Budgetting as a student

top_drawer_2

hi,

I am a third year student at university. I recently gave up my p/t job as I was being put under so much pressure to work more and more hours it was beyond me.

I am trying to work out a reasonable budget for myself - I suggested £20 a week including food and general stuff such as travel in the city (I walk to uni) but not including my mobile (£20/ month on a contract) or stuff for my hobbies (sewing so fabric but this is only occassional). I also pay out for a sewing lessons which are £15 a week.

I have no bills and my rent is £235/month.

I cant think of anything else ...

Jen

The_One_Who

Can you afford the hobbies? £15/week plus materials seems really expensive, especially if you are going to struggle for money.

You need to write down all your incomings against all your outgoings.

bestpud

Could you stretch the sewing lessons out a bit? Maybe once a fortnight or once a month perhaps?

Are you tied into your phone contract, or have you already worked out it is cheaper than payg?

Mike1989

How much do you use your mobile phone?

If your answer to the above question is texting every few minutes or every hour, then a contract phone is probably best. But if you find yourself only ringing someone every day or so and not for long periods of time, or texting the odd person here and there. You might be best canceling the contract if you can, then going on a pay as you go mobile. As there are companies such as Orange that offer packages such as Dolphin with x amount of free texts if oyu top up your mobile with £10 or £20 a month. So you'd be saving if we take a four week month £30 or £20 a month would be saved there to go into food and other expenses.

Do you need, or can you lessen the amount of sewing lessons?

If they are not relevant to your course, your any future job you intend to take. The best bet would be to cancel these lessons as £20 a week on food and expenses is barely anything these days even for one person. As once again we'll take a four week month, you spend £60 on sewing lessons, if you don't need them cancel them or reduce them as someone above mentioned, once every two weeks. As they would allow you anywhere from £30 to £60 a month (4 week month) on food.

As the one thing they tell you at my uni, is you don't spend extravagantly on things you don't need. Because the main things you need to budget for is food, expenses such as books and transport. £20 is not much because when i serve people in a store at weekends, I see them come with maybe 5 or 6 items and it can sometimes be 8 or 9 pound, and this is like some frozen food and maybe some fresh veg. So the amount you budgeted on would probably leave you running on very tight purse strings.

So my advice would be to drop the phone contract if possible and go on pay as you go. Because if its just texting your friends numerous times an hour, your best bet is to go with Orange Dolphin I think pay as you go, as you get a lot of fre texts by topping up £10 or £20 a month, that gives you the rest for phone calls. Also reduce or drop the sewing lessons, you can always pick them up at a later date. I suppose you could also find online guides or buy a monthly sewing magazine which would have guides to doing sewing, also you can go to your local library and get books on the subject, thereby reducing your monthly out goings. There are a number of different ways to budget, and the best way is to reduce all the non-essentials such as mobile phone contracts and expensive lessons. As they also told me at uni first year, not to tie yourself down with mobile phone contracts instead go pay as you go as it is cheaper if you find the right offer.

Valley's_girl

Hi Jen
You have got some great advice from the op's, I also think you should go with pay as you go.

My son has had to hand in his notice for his part time job, the hours were making him ill, he is also in uni, it was a very hard decision to make.

I am sure you will manage by careful budgeting.
Good luck with your future.
Ally x

s_baker_2

Regarding the £20.00 a week on food, I would think with effective meal planning and good shopping you could do it.*

(However, I am still living at home at college (6th form) so live under the 'umbrella' of my parents finances and budgeting, so can't make decisions on how the money is spent! ) Basically, don't take my word for it!

But plan your meals well (working on the basis of £80 a month rather than £20 a week) and you could do it. Of course, cut down on the mobile phone contract, unless it is absolutely necessary to spend that amount a month. (even if you do get your money's worth you may well only be getting it because you do it for the sake of using up your monthly balance).

*Personally I would have food and other expenses (I am guessing this is things such as travel (which you mentioned), birthdays, Christmas etc.) entirely separate, otherwise you will find yourself eating into your food allowance (not literally, which is the issue) and will then have to dip into other "pots".

Miss_Liquorice

I would second splitting the 'food' and 'other' budgets. Take a look at the Old Style board for some recipe ideas, but remember you need to have a breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks! I found I was doing really well on my strict food budget until I realised that was because I wasnt including the cost of lunches.

I'd reccomend sitting down with the budget planner, and be really honest and a little overgenerous with your spending, I know I have weaknesses.

It'll help if you have somewhere like a Lidl/Aldi/Farmfoods/Morrisons etc nearby, unfortunately the closest supermarkets to me are Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer's! I suppose the walk will keep me fit at least....

top_drawer_2

The_One_Who wrote: »

Can you afford the hobbies? £15/week plus materials seems really expensive, especially if you are going to struggle for money.

You need to write down all your incomings against all your outgoings.

The matierals are pretty good value all in all as a project can take 10 weeks+, 2 mtrs of fabric would be around £15 + £5 (thread, zips, buttons where needed).

I think the hobbies keep me sane as its the only social contact I can guarentee I will have with people outside the house, as my course is only a few hours but lots of reading/assignments. I have thought about joining some sort of society but I am very nervous and worried it will all be centred around drinking/partying. Sewing/craft sort of things are something I am interested in (and would like to learn to do properly and would love a job in) and I am not sure how I will be able to fit it in with working f/t in the future.

I am also tied into a 18mth contract as I was finding I was regularly spending £10-£15 a fornight on top-ups so now its fixed at £20 a month.

I only shop at Aldi and the market in town as there are no others near me and I cant drive.

I havent thought about christmas or birthdays.

Jen



Jen

Oldernotwiser

Spending as much on a hobby as you spend on food and travel is a bit daft. I also think that sewing is probably not the ideal hobby for someone who seems to really need social contacts and I can't see why you wouldn't have masses of time (and money) to do this once you're working. It's your choice but this seems to be the only thing you could cut down on.

top_drawer_2

hi,

I enjoy sewing and its my creative outlet - my counsellor/mental health worker has no issue with it.

I know many many people who spend more on going out and then the same on clothes etc than they pay out on food. I just want to know really whats a reasonable figure to be looking at for a weekly/monthly budget?

This week I thought it would be useful to find out if I could cope on £20 and until today when I forgot my sandwiches it was possible ... ;(
but I cant manage never having anything apart from the essentials ... My friend suggested £35 a week on food alone!! shows what completely different ideas we have ...

Jen

top_drawer_2

Miss_Liquorice wrote: »

I would second splitting the 'food' and 'other' budgets. Take a look at the Old Style board for some recipe ideas, but remember you need to have a breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks! I found I was doing really well on my strict food budget until I realised that was because I wasnt including the cost of lunches.

I'd reccomend sitting down with the budget planner, and be really honest and a little overgenerous with your spending, I know I have weaknesses.

It'll help if you have somewhere like a Lidl/Aldi/Farmfoods/Morrisons etc nearby, unfortunately the closest supermarkets to me are Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer's! I suppose the walk will keep me fit at least....

Lol what would you say you aim for weekly? I shop in bulk anyway and then just buy the odd bits here and there as I cant be doing with that rush to get to the shops as there is NO food in the house!!

The problem is that I dont actually have any money to spend - I am £216 into my OD and I would ideally like to keep this to the lowest level possible but without suffering too much - been there done that and its part of the reason i'm here resitting my final year.

Jen