travel by bus, get the best deal on a student pass that you can, mine is an annual one, and pays for the equivalent of one trip per day (my average is between one and two)
33) Get in touch with your Student Association, they will have lots more good advice
34 - the important one) If you have any kind of special need (like myself and the OP) then get in touch with Student Support/Disability Advice, they can give you free equipment and lots of support. Aberdeen is brilliant for this, Newcastle was not so good

 

[cuccir]

Hmm, some good tips from DarloRich/LEGreys and I guess you can pick the ones which suit, but looking at your expenses they don't seem generally excessive: £125 a month is not really a lot on food, laundry etc. Your uni's financial advisor was correct, you are budgeting very well - it's that rent and a lack of extra income which is hitting you.

So there seem to be two solutions:

1. Get extra income
2. Somehow cut down that rent cost

Re: 1 - you don't need loads, just £100 a month. Things like mystery shopping or catalogue delivery are hardly difficult. They're not prestigious or enjoyable either but then you don't need to earn a lot. You might look into Bath's various tourist sites, or buff up on history and set yourself up as an occasional tour guide? Even if you can find a job cleaning for 5 hours a week that'll earn you ~£150 a month, covering your earnings gap without really impacting on your time.

Re 2 - What's your course? You mention placements. Is it possible to do the course without being in Bath? If you only have to be in the uni itself once or twice a week you could consider living elsewhere. Obviously you have to add travel costs but you may be able to rent in the location of your placements, so they might come down or stay the same. If you can get rent at £300 a month, then you are nicely under budget. There's not a lot but there are a few properties in that price range in Bath? I don't know if your personal circumstances allow you to compromise on housing, but that does seem to be the only area where savings might be realistic.

Edit - in fact I've just found a perfect job for you on Gumtree ! In all seriousness, though, Gumtree is a good place to find online market research which will pay you £25 here and there to fill out some surveys, or people who want someone to stand in town with a sandwich board for one afternoon. You might be able to get the amount of money you need without signing up to a 'proper' job

 

[142094]

Good advice there - but don't put your bread in the fridge, it actually goes stale a lot quicker. Better is to split it up and freeze it, then defrost as much as you need.

Supermarket own-brand stuff is also just as good as the branded ones 90% of the time. I also wouldn't be skipping meals just to save a few quid. Beans on toast will cost about 20p and isn't breaking the bank.

 

[LE Greys]

Good advice there - but don't put your bread in the fridge, it actually goes stale a lot quicker. Better is to split it up and freeze it, then defrost as much as you need.

Supermarket own-brand stuff is also just as good as the branded ones 90% of the time. I also wouldn't be skipping meals just to save a few quid. Beans on toast will cost about 20p and isn't breaking the bank.

Although avoid Tesco's own-brand like the plague, it's terrible. Sainsbury's is paletable, but slightly more expensive. Personally, I tend to go to the Co-op most of the time, but still buy own-brand stuff if I can. I also think I'm addicted to vending machine coffee (60p a shot, so avoid it!).

Also to add to my post above, any kind of bursary, go for it! What have you got to lose?

 

[DarloRich]

Good advice there - but don't put your bread in the fridge, it actually goes stale a lot quicker. Better is to split it up and freeze it, then defrost as much as you need. QUOTE]

does it really! It seemed to avoid mould much longer! I tied the bag back up or used soem kind of cable tie thing to make it airtight.

I never knew that!

 

[cuccir]

Good advice there - but don't put your bread in the fridge, it actually goes stale a lot quicker. Better is to split it up and freeze it, then defrost as much as you need.

Supermarket own-brand stuff is also just as good as the branded ones 90% of the time. I also wouldn't be skipping meals just to save a few quid. Beans on toast will cost about 20p and isn't breaking the bank.

Very good advice. If you're like me and buying bread only for yourself, and only really for sandwiches, buy all your sandwich stuff once a week, make 5 days worth of sandwiches, and stick 4 days worth in the freezer. When you take a sandwich out of the fridge, always transfer a replacement from the freezer. It saves on buying bread that's going stale, and you can bulk buy whatever your sandwich filler is (I always go with hummus, as it is very cheap and very easy!)

 

[142094]

Although avoid Tesco's own-brand like the plague, it's terrible. Sainsbury's is paletable, but slightly more expensive. Personally, I tend to go to the Co-op most of the time, but still buy own-brand stuff if I can. I also think I'm addicted to vending machine coffee (60p a shot, so avoid it!).

My normal supermarkets are Morrisons and Asda, never really found them a problem for the own brand stuff (although I have a rule that I never buy cheap meat - I'd rather pay a little more for better quality).

Vending machine coffee can drain your pockets fast! Luckily I found one that accepts 1p and 2p coins, so have been quietly unloading my change jar into it recently. Still, it is 40p a cup and a jar of Gold Blend is around £4 on special so I really shouldn't use the vending machine.

 

[Nym]

Alternatively, buy locally baked bread that lasts over a week in the cupboard anyway because it was fresh that morning...?

(Warburtons FTW...)

 

[142094]

does it really! It seemed to avoid mould much longer! I tied the bag back up or used soem kind of cable tie thing to make it airtight.

I never knew that!

There was a report on it the other day (good job I ws paying attention) - think bread is one of the most wasted foodstuffs in the UK, mainly due to the low price and the fact that people buy a lot but chuck it out even before it has gone off.

I do like the fact that companies have started doing those half-loaves but even then I find I have a few slices left over if I don't freeze them.

 

[SS4]

Vending machine coffee can drain your pockets fast! Luckily I found one that accepts 1p and 2p coins, so have been quietly unloading my change jar into it recently. Still, it is 40p a cup and a jar of Gold Blend is around £4 on special so I really shouldn't use the vending machine.

If you're lucky some bank branches now have coin deposit machines which accept loose, unsorted coin as well as notes and cheques. I deposited £3.33 last week in 1p,2p and 5p pieces.

 

[142094]

If you're lucky some bank branches now have coin deposit machines which accept loose, unsorted coin as well as notes and cheques. I deposited £3.33 last week in 1p,2p and 5p pieces.

Halifax has a rule that you can only take in 5 cash bags at a time. I've just taken in £30 in silver that I'd collected since January.

 

[Greenback]

Although avoid Tesco's own-brand like the plague, it's terrible. Sainsbury's is paletable, but slightly more expensive. Personally, I tend to go to the Co-op most of the time, but still buy own-brand stuff if I can

I avoid Tesco at all times, not just the own brand stuff. When I was skint I used to use Co-op own brands, nowadays I find that Farmfoods, Aldi and Lidl have good quality food at very reasonable prices.

As for bread, we have avery good locla baker bu tthe loaves don't last long before they taste stale. Fortunately, we usually eat almost all of it before then! I find supermarket processed sliced stays fresh the longest without freezing.

 

[LE Greys]

I avoid Tesco at all times, not just the own brand stuff. When I was skint I used to use Co-op own brands, nowadays I find that Farmfoods, Aldi and Lidl have good quality food at very reasonable prices.

As for bread, we have avery good locla baker bu tthe loaves don't last long before they taste stale. Fortunately, we usually eat almost all of it before then! I find supermarket processed sliced stays fresh the longest without freezing.

Tend to go for rolls myself, but only once or twice a week. I've never been able to stand bread without crusts, but I've been spoit with stuff from the proper baker's in Hitchin. There are several Co-ops in Aberdeen, and I tend to go to them a lot (probably should go cheaper, but it's not that much difference). The university here is a bit of an island, with a Spar and a Tesco garage within reasonable walking distance, but best avoided on cost grounds.

 

[DarloRich]

There was a report on it the other day (good job I ws paying attention) - think bread is one of the most wasted foodstuffs in the UK, mainly due to the low price and the fact that people buy a lot but chuck it out even before it has gone off.

I do like the fact that companies have started doing those half-loaves but even then I find I have a few slices left over if I don't freeze them.

When i was skint i just used to cut the visible mould off the crust and toast the remains! Someone at work told me that might have been quite stupid as the bread will have been full of mould spores but it never did me any harm!