How Much Do You Spend A Week At Uni?

MSS_Mattyb

After reading an article in the Guardian at the weekend I was surprised to read that according to a survey conducted by Natwest the cheapest place for students to live is in York with living costs of £146 excluding rent. To me that seems way too high, as I usually budget for around £60 a week.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/aug/09/studentfinance.clearing1

How much do you spend a week at uni?

shopaholicleo

Yeah that does sound really high, no one has £600 a month! i survive on half that quite well, still able to buy clothes and decent food.

Oldernotwiser

It's a myth that all students are badly off; some are but there's many who have more available funds than someone in a decent full time job.

pavlovs_dog

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

It's a myth that all students are badly off

i'd agree with this. in my experience (as a class of 2008 graduate) many of the impoverished students who were in dire financial straits were in that situation because of the lifestyle they chose to lead. those on the breadline because they couldnt get access to funding for whatever reason appeared to be in the minority. the adage 'champagne tastes, beer budget' could certainly be applied to most of my contemporaries.

Northern_girl_2

I guess like all averages it doesn't tell the whole story. I think most students would have a lot less than that a week; I certainly did.

However, there were some really posh kids at uni whose parents had been paying for their private education for so long that I guess continuing to give them large chunks of cash didn't really matter.

I had one friend, who was by no means the poshest person there, whose parents paid his rent, bills and food. On top of that they gave him £200 a week!!! He still took out the student loan and other forms of credit so I guess event the average quoted by the Guardian would look like peanuts to him!

Conscientia

£146 a week excluding rent is an ABSURD figure! lol. I don't think that myself and my girlfriend combined spent that much in a week. It is indeed a myth that students are in poverty - I wholeheartedly agree with the "Champagne taste, Beer money" statement. This isn't to say that all students have it easy financially though...

Oldernotwiser

It always fascinates me that most universities find that the most expensive, en suite, accommodation is let first, which rather contradicts the impoverished student myth. I've also noticed, over the last few years, various student protests about the lack of parking for student cars. Neither of these facts contradicts the quoted article.

Oldernotwiser

Although not everbody's in this situation, you can't avoid the fact that the vast majority of students go home for the holidays and very few of them have to pay for their keep. I can see that it must be annoying not to be in this situation but funding has to fit the average, rther than the exception. If you want to stay at university for the holidays you can, but it's obviously going to mean getting a job. You can't expect public funding to give you a great deal of options.

Student loan funding is designed to cover you for 40 weeks a year and expects some support from parents, unless their income is low enough for the student to get the maintenance grant as well. Support can be just by being kept for the holidays, rather than £200 per week! I've known plenty of people who work almost full time hours as well as getting the student loans etc. This really shouldn't be necessary but you need to accept that being a student is, perhaps, not the time to be running a car or buying designer clothes. Unfortunately many current students think that they should have the sort of lifestyle at university, as they would have if they were working.

Oldernotwiser

piefacerecords wrote: »

I have been working almost full time hours - and actual full-time hours in all the holidays! and i get the full maintenance grant and bursaries and it is still not easy... and i certainly do not buy designer clothes etc; i barely spend anything except on bills. I really don't understand why they expect any amount of parental support - even if it just to give you boarding 6 months of the year rather than handouts. People are adults when they begin uni and there's no reason they should expect their parents to give them food and housing for free anymore - it is the entire reason that so many people from low income families go into full time work without even the option of furthering their education.

And I don't think we should get loads of hand-outs, I'm happy to pay it all back just as long as you can borrow it to begin with. My studies have definitely suffered due to the hours I have had to work alongside. You are meant to treat uni as a full-time job and put in 40 hours a week including lectures, classes, reading, revising and assignments. If you also work almost full time hours on top of this, as well as having all the chores of a housewife, then what kind of life is that?!

I live in Brighton where rental and living costs are much higher than most 'student towns', only this isn't reflected in the loan amounts as it is with london. I also never lived in halls or shared housing, where rent is often fairly cheap and includes some utilities. It simply wouldn't work in a marriage!

I'm not having a go, I just get very upset about the state of higher education. I have been close to dropping out SO many times because of money, but have to keep pushing myself to stay. The hardest thing is seeing other students having money chucked at them from all directions and then spending every day p**sing it up the wall and not actually making the most of their education. Luckily now that my husband has graduated, his income has gone up significantly and things may get better from here.

To summarise my rantings: students get a bad press because they are almost forced into relying on other people's handouts. This is wrong!

Considering many people are living (even in Brighton) on minimum wage jobs,if you're getting an extra tax free £7,000 pa (loan and grant)and you haven't been paying Council Tax then you should have had a decent standard of living by anybody's standards. 30 hours at minimum (£10,000)wage plus £7000 tax free loan/grant comes to the equivalent of earning nearly £20,000, a sum that most graduates wouldn't sneeze at. And they have to pay council tax!

If you've had "all the chores of a housewife" when your husband has also been a student, then all I can say is, more fool you!

dhs87

I lived on £60 a week and still had money left over in halls. I'm budgeting £80 a week in private-sector housing now. (Exc. rent)

Then again, I'm not in York, but I am in one of the cheapest places to live in England (some people pay £45 a week in a half-decent student house. I pay £60)

Rebekah88

piefacerecords wrote: »

Hmm. Whilst I do have friends at uni who always claim to be poor, and yet go out on the p**s 6 nights a week, I think people are too quick to assume that this is everybody. Some of us really are skint!

The student loans company assume that for 6 months of the year (1 month at xmas, 1 month at easter, 4 over summer) you live with your parents with no financial outgoings. They need to start being a bit more fair and realistic, because by only lending enough for 6 months they are taking away that choice for a lot of people, and actually encouraging the parent-sponging that goes on.

I come from a single parent family with a low income, there's no way my mum could save huge amounts of dosh to send £200 a week to keep me in beer/pizza! And why should she?! I get the full loan and even bursaries etc. for being on such a low income, and yet it isn't enough to pay basic rent and utilities 12 months a year. I live with my husband and have done since I started uni (he was also a student until july this year) so it's not as if we are going to go and live with our parents over xmas, easter summer!! Again, why should we? I've worked ever since I began uni 2 years ago, and he worked alongside his degree too, and yet we have probably had about 5 nights out in this 2 year period.

I know that you are not making this statement about all students, but I do want to remind everybody not to tar us all with the same brush. Financially, uni has been utter hell, and stress levels haven't been great either.

I could not have put it better myself, I agree with everything you have said nad am in a very similar situation (though he's my fiance not husband (yet!) and although i am fortunate enough to have both parents my dad is disabled and unable to work)

It sickens me when I see some friends who complain about being skint, but can still go out every weekend. I truely cannot do this. (This is the main reason for joining this forum!)

I too find it silly the way they assume you will sponge of your parents over Xmas/Easter etc.