what can i Do??

yellowox

Hi all,
I am currently in my last year of 6th form (yr13) and am hoping to go on to university next year, I hav a part time job at the moment that is fairly well paid, but is there anything I can do NOW to prepare myself money wise for uni??

Thanks
OX

holstar

save as much of your wages as you possibly possibly can, as high as interest as you can get.
have a look for bursaries...some are offered by universities, some by charities etc, and can be for very obscure reasons...Im sure there was one I saw when I was applying (3 years ago) for if you were the eldest son of a priest and lived within a certain area...I'm pretty sure theres a website where you can search for these...it might be listed somewhere on this board, or google it.

get to grips with a very strict budget...write down every single penny you spend at the moment, work out where your weaknesses in spending are and stop them or find a cheaper way of doing it.

Learn how to cook from scratch (check out the OS board) as its MUCH cheaper and healthier to cook yourself rather than get readymeals or takeaways etc, and its easier to learn when you're at home with your mum or dad around to help/advise than jumping in at the deep end when you get to uni.

Will add more if I think of anything else.
HTH

reehsetin

i just saved as much as possible, tried to figure out what my travel costs would be (live at home) and what my uni fees would be so i could pay them off day 1, got my student loan sorted
from that figured how much i could leave in savings
^this was in the month or 2 before i actually started, before that just saved as much as possible so if i had to give up work when i started i'd be ok

yellowox

is there any saving accounts etc that anyone can recommend?
any other money making things i can do apart from working?!!:rotfl:

Savvy_Sue

yellowox wrote:

is there any saving accounts etc that anyone can recommend?
any other money making things i can do apart from working?!!:rotfl:

1. Have a look at Martin's article(s) on savings accounts, menu on the left hand side of the page. Assuming you're not earning enough to pay tax, make sure you've filled in an R85 to get interest paid gross. But apart from that, AFAIK, the recommendations wouldn't change just because you're a student.

2. Nothing legal springs to mind ... :rotfl:

You've already had good advice, to which I can only add 'learn to shop as well as cook'. It's easy to buzz round the supermarket throwing in a little of what you fancy, but you can save money by working out what it's worth buying in bulk, what it's NOT worth buying in bulk (because it won't keep or you'll only eat more of it when you don't really need it), and what it's worth economising on. For example, at home you might always have Heinz Baked Beans. If you've never tried the Supermarket Own Brand, get a tin and see if they're OK. If they are, try their Value range. And so on. You'll find there are some things you'd rather do without than eat the Value range ... Do these experiments while your parents are footing the bill if you can ... :rotfl:

ka7e

You could look into courses at Unis near your home. I know the whole "living away from home/parents" has great appeal at 17, but it brings a huge potential financial burden.
Unless you have regular placements (if you are doing a nursing/ related medical course), you will probably find you only need to spend 3 days actually on-site. Even if you are timetabled odd sessions on other days, you can usually arrange to join another group that is timetabled on your contact days.
My son actually commuted 40 miles on 3 days a week and used the uni student net to download extra lectures he couldn't attend. As he was living at home and in full-time education we could claim Child Tax Credit until he was 19. He paid me his student loan for his last year to pay for his keep, kept his part-time job and earned enough to pay his fares.
He finished uni in the spring owing £3000 student loan, but has a very healthy savings account because he has worked part-time since he was 16!

lolly-i-pop

I think if you want to live at home then fair enough, but don't live at home because of money. Uni is hard financially, but i have been at uni just over a year, away from home, and i have learnt more of lifes lessons than i had done the last 18 years i spent at home. living at home doesn't prepare you for the real world, thats why students get so excited to go home for xmas!
Pick a uni you want to go to, in a city where you think you will like and have fun.
And good preparation for when you go to uni - if you desperatly need a job as soon as you get to uni, then go to the city a month or so in advbance of when you plan to move, and try applying for jobs. Then you will have a job secured for when you ge to uni

yellowox

I currently live in oxford and all unis I have applied for are miles away with the exception of Brighton!! Even if I move away I will keep my part time job as when I come home for those 'special occaisons' I will get a few cheeky extra hours of work in!!

slowlyfading

Yeah just to echo what everyone else said, SAVE as much as you possibly can. Put your wages into a Mini ISA is a good one, as you dont get tax on that. Also write down all you spend, so you can see where your areas of spending weakness are, and get used to working on a small budget - more luxuries will have to go!
nicola x

techno_geek

Well done on having the sense to think about money before you got to Uni - take it from me, knowing how to manage your money, how to budget and being sensible will save you LOADS of stress during your time at Uni!

Definitely save as much as you can for Uni, as it gets very expensive with buying books, accommodation expenses (and socialising ).
Freshers week will take a huge chunk out of your loan, so set aside some money for it. I budgeted £200, and actually spent £250 but that included the fees to join clubs at the union and my Hall's common-room membership fee.
It was the best week of my life, so it's definitely worth setting aside a generous amount for... try and stick to your budget for freshers week, but don't worry if you go a bit over - money worries at this stage means much less fun! This is the only exception to the university budgeting rule, you can always make up for going overbudget later

Where to save your money
If you're earning less than the taxable threshold, some instant-access savings accounts pay much better rates than ISAs. (not quite sure what the threshold is atm, but I'm sure its on this site somewhere of someone will post it here - is on the R85 form).

Make sure you have easy access to it, so see what your current bank offers in terms of interest rates - and get to know your bank's online banking system so you know how to transfer money from your savings account to your bank account, as it is a really useful tool and will save you trudging to the cashpoint in the rain to see whether you can afford to go out!!

Budgeting
Try and work out how much student loan you will receive - ask your parents to help you if you're not sure how much they earn (cheeky, I know, but they dont have to tell you the exact figure just which column you'll fall under for the amount of loan you'll receive).
Look at the current accommodation costs for your preferred universities, and see how far your student loan will cover them. Are your parents able to give you any financial support towards this?

Above all, make a budget and stick to it - practise makes perfect

Get your bank to work for you!
If your current bank or building society offers student accounts, see how much overdraft they offer and what freebies the usually give (see the MSE article for details). See which banks offer more overdraft, or more useful freebies. For me, I was with HSBC but opted for a NatWest Student Account because of the better overdraft and the free railcard which would be useful as I travel by train a lot.

You may find that, as a student, 2 bank accounts can be useful for budgeting purposes (one is your student account with the overdraft etc, and one is just a normal bank account with another bank). This also means that if you open a student account with another bank you can keep your existing account.

Have your loan paid into your student account, and transfer your monthly budgeted spending amount into your 'second account' and use it for your normal day-to-day spending, cash withdrawals etc. This way, you can easily see how much you have to play with in the current month without worrying about going over. Of course, if you need to go overbudget you can still take cash out of your main account, but you can also transfer less in the following month to compensate.

Remember, of course, that it takes 3 days for money to arrive in your other account so transfer it before you need it


Food
As mentioned in one of the other posts, try the 'economy' brands because they'll save you loads. Also, even if you end up in catered accommodation, learning to cook is a must. It's a great social thing (I cooked a roast dinner for my flatmates during our second week, and it really brought everyone together... and made me very popular!! lol), plus you'll need to learn some basic recipes for when theres nobody to cook for you, anyway!


I've rambled on for far, far too long, but I hope this helps you (and any other people considering going to Uni). It's a great experience, and you're certainly going to have a head-start by thinking about money now.

Good luck!

mhoc

I think the biggest thing that wastes money for students is socialising. Because you are only attending uni for maybe three days a week it can feel like being on hoilday so the temptation to eat out, coffees, clubs and pubs every day etc can literally eat your money away. You will also find loads of places give students discounts but even a 20% discount means you have to pay 80% It does not mean you have to turn into a hermit, just be more inventive.

For instance in pubs I ask for a lime and soda, loads of ice and it costs 50p. Some pubs charge a fiver for double spirits but it does not mean that you have ten times the fun.

My daughters other problem is clothes. Yes she has fianlly discovered how good charity shops are but she is now also living in a city and near another city so its all to easy to visit New look and Primark etc. Yes you can spend £60 in Primark and gets loads but it is still £60 of stuff you dont need.

Other things that waste money are cash machines that charge £1.50 to take money out, even if its only £10 and library book fines. My daughters last fine was £18.

Mary