The great 'what I wish I'd known before I was a student' hunt

jojo2004

One thing I'd advise (as a long-time student) is to be really careful about renting once you're out of halls.

• Check your landlord is accredited by the local council, and possibly even recommended by the Uni - this is a good sign.
• Get a copy of the contract before you sign, take it away and READ IT!!!
• Make sure you know exactly how much the deposit is, when that will be repaid to you and how (otherwise moving between properties can be tricky, if there's a delay/deductions for final cleaning costs etc)
• If the landlord promises work to be done "before you move in", get it in writing. I did this once, and used it against my lazy landlord who did none of it, and managed to get out of paying three months' rent altogether.
• Make sure YOU read the meter on the gas/elec when you move in, and make sure the bills are correctly transferred into whoever's name and most importantly - YOU call the gas/elec when you move out, and cancel the bills. Assuming that a landlord would do this for me left me with a £400 bill for gas. And yes, if you don't call to say you have moved out, you ARE liable. No matter what. I tried...
• The house bank acct mentioned by other posters, out of which bills are paid etc is a good idea - if it's a savings account, so much the better - we made £100 last year out of our house acct - but we do use it for rent as well, so I guess it's a little larger than a bills-only account.

Other things I've learned along the way: don't volunteer to buy people drinks/coffees (and don't accept them!) if you can't afford it. It's the slippery slope, and there's always that person who waits for you to get your wallet out; let your parents give you stuff to use for uni - kitchen stuff, bedding etc - it'll get trashed in halls, or you can replace it if you really want something newer/better/shinier, but realistically, retro is cool, so embrace it. There's nothing cool about the starter crockery service, double duvet, toaster and pillow set from Asda's smartprice range...
Learning to cook is a good one, as is buying a good knife, so that chopping is easy and fun, and you don't waste money on vegetables someone else has cut up for you (NB., of course, if you have been working so very very hard that your wrists are too weak to cut up your own veggies, this does not apply to you).
Work for the uni - working in the library, e.g. means you can do your own work more easily, because you have access to the books all day... nuff said.
Also, they pay well. As do all the open day/helper type things - and doing invigilations/amanuensis, or note-taking for a disabled student (usually grad students only are eligible for these jobs, but occasionally third-year undergrads) pay really good rates, and are not fixed hours, so you can plan your studying around them.
Take your student card on holiday - in Crete, for example, I paid nothing for around half the sights we went to. Just by having a bog-standard uni card (and p.s. NUS for a tenner is such a rip-off. Only place I know which specifies "NUS discount" as opposed to "student discount" is topshop - otherwise you are entitled to use your uni card, and save your tenner.) This applies to public transport as well - including Oyster cards in London (get them to load your student railcard discount on to the card at the ticket office and save on the daily capped rates).
Phew. I think that's it. Hope you're not all asleep - oh well, it's like practice for your first Monday at 9 lecture....
xx

Iver_Hedake

If you have to have a car and have an "Asda" nearby, get an Asda credit card but only use it for petrol, it's 2p a litre cheaper. But only fill up to the exact litre not pounds.
It all adds up - in your pocket.

MoneySavingAmatuer

I'm quite conserened that everyone is saying "stay clear of credit cards"!!!
Yes be careful and always pay off in full but what noone every told me was that if you dont get credit then you dont get a credit rating!
I spent 4 years with no credit cards or anything, just a student loan and graduated very proud of my financial shrewdness.
It wasn't until after I graduated and I tried to get a mortgage that I found out that "No Credit Rating" is equivilant to "Bad Credit Rating"...

Please dont get sucked into "credit cards = bad"....its not true just pay them off in full and beware of the potensial dangers.

kissmyface

Here are some of my tips from experience:

1) Get a job in first year - often people put off getting a job in 1st year as they have enough funds but if you get in early you can get the pick of the jobs instead of waiting til 2nd / 3rd year and having to compete with all others job hunting. Obviously takes the pressure of financially too.

2) We used to take it in turns to cook for everyone in the house - ingredients are cheaper when bought in bulk and saves wastage, it was also nice to know you only had to cook once or twice a week, it also encouraged everyone to be better cooks as no-one wanted to be the one to cook a bad meal!

3) If things start getting desparate you should try to raise finance in the following order: overdraft extension, hardship loan, credit card. I was stupid in that I was very skint in my final year and could of qualified for a hardship loan but was too proud to look into it, instead I used a credit card and it took me ages after uni to clear the debt.

Wiggynut

nienta wrote: »

Just from my own shopping around: don't assume Amazon is cheapest! Use a book price comparison site- I've been able to find books for up to a fiver cheaper than Amazon.

there's a book price comparison site????
Can you tell me what it's called.. I did not know this existed! :rolleyes:

oh.. is this it? bookkoob.co.uk


ps: on another topic: I have flatemates who store a lot of meat in the freezer and it's been there for years... this means I have no freezer space to help keep food bills down! gggggggg

jaz720848

My tip would be, when it comes to your accommodation be careful of any places offering "student deals" as more often than not these can be an absolute rip off.

Private accommodation can be the best option, especially if their is a few off you who are looking for a place. The other alternative is too look for a flat/house share on the internet, i.e. on gumtree, these if you look carefully enough can offer very good value for money.

harryhound

Do students make their own beer these days or pop over to Calais?

shopaholicleo

buylessthings wrote: »

This may have been mentioned before, but never ever put the phone bill for a shared house into your name. No matter who made the calls, if you can't get them to cough up, it will be you who is liable for the debt, and BT will track you down and demand the full payment.

If you do get a phone in the house, the best option would be to get it restricted to incoming calls only - so you are only risking the line rental (your housemates might be fine, but you never know which one(s) of their friends is going to take liberties with your phone bill]:mad: . Definitely get the line blocked for international calls.

How is the best way to do the phone bill then? Shall I do it in the most unreliable person's name?

Wiggynut

shopaholicleo wrote: »

How is the best way to do the phone bill then? Shall I do it in the most unreliable person's name?

YES..... lol, just kidding!
put everyone's name on it!

I definitly recommend incoming calls only (which will automatically stop competition lines, internationals etc!) and then you all have to pay a bit towards the line rental (and if you have broadband etc)
works out nice and cheap - everyone should have free calls on their mobiles so people don't feel cut off etc.

potato_pizza

Save money on travel - Virgin do £10 single fares if you book in advance, Megabus do £1 single fares. National Express is also good - everyone's heard of the Young Person's Railcard but there is also a Young Person's Coachcard. This costs £10 per year and gets you money off. They also do 'funfares' which can be very cheap too. This was all very important for me as I was in a long-distance relationship whilst at Uni (I'm not sure I'd recommend that though...)