Mature Student and Money

alyth

oh thank you all for your fantastic responses! You're all incredibly inspirational you know, Debt Robot I am exactly trying to follow my dreams, I've just trying to work some stuff out, I had a house with ex and if it sells this year I should get about £100K but it's a big if as it's been on the market for a while, so I'm not counting on the money.

I don't want to move closer to the uni, nor stay in halls or anything like that, I can't rent out a room under my tenancy in this cottage, nor would I want to to be honest, me and doglet are perfectly happy just the two of us, but I absolutely love studying through the OU and just always wanted to go to uni to study full-time. I've no debt, just not much income but I live extremely frually as it is, in fact I love living frugally (!) I've tempted on and off for years so can go temping during holidays, so thank you all so much for your advice, I'm really starting to feel that I can follow my dreams and do it!

Fridayschild

You are right, they are a wonderful lot! I just have a couple of things to add that might be helpful. I am a mature student who started studying with the OU three years ago.
I have two children, one who is at university now and another one possibly going later in the year, and a lovely OH. It would have been impossible for me to give up work and study fulltime due to the family financial commitments of trying to help the kids get through their studies with a minimum of debt! Last year I decided that I really wanted a more face to face studying experience, so have transferred my 120 points (equiv to one year undergraduate study) to the university of kent. I now study part time with them, attend lectures etc, but also work three days per week That might be something you might want to consider. It will take longer but you could leave uni debt free!!! I wish you the best of luck whatever you decide, its one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Oldernotwiser

karenc135 wrote: »

It will take longer but you could leave uni debt free!!! I wish you the best of luck whatever you decide, its one of the best decisions I have ever made.

For someone starting university at the age of 40, the length of time it takes is likely to be far more important than whether or not they end up debt free! The decision for someone of this age is far clearer than for someone younger, although, in the OP's case, there's only a year in it.

alyth

Thanks Karen, it's in the back of my mind that if I do a couple of years' OU then I can transfer the credits. I will never ever have any debt, I'm a bit funny like that, so that's why I'm playing around with finances, if I did take a student loan I would just invest it.

There's only me and the dog as I say now, and baring the travel and my accommodation costs then I'm hoping to be able to work to cover the costs of everything - I know it's a bit optimistic but I really don't want any debts, if I ever get the money from the house sale then that'll be me secure for a few years!

It's really just about following my dreams, I've done most of everything else I wanted to do, this is just the biggie!

annie_d

How old do u need to be to be a mature student?

alyth

21 Annie I think is the general standard! Or at least it seems to be from the Scottish uni sites I've looked at - why?

Aunty_Les

I too took the plunge this year and started Uni. I've got to say that it has been scary, hard work, fantastically exciting and the best thing I have done in a long time. I am 40 years old, and dont expect to become fully qualified until 45 - but who cares about age any more? Dont let money worries stop you from going for this if it is what you really want. As Martin says, student loans are the best type of borrowing available. Any University has a student advice centre, and they will help you to get the best possible amount of loans/bursaries/grants that are available - they want you join them, so they'll do whatever they can to make it as painless as possible. Good luck whatever you decide

SWMBO

If its the 'uni experience' you're looking for, consider OU residential courses and OU society revision & preparation weekends. Also don't forget you're not limited to 60 points/year - some students do 90 or even 120 points, depending on their other commitments.

alyth

It's the degree more than the uni experience I'm after, my days of drinking til the small hours are long gone! The most I can do with working full-time is 60 points a year, if I ever get the money from the sale of the house with ex I'll probably either go to uni or take a couple of years out to do my degree through the OU - it's the subject and the personal satisfaction of getting my degree more than attending a uni that's important to me.

Queen_of_NO_MATTER_WHAT

alyth wrote: »

I hope this doesn't sound a stupid question - so here goes.

I've just finished a 10 point OU course and signed up for a 60 point course. However my dream has always been to study English at uni, and I'm tentatively thinking of applying for 2010. However, I'd be 40 by then, I'm single, how on earth would I support myself? From investigations I'd get a student grant of £4500 or similar a year, but at the moment I earn £15K and it's a struggle sometimes. I know there are companies you can apply to for sponsorship type ideas, funds, that sort of thing, but has anyone got any experience of being a mature student and funding themselves through their degree? I rent a lovely house but the uni is about 35 miles away, I would temp during the summer, but I'd welcome anyone's experiences on this.

I want to follow my dream, I know I could continue with the OU but I always wanted to go to uni and study full-time and I could do it in three years if I got accepted.

I've been following some of the threads on here regarding the mature students and you've all really inspired me, hence this post!

Thanks.

I'm a mature student and although it can be tough sometimes I don't regret it for a second. Both me an my partner are mature students so I guess that makes it a bit easier. Neither of us work part time or have overdrafts, we live on our student loan and maint. grant.

The way we work it is this. Each installment we work out the rent, bills and food, we have a joint account and that money gets put aside straight away. Whatever is left is our own. We had to look at things like do we need the internet at home? we decided we did. do we need cable TV? who is the cheapest energy supplier? We meal plan and stick to a budget for food shopping, and we go once a week with no popping in inbetween (I can spend £10 going for a pint of milk!) . We turn off plugs instead of leaving things on stand by, use energy saving lightbulbs, we don't have a car and rely on public transport instead (but we also chose somewhere not too far from the city centre and university so when the weather gets better we can walk instead of paying for travel cards), we also have the water on for an 2 hours each day, once in the morning and once in the evening, all the money saving stuff that I read other people doing on here really to keep the costs of running the house as cheap as possible.

I don't take any notice of how he manages his cash but this is how I manage mine. I work out then what else I have to pay for, phone, travel, cinema card, credit card (I don't ever use my CC, I'm just paying off the debt from being a foolish young girl, I contacted them and set up a cheaper payment play with reduced interest) and that is set aside for paying these by standing order or DD. whatever is left i divide by the amount of weeks until my next payment. I'm left with about £40 a week for me to do with what I like. I don't drink which is prob a huge bonus but I do smoke, but roll my own.

Before uni I did an access course which was self funded, going from earning £22k a year to earning very little was a huge culture shock. My whole life had to change. I managed to save some money before I stated access and managed to claim my fees back and got a grant towards books. Also because of my situation they paid my travel and later in the year when I was really struggling with my rent they also gave me a grant towards that. I worked 2 cleaning jobs - one early morning and one evening (getting up at 4.30am 5 days a week for min wage really taught me the value of money!) I learnt that I had to start thinking before I bought things, started rolling my own instead of buying cigs and I couldn't just walk into whereever and buy what I thought I needed or wanted (basically the shoe addiction had to go!) I had to start food planning and setting a budget for food shopping - instead of buying everything in tesco I now shop around and go to the greengrocers, butchers and budget supermarkets - and saying no sometimes when friends wanted to go for meals or weekends away was hard, but I just had to keep reminding myself why. It was hard but I think that year really set me up for the reality of uni life and also learning the value of money allowed me to make the decision not to work while I'm uni - which is a huge freedom.

The summer inbetween finishing college and started uni I did a temp contract, thankfully I was in the same place for the whole summer, it aid quite well and allowed me and my boyfriend to move into our own rented place instead of renting a room in a house, and also save a bit for uni which I spent on books (all of which I needed and get well used, but I did look on amazon market place and buy second hand where I could). I plan to temp this summer but if I'm honest I am a bit worried because of the economic downturn, I'm the kind of person though who will do pretty much anything to bring the cash in, I don't fancy working in a factory but if I had to then I would.

Uni life itself was a bit strange to settle into, a lot of the students there are between 6 - 8 years younger than me and not only that I'm not at all interested in student culture. Plus I found it difficult at first to motivate myself. Now I treat it like a 9 - 5. I go into uni for 9am and in between lectures and seminars I study, read, do my seminar prep, revision and assigments, which leaves my evenings and weekends free. Might not work for everyone but it seems to be working for me, although it took a while to get used to my brain being that active! Other things I do to save money is take a packed lunch, also a flask and a bottle of water I've filled up from home. I'm not paying 95p for a cup of tea, £1.80 for a cup of coffee or £1 for a bottle of water! Maybe a bit geeky but it's little money saving ways like that which allow me not to have to work.

I guess the biggest thing I love about being a student is the fact that I am following my dream of getting a university education. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up (ha!) but Law is a good foundation for any career. I don't regret walking out of a middle paid job with prospects, but it was soul destroying, I hated going to work and had a quiet dissatisfaction with life. I won't like and say that I jump out of bed every morning full of the joys of spring and skip off to university, some days I have to drag myself, but overall I'm the happiest I have ever been. I love my simple and quiet life, and although sometimes I miss being able to splurg my money on whatever I want and I miss going on holiday, overall I feel much more satisfied and less stressed out. And at the end of a day it's all about choice, no one made me choose this way of life, I chose to do it and with choice there comes freedom (for me anyway)

Anyway I've rambled on WAAAYYYY too long hope that helps, take what you like and leave the rest