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Student Loan 2015 Discussion
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well obviously all seasoned students know that you never buy any stationery - you visit the free freshers fair to pick up a stash for the start of the year, then go past the careers fairs to stock up as and when needed!setmefree2 wrote: »I wouldn't expect my son to drink 47p coffee!!! Does that even have any coffee in it? And what are the ethics behind a 47p jar of coffee for heavens sake. How does anyone grow, harvest, provide a glass jar and transport coffee for 47p ????
I wouldn't want/expect my son to use toothpaste that cost 50p. That is a false economy. Teeth need looking after. Dental bills are expensive.
£1.60 biros are rubbish!
i think this arguement is just mad and is a tangent which isn't really relevant - you don't buy toothpaste every week and you can get it for £1 each when it's on special offer. what a lot of parents do is stock up on essentials in the summer before a student starts uni, just picking up the odd thing here and there so it isn't a massive bill, or giving them one of a BOGOF, then the student is set with the essentials when they start. if the parents can't do it, then the students should. for the cost of a pint a week, they can prepare before they start uni.
a part time job in term time can be hard to get, but there are also plenty of students who work in holidays to save up for term time plus interest free overdrafts with student accounts. there are also scholarships for doing well at sport or academically and while everyone can't get one, there is also the ALF. there is more money around for students than most of them realise! but some will still struggle. that's not the same as saying that £20 won't buy anything though! on the OS board, people feed a family of 4 on that for a week
these days, students can't just spend all their grant in the pub and not worry about the consequences (not that that was ever a sensible plan!). but if you don't have the money to spend on expensive food, you don't spend it. if you can't afford coffee, you drink water or your use tea bags and reuse them all at least once. you visit the supermarket when they mark down the food. you walk instead of getting the bus. you order tap water at the bar. you wear your dressing gown all evening to avoid putting the heating on. you do any number of things that cut down your outgoings. a lot of families do this all the time just to get by.
you cut your coat according to your cloth. you don't have to compromise quality and entirely buy crap but you do have to decide what is more important..... having posh coffee this week or running out of money next week...... £20 may not buy you much but with careful buying, planning and prioritising, it can go a lot further than you think.:happyhear0 -
setmefree2 wrote: »Oldernotwiser have you any idea what things cost these days? A packet of Bic biros costs £5.10. A4 paper costs £2 to £3. A jar of coffee is £5, a tube of toothpaste £3 .....
:cool:
Coming from a student.... £20 can get you very far in life if you make it go far enough.
You have already said you shop at Smiths, that's because you can AFFORD to. Where did people shop whilst I was at uni? Asda, Aldi and Wilkinson, why? Because we are cheap skates
As for coffee - is coffee really a necessity? I can't drink any because it makes me go loopy, but even so, its not a drink that HAS to be drunk. And cheap doesn't mean bad! Noodles are 25p in Asda and they are OK. The only branded food items I bought were McCain Chips.
The most expensive thing I have to buy in the shops is deodrant, and I buy lynx so I smell sexy, but that costs loads. If I needed to I would just buy a cheap anti perspiration if I didn't have any money.0 -
I was thinking this. Who buys pens?! I don't think I've ever bought one, but still have a draw full of them.melancholly wrote: »well obviously all seasoned students know that you never buy any stationery - you visit the free freshers fair to pick up a stash for the start of the year, then go past the careers fairs to stock up as and when needed!
You have never tried the 47p coffee so I wouldn't rush to judge it. There's a thread somewhere on here about supermarket own brand products. There were people who work at the factories they are made at saying the products are essentially exactly the same. You pay for the brand. I don't particularly care how colourful my packaging is.
And oldernotwiser obviously splashes out on luxury toothpaste at 50p. Asda smartprice toothpaste is 17p.
But, this is a big tangent as melancholly says!
edit: Because of a weird interest and in preparation of setmefree2 talking about tooth decay and dentist bills, I compared the formulation of Asda's smartprice toothpaste vs Colgate Total Advanced Clean Fluoride toothpaste. I know how these kinds of products are formulated. The only differences between the two are all to do with improving the organoleptics i.e. taste, sight, smell, touch.
It's essentially how premium a product looks and feels. It's nothing to do with providing a "total advanced clean" - both will do that equally well. But you could have known that anyway in that Asda wouldn't risk its reputation selling toothpaste that doesn't protect your teeth.
That's not to say organoleptics aren't important. But at least try it and see if you like the taste!0 -
Is this viable,
Student lives at home within cycling distance of Uni. So no living or travel costs.
The Student has part time job that covers all other expences.
So, said Student takes out MAXIMUM loans available and and puts them in three year National savings paying 1% plus inflation.
Does the student make a profit?There will be no Brexit dividend for Britain.0 -
Is this viable,
Student lives at home within cycling distance of Uni. So no living or travel costs.
The Student has part time job that covers all other expences.
So, said Student takes out MAXIMUM loans available and and puts them in three year National savings paying 1% plus inflation.
Does the student make a profit?
No because during study the interest is RPI + 3%0 -
Is this viable,
Student lives at home within cycling distance of Uni. So no living or travel costs.
The Student has part time job that covers all other expences.
So, said Student takes out MAXIMUM loans available and and puts them in three year National savings paying 1% plus inflation.
Does the student make a profit?
Why wouldn't the student have any living costs if living at home?0 -
Does MSE, or anyone else, have a view on whether it's better to pay for your kids' Uni fees or give them a deposit for a home.is it worth taking the loan? Some students with savings (or their parents' savings) who may be able to fund some of the tuition fees themselves are asking whether it's worth simply not taking the tuition or living costs loan, or taking a smaller one?
Certainly it's a bad idea if you're struggling, borrowing elsewhere or pushing your finances to try and avoid it. Yet even if the money is there, for most not taking the loan is a relatively bad strategy from a purely financial perspective (ethically it's your own affair) though there are still some uncertainties.
To explain this, I'm assuming you understand how the system works; if not, do read the rest of the guide first then come back to this. Here are the key issues…- You may not need to repay it. To use cash in the bank to repay a liability that may never occur is a big risk. If you used savings now to repay the loan but then, as an extreme example, never earned over £21,000 you'd have effectively lost the cash. A less extreme example would be if you used money from parents to reduce your borrowing, yet while you repaid you don't clear the debt within thirty years anyway. So reducing the borrowing wouldn't reduce your repayments in any way - you'd have been far better to put the cash in the bank.
Therefore a simple strategy is to put the cash aside in a top savings account until after graduation then once you're working you'll have a much better idea of your earning potential (and by then we'll have our full calculator on repayment costs up and running). - The interest cost in the intervening years is not too heavy. You pay RPI inflation + 3% while you're a student. While this is a real cost as it's only for the short term, weighed up against the risk that you end up repaying the debt unnecessarily it's not too large so putting the cash away until you know your earnings strategy does have a cost but not a huge one.
However if you're absolutely sure you'll earn a big salary on graduation, and have the cash now, then it may be worth avoiding this interest cost. - There may be early repayment penalties. The one spanner in the works is if the government adds penalties for clearing debts, or overpaying – so the 'put money aside and wait and see' strategy would be affected by this.
This decision hasn't yet been made, and is likely to go out for consultation (see my seven deadly sins of early repayment blog).
If these penalties were to be added, it would shift the bias somewhat more to erring on the side of not taking the full loan – though even with the penalties, if you're unlikely to ever repay it you're still better off taking the full loan.
0 - You may not need to repay it. To use cash in the bank to repay a liability that may never occur is a big risk. If you used savings now to repay the loan but then, as an extreme example, never earned over £21,000 you'd have effectively lost the cash. A less extreme example would be if you used money from parents to reduce your borrowing, yet while you repaid you don't clear the debt within thirty years anyway. So reducing the borrowing wouldn't reduce your repayments in any way - you'd have been far better to put the cash in the bank.
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Does MSE, or anyone else, have a view on whether it's better to pay for your kids' Uni fees or give them a deposit for a home.
Personally, I think the money would be better as a house deposit. But thats my own personal view. I think that theres no way to know how much you will eventually pay in interest with the new student loans (or with the old in fact) as you don't have a clue how much the student will be earning through their lives.
With house prices so high it will be difficult to get onto the market for the lower earners. With that, they will also pay less student loan repayments, if any at all. So for the lower earners the house deposit idea is best for sure. But for those with salaries it maybe easier to have less repayments more month enabling them to save money for a deposit and for mortgage repayments, but I still don't see that being a massive impact as the repayments are quite small.
I think it will depend on the individual. Personally I see myself as quite financially savvy and am saving for a house deposit, won't go and splash out on a new car etc. so money for a house deposit is what would be better for myself. However for some students, I can imagine them being given money for a house deposit, then spending it all in 3 months on alcohol, holidays, women and technology....0 -
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Oldernotwiser wrote: »Didn't you ask this on another thread?
No. can you point me to that thread please?0
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