What do uni students need to know about money?

Moomum

John1993 wrote: »

A clear and simple explanation that debt is not the same as free money.

A lot of people seem to have this strange view that if you take out a loan you suddenly are better off than previously, as you have "real" money in the bank, but just some airy-fairy notional number somewhere else against it.
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Exactly this, I used to think my student loan and overdraft were free money , thought I was hugely cash rich and spent it on rubbish!

John1993_2

bylromarha wrote: »

I got every credit card thrown at me - the freebies accompanying them in the 90s were fab.
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Good for you. Similarly, I know a guy who took a lot of crack at college, and who now earns several million pounds a year running a trading floor. I still wouldn't recommend others to take crack, though.

rev_henry

Shop around with your groceries, don't just buy the first thing you think you need in Sainsburys (as about 90% of Manchester students do) - learn to go to Aldi, Quality Save etc as well. Learn to cook with cheap ingredients, don't buy meat.

Get into the habit of working out the price per unit of alcohol when buying crates of beer and go with the cheapest one that tastes reasonably ok. Or even buy in bulk using online shopping voucher codes. I bought 10 crates for £50 just before summer - lasted me until a couple of weeks ago. You'd buy it anyway, just at the corner shop in 4 packs at twice the price, when in a rush to get to that house party.

Also stop buying takeaways after EVERY night out. Have a sandwich or pot noodle at home instead. Making such things whilst drunk is quite fun too!

I must sound like a total alcoholic dosser of a student, however the fact of the matter is a significant proportion of one's outgoings as a student are alcohol, so it is wise to spend ones spare time trying to mitigate this as much as possible!

Also do not insist on living as close to the student ghetto as possible - a house just a couple of minutes walk further away could be £10PPPW cheaper. Look for property later in the year, there is absolutely no need to sort next year's accommodation by Christmas - letting agents are simply trying to get you to sign up as quick as possible. Waiting till, say February can pay off as landlords get desperate not to have an empty house. If you are a student in London then none of the above about property applies of course.

Alarae

An overdraft is not your money to spend on clothes/alcohol/girls just because it is 0%. It's debt, not free money.

As a uni student currently, you should probably just leave that point on a slide and give them five minutes of quiet contemplation to get that fact through, lol.

Gardening_gremlin

Alarae wrote: »

An overdraft is not your money to spend on clothes/alcohol/girls just because it is 0%. It's debt, not free money.

As a uni student currently, you should probably just leave that point on a slide and give them five minutes of quiet contemplation to get that fact through, lol.

LOL! tempting but I will probably pad it out a bit!

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Gardening_gremlin wrote: »

I've been asked to give a FIVE minute presentation :eek: to some first year uni students on money management. What do you think are the key points that I need to include? Student loans? Bank accounts? Credit cards? Overdrafts? Mortgages? Being responsible? Finding bargains? Not sure where to start, so your help would be useful. tia x

Just out of interest, why have you been asked? Do you have a reputation of being financially aware? Just so we're not teaching our grandmother to suck eggs.