What else can i do to save money?

xcazx

Ok it’s a long one but bear with me

Im constantly going over my overdraft and currently going through uni for hardship fund to help pay £200 electricity bill and rent because my loan won’t come through til April 20th. Im also trying to bank charges back but unsure if I count as hardship as we aren’t in arrears at the moment but soon will be if this carries on. I had £20 in my purse to last me and my boyfriend (also a student and working overtime to help pay off some of our bills when they come) for food and manage to make a lot of stew etc and homemade things that will last us a while. everyone said uni was fun before I came here and it was all about the parties but I come from a low income family (so does my boyfriend) and I budget everything out and have £6 extra a week for emergencies which is usually uni books etc. they say that everyone has a chance to go to uni but im in my third year and I would never recommend it to low income families. here is what I spend my loan on -

I get £1767 every three months

rent - £315 pcm ..............................................x 3 = £945
electric - £100 pcm...............................................x 3 = £300
food - £40 pcm.................................................x 3 = £120
petrol - £15 pcm.................................................x 3 = £45
phone - £20 pcm.................................................x 3 = £60
sky (including calls and broadband) - £20 pcm.......x 3 = £60
car insurance - £35................................................x 3 = £105

Total..............................................................................£1635
left over from loan..........................................................£132
extra left per week.........................................................£11
minus £5 paying off overdraft per week..........................£6

I’ve applied for a total of 37 jobs since dec last year from cleaning to office work and everything in between and heard nothing back other than "due to overwhelming number of applicants we are sorry to say you have been unsuccessful blah blah blah"
I’ve reached my overdraft limit of £3000 due to having to pay university for retakes I took in my first year (was never told I had to pay for them and them blocking my uni account, use of library, and use of student e-mail was the first I knew about it). University for me has been one big struggle to find money to pay for all my art materials which they don’t, have never and never will supply. And the most annoying thing is ALL my tutors say to me is "if you invested more money into your artwork you'd get better results"

it seems uni is for people whose parents sub them hundreds of pounds to go clubbing and do whatever they want and they then ask for more from the parents at the last minute and pay for some expensive material and do a quick piece and get firsts and 2:1's ( for example a girl in my group bought liquid nitrogen which cost her £200 she said, froze some blu tack shaped like nails and subsequently hammered them into walls before watching it evaporate and the blu tack going squidgy again. she got a first for this and it took her 1 day to set up). Uni is all about the money and im just trying to save anyway I can. anything else i can do to save money etc?

Lokolo

No offence but 37 jobs and nothing?

We have SU advertising for positions, a cleaning job for £9 an hour for 5 hours a week, jobs at Alton Towers for partime work. Dominos came in the other week saying they were looking for staffs. A lot of people on here seem to be struggling for jobs but at my uni theres plenty weird.

Anyway,

Am I right in assuming £100 for electric is with gas as well? If so that means you are using £200 between you which is, in all honestly, **** loads. We pay £125 a month between 5 of us and we use a lot of gas and electric.

Do you use your home phone or mobile? If you use mobile you should (if you aren't tied up for 12 months) to choose a better broadband package, you should be able to find somewhere for £10 a month for basic internet.

If you are using £15 a month on petrol then you can't be using it much (ie. going to uni and back) so what are you using it for?

xcazx

Am I right in assuming £100 for electric is with gas as well? If so that means you are using £200 between you which is, in all honestly, **** loads. We pay £125 a month between 5 of us and we use a lot of gas and electric.

Do you use your home phone or mobile? If you use mobile you should (if you aren't tied up for 12 months) to choose a better broadband package, you should be able to find somewhere for £10 a month for basic internet.

If you are using £15 a month on petrol then you can't be using it much (ie. going to uni and back) so what are you using it for?[/quote]

ok we only have electric here - economy 7 rubbish. and its £200 between us cuz of a massive bill of £365 for first 3 months of living here. this was because our landlord had told us we were on a economy 7 tariff but were on normal at 16p per unit 24/7 costing us an absolute fortune. so we asked it to be spread over 6 months to pay it off, changed the tariff and now pay by direct debit but due to our high use of electric they calculated our bill at £200 based on previous months spending which we have to do a new reading so we can get it down to normal(ish) on the 23rd march.

home phone is part of a cheap package with sky, broadband and phone. but this was one my bf already had and are tied into for a while.

petrol is only used for boyfriend getting to and from work. we walk to uni.

Oldernotwiser

My thoughts on your problem are the following: your electricity bill is quite ridiculous; families pay less than that to heat a whole house! You seem to be stretching your grant/loan over 12 months rather than over 9/10 and working during the holidays; that's why you're struggling. Do you really need to run a car - it's an expensive luxury for most students.

As you're from a low income household you will have more money coming in than those from families with more money but who don't give it to their kids. On the other hand, very few people can manage without working during term time and definitely during the holidays.

Fire_Fox

xcazx wrote: »

Im constantly going over my overdraft and currently going through uni for hardship fund to help pay £200 electricity bill and rent because my loan won’t come through til April 20th. Im also trying to bank charges back but unsure if I count as hardship as we aren’t in arrears at the moment but soon will be if this carries on. ... I come from a low income family (so does my boyfriend) and I budget everything out and have £6 extra a week for emergencies which is usually uni books etc. they say that everyone has a chance to go to uni but im in my third year and I would never recommend it to low income families.

If you come from a low income family you would be entitled to a maintenance grant as well as a loan, are you claiming everything you are entitled to?

xcazx wrote: »

here is what I spend my loan on - I get £1767 every three months

rent - £315 pcm ..............................................x 3 = £945
electric - £100 pcm...............................................x 3 = £300
food - £40 pcm.................................................x 3 = £120
petrol - £15 pcm.................................................x 3 = £45
phone - £20 pcm.................................................x 3 = £60
sky (including calls and broadband) - £20 pcm.......x 3 = £60
car insurance - £35................................................x 3 = £105

Total..............................................................................£1635
left over from loan..........................................................£132
extra left per week.........................................................£11
minus £5 paying off overdraft per week..........................£6

Electric: massive! :eek: I have E7 but no storage heaters so we have to use the heating on the expensive dayrate. I did not turn the heating on at all my first two winters, this year our monthly direct debit went up to £36 between two of us! We only heat one room, and I sit in two sweaters when home in the day (even when it snowed). You should be reading your meter regularly so you can monitor and budget for your usage.

Car insurance/ petrol: why are you paying for your boyfriend to get to work? Do you really need to run a car, or is there public transport/ can you ride a pushbike? A car is a luxury for those on a low income - unless you live in a remote village of course.

Telecoms: Sky is not an essential - don't pay them if you can't afford to pay your energy bills!! Send a token payment of £1 and they will cut you off and send snotty letters. Lots of advice on how to deal with this on the DFW board. Secondly you do not require more than one phone between two of you - currently you have three! :eek:Get rid of something - sell the handset to make some cash, reduce or cancel the contracts.

xcazx wrote: »

I’ve applied for a total of 37 jobs since dec last year from cleaning to office work and everything in between and heard nothing back other than "due to overwhelming number of applicants we are sorry to say you have been unsuccessful blah blah blah"

This says to me
(a) your CV/ covering letter/ "further information" section is not up to scratch: get constructive criticism from Student Support. Note that you are using no capital letters and poor punctuation in your OP. Is this your weak point? (mine is definitely creative subjects!! )
(b) you are waiting for jobs to come to you. I sent out 30+ CVs on spec before I came to Bradford to study, and chased every single one up by phone or in person or both - hard graft but I had two job offers when I arrived. Postcards in shop windows? Agencies? Notice boards at uni?

xcazx wrote: »

it seems uni is for people whose parents sub them hundreds of pounds to go clubbing and do whatever they want ... Uni is all about the money and im just trying to save anyway I can. anything else i can do to save money etc?

My mum and dad are very emotionally supportive - and quite well off due to grafting in their younger years - but they don't pay a penny towards my studies; I am 36 and would not expect them to. I have more income than you but I also save every month, as does Lokolo (see earlier post). Read the "Live on £4k for a year" thread (entire families!) on the DFW board for lots of inspiration.

Life is all about money, chicken. Most students are better off than someone on minimum wage - we have low interest loans, grants, 0% overdrafts, no council tax, reduced price public transport, SU cards .... etc. etc.:money: Read round this website, the Up Your Income board especially. Join cashback sites, do online surveys, mystery shopping, consider matched betting (IF one of you is good with figures).

Lessons learnt now will stand you in good stead for life - the students subbed by mummy and daddy could grow up to have a wallet full of maxed out credit cards, re-mortgage every few years to have the latest car ... and then get made redundant. You will be able to live within your means so that, if you ever get made redundant, you can decide to travel the world for six months.

Money_saving_Martyn

[FONT=&quot]Hi

£100 pcm electric bill? Are you growing weed in the loft?

Electricity: Sorry if I've missed where you said this, but do you live alone with your boyfriend or together with other students? I live with my girlfriend in a one bedroom flat - our leccy has been £40 over the winter (no gas in the flats) and was around £25 per month in late autumn when we moved in. Obviously, we share all the bills so I only pay between £12.50 and £20 per month for leccy.... - if you're using that much per month (and it's not just a set direct debit based on the previous owners' consumption) turn things off when you don't need them on, put a jumper on instead of the heating and do every thing elselisted on this site!!

Tarts with rich daddies: yes, you'll see them on campus with their bleached blonde hair and orange faces, breasts hanging out of their designer clothes while they are on their new i-phone telling daddy how poor they are. Blurgh, makes me sick too - but they won't get the amount of loan/grants that you do. They also don't always get top marks - sometimes they get lucky, but one result isn't the be all and end all. One such girl "beat" me in the last assessment by 1 mark. was slightly annoyed since I knew how little work she'd done - but then I found out that was her highest mark and my lowest..... I'm glad that not every other student out there is like that - I thought I was the only one actually budgeting and studying!

Food: Downshift challenge (give tesco value a try - it's not that bad. I quite like the bread and at 40p a loaf instead of £1.40 it's a saving.) Eat smaller portions - think if you really need to eat ALL of that, or if you can save some for another meal (obviously not if you've going to snack lots instead!!). Making big pots of stuff - stews, thick soups, spag bol.... you can make them do a few meals by adding extra mushrooms. Buy what's cheap - if carrots and potatoes are half price (and are cheap - Aldi and Netto have some good deals - sometimes half the price of Tesco) make some carroty and potatoey meals. Don't bin it - eat it - okay, unless there's a health reason, eat everything you buy. Plan your meals so you use up what's going out of date, oh yes and Plan your meals: A meal plan can stop you buying junk at the supermarket - and help stop you throwing stuff away! Become (half) veggie: Treat meat as a luxury. Buying expensive cuts of meat, or indeed meet in general, can be quite expensive so use less meat, or try to find some good veggie meals. Be weird: Ok, so carrot and sweetcorn curry might sound weird, but if you can bulk meals out by adding cheap veg, do. Shopping: As the supermarket article on this site says (if it's still here..) supermarkets are there to make money. The expensive/profitable products are at eye-level whereas the value range will be on the top/bottom shelf in the corner of the section. Look around for the cheaper products. Look at the cost per KG, (or ml...etc) not just as the price. [note BOGOF offers are not always included in the price per KG calculation - you might need to get your phone calculator out to check. Additionally, some ranges are measured in kilograms, others in grams and other in "each". This can be confusing - double check the actual cost per unit when comparing] After a while you'll get a feeling for how much things should be.

Petrol: Walk, car share.... check for the cheapest petrol in your area.... drive economically....

Phone: Is that mobile phone? Do you really use £20 worth of calls/texts? Do you need to, even if you do? I went off a pay monthly contract (£20 per month) and onto an ASDA mobile pay-and-go tariff (Texts are 4p!!:j) . I just use my free landline calls, MSN, email or free SMS from website to stay in touch with people.

Sky: Everyone has 20-20 hindsight, but SKY tv really isn't a necessity that you/he should have signed up for if you had little money. Get out as soon as you can. I don't even have a TV so I don't have to pay for a licence. Youtube and BBC/ITV i-player does us for what little we watch. Reading is much cheaper too - especially if you join the library or buy from a charity shop!

9 Months or 12? You can work, if you can find a job, in the holidays to boost you income. Do you live in this house/flat all year round?

Retakes: Shame you had to retake - but if they were free retakes nobody would bother trying on the first attempt. Most universities have such information tucked away on their intranets under "exam regulations” and the such - that stuff is all there to be read....[/FONT]

Lokolo

Money_saving_Martyn wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]
Tarts with rich daddies: yes, you'll see them on campus with their bleached blonde hair and orange faces, breasts hanging out of their designer clothes while they are on their new i-phone telling daddy how poor they are. Blurgh, makes me sick too - but they won't get the amount of loan/grants that you do. They also don't always get top marks - sometimes they get lucky, but one result isn't the be all and end all. One such girl "beat" me in the last assessment by 1 mark. was slightly annoyed since I knew how little work she'd done - but then I found out that was her highest mark and my lowest..... I'm glad that not every other student out there is like that - I thought I was the only one actually budgeting and studying!
[/FONT]

Don't generalise pleeeease. My university life is getting paid for by my grandparents (bar tutition fees), but I don't have designer clothes, my car is a J Reg Ford Fiesta (old style, 4 gears + manual choke ), I do not own an ipod, a blackberry and my laptop I paid for through my part time job earnings back in school. I also have a part time job at university and as you can see from my signature I don't spend like theres no tomorrow.

proudmum_3

We are a low income family and have a son in his final year at Uni.
We have never sent money, paid for stuff, nor has he ever asked.
He works through the Summer holidays when he's home, and has a part time job at Uni during term time.
He has done loads of stuff during the past three years, not really missing out on anything and lived the student life to the full.
He also runs a car which is paid for by himself.
He has cut his hours for this last year to give him more time to study, but as he knows he won't be going back next year, can manage until he needs to get a 'proper job' in the real world!
Please don't discourage people from low income families from going to uni. Surely the whole point, is to get the education to enable you to get a career with a better salary at the end of the day?

Oldernotwiser

proudmum wrote: »

Surely the whole point, is to get the education to enable you to get a career with a better salary at the end of the day?

Probably not, if you're doing a Fine Art degree!

bestpud

What's with all the tiny text on this thread?

I only read the first few lines before my eyes started to protest!

giantmutantbroccoli

How to:
Reduce your outgoings-
1) Get rid of the car and use public transport, it really doesn't look like you can afford to keep it.
2) Find out what's going on with your electricity bill, it's pretty huge. Try turning off the heating, and buy some blankets from a charity shop
3) Ditch the sky package, you can get broadband for ~£7 a month and from the sound of it you're using your mobile not your landline anyway.
Increase your ingoings-
1) Get the student careers service to check your CV and cover letter out, it sounds like there may be something wrong with it. It's also a good idea to go to them for help in finding a job that will fit around your studies.
2) You're an artist, right? Have you ever thought of making some things to sell? You could try selling some original paintings, or any craft work you do like jewellery or t-shirts or anything you can think of. You could advertise in your student's union or something like that, or try selling on etsy or eBay (etsy is probably better for crafty stuff).
3) Go to your student finance office and they'll let you know what hardship loans/whathaveyou you're eligible for. Plus they'll help you sort your budget out, and they're free.
How to get low-cost materials:
1) Get the names of all the art-supply manufacturers you can think of.
Write to them (politely!) telling them you are a poor art student who needs materials - it may help if you tell them exactly what you want to do with their stuff.
(hopefully!) Get free/cheap art supplies back.
2) Contact your local council and ask them for a list of people producing usable waste - it'll help if you say you're an art student. I can't remember exactly what the thing is called, but Bury council (and Manchester too) produced a leaflet detailing interesting and potentially useful industrial waste - things like giant cardboard tubes, sawdust, scrap metal, that sort of thing. It's all cheap or free, you just have to collect it.
You could also try contacting companies directly if you know they produce something interesting.
3) Do something free instead of something expensive - using materials you can find outside, maybe, like sand or soil or- well, I'm not an artist, but you get the idea.

I can't help but be a bit irritated by your comments about how university is not for people from low-income families, especially coming right after you tell us that it's "all about the parties". I was (and still am) pretty sure that it's actually all about the studying. If you're that concerned about money, why are you studying art? As someone from a very low income family I feel I should say that, although I did pick my subject because I was interested in it, I did also think about what money I could make afterwards. 3-4 years is only a long time to be a poor student if you're not planning on being well-off at the end of it.