Monthly spend on student living

LukeSkywalker_2

Hey

I'm filling in a financial aid form and have to fill in various bits detailing my expenditure. I've got £300 per month for food/household/laundry costs and £40 per month for the phone (landline/mobile), £80 for books and photocopying (we had to get a lot of stuff photocopied and books are way expensive).

I'm not sure whether those amounts are reasonable or are too high, i'd appreciate some advice from anyone who has applied for the financial contingency fund. Obviousl you can PM me if you like to keep your username private.

Thanks in advance.

executiverocker

at the moment i spend say £10 a month on books/photocopying/supplies, £40 food, £15 rates, £15 tv/net/sky, £25 mobile,£250 on going out hahaha

I did away with a landline, just use my mobile and use cable internet, saves £11 a month

guess also depends on who you sharing with, location etc

books, theres an american website where you pay $120 for a year and 95% of books are available online, i cant remember its name though. It is cheaper than buying books i know that!

freebie_junkie

i live in my own council flat so i think teh numbers might be a bit different, but heres mine:
rent £48.50 pw
electric £15 pw (robbing pre-payment meter!)
gas £2 pw (only got cooker)
food/grocery £25 pw
books/photocopying/computer consumables £0 (claim it back off DSA)
internet £0 pm (claim this back off DSA)
landline phone £35 a quarter (half goes as business expense as i need this to have internet)
mobile phone £35 pm
insurance £8 pm
water rates £7 pm
clothes £10 pw (mainly go to primark!!)
goign out £15 pw (we take it in turns to pay for food and cinema and sometimes go to gigs etc. but mainly i like having people over and cooking for them and if we go to teh pub i only have 30p cordials coz i dont drink!)

yeslek

^ free water

i was trying to be healthy then realised its also cost effective

tr3mor

I think £80 a month on books is far too much! I've only spent about £40 on books in the whole time at uni, and I'm halfway through my third year!

lellie

I'm a third year history student so do a lot of reading and I've probably only spent around £50 for my whole time at uni - about £10 of that is library late fees (oops!) and £15 on photocopying. The rest is on secondhand books.

jennifernil

I don't know what you all spend, but we give our daughter £250 per month (for the 8/9 months she is at Uni ), max £2000, and she has a part time job , about 12 hours per week so maybe £65 per week to add to this.
Plus we pay for her books as this is variable, this year about £160.
She has a flat (which she owns so no rent) but has to pay gas, electricity, telephone, broadband, TV licence herself. She shares with another student so bills are halved.
As far as I know fuel is around £50 per month.

Hellz85

Lol It sounds like you spoil her!:rolleyes:

freebie_junkie

yeah well spoilt!

Katrina-trying_to_save!?!

i have bought one book this semester of amazon £14 but thats maybe why i dont get good grades in my essays!!:mad: damn reading outside and BEYOND your course...

Here it goes...

i get my student loan £3k a yr but i pay my fees £747 outta this and paid to service my car etc with the 1st installment plus i always use my last installment to pay my insurance (May)

I work 21 hrs a week so around £450 pm

Car loan- £90 p/m

Petrol- £ 30-40

Books- haha

Food- ie lunches in uni £10 pw

Cigarrettes- £5 a day

Boozing- £30-50 a week (but not every week)

Mobile contract- £35- 750mins and texts- sometimes go over

Crap from Tescos (addicted) £10 pw

Money to mummy for "keeping me"- £ 40 (owe her £80 this mth)

Overdraft- bank allows me £600 even thou its only £500

YES I AM MAD I KNOW!!!

LukeSkywalker_2

The problem I have is that the books aren't always in - one book I've had on request for absolutely ages (weeks) and whilst the borrower is getting a massive fine, I'm left wondering whether to buy it as it's a core text.

It will then add to my costs. We are told to get books, people get them out and it's then like a ping pong game with requesting it back between us all. It's kind of fun :rotfl: but also the coursework suffers