How to Survive on a Student Budget

Are you the typical bean-eating student or are you living large on your student overdraft? (Or both? :D)

The cost of living away from home as a student is estimated at £9250 a year. This includes a rather expensive-sounding £346 a month on rent and £51 on utility bills, with around £120 on food. It is also £500 more than the maximum student loan and grant (£8750 when living away from home, outside of London), so it's no wonder people end up skint!

My flatmate in Halls spent his entire student loan payment within a month, looking cool at expensive bars in his brand new clothes. Unfortunately he spent the next two months scrounging bread and pasta from the rest of us! How can you avoid this mess??


Budget
First of all, you HAVE to make a budget! Work out how much you have left after rent, bills and travel that you could use for food and leisure (beer). Do this BEFORE you get that lump sum paid into your bank account! See if you can put a small amount aside each month for unexpected costs.


Housing
After living in Halls of Residence in the first year most students move into a shared house or flat. Top tip: the ones closest to the University are often the most expensive and the most grotty! If you're willing to walk a bit further you'll get a much better deal.

See if your Union can recommend a good landlord. When I lived in London the landlord's mate fixed a giant hole in the roof by taping a plastic bag over it...


In Case of Emergency
Many student bank accounts come with an interest free overdraft.This is both a blessing and a curse to most students! Often a student overdraft is abused as "free money", with the student loans bumping the balance back up to zero. On the other hand, if you need to make an emergency trip home you don't have to rely on expensive credit cards. Use it as a buffer against going overdrawn (not to pay for trips to Kenya...).


Don't buy textbooks!
Ooo-errr, controversial! No, I don't want you to fail, but new textbooks are really not necessary! Your University's library will have dozens of copies of the recommended textbooks that you can check out almost indefinitely. If you really must own it, other students will likely sell theirs at a discount at the start of the next semester. Make sure you look after them and you could sell them on again!


Be a Guinea Pig
Back at Cardiff University, if you felt yourself coming down with a cold you could go to the Common Cold Research Centre and get paid to try various over-the-counter medicines to see how effective they are. If you are brave/foolhardy you could also earn hundreds of pounds from pharmaceutical companies to test new drugs for side effects (but be warned, there really can be serious side effects!)

Alternatively, you can sign up to your University's psychology department mailing list. Researchers need to test their theories on willing volunteers. For example, this week I earned £15.65 by spending an hour sat at a computer looking at coloured squares and photographs!


Travel
Students spend an average of £483 a year on travel. If you travel long distances by train, a Young Person's Railcard will pay for itself in no time! Railcards cost £28 for a year or £65 for three years and will save you a third on most train journeys (and they are available for all full time students, not just under 25s!).

Secondly, do you REALLY need a car at Uni? Most Universities are restricting undergraduates from taking their cars to campus anyway. You might think that the fuel home costs less than a train ticket, but have you factored in all the other costs? Insurance, road tax, maintenance and breakdown recovery costs can eat up massive hunks of money over time, especially for younger drivers who typically have high insurance premiums and less reliable cars!


Jobs
 Most student financial advice tells you to buck up and get a job. I disagree. Students should be focussing on their education; you're spending A LOT of money to be there so make it count! You can get away with working during the first year, but make sure you focus all your attention on your studies during your final year because it makes up the majority of your final grade. 

Remember, you really do need a 2:1 or a first class degree to get a graduate-level job these days. It costs too much to go to Uni for you to not get a good job at the end of it!!


"Do you do student discount?"If your University is a member of the National Union of Students (NUS) then you can get discounts anywhere from a huge variety of companies; clothes shops, cinemas, restaurants, night clubs, mobile phones, travel companies and more! Get the full list here. Ask for discount wherever you go!



So you see, it's definitely possible to live within the bounds of your student funding without having to eat baked beans everyday. (Another top tip: Tesco own brand baked beans are infinitely better than their Value ones!). 

Students: how do you avoid the dreaded overdraft limit? Anyone have any top tips for living on a student budget?

What NOT to Buy for University

I'm writing this whilst “packing” for our big move to Bristol and post-graduate studies. (This has involved several hours of surfing the net and very little putting stuff in boxes!) We're moving on Thursday so by the time you read this I'll be up to my eyeballs in cardboard. Wish us luck!

Going to University for the first time can be very expensive. People keep reminding you of things you will need, like duvet covers and shampoo. Most are things you've probably never bought before and the cost of buying the furnishings of a complete new life might be quickly mounting up!

Good news: you don't need to buy most of this stuff!

People go crazy buying hundreds of pounds worth of kitchen stuff equipment they'll never actually use and all the latest gadgets! Don't do it!

Here's a handy list of stuff you probably WON'T need to shell out for:

• Pens and stationery – You will get A LOT of free pens during the first weeks of Uni. Hundreds of companies line the walls of the Freshers Fayre, eager to give you pens as a way for you to remember them. (Barclays bank also give out free pens in their branches – jus' sayin'!) You can easily hoard enough pens/erasers/calendars etc. to last the year. Get anything else you need from a cheap supermarket when you get there. Don't buy fancy stuff - it'll just get slung into your bag anyway!
  
  
• Kitchen stuff – If you are in self-catered accommodation, wait until you get there before buying pots and pans! I found that EVERYONE turns up with 3 saucepans, a frying pan and enough cutlery to sink a ship. There's usually not even enough storage for it all! Check to see what you all have, then share the use of the equipment. Offer to cook them a meal for use of their saucepan! I would say to bring your own tupperware though, because people seem to be incapable of washing it properly.
  
  
• Laptop – Most people arrive at Uni with a shiny new laptop. If you don't have one, don't spend £400 of your student loan before you even arrive! (DON'T get a tablet - it's just asking to be nicked/dropped/beer spilled over). All universities have multiple computer labs dotted around campus, or you could pick up a second hand one very cheaply on eBay or even fairly often on Freecycle. You'll probably only need an old-ish one for using the internet, typing essays and the odd spreadsheet. (If you are studying any intensive-graphics course, for example The Boyfriend's architecture course, you will probably need a more up-to-date computer).
  
  
• Clothes – Don't be tempted to rush out on a spending spree with your new 10% student discount! People generally turn up to lectures wearing comfy clothes like hoodies and even jogging bottoms. I've seen a LOT of people wear pyjamas to lectures, so don't feel you need to be the trendiest kid on campus!
  
  
• Textbooks! - Your parents will kill me for saying this, but DON'T buy new textbooks! They cost anywhere from £30 - £100 EACH! Yes, that's what your student loan is for, but it's also for eating and rent and it barely covers that! You have several free or cheap options:
  1. Use the library (you're paying tuition fees for it)! There are often many copies of the most important textbooks available for loan on a rolling basis (as long as someone doesn't reserve the book, you can keep renewing your loan indefinitely).
  
  
  2. At the start of the year there are often LOTS of second/final year students selling off their first year textbooks very cheaply. Look on student noticeboards, on the intranet, even posters in the toilets! You can offer them less than they are asking too, because they'll be glad to get some money back. 
  
  
  3. Other cheap options are eBay/Amazon! 
  
  

If you do buy them, follow my tips for selling old textbooks when you are done with them.

 

Everyone knows your first few weeks at Uni are the most expensive (going out most nights, going for lunch to get to know your new flatmates, etc. etc.), but be careful with your student loan. I knew a few people in the first year who ran out of money by the end of Octover and had to scrounge food from their flatmates, living on pasta and bread until the next loan instalment in JANUARY!

All in all, have a great time! Make a budget, try to stick to it and DON'T GET A CREDIT CARD! :)

Any other advice for things new students may or may not need? I might be able to use the advice myself! :D

Off to Bristol for a Week

I'm going to Bristol this week. I'm learning some of the new techniques developed by the PhD student I will be taking over from. (Our projects are different but involve similar barley plants and therefore similar methods). It will be great to start to get to know everyone in the lab, and of course to learn the skills I will need for my PhD!

Another exciting part of the week will be the weekend. I'm going flat hunting... with The Boyfriend! After six years we will finally be moving in together. He has a place on a Masters course in Bristol too, so we are hoping to rent somewhere halfway between our two campuses (which are about 4 miles apart).

The area I have in mind is out of the city centre but still walkable/cycleable, so I will be able to sell Jools the Peugeot. Driving in Bristol's a nightmare anyway, and the amount I'll save in fuel/tax/insurance/repairs will completely cover my increase in rent!

So excited! I'm away all week but I will schedule a couple of posts while I'm gone so you don't miss me too much! Haha! :)

Dha weles!

It's Official: I Have A PhD Studentship!

YESSSSSSS!!!!

I did it! After many months of hunting, personal statement writing and being interviewed, I was offered a PhD studentship one of the top universities in the UK! I accepted. From October I will be researching plant genetics at the University of Bristol, with lots of practical experience and opportunities for work to be published. It is a four year position, with training and industrial placements for the first year alongside the research. The University of Bristol is ranked 7^th for biological research in the UK!

I'm so glad that the application/interview process is over. Personal statements are evil, as are interviews, although I have to say that my interview in Bristol was very friendly and I was set at ease by the project supervisors.

The PhD studentship is fully funded by the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council), one of 59 funded places in the area of Global Food Security in the UK. This means that my tuition fees will be paid and I will receive a tax-free annual stipend of around £13590.

Back in January I wrote about the hidden costs of finding a degree. These included things like admin fees for applying, interview costs for clothes, travelling and accommodation to visit universities, and living costs whilst you are up there. My total costs were:

• Travel: £230.05 on train fares, including £28 for a year's rail card that gets you 30% off train ticket prices. (The University of Bristol has offered to refund my travel expenses, so I should be getting £44 of this back at some point!)
• Admin fees: £50
• Accommodation: FREE! Luckily I had friends/relatives in the towns that I visited.
• Interview clothes: FREE! I wore the outfit I wore on my graduation day. It is a smart black dress with white flowers, with a black cardigan.
• Living costs: £33.13 on food whilst travelling. I also took my hosts a gift to say thank you, but this was bought using money specially saved for gifts.

Total cost of finding my PhD: £313.18!

To be honest, it was worth it to visit universities, speak to experts in my field (I mean, I have referenced these people during my undergraduate years! It was daunting putting faces to names you've read a hundred times!), be interviewed and ensure that I was finding the right place to spend the next four years of my life!

I'm so excited! :D

Will Going to University Get You A Good Job?

Official government numbers from the Office of National Statistics say that 20% of people who graduated in 2010 were still unemployed in 2011. With those odds, is it better to stick at the job you have at home, or branch out into the unknown?

The Boyfriend recently said that after graduating most of our friends have gone straight back to the same jobs they had before university. (This from the guy that is now an architectural assistant about to go and do a masters, neither of which is possible without a Bachelors degree!) It got me thinking about what people are actually doing with their degrees though!

The Pros of NOT Going to University

A lot of my friends say they felt pressured into going straight to University. If you don't know what you want to do, then NOT going to Uni gives you time to decide what you want out of life. Stay motivated though, use your time wisely and learn about various careers you might be interested in.

If you know what you want to do and it doesn't require a degree, you can start at the bottom and work your way up. You will be more respected within the company than a new graduate that went straight in at manager level. You will also have a few more years experience! My friend went to University, but worked the holidays at a fun park he is now the manager of back at home. He said he will never need the specialist knowledge he gained at University, which was for him a waste of time and money.

If you know you want a very practical career, consider an apprenticeship. These can be VERY poorly paid (£2.60 an hour is the minimum wage, which is absolutely unacceptable if you ask me!), but if you find a good one you will be paid a fair salary AND be guaranteed a good job at the end. A friend trained as an engineer for the London Underground and is now contractually guaranteed a high paying job with Transport For London.

The Pros of Getting a Degree

A degree is often a requirement for a more complex, specialised job. In my chosen career of research, not only do you need a Bachelors degree, but a PhD is vital too! Research the job requirements for what you want to do, then target your learning towards it.

In a bad economy, no job is 100% secure. A degree is something that you can fall back on if your chosen sector falls under completely. It shows you have transferable skills and motivation.

One of the major pro points of going to Uni aside from education is personal development. You mature so much working and studying away from home. For most students, it is the first time you've been away from home and you learn how to function as an adult whilst still being partially protected from mistakes. I think it is a hugely important part of university and employers will know that you are a more rounded individual.

If you decide University is for you...

Find a course that offers a Sandwich Year, which is a year in industry as part of your degree. This will give you the best possible edge when applying for jobs, because you will already have experience. There's no reason not to do this; even if you decide you don't enjoy your chosen career, you will avoid making this wrong decision in the future.

The Bottom Line

I think the absolute most important thing is to decide what you want to do. If you have a vague idea (like I knew I wanted to do something in Biology), what jobs would be open to you? Will you need a degree for that? If yes, then go to University, study a broad field and specialise later when you decide.

If you are not SURE that you want to go to University, will you be motivated enough to continue? If you drop out, you will still have a huge mound of debt to pay off and nothing to show for it. Student loan repayments will cost you 9% of whatever you earn over £21,000 if you start this year, so make sure you gain something from the experience!

If you don't have a clue what you want to do, take a year or two to decide. Take a few courses in things you might be interested in, volunteer in a field you think you might enjoy (for example, if you're interested in becoming a teacher, volunteer with a youth group), ask people about their experiences. There's no harm in waiting until you know what you want, and the extra couple of years of maturity and experience will give you an advantage over others if you do decide to go to Uni!

Things You Will Never Need to Buy

There are some things that just sit in your house gathering dust and taking up space. If you've got good neighbours/relatives/friends, stop buying these once-a-month/year/decade items and borrow when needed!

Suitcases – One third of my wardrobe is taken up by a suitcase, which in turn contains holdalls and a hiking rucksack! The person you borrow it off will be glad to get theirs out of the way for a week!

Lawnmowers – Save yourself some shed space and borrow next door's mower when your lawn starts looking like a jungle.

Books and DVDs – You can borrow books and films from the library or friends. I don't know about you, but my bookshelf is stuffed to the brim already! No more room for new purchases!

DIY stuff – No-one needs instant access to a cordless drill or wallpapering table. Borrow as required. (The Boyfriend is already accumulating a lot of random power tools. I would like to put a stop to this before we live together!)

Canning or preserve making stuff – A lot of people have this equipment burrowed away in the back of a cupboard. Ask around and someone will probably be happy to get some use out of their stuff!

Gardening tools – Many a part-time gardener is not going to need their fork and spade all day every weekend. Ask them when they'll be doing their work, then borrow their stuff in the down time.

Top tips for borrowing

• LOOK AFTER IT! You'll remain friends and be more likely to receive a favour again in the future.
• Never borrow anything that you can't afford to replace if you do break it.
• Borrow it for a set period of time. (“I'll get it back to you by Friday”) Even if you haven't finished with it, ring/visit your friend and ask if you can continue using it.
• Don't forget to give it back! The whole point is to reduce clutter, so you don't want someone else's kayak taking up room in your garage!
  
  

One more tip, for future students; if you're going into a Halls of Residence, DON'T TAKE SAUCEPANS OR KITCHEN UTENSILS. Everyone buys a new set for their first time living away from home, which means you end up with six sets of everything!

Anyone got any more suggestions? Do you borrow anything expensive from relatives?

Decluttering: Getting Money Back for Old Textbooks

Textbooks at University cost an absolute fortune! Before you start your first year you are sent a reading list of epic proportions, so as the dedicated undergraduate you now are, you take yourself down to the University bookshop, Amazon or Ebay and buy the lot!

First of all, let me tell you that if you haven't yet started University and haven't got your books, don't buy them! “But then how will I succeed??” Every good University has a VERY well stocked library. They have 15-30 copies of the core textbooks! I promise you that with very little planning, you'll be able to have all the access you need to the textbooks. This won't help if you're still up at 3am cramming for an exam, but as a dedicated student that won't be the case.. right?

Even if you do decide later that you'd like your own copy of the textbook, you won't be losing anything by waiting until you know you need it before draining that new student loan of yours. 

If you've already bought the books (like me!), then don't worry, I have tips about recouping your losses once you're done with them.

1. Keep the books in a good condition – To ensure that you get the most back from your books when you re-sell them, you need to keep them as pristine as possible. If you must make notes in them (something I've never understood), then write lightly in pencil. DON'T highlight text, but underline it if necessary.
2. Target other students first – If you put posters up in the toilets, café and noticeboards of your building at the start of the new academic year, other people on the same degree scheme as you will see them. These are the most likely candidates to buy the books – they have the same reading list you had! Check the going rate of the books at the University bookshop and Amazon, then set your price £5 to £10 lower than that. Put your mobile phone number at the bottom and wait for the messages to flood in!
3. Re-sell to the bookstore – Our University bookshop, Blackwells, guaranteed to pay you 40% of the price you paid for the book if you bought it from them. You must keep your receipt and the book must be in a good condition.
4. Sell on Amazon – If you didn't have any luck with the above, it's time to sell to further afield. I currently have two textbooks listed on Amazon. You just search for the book and click “Sell on Amazon”. There is a 15% of sale price + 43p fee on all sales. The postage is pre-set to £2.75; now I don't know about you, but most of my textbooks weigh around 3kg, making the true postage over £7.00. You'll be losing money here, so make sure the value of the book will exceed the cost of postage combined with fees! It's the first time I've done this, so I don't know how long it takes! You can also trade the book in for an Amazon gift voucher if you prefer.
5. Sell on Ebay - I've never sold anything on Ebay, but you can list your book on there too. :D

The income from your textbooks will likely be a valuable source of money in the next few years of your degree. It's much more expensive to live in a shared house than it is to live in halls in the first year. Buy only the books you need, preferably second hand, and look after them!

Also, should I just jump on 1999-train and start using Ebay?

Student Loans: Why You Shouldn't Pay It Back Early!

IMPORTANT: This information applies to people who began studying for their degree between 1998 and 2011. Pre-1998 loans are far more expensive and are much more worthwhile paying off sooner! 2012 and onward loans are different again, so please see this page for information on that!

On my sidebar, you can see that I am close to repaying the overdraft and other debts I accumulated whilst living as a student. You may be surprised to learn that figure does NOT cover the thousands of pounds I have in student loan debts.

Why do I not count this as soul-destroying debt that I should be digging myself out from underneath right now? The answer is that it is not consumer debt.

Whilst normal loans have an interest rate of 8-12%, a student loan's interest rate is set at either the Bank of England's base rate plus 1%, or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. The current interest rate is 1.5%. Student loans do not affect your credit score either. This means that the value of the loan will stay the same in line with the annual increase in living costs.

Required Repayments

If you began your course between 1998 and 2011, you are required to repay 9% of your income over £15000. This begins on the 6^th April after you graduate. If your wage falls below £15000 a year you stop making payments. The debt is wiped out after 25 years or if you die.

If you are an employee, the payments are be automatically deducted from your wages and will show up on your pay slip. If you are self-employed, you have to do some self-assessment calculations based on your income and National Insurance payments. Please see the government's website for more information.

Why NOT to repay your loan early

If you wish, you can make voluntary repayments on your loan. To the uninformed, this sounds like a wise use of excess cash, but there are two major reasons NOT to pay them off early!

The vast majority of debts, such as bank loans, car repayments, credit cards, mortgages, etc., will charge you much higher rates of interest than your student loan. Focus your efforts on repaying these (if you have them) to save yourself a lot of money in the long run. If you are planning on getting a mortgage in the future, any extra money would be best used to lay down a deposit on a house – the bigger your deposit, the less interest you will have to pay in the long run!

You can gain a lot more interest in savings than the interest paid on your loan. A cash ISA will give you in the region of a 3% return per year. Other savings could give you an even greater return if you decided to invest it.

Other types of student loan

Graduates who began their course before 1998 will have a different loan with a much higher interest rate. The advice above does not apply and I encourage you to research the best approach for your situation.

Students beginning their course from September 2012 will be subject to a different system again. The new, obscenely high tuition fees mean that most will graduate with over £50,000 in student debts, but you will not repay until you are earning above £21,000. See the Government's information page for more advice.

An Introduction to the Frugal Graduate

University is over and I've joined the real world. My student bank account has been converted to a graduate account, but unfortunately they remembered to transfer my overdraft too. I'm slowly digging my way out of the hole and back up to £0...

I studied Biology at Cardiff University and my good grade can attest to the fact that I did not waste my money on too many nights out or all day shopping trips. I didn't even enter my overdraft until the second year of Uni, but then it was engulfed by a month in Kenya with the University studying tropical ecosystems (fantastic, but I'm still paying the price!) Since then I lived in London for a year on a work placement, which was far more expensive than I'd anticipated even with the salary I received!

So here I am, two months after graduating, working as a chamber maid in a hotel and living with my parents to save money! I've managed to pay off my small credit card debt and buy a car to get me to work (although I was lent some money to help with this that I want to repay as soon as possible). Luckily a research job is in the pipeline for the autumn and beyond (for which I'll be moving out) but money will definitely still be an issue.

A frugal lifestyle will enable me to save money and hopefully benefit the environment by reducing wastage and recycling items for new uses where possible. I will use this blog to document the ways I've been cutting back and reducing my deficit!

Bryallen