Student's living expenses

mastiles_fanylion,

I am afraid that is rather real in certain "posh" end of the student accommodation. Some of the items are standards. i.e. internet but en-ensuite is also in demand. The only thing is they do share kitchen unless you go for studio which can start at £130 per week.

Just finished first year at Manchester.
£200 a month from my dad, + standard unassessed loan.
Loan didn't fully cover accommodation [catered], majority of my dad's money went to cover the rest.
Got £40 a week out the wall to cover going out, busses and food for the weekend.
Student Bank Account with 0% overdraft is a must – I was rarely in the black. Most go for Natwest.

That was scraping by with cheap drinks & entertainment.

Errr, tell that to the Arts departments at all the major red-brick universities?

Yeah, I know you can go to university to study art courses. The point I was trying to make is that the popular term is 'art college'. I have never known anyone refer to art university, although I have known people to study art at university.

Hope that clears things up!

Gawd I miss the promiscuity. A girl on my course said she was going to try out those reinforced/extra safe condoms for anal sex. I didnt get the hint, she was asking if I'd stuff her up the ass. Gawd, I was naive 😀

FFS – the Uni will have broadband, there are still payphones should the student need to make a call, en-suite is just a joke and Sky – well I have just realised you are trolling.

Actually some of the student houses I knew had BB, sky and a phone – the cost split between 5 students is buttons. Few had en-suite I admit 🙂

Some of the students commenting on here about weekly food costs etc were paying as much if not more than me now on living costs, and I've got a decent wage coming in.

Yeah, I know you can go to university to study art courses. The point I was trying to make is that the popular term is 'art college'. I have never known anyone refer to art university, although I have known people to study art at university.

Hope that clears things up!

It does, now I follow you! However I dont remember any of them calling it art college, they just called it "university" at Liverpool. 😆

Come to think of it, Uni was the time my social life and sports virtually halted, and it's only just coming back now.

they just called it "university" at Liverpool

No breeding you see… In the Shires we called it Art College and wafted around in our oversized raincoats bought second-hand from London markets whilst laughing gleefully at the proles who could only get on the painting and decorating course 🙂

I worked during the summer, no way I could work during the term time – physically impossible (28 hours lectures/labs per week plus home studying).

I had about the same amount of contact time. Whilst it doesn't seem like a lot compared to an average working week, the fact that you could have a lecture at 9, then an hour off, then another lecture at 11 etc. meant I had to be in Uni everyday apart from Wednesdays from 9 until 6. It's more hours than I do at work now.

My housemate who did English had between 4 and 6 hours a week, and reading weeks scattered about all over the place. Much easier to fit a job around that sort of timetable.

Accommodation was around 2k a year which my parents paid most of, fees another 1k and which left another 1.5k of my loan to last through the year. I worked in the holidays when I could get a job and did psychology experiments when I desperately needed money for food!

My course conveniently is now one of the most expensive to complete with amongst the lowest graduate salary of any significant course.
There were people who had jobs, however, they tended to be weeded out as the tutors didn't like you having a life outside Sc/Arc. Although the number of hours of lectures was relatively low at about 9hrs/week, attendance at studio was more or less mandatory until 6pm (so that would make it about 40 hours total), and then we got to spend the rest of the week designing, drawing and writing (most nights till about 11pm or midnight) then with work over the weekends that would come to a nice round figure of about 80 hours a week.
However I started in 1986, so almost everything I can remember is woefully out of date.

Right here's the deal:

#1 priority is to make him understand that he needs to live frugally and not piss his loan away. 18 year olds dont fully appreciate the value of money and that it WILL have to be paid back and will feel like a considerable millstone round his neck when he leaves uni and go into work. The overriding aim is to leave uni with the minimum debt he possibly can.

So explain that while he will see all his mates etc going out all the time, using their loans to buy PCs/hifi/games/DVDs/CDS etc, he must resist the urge at all costs and spend as little as possible. This is paramount. By all means, have a fun few weeks constantly on the piss at the start, then it's time to rein it in and budget. Never let fellow students know you have any money and never lend anyone money. Lie and say you're skint if you have to.

Getting a job is beneficial in a number of ways past the obvious financial incentive. I did aerospace engineering at uni so not exactly a 'mickey mouse' degree and I still found the time to work part-time in a cinema which did not have a detrimental effect on my studies. Bit of cash and a great laugh at the same time, met some of my best mates there who I never would have met otherwise.

Of course the stuff about budgeting will probably be in one ear and out the other but you can only try.

Can I just say- those parents on here or parents of STW'ers- I applaud you. I never saw a penny from my Dad to go through Uni. Tight c*nt wanted me to appreciate the value of money the hard way.

But, unless I am much mistaken, you are old enough to have had a grant, non? 😉

I was an undergrad not that long ago and i'd say £50pw on food and drink + rent. I'm a lecturer now (I ain't ever leaving!) and i'd say that the worse kind of student are those who have parents giving them money. They don't budget their spending and therefore they don't budget their time – why stay in and study when you have money piss up the wall?

I'd recommend to any student to get a job. It teaches you discipline and proper time management as it offers structure to their week. No more than 14 hours though.

byyy 'ekk theres soem yorkshiremen on here today,

ok who was it that slept in the gap in the pavement and survived 4 years smoking asbestos rolled up in their lecture notes to keep warm?

£4k so surive, £5k for some fun, £6k for a good time.

Just because your a student doens't mean you have to live in a damp hovel, some of us had standards!

I caned it every night for the whole of my degree and still can't manage my budget 10 yrs on

I finished uni in 2006 .. did plenty alright with a 2:1 .. My parents paid the fees but my 3k loan all went on my accomodation and then some!

Every penny I had to spend, I earned it working part-time .. if memory serves I did a couple of shifts to earn 70 quid per week .. never felt flush but did just fine .. (and this was canterbury .. so it ain't cheap rent or booze).

coffeeking – Member

Precisely – all these molly-coddled kids need a reality check.

I worked during the summer, no way I could work during the term time – physically impossible (28 hours lectures/labs per week plus home studying). There's no need to work during term and it is counter-productive unless it's so few hours as to make no difference financially.

Comedy!

Just graduated from my PhD today, and currently work as a research officer at the same uni. Worked all the way through undergrad as bar staff, and ASDA nights during vacations, and I'd guess I managed reasonably well academically, otherwise I wouldn't have got so far. Got bugger all from parents, drank most nights I wasn't working, but still managed OK. Even learnt to drive from entirely my own funds in my 3rd year. Reading this thread has made me realise why students are so hated by most of the population – it seems most get it given to them….

wasn't there a guy who managed to cream about 40k out the banks in loans and student whatevers

dont get a student loan

screw the banks…eventually they will return the favour

get through UNi comfortably on banks money

petition for bankruptcy at court the morning you graduate…

potter round oz for a year till bankruptcy is up (only a year now)

come back to job (maybe)save money till economy is back on its feet will take about 5 years and by then credit record will be clean

unlike some folks who are still bending over for the pleasure of their education

if i had known then what i know now??

problem is its very hard to go bankrupt on student debt,

overdrafts (however many you have) are intrest free for about 4 years after you graduate usualy. And theres not much chance of getting a loan as a student (not a home owner, no job, no prosepct of either till you graduate).

Sorry to put a spanner in your plan composite, but it just wont work! Even if you did apply for bancrupcy, doesnt the court have the chance to say no, given that they can resnobly expect you to find a job soonish, and then your just lumped with 20k of debt at the market rate, where us students get it at 3%?

And how do you intend on getting to Oz, if your bancrupt you wont have any cash (the banks will make sure of that)…………….

And when you get back you'd be living with your parents, one of my hosuemates went bancrupt to avoid paying his ex wife anything out of the divorce (hes a contractor effectively working for himself) so she was entitled to half the company (i.e. his earnings). He went bacrupt, is now working for his dad's company (same job, new company name). But can't even rent a room in a house despite earning in excess of £50k after tax!

Can I just say- those parents on here or parents of STW'ers- I applaud you. I never saw a penny from my Dad to go through Uni. Tight c*nt wanted me to appreciate the value of money the hard way.

My parents didn't give me anything either, and i graduated in 2005. Quite right too – you're a grown up, and between 4k student loan and a decent summer job there's no reason to need any further support.

Is there still a recommended parental contribution for better off parents? One year my Dad was 'supposed' to give me a few hundred but I said I didn't need it – I seem to remember later saying that actually it would be useful but he said I'd made my decision! A bit harsh perhaps but I managed my money well and have been pretty good with money ever since – I do wonder if I could have had more of a laugh though If I'd been willing to go into debt!

Doing a decent engineering degree properly is a full-time job

??

I had far more free time as a student (doing a 'decent' engineering degree and getting a result that suggests I did it 'properly') than I've had at any point since.

it was more tongue in cheek spoon i deleted the rest of this post as it sounds like i was condoning working the system ..

yep, the recomended contribuion is on the loan/fee's paperwork, essentialy your supposed ot get £4.5k plus top up fees, either through the SLC & LEA or your parents (based on for every £9 you earn over the threshold (£20k ish) you should be able to afford to part with £1 to your offspring.

IIRC Cambrige recomends about another grand or so, but they prohibit working in term time, and make it affordable by charging pitence in rent.

Its odd, for all the "I'm an engineer" posts, a lot of people clearly didnt do an engineering degree as they had free time (im sure by the time i'd done my writeups and tutorials it ws easily 40+ hours a week some terms).

My MSc (IT for Manufacture at Warwick Uni) was a bit odd really. We did 12 subjects, each one done in a week 9am to 6pm, then there were 12 weeks in which to do an assignment for that subject which was supposed to take 40 hours to do. Finally we had a project worth 1/2 the course which was supposed to take 24 weeks to do. On top of that were a couple of weeks of other things which we were supposed to attend so this came to 50 weeks for a 1 year course which is fine really but not a lot of time for holidays….

Got a nice grant from some sort of government body to pay for it all – EPSRC?

Getting a job is beneficial in a number of ways past the obvious financial incentive. … which did not have a detrimental effect on my studies. Bit of cash and a great laugh at the same time, met some of my best mates there who I never would have met otherwise.

Thats exactly my point. Some jobs are as good if not better than going out on the sauce all the time with the bonus of earning not spending. And working in a Uni bar will get you loads of free drinks anyway + recognition and access to all the fitties… etc Working in bars was always way more fun than getting leathered and forgetting most the night.

Doing a decent engineering degree properly is a full-time job

LOL – doing any degree properly is a full time job. Students are supposed to spend 38 hours a week on their studies (contact time in lectures, seminars, labs etc and private/self-direct study), that is why there are full- and part-time classifications for degree programmes.