Going back to uni for the second time???......

Crap_with_money.com

Evenin' all!


Ok, so I'll start at the beginning. I'm 25, back living at home with my mum, have a little bit of debt, but debt which is more than manageable for now.


I live in Scotland, and am currently applying to go back to uni and do a post-grad in teacher training. Hopefully, I'll be accepted – but the prospect of financing a year without a full-time has been playing on my mind for a while now. And here's where (hopefully) you come in!


I currently have 1 bank loan remaining, which won't be paid off until January 2011, I have cleared my Overdraft and Credit Card, so am now intending to leave the bank loan as it is, and hopefully have enough saved to cover the loan payment as well as my basic living costs whilst I'm at uni!


My current (DIY) statement of affairs:


Income


Wages............................ ..................................................... £1013.02


Outgoings


Rent (includes all utilities as well as food)......................... £222.00
First Direct Bank Loan....................................................... £166.08
Mobile Phone..................................................................... £20.00


Surplus = £604.94


I have a car through my job, so they take the insurance cost off before I even get paid, and the cost of the car (plus all fuel, including personal use), is covered by taxman. So basically, I have no more “necessary” outgoings, other than what is listed above.


What I need to figure out, is how much I can feasibly save from the above, as well as where to put whatever money I do manage to syphon off! I am hoping to take on a second part-time job in the new year (although I've no idea where yet, and am worried at how difficult this might be given the current climate?!), this will hopefully earn me an extra couple of hundred per month, depending on however many hours I manage to find, but obviously I can't count this as guaranteed just yet! In addition to my basic salary, I also get a (little) bit of commission through my full-time job. From 1st July - 30th of November, I've built up about £750, which I've just claimed and which will be in my wages at the end of this month (Although I will have 2 days pay deducted as I was off ill with a chest infection, and the company I work for doesn't pay sick pay unless you've been there for 2 years!!). Whatever is left of the £750 after the tax-man and student loans have taken their cut, will be the start of my savings fund!


The fly in the ointment, is that my brother is getting married abroad, a holiday I committed to before I definitely decided to go back to uni (and also, when my dad was still alive, and hoping to help me at least a little to get through uni for a second time). Although my circumstances have now changed, I am being bridesmaid, and I'm booked on the holiday as part of a group booking, so can't really renage on my promise to be there. This means that in addition to saving for uni, I need to fund a 4* all inclusive trip to Mexico – which I reckon will set me back in the region of £1000 - £1500.


If I get into uni, my outgoings will remain as above, and additionally I will have to pay for travel (the cost will vary, as obviously I'll go between being at uni and on placements). Ideally, I would like to have enough saved, so that combined with my student loans I will be able to cover my basic living costs, and anything extra will go towards whatever minimal social life I can afford.


I reckon I should be entitled to approximately £4,400 of a student loan, as I am now classed as “independent” given I've been working for 4 years (this figure is based on this years entitlement though, so may change!?). Although the course only lasts 10 months, I really need a full years funding – because I'm studying in Scotland, we have a years guaranteed paid work placement, so I would definitely be earning a fairly decent salary immediately on graduating, but I obviously still need to fund the 2 months in between finishing uni and starting the probationary year.


I really don't want to leave uni this time round with any more debt than I already have, and if needs be I will work part-time throughout to avoid this – however, since from what I've seen it's a pretty intense course, I would love to have enough saved to fund at least the last few months of the course without needing to work.


On leaving uni, I want to then be working towards buying a house and setting up home with my partner – but I suppose it's one-step at a time – and I'll need to worry about that closer to the time!


Sorry for such a HUMUNGOUS post – but any help or advice, would really be very much appreciated!!

xx

Crap_with_money.com

PS not sure if this is the correct forum - but I figured there may well be a few other "mature" students lurking amongst you who have been in my position already?

MrsManda

I'm not sure about the Scottish system but in England you get loans and grants just like any other student. So you don't need to worry about financing your uni year.
Sounds like you're going to be ok. Or am I missing something?

Lokolo

Mrsmanda wrote: »

I'm not sure about the Scottish system but in England you get loans and grants just like any other student. So you don't need to worry about financing your uni year.
Sounds like you're going to be ok. Or am I missing something?

Theres no tuition fees in Scotland either :cool: (for scottish people, English get discounted lol)

Crap_with_money.com

Well, the student loan would be all im entitled to as far as I know - so that leaves me with £4440 (providing that doesn't change for next year) - over 12 months my basic costs based on the above are obviously £4896.96, which means I need to add a little bit to that just to cover those costs, plus I also need to find the cost of transport to/from uni/placements. Then money towards basically just living. Obviously I don't expect to have much of a social life when I'm at uni, since that's what caused me the problems the last time round, but somehow there always seems to be things cropping up that need money spending on them. Even if that's just the occassional night out, or birthday/christmas nights presents, or textbooks or whatever.

I'm a bit clueless with money, so I'm trying at the moment to figure out how much I can save based on the above before i get to uni, and what the best way of saving that money is.

I would probably be just about ok moneywise with the student loan and whatever I manage to save in the meantime, but I think adding in the cost of my debt repayments is pushing me slightly close to the bone.

I was really just looking for any hints or tips from anyone who's maybe been there before and managed to make it work - like how much of my surplus income just now, should I feasibly be saving? What type of budget do other people use just to cover their social lives and pressies etc?

xx

PS Sorry, it maybe seems like I'm just being really dense, but it's only over the last year that I've started to learn to manage my money so am open to any suggestions from who are wiser than me at any time! Plus, it's been going round in circles in the back of my head for months, so sitting down and writing it down will hopefully help me figure out a plan - sorry if that makes really boring reading for everyone else along the way though!

famous.last.words

crap_with_money, being as i am also crap with money (!) and an undergrad i really dont have any advice. I just wanted to say i hope you find the answers you are looking for, and good luck with the course!

Crap_with_money.com

famous.last.words wrote: »

crap_with_money, being as i am also crap with money (!) and an undergrad i really dont have any advice. I just wanted to say i hope you find the answers you are looking for, and good luck with the course!

aaaawww thanks!

Does anyone out there have any experience of career developments loans? Another option I'd been toying with would be to take one out to cover whatever the remaining balance of my current loan is come next August, which would give me a "payment holiday" and therefore would mean my current debt wouldn't be eating into any money I have saved for living off of, or my student loans. Then in the year after I've graduated, I would be able to set the minimum payments high enough, to clear the loan within a year - so that by the time I'm looking for a permanent job I shouldn't have any debt hanging over me at all. Although I'm not sure if this would be a completely pointless exercise, and maybe cost me more in the long-term?

The settlement figure in my signature includes the cost of early settlement, and the my current loan is at a rate of 11.9%.

xx

Crap_with_money.com

Just looked into it, and doesn't look as though a career development loan would be an option. You only get them if you're not entitled to a student loan, and they're designed I think to predominantly cover the cost of fees - so since I'll get a loan, and won't need to pay fees - the CDL idea is out the window.

Don't think that's necessarily a bad thing though, as the interest rates look ridiculously high - so it would probably have cost me a fair bit more in the end anyway!

Ah well..... back to the drawing board!!

xx

astrocytic_kitten

Hi

I'm not sure I'll be much practical help but I was in a pretty similar situation to you this time last year - I'd worked for a couple of years after leaving uni so I was used to a full time wage and was worried about giving this up to go back to uni. I also got into a fair bit of debt during my undergrad and was determined that wouldn't happen this time round.

Your comment about it going in circles round your head struck a chord, giving up the security of a full time job is really hard and you should see the reams of calculations I did to try and work out if my course would be feasible or not!

Anyway, I took the plunge and the financial side hasn't been as bad as I'd expected - to give you a brief idea of what I spend, my student loan pays my rent, I work part time and out of that give myself £30 a week for food, socialising, presents, phone, and the never ending supply of printer ink. It seems to work... I probably spend £10-15 a week on food (or rather £10 a week on food and £5 a week on chocolate) and £15 on the rest. I could trim it if need be but at the moment I'm quite comfortable.

I feel a bit of a fraud giving you money advice but if I was you I'd start saving £400 a month. From what I can see this would give you £50 a week spending money which should be plenty, and you can use the boards here to see how you can whittle that down more to maybe save £500 a month? It really depends on your lifestyle. The thing that really helped me with saving for uni was to have the money set up to transfer to an ISA right after my wages came in, so it was gone and I didn't think about it.

Oh, and I'd definitely advise you to not work during the course if you can help it. One of my friends is doing a PCGE at the moment and working one day a week and finding it very tough. She's studying past midnight most nights, up at 6am to get to her placement most days, and generally constantly stressed and on the verge of tears. After we swap stories about how stressed we are I'm always slightly embarrassed, her workload is so much worse than mine!

Sorry for the long post... I'm really tired tonight and that makes me ramble a lot. And good luck with uni! I admire anybody who wants to be a teacher, it's not a career I could ever do.

P.S. would you be able to get travel expenses too? I know that a lot of my friends who lived at home during their undergrad got their travel fares paid by SAAS. Obviously that was undergrad and a few years ago so not really relevant but might be worth looking into...?

Crap_with_money.com

Thanks AK! It's re-assuring to hear of someone else who's already been there and done it - and still surviving!

You're definitely doing fab with your budget! :rotfl: to the £5 per week on Choccie though - there's some things in life that just aren't worth giving up eh? No matter what the cost!

£500 a month sounds like loads - eeekkk!! - Although I do like the sound of a good challenge!

I'm ashamed to admit I've never managed to save even a single penny in my life before now - so I'm a bit clueless about the different types of savings accounts etc - but I'm just reading through Martin's article on ISA's just now - it defo sounds as though it's worth doing! I didn't realise I would be able to withdraw the money again when I needed it!

I think I could claim a certain portion of the travel expenses back - but if I remember rightly, you don't actually get them 'til around January time (or maybe I was just really slow at putting my claim in - which wouldn't surprise me given my atitude to money back then!), which obviously means I'd need to have the funds available to pay it up front until such times as I can claim it back!

A few of my friends have already done the PGC/DE courses in the last few years, and it's seeing how stressed out they were, and how much of their lives it seemed to consume, that's making me adamant I'll try and avoid working throughout the course if I can avoid it!

Anyway - thanks very much for the encouraging comments! I hope your course is going well - and it was worth sacrificing the full-time salary (which no doubt was painful!!). I'm starting to get pretty tired too - so I'm off to sleep - I think I've managed more than enough mammoth posts for one night!

xx

tr3mor

I don't know what it's like in Scotland but down here there are loads of bursaries for doing a PGCE.

I was considering doing maths and I'd get a £9k bursary and a £5k golden hello when I started. Plus any loans on top.