Budgeting at Uni?

Luvplacebo

Ok, having followed Older not wiser's advice about only planning to eat 1 cooked meal a day and just have soups and things for lunch during the week and 2 meals for the weekend, I've managed to do an estimated shop of about £16-17 for a week. Which is basically half of what I was budgeting before, plus say £4 just in case so it'd be more like £16-£20 a week depending on the weight of what I'm buying.

So reworking my budget on a weekly basis out of £60 it'd break down as: £20 food (I'm going for the higher estimate just in case) £7.50 for printing, stationary, books etc, £25 going out/clothes/anything extra and £7.50 to save. How does that sound?

Also does anyone have experience of Morrisons prices compared to ASDA and Tesco? It's the only supermarket within 35 miles of me and I never really shop there much so I'm not sure of the prices.

The_One_Who

Luvplacebo wrote: »

So reworking my budget on a weekly basis out of £60 it'd break down as: £20 food (I'm going for the higher estimate just in case) £7.50 for printing, stationary, books etc, £25 going out/clothes/anything extra and £7.50 to save. How does that sound?

£7.50 per week just for printing/stationery?! I don't think I spent that much per month!

Notebooks can be expensive, but they are a one-off cost. Bulk-buy when they are offer ('Back to School' time...) or when on sale. Go to fresher fayres and pick up every free pen going and that should get you through the year, if not longer.

My university charged 5p per black and white print page. Print it landscape so you can fit two pages on and do it double sided. Still cost me 5p. You do not need to print off every journal article, read them online first and then only print off the ones you really need/will use again.

Don't buy books. Learn how to use the library (like recalling books that are out on loan) and learn how to read academically. You don't need to stick religiously to the reading list, there more than likely will be other books on the shelf that have the same information in. If you really must buy a book wait until you know you are actually going to need and use it, preferably for more than the one year, then try to get it second-hand if you can.

Luvplacebo

As explained before, my printing allowance is quite high because I do a lot of printing and it'd be easier for me to have my own printer to do most of my printing, so I'm allowing for expenses such as printing paper and cartridges, I regularly print off say 20-30 pages a week for my own use so the convience of having a printer to hand is worth the potential higher costs to me.

The_One_Who

Yes, you said you print off the whole journal relating to your course. You should find that there will be a lot more than one journal that will be of interest, but with only one or two articles per issue. Have a read of the articles first (at least the abstract, if nothing else) and see if you want it. There is simply no need to print off the full thing each month. But if you have to there are ways of getting the costs down by using some of the methods I mentioned above.

Zinger549

I had £55 pw for my first year and managed fine. I only needed to buy one book and stationary was quite cheap. Only really needed paper and pen.

Luvplacebo

The_One_Who wrote: »

Yes, you said you print off the whole journal relating to your course. You should find that there will be a lot more than one journal that will be of interest, but with only one or two articles per issue. Have a read of the articles first (at least the abstract, if nothing else) and see if you want it. There is simply no need to print off the full thing each month. But if you have to there are ways of getting the costs down by using some of the methods I mentioned above.

Actually, I print out a separate journal I subscribe to. I do read it online first but I like having a hard copy of it every month, I find it very hard to read a journal online easily and absorb the info. While I don't expect to print off every article I need for every module I'm doing, I do much prefer having a hard copy of things, particularly any coursework. It may be more academic to proof read things online but for me, its much easier to proof read things that are actually really in front of me. And as I said before, I also print of lots of patterns for sewing which also uses a lot of paper.

While not printing anything except my work of is great, I really struggle to work like that and personally, if I can budget for it, I'd rather have that as a "luxury" rather than a take away or an extra drink at the pub.

Tomby1

I've just finished my degree at university and you're very lucky to have £60 a week to budget with!

Most 1st years at university would have a budget something like this;

Food+drinks = £15pw
Going Out = £25pw
Travel = £5 pw
Printing/Books/Course Materials = £5 pw (you will often get ex-students selling their books super-cheap at university in september time)

Your first year at university is as much about making friends and connections, as doing your studies. You'll tend to find you'll end up with high expenses for going out/socialising for the first year, which will then gradually drop until you're a hermit by the time your finals come around. (not quite - but you get the gist)

Also remember, certain student accounts will allow you to have an interest free overdraft, which you can pay back up to 3 years after you graduate (Natwest is who I am with). I assure you it's totally worth having the extra £10pw+ to go out in first year - a £500 overdraft to pay off over 3 years after university is really nothing compared to the experience you'll gain through going out with societies, friends and coursemates.

haron91

A few tips for budgeting that I can think of off of the top of my head.
Just to let you know that I have just finished my first year at universtiy.

I currently spend about £25 a week shopping but most of my meals are potato/rice + veg + some form of steak/chicken breast. As I don't eat the usual student food of pasta/lasagne/baked beans noodles etc.

I've spent about £8 this ENTIRE year on printer credits. (But I understand your argument for having your own printer, so take the previous advice of not only having a cheap printer, but one that has cheap cartridges too.)

I spend about £30 a week going out. Usually spend about £7.50 a night. (We pre-drink hard and everywhere is within walking distance so dont pay cab fares). If you join any society/sports club, expect to be going out at least 1 or 2 nights a week. I've joined a society and 2 sports clubs and usually spend a night a week out with them and one with my house mates. However, you might choose to go out slightly less and do better in your studies. (Even though I ended the year on a 66.2% average!)

I spend about £3.50 a week on Laundry (sports kit needs washing all the time!) - this is the price of washing (£2.50) and drying (£1) one load in my halls laundrette. It may be useful for you and a few hall mates to chip in and buy a clothes horse, this will save you on drying fees.

I dont spend very much on stationary a week. I bought a box of 50 bic pens off of amazon for about £8 and I still have loads left at the end of the year. Or you could just get loads of free pens at the fresher fair.

I bought my books second hand off of amazon, some of them the edition before the ones I was recommended. They were about £15 each rather than the £40-50 of the new ones. Also try ebay for textbooks. I managed to get one i needed for 99p plus £3 postage just because I was lucky enough that nobody else bidded. Either that or just borrow them from the library and learn how to use the loan request system. To be honest, when you are revising, you will probably be in the library anyway so all the books will be there!

With regards to paying for travelling, get a Natwest student account and get the free 5 year rail card. This saves you 1/3 off of every journey and comes in very handy. Also book your train tickets well in advance to get the cheapest fare and use the website related to the train service you are using (e.g east midlands) as they are nearly always cheaper than corporate rail websites like "the train line" as they take commission.
Interestingly, you can also have more than one student bank account (I didnt realise this at first) as long as you have £500 going into each account each term. And you can easily transfer the £500 as soon as it comes into one bank account then into the other.
This way you can reap the benefits of the natwest rail card and the santander laptop, ipod and mobile phone insurance.

Also with regards to getting a job, try getting a job in your student union or one of the shops on campus. This means that they will probably only be open in term time so you can go home in the holidays without having to book holiday/leave. And they are usually much more flexible as they understand that your studies come first. A lot of my friends work in the student union on one night a week. 1 night isnt too much commitment, brings in about £40-50 depending on length of the shift and also if you can't come in due to exams etc then our uni has a really good shift swap system. And our uni gives you free entrance to the union if you arent working that night which will also save you loads of money.

So in a week i think you could spend:
£20 food
£15 going out
£2.50 laundry
£2.50 stationary and printing
£5 books
£5 saving for travel
£10 saving for other (e.g. clothes shopping, shopping for yourself like dvds and stuff, unexpected course costs, spontaneous nights out, birthday presents, spending a little more on your food shopping etc.)

And during exam season that £15 for going out will probably be relocated to the food budget as you eat so much more when revising and most normal people will go out less.

I think thats all of the advice I can think of to give you. If i think of anything else I will post below.

But I agree with Tomby1 above, your first year is your year to have fun, enjoy yourself, do things that you haven't before and make loads of new friends. Enjoy your first year as much as possible, then think about actually getting serious in your 2nd and 3rd year when they count towards your degree.