How much do you spend as a student per month?

beth.stephenson2009

Hello all, just wondering how much you all spend in the average month?? I expect my outgoings to be like this:

Rent: £408 (obviously this paid per term)
Food: £100
Phone bill: Hopefully will be cutting it down to £40pcm
Gadget insurance (i'm not risking having alot of expensive electrical equipment and them not being insured!!): £20
Going out: £50/60
Slimming world fees: £30
Leisure: £50-100 per month.

Is this realistic or will it be more expensive?? I am eligible for a £1200 (roughly) maintenance loan per term, and parental allowance of £2000 and then £150 DLA a month. Will this be enough?

ALSO- does anyone know what "basic contents insurance" covers??? It is included in my rent in halls. Im guessing its just in case of theft/burglary?

Derivative

I spend far less than that.

Food costs me about £60pm (excluding "social" food like going out)

Phone bill is £5pm, would be £10 if I wanted Internet (looking into it)

No "gadget insurance", not worth it when the market value of all my gear is sub £300

Going out I spend hardly anything but £50-60 seems a little low for an average - that'll buy you one course and a pint at a restaurant, or entry to a nightclub and 2 drinks.

Leisure - depends what you do really. I don't have much time for anything other than social events which are included above.

You should be fine but I would question a phone bill that "will be reduced" to £40pm - even £40 is bloody astronomical, I could buy an iPhone 4S outright and get a decent data package and be paying less than that over 18 months.

edit: My rent is about the same.

Derivative

2sides2everystory wrote: »

That £60 pm is very impressive Derivative. I remember offering you advice on cooking a mince sauce for spagbol but can't help thinking I was teaching grandmother to suck eggs! I think I could do just about manage £60 pm but it would extremely hard and I'd find it impossible without haunting reduced counters at the supermarket.

Is it realistic for new undergraduates do you think?

It has got a lot tougher in the past few months unless I really go hunting out of town as Tesco have raised prices on value ranges across the board.

Still doable but getting tougher.

I never buy anything reduced as hardly any food I buy is perishable and our local supermarkets have naff all on offer anyway.

I still haven't done myself that spag bol though. Without a freezer I think it'd end up too expensive and/or wasteful.

SpottedLeopard_2

Derivative wrote: »

It has got a lot tougher in the past few months unless I really go hunting out of town as Tesco have raised prices on value ranges across the board.

Still doable but getting tougher.

I never buy anything reduced as hardly any food I buy is perishable and our local supermarkets have naff all on offer anyway.

I still haven't done myself that spag bol though. Without a freezer I think it'd end up too expensive and/or wasteful.

Gosh yes, this is amazing, what are you eating each week?! I used to live on £15 per week for food but that was in 2006! No perishables... so no fresh fruit or veg at all? My body would soon let me know it was cross if I did that

At OP, this sounds quite reasonable, as already mentioned the leisure sum might increase, but it depends where you go, and if you're going out on student nights/to the union where drinks might be reduced? Phone bill could come down further - what phone do you have? I got an 02 SIM only, £15 per month 200 mins 400 texts, and bought a Nokia handset outright. That said, I am starting to feel like I need an iPhone or similar now, just because if you don't have instant access to emails, you often miss out on job application alerts and all that jazz

Derivative

SpottedLeopard wrote: »

Gosh yes, this is amazing, what are you eating each week?! I used to live on £15 per week for food but that was in 2006! No perishables... so no fresh fruit or veg at all? My body would soon let me know it was cross if I did that

At OP, this sounds quite reasonable, as already mentioned the leisure sum might increase, but it depends where you go, and if you're going out on student nights/to the union where drinks might be reduced? Phone bill could come down further - what phone do you have? I got an 02 SIM only, £15 per month 200 mins 400 texts, and bought a Nokia handset outright. That said, I am starting to feel like I need an iPhone or similar now, just because if you don't have instant access to emails, you often miss out on job application alerts and all that jazz

Didn't think about fresh fruit/veg. Good shout on that. I was thinking more in the way of meat which is where most people seem to make their massive reduced savings.

It is hard to make good use of reduced stuff if you have no freezer because you basically have to eat it within a day, and for a single person often portions are too big for that.

For fruit and I basically live on apples/bananas because they're cheapest and for veg broccoli carrots and sprouts are a favourite. I have a lot of tinned stuff which might not be too healthy but it's very convenient and means less wastage if unexpected things come up requiring a missed mealtime.

In reply to 2sides, for protein I buy tuna (60-80p a can depending where you go, up from 35p a few months ago), chicken breasts (£2 for 260g or so for Value ones), and sliced meat / cheese for sandwiches which usually comes to about £3-4 per week. Also supplemented by tinned kidney beans which are ridiculously cheap (often 20p a can).

Personally the main reason I think I have such a low budget is because I'm really not a foodie. I enjoy eating out, but when it comes to the everyday stuff I need to stay nourished, I'll eat whatever. Pasta, peas, tuna. Has the nutrition, costs less than a quid, job done. I don't really bother with recipes. In a pinch I'll have rice, kidney beans, and cheese.

The only thing to worry about there is mercury poisoning as tuna is high in the food chain. I stick to 3 cans a week max. Bloody annoyed that I didn't stockpile at 35p a can though.

On the phone - I reckon for less than £100 you can get a cheap Android phone that will do e-mail fine. Then get a £10 sim only deal. I am looking into getting one in the future, my old blackberry was great for e-mail but naff for browsing (felt like using Internet Explorer version 2 or something.)

Dunroamin

2sides2everystory wrote: »

I had forgotten you don't even have use of a freezer compartment, Derivative, which makes your moneysaving even more remarkable. I definitely could not achieve £60 pm without some freezing unless I thought I could survive on reduced price vegetable stir fries or curries which I do enjoy - but what do you do for protein? The cheapest protein I could find in Asda the other day was a promotion on frozen shelled mussels which was £6 per kilo. I opted for a kilo of fresh ones for I think £2.40 from the fish counter and ate the lot in one sitting! I had excelled myself with the sauce

I should have refrigerated half for another meal. Moules mariniere are quite nice cold - had some served cold as part of a fruits-de-mer dish at a pretty classy restaurant last night but I know that very few undergraduates are likely to view mussels as a serious menu option.

As for waste, from my kilo of live mussels. I had about 550g of shells left over.

I think £6 a kilo for protein is quite expensive. Tesco has liver from £1.55, kidney from £3.00 and many fish like herrings and mackerel are much cheaper as well.

I have lived on £15 per week for food but wouldn't want to do it again, or certainly not for long!

beth.stephenson2009

Thanks for your help everyone!

There is no way I could live on 60pcm for food, even the budget I have given myself is probably unrealistic. I cook everything from fresh (alot of chicken) and lots of fruit and veg.

Will look at my phone contract, I doubt im going to get it down as I want an iPhone and need plenty of usage- I send over 200/300 texts a week and use the internet on it alot.

Thanks again

drummer_666

Firstly cut you food bill down!

I'm not a student, I don't cook and eat like a student, but I spend around £50 a month on all my food and household items. I buy frozen meat, buy certain things on offer and don't buy much branded stuff. I eat proper meals - homemade lasagne, pastas, stirfrys, currys, chicken with veg etc.

Cut your phone bill. I'm on virgin mobile £10 a month 300 texts, 300 minutes. But I'll be switching to contract with talk talk I think for £18 a month with unlimited texts, think its around 300 minutes and 500MB internet.

Content insurance rather than gadget. Should be able to get cheaper than £20 a month for a good figure being covered if you shop around. Contents insurance will differ from policy to policy, just get some quotes online and look at the details

Going out - I'd say def more than £50/60. Depend where you are but in Birmingham, I'd spend around £30 on a night out with travel, club entrance and drinks. Then about £10 for something like a quiz night.

Leisure - depends what you're including here. This could be lower. If it's just things like the occasional day out.

Derivative

You can get an iPhone for cheaper than £40pm but you will have to buy one up front.

There is no need to spend more simply to loan it from the phone company.

MusicalLawyer

You can definitely lower the food bill. I know it isn't the same, but I live with my boyfriend in a flat and we budgeted £200 per month for our monthly shopping (which included groceries, cleaning products, health / beauty etc) and we ALWAYS come in under. Most we've paid is £150 - which is £75 each.

As for the phone bill you could buy an older iPhone and get a Sim only deal - like GiffGaff. Its like £15 a month and you get some super sweet deals on that.

What's the 'leisure' for? Think £100 is a little excessive for that, especially if you're then budgeting £50 a month for going out. I only go out once a week (drinking), and spend around £20 a night (It's a WetherSpoons pub, so not an SU but still cheap!) so that's about £80 a month.

Also with your gadgets insurance, if you're in Halls, some already have insurance included in your rent - it's pretty basic and probably only covers things that are actually in your room that get stolen as opposed to stolen elsewhere on campus say.

Derivative

Anyway - this picking apart the budget isn't too useful. I think you wanted to know whether or not you've budgeted enough up there.

The answer is, yes, unless you're not in halls, then you need utility bills.