Industrial Placement - Coping with Cash

gemma1585

On the 1st of August I will be starting a years industrial placement with a pharmaceutical company whilst I take a year out of university.

I am extremely worried that I will not be able to cope with my finances during this time.

At the moment I live at home and own my own car. I don't pay rent so any money I ear from my part time job goes towards my car and other essential student expenses.

I have just started a new job until I move away where I earn around £400 per month.

My monthly outgoings include:

£113.00 on car payments
£50 on car insurance
£10 car tax
£70 on petrol
£25 on mobile phone

and the rest I spend on me and paying off my credit card to which I owe £350. I also have an overdraft debt of £1400.

When I move away to undertake my placement I will earn £14,800. I will have all the costs listed above as well as an estimated £400 per month on rent. This price should include bills. I am not entirely sure of what other expenses I will have during this time.

I would appreciate any advice on managing my money up to and during the time in which I am away. I'm moving from Scotland to outside London so would appreciate flight fares to be included in my budget. I do not know how much I will be taxed etc so am unsure of my monthly income.

Please please help!

Natzdance

gemme1585,

I am currently on my industrial placement in Kent, I too lived at home until this year out so if you have any questions just PM me and I'll see if I can help.

my top tip is try an arrange it so that rent etc comes out on the date you are payed, makes it a lot easier to see what you have left for the month.

NatzDance

student100

gemma1585 wrote:

My monthly outgoings include:

£113.00 on car payments
£50 on car insurance
£10 car tax
£70 on petrol
£25 on mobile phone

and the rest I spend on me and paying off my credit card to which I owe £350. I also have an overdraft debt of £1400.

When I move away to undertake my placement I will earn £14,800. I will have all the costs listed above as well as an estimated £400 per month on rent. This price should include bills. I am not entirely sure of what other expenses I will have during this time.

Your income is way more than the average student's, so I'm sure you'll manage. (You'll be earning over £1000 a month, even with car and accommodation as you quote you'll have £300 or so spare each month, which is more than the average student loan, which has to cover all of those expenses plus more...).

I'd recommend you read around the forum, make a budget you can stick to, and try to save as much of the income you get as possible - that way when you return to uni you won't have to worry about getting into debt...

halcyon_drift

flights....keep in mind that carrying 1 years worth of clobber can equal many kilos of weight. Therefore, although a cheap flight with ryan air my appear to be good, you may be better off paying a bit more with someone who offers a higher weight limit. not sure what individual airlines offer so thats something you'll have to hunt around for.

also, dont forget about the trains...as far as i know they dont have any weight limits and they offer competitive prices and can do a glasgow to london journey in something like 5 hours...depending which company you choose...4 and a half hours on virgin trains infact

Savvy_Sue

So are you taking the car to London with you? If you are, expect your insurance to go up ... depending on where you're living of course. If you're not, is it worth keeping?

My 'ready reckoner' for calculating net pay from gross is to deduct a quarter. So I reckon your take home pay will be about £975. Does that help at all?

gemma1585

student100 wrote:

Your income is way more than the average student's, so I'm sure you'll manage. .

I've only started earning this much as I've taken up new employment after I finished exams (2 weeks ago) and the £14,800 won't be in my pocket till August. I'm just worrying about food? How much will that cost and any extras that I'm not aware of!

I've managed so far even with running a car all through uni to keep my debts to an absolute minimum and don't wanna chuck it all away now!!!!!

Thanks all for your help!

Savvy_Sue

gemma1585 wrote:

I'm just worrying about food? How much will that cost and any extras that I'm not aware of!

There's a grocery challenge thread somewhere on the boards - anyone point to it? that will give you ideas about how much (or little!) some people spend on food! How much YOU spend on food will partly depend on whether or not you can cook or not! The Old Style threads will help, but learning to cook a few simple meals while you're still at home will pay dividends in the long run. If you're cooking solo and have access to a freezer, cooking double or quadruple quantities of freezable dishes will mean you can cook and freeze the extra for the times you don't want to cook.