SH's attempt to make it to September with as little debt as possible!

Starlighthappiness
Starlighthappiness Posts: 70 Forumite
in Debt free diaries
Hi everyone!

I'm a final year university student who will be starting a graduate job in September. My university *crazily* does not let us undertake paid employment alongside our degree. Nevertheless, I have an income of £212 from a rental property each month.

The issue is that I only have that income and my student loan to survive on. My monthly rent comes up to £500 a month so it is likely that by the summer I will be losing money each month.

The plan is to start really watching the pennies so that I minimise the debt I'll be in by the time I start my job and to *hopefully* reach September with a neutral bank balance. :A

I hope you will all keep me accountable and will offer me some hints and tips along my journey :) :j
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Comments

  • Starlighthappiness
    Starlighthappiness Posts: 70 Forumite
    Okay... so a bit of a breakdown of my incomings and outgoings between now and June:

    Incomings:
    £212 a month x4 (rental income)
    £1998 on 23rd April (student loan)
    Total: £2846
    Monthly average: £711.50

    Outgoings:
    - £500 a month x 4 (rent and bills)
    - £35 a week x 17 (food)
    Total: £2595
    Monthly average: £648.75

    That leaves me with £251 to live off of during July and August if I purchase nothing except for food each week. :eek:

    Hopefully I'll be able to make a little bit of money eb&ying and also get a summer job.
  • zippygeorgeandben
    zippygeorgeandben Posts: 1,273 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Debt-free and Proud!
    You have between now and July though to store some money away. Can you give some of the student loan in April to someone you trust and then they give it to you when you break up for the Summer? Or a percentage of that lump sum?
    Congratulations on getting a job secured before the end of your degree, don't blow your good work now by frittering away money on a 6 month celebration before the 'real' work starts!
    Savings as of April 2023 Savings account - £26460.50(14474.88)Current account - £2140.24(4576.79)Total - £28600.74(19051.67) £1010 (£65pm CS/BS) £250 CS/BS/JS
  • ceb1995
    ceb1995 Posts: 388 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post I've been Money Tipped!
    Where do you do your food shop? I think you could shave a little off it a week with some careful planning :)
  • Starlighthappiness
    Starlighthappiness Posts: 70 Forumite
    zippygeorgeandben wrote: »
    You have between now and July though to store some money away. Can you give some of the student loan in April to someone you trust and then they give it to you when you break up for the Summer? Or a percentage of that lump sum?
    Congratulations on getting a job secured before the end of your degree, don't blow your good work now by frittering away money on a 6 month celebration before the 'real' work starts!

    Yes that's the plan. I'm hoping my food bill will come under the £35 a week I've budgeted myself. I bulk-bought steak from my local butcher when it was on offer a while back and have about 20 left in the freezer so that should help to cut out a part of my food costs for the next few weeks.

    I also hope to make a bit of money selling some odd bits and bobs on eB&y or through the he local clothes sale Facebook group. So hopefully I'll reach July in the best monetary position as possible.
  • Starlighthappiness
    Starlighthappiness Posts: 70 Forumite
    ceb1995 wrote: »
    Where do you do your food shop? I think you could shave a little off it a week with some careful planning :)

    I go to the local butchers and buy my veg at the local farmer's market. It works out at much cheaper than the supermarkets and is much nicer quality as well. (Where else could I buy 5 avocados for £1.50?!) I think I *may* have overestimated how much budget I need for food, but I'll trial the £35 for the next couple of weeks and see if I can reduce it then.
  • ceb1995
    ceb1995 Posts: 388 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post I've been Money Tipped!
    We manage for two of us on just over £37 a week although we get a lot of frozen veg and frozen meat to cut costs and I bake so we barely buy sweet snacks. I d agree with your bulk buying that it ll probably go down a bit over time, sounds like you ve quite a healthy diet :)

    The only other suggestion I have is to see if any of your bills can be swapped to cheaper suppliers (if you aren't renting somewhere inclusive) and to use your student discount as efficiently as possible (boy that's the only thing I miss from my student days :p).
  • Starlighthappiness
    Starlighthappiness Posts: 70 Forumite
    ceb1995 wrote: »
    We manage for two of us on just over £37 a week although we get a lot of frozen veg and frozen meat to cut costs and I bake so we barely buy sweet snacks. I d agree with your bulk buying that it ll probably go down a bit over time, sounds like you ve quite a healthy diet :)

    The only other suggestion I have is to see if any of your bills can be swapped to cheaper suppliers (if you aren't renting somewhere inclusive) and to use your student discount as efficiently as possible (boy that's the only thing I miss from my student days :p).

    £37 a week for two is AMAZING! Do you have any other tips for cutting down food costs? I'll definitely look at frozen vegetables as an option. I do find that sometimes by the end of the week some of the veg from the market is going off and has to be wasted, frozen veg would definitely reduce that waste.

    I KNOW that the bills in my house are not the cheapest, but I rent from a live in landlady who refuses to switch suppliers. I've tried bringing up switching suppliers with her before but she wasn't having it. The rent I pay is very cheap for where I live and she let me live there rent free last summer (not possible this summer as she's already rented it out) so I don't think it's worth risking damaging my relationship with her for the saving I'd make on 4 months of bills. You win some, you lose some. :undecided
  • Starlighthappiness
    Starlighthappiness Posts: 70 Forumite
    Just found out I won a twitter competition for a £20 high street voucher. It's a nice little bonus for me and can be used in Zizzi so that'll be nice for date night when I visit my bf in mid March :D
  • ceb1995
    ceb1995 Posts: 388 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post I've been Money Tipped!
    Starlighthappiness wrote: »
    £37 a week for two is AMAZING! Do you have any other tips for cutting down food costs? I'll definitely look at frozen vegetables as an option. I do find that sometimes by the end of the week some of the veg from the market is going off and has to be wasted, frozen veg would definitely reduce that waste.

    I KNOW that the bills in my house are not the cheapest, but I rent from a live in landlady who refuses to switch suppliers. I've tried bringing up switching suppliers with her before but she wasn't having it. The rent I pay is very cheap for where I live and she let me live there rent free last summer (not possible this summer as she's already rented it out) so I don't think it's worth risking damaging my relationship with her for the saving I'd make on 4 months of bills. You win some, you lose some. :undecided

    We always have a meal plan so avoids unnecessary trips to tesco express, as we llive 2 miles away from the bigger supermarkets,we try to make a 2 weekly asda delivery stretch as far as possible. Any meals with meat, i flesh out with some sort of veg to cut cost, for example our food shop includes 2 bags of peppers, onions and frozen mushrooms so that £6 for veg for roughly 6 meals sometimes 7.
    For the most part I buy value brand sauces and season them myself with basil and garlic powder and the like . There's lots of meals you can make with a tin of chopped tomatoes as well.
    Most of the lunches we take to work are leftovers from last nights dinner or I use up bread making sandwiches with frozen meat or jam so basically we avoid wasted food wherever possible, if anything goes off soon then i'll find a recipe to use it up.
    Seems like a compromise with the land lady in that situation :)
  • Starlighthappiness
    Starlighthappiness Posts: 70 Forumite
    Had a good day - Asides from winning the £20 gift card I also cashed out £21 from Checkout Smart so that should reach my account in a few days :D

    I tried the downshift challenge and bought Tesc0 value coffee rather than a branded version and also the value eggs. Saved myself £1.99 which is really nice. :)

    Also made a dinner with all my leftover veg; spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and leek. Had it with some bacon. Ice and healthy and I have enough leftovers for my next two lunches. :j
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