My Student experience...

Esqulax

Hiya guys.. i just graduated from uni, and i just want to put my experiences on here, for people who are dubious about money issue relating to uni.

before uni, i worked, and my flatmate was a student... the worst sort, he had about 3 student accounts with £1000 overdrawn on each, a couple of credit cards maxed out.. all in all, it made me scared of uni, so i diddnt bother for a couple of years.

So before i went, i saved up as much as i could over the summer preceding, and pretty much had my rent covered for the first 3 or 4 months, with a bit to spare, but i also had a £1000 potential overdraft. being a bit younger, i thought i was pretty invincible when it came to money, but by xmas i was maxxed out all over, panicked and got an egg card to cover the expenses.

I then got a job, during my studies to help pay for stuff, and along with my student loan, i ticked by.. had some bank charges build up, from hitting the OD limit, and generally not being too savvy. by the time it came to pay the bank charges, about £500, i got spurred on to leave uni, and start afresh, this time living at home, and working in the familys business.

So the extra 200 a month, that would normally be rent paid off my OD, the student loan came in and i spent like there was no tomorrow. for 2 years.

By the start of year three, i decided to take a stand, and have a go at proper budgeting. I wish i did this years ago.

so now, after all that, I've just cleared my £1k overdraft (and reduced it to £500), and transferred my Egg card balance to a new cred card, with my current bank, with 10 months interest free, which im going to take FULL advantage of... no minimum payments from me

other than the student loan, after 4 years of uni, im left with £1400 (ish) to pay of on a cred card.

I thought id pop this on here, to alley fears. students all say "Im leaving uni with 20K of debt!!" but that includes student loan, which gets paid back automatically when you earn 15k p/a, most of the rest, is poor money managment.

Im not saying be super thrifty and never go out... but theres a lot to be said for getting a crate of beers in before going out on the tiles, and being creative and cooking for everyone.
As ive shown, i was pretty crap with my money for ages, but as it was kindof in my mind to keep an eye, i got by.

Being on this forum, means you actually WANT to make the effort, but dont forget, budgeting is NOT about not having fun/seeing your mates. theres a lot to be said for free/cheap stuff to do, like playing frisbee, brewing your own alcohol (£10 for about 3.5 litres of home-made alcoshots!)

Wow Im waffling!

Latest decision i made: I want to do a masters, over 2 years, but with the workload, i dont think id be able to work enough to support myself (no student loan for masters)
So Im skipping the year, saving as MUCH as poss, and doing the masters over 1 year.. so' i'd be finishing the same time, but will hopefully be in a more financially stable situation!

Anyways.. You need a gold star for reading this far!

FreheitOverture

Some good points, however I am already £12K+ in debt due to raised tuition fees. I am hoping that my placement year will enable me to save enough to not take out a final year maintenance loan, or to stick it in an ISA

Esqulax

Aye the raised tuition fees are an issue, but again, the SLC can help out.. raises the overall debt, but i dont think about that, as i only start paying that off when im earning enough to be able to

Seriously though, i re-read what i'd written, and PLEASE take into accout the having fun part! If your 18/19, thats what uni is all about. spending money is fun, but its not the only way to have a good time!