Budgeting at Uni?

minerva_windsong

£60 is definitely a realistic budget in my view - when I was at uni my budget was around £70 a week (£25 for food, £30 for going out/transport, and £15 for any 'bits' I needed/wanted like books) and I nearly always had money left over. If you're prepared to cook from scratch and buy own brand products, or even value ones for stuff like tinned tomatoes, you can probably do it for a little bit less than £25; I was spending £15-20 depending on how much I needed to stock up.

I went to York which is also a very 'pubby' town and could normally have a decent night out for a tenner (although it cost a bit more when I moved out of halls as my houses were a good 40 minutes' walk home from town and I felt safer in a taxi). That was through a combination of only having one or two alcoholic drinks and then soft drinks, and spending a lot of time in student union bars which were considerably cheaper than going into town. I think one or two nights out a week is plenty myself but obviously that depends on your lifestyle and the people you're friends with.

The other thing I'd say is to save as much money as you can from the summer, so you've got a buffer for the first week or two when there might be lots of initial outlay like joining societies, fresher's balls etc. And I definitely agree with whoever said to get any books you need second hand, or you can get new ones via Amazon Marketplace or PlayTrade for considerably less than they cost new on the main websites.

emily93_2

I don't think £60 is enough, if you think you're only going to spend £15 on going out you've got another thing coming.

I didn't study a science but had plenty of friends who did and depending on which uni you attend your course will most likely have a society that is constantly organising social events.

If you go to the pub drinks are usually £3 and a trip to the cinema is at least £4 even on Orange Wednesdays.

Personally I'd recommend getting a job for your first year...you only need 40% to pass and it doesn't account towards your degree that way you can really live it up.

xxx

Lokolo

emily93 wrote: »

I don't think £60 is enough, if you think you're only going to spend £15 on going out you've got another thing coming.

I didn't study a science but had plenty of friends who did and depending on which uni you attend your course will most likely have a society that is constantly organising social events.

If you go to the pub drinks are usually £3 and a trip to the cinema is at least £4 even on Orange Wednesdays.

Personally I'd recommend getting a job for your first year...you only need 40% to pass and it doesn't account towards your degree that way you can really live it up.

xxx

You went out to clubs and parties and cinema EVERY week?

Luvplacebo

@Emily 93 - I actually need at least 60% to continue receiving my bursary, so have 40% in my first year would leave me over £600 worse off a year; although I do intend on getting a job whilst at uni. As for going out and only spending about £15 a week, I'm someone that enjoys going out but also enjoys spending time by myself sewing and doing other things on my own. I certainly don't know many of my friends that go out more than twice a week and due to my budget, twice a week is definitely my limit.

@older not wiser - I've budgeted £25 a week for food because I've only got a limited amount of space for storage in halls, only 1 shelve of a fridge and freezer and 1 cupboard for food storage as far as I know so I'm not sure how easy it will be to do a lot of batch cooking or take advantage of too many BOGOF etc offers. When I did a fake shop on my supermarket I was averaging about £25 including buying 1 staple a week like a big bag of pasta, rice or noodles.

How much would you recommend I spend on food; please bear in mind, I'm not planning on eating the same meal more than say 2-3 times a week if I can help it and I'm planning on cooking 2 meals a day.

Oldernotwiser

Lokolo wrote: »

You went out to clubs and parties and cinema EVERY week?

Doesn't everyone?

Lokolo

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Doesn't everyone?

I think I spent more time on here than I did in clubs and at the cinema... ha!

Oldernotwiser

Luvplacebo wrote: »

@older not wiser - I've budgeted £25 a week for food because I've only got a limited amount of space for storage in halls, only 1 shelve of a fridge and freezer and 1 cupboard for food storage as far as I know so I'm not sure how easy it will be to do a lot of batch cooking or take advantage of too many BOGOF etc offers. When I did a fake shop on my supermarket I was averaging about £25 including buying 1 staple a week like a big bag of pasta, rice or noodles.

How much would you recommend I spend on food; please bear in mind, I'm not planning on eating the same meal more than say 2-3 times a week if I can help it and I'm planning on cooking 2 meals a day.

I can see that the storage think might be a problem, particularly if people pinch stuff from communal areas!

I think that where you're going wrong is planning on cooking 2 meals a day. Perhaps if you thought of one cooked meal a day and a sandwich or soup for the other one you could get your budget down to a more reasonable £15 per week. I don't think many people eat two cooked meals a day, certainly not when they're at university.

Oldernotwiser

Lokolo wrote: »

I think I spent more time on here than I did in clubs and at the cinema... ha!

We didn't have clubs in my day (boo hoo) but we normally went out 6 times a week and saw films on campus at least twice. Usually at least one party every weekend as well.

Luvplacebo

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I can see that the storage think might be a problem, particularly if people pinch stuff from communal areas!

I think that where you're going wrong is planning on cooking 2 meals a day. Perhaps if you thought of one cooked meal a day and a sandwich or soup for the other one you could get your budget down to a more reasonable £15 per week. I don't think many people eat two cooked meals a day, certainly not when they're at university.

That could well be where I'm spending more money then, at home I have lunch and dinner every day so normally something like a veggie stir fry or the second half of whatever I've made for dinner the day before.

I'll re-do the shop with just one meal a day during the week and two on weekends and see how much that costs.

Oldernotwiser

Luvplacebo wrote: »

That could well be where I'm spending more money then, at home I have lunch and dinner every day so normally something like a veggie stir fry out or the second half of whatever I've made for dinner the day before.

I'll re-do the shop with just one meal a day during the week and two on weekends and see how much that costs.

Don't go hungry, you'll need your strength at university!:)