After a bit of advice/others' experiences

anarchied

I'll try not to make this too long, I promise!

I'm currently on a gap year to get some money together for uni and to top up my experience. I've got a rough estimate of what I can expect from my maintenance loan, grants, etc. and factored in accommodation, phone bill, yadda yadda yadda. If I go to the uni of my choice I'll be able to live in the student houses throughout the duration of my course, so that limits the possibility of expensive flat deposits. I've worked out that, after paying for my accommodation, I'll get roughly £65 a week to include food and other expenses, excluding what I've already saved (about £2k at the moment).

However, my main worry is that whatever else I save won't be enough. Realistically I'll probably save another £2-3k and the money will be used for books, placement uniform, if I have to shell out for my accommodation in large blocks of payment (I'd then replace the money taken from my savings for this reason from my student loan so that it would effectively be coming from my loan), and other expenses associated with going to uni like travel to and from home/my placement. I've also budgeted to spend at most £300 on both Christmas and birthday presents for my family per year from my savings (but it'll probably be closer to £200 and I'll probably end up saving money that I don't spend during quiet weeks for this reason).

Essentially I'm just after some advice and others' experience to see if it is possible to remain relatively debt-free during my studies or if I should stop being so naive!

As a side note, I'm not bad at budgeting so I don't think that'll be an issue.

Any help, advice or experience from past, present and future students, parents etc would be greatly appreciated.

amiehall

Yes you should be able to live quite happily on £65 a week after accommodation costs.

I've managed to save quite a lump of money overall while studying although I do work some quite hefty hours. But I think if you live sensibly, there's no reason you can't break even. Good luck with your saving!

Frugalsod

I would be cautious. While it is just above unemployment benefit levels it is not enough to be comfortable. Watch out for the hidden costs like heating, electricity, water charges or council tax which you could be hit by. Accommodation costs are not just the rent. Each of these could seriously dent your available funds.

anarchied

amiehall wrote: »

Yes you should be able to live quite happily on £65 a week after accommodation costs.

I've managed to save quite a lump of money overall while studying although I do work some quite hefty hours. But I think if you live sensibly, there's no reason you can't break even. Good luck with your saving!

Thank you! I think working whilst I study is out of the question because of how the course is arranged, hence my gap year.

Frugalsod wrote: »

I would be cautious. While it is just above unemployment benefit levels it is not enough to be comfortable. Watch out for the hidden costs like heating, electricity, water charges or council tax which you could be hit by. Accommodation costs are not just the rent. Each of these could seriously dent your available funds.

The £109/week accommodation charge at this particular uni includes everything bar food and TV license (which is an amazing deal from what I've seen); I guess I'd only have to worry about further costs such as heating, council tax etc if I went to another uni that didn't offer student accommodation after the first year (which I believe is the norm). Thank you, I'll keep that in mind

amiehall

Odd advice seeing as the OP seems to be talking about living in halls where rent is all inclusive of bills. In addition, students are never liable for council tax. I would say that £65 of free money is quite a lot really.... If it's not enough, a job 1 day a week will be enough to get by quite comfortably.

Indie_Kid

Have you also included money for books and money for travelling home?

Racheya

It should be enough for a food budget and the usual bits and bobs. Assuming your accomodation takes care off heating, electricity ect. Also you can save money by not getting a TV License (catchup tv like iPlayer is exempt as long as you don't watch a live stream that's currently airing).

I'm currently living on about £40 a week. It's a bit tight, can't waste money, but its enough.

You'll also need to factor in stuff like travel costs if you have any and costs of books if your course is book intensive (some won't force you to buy books these days in recognition of the fact we're all skint). But it sounds like you're in the right mindset to sort this sort of stuff out :T

Dunroamin

Given that your £5k savings are on top of the £65 pw and you're planning on living in halls with bills etc paid, I'd think you could manage very well.

anarchied

Thanks everyone, I guess I was just after some reassurance that I'm not going to be ridiculously overdrawn!