Help/Support ► I'm reluctant

[Ehres]

In September I'm going to be starting my first undergraduate year of university. I'll be living in Salford which is about 40 mins away from where I am now but due to sky-high train ticket prices (see: what the actual fuck) it's cheaper for me to rent accommodation there. Then, I have my university annual course fee. Then I have all my other expenditure (books, materials, food). Basically, this is my list for this year.

Accommodation

Choice 1 - £59.50 per week for 40 weeks = £2380.00
Choice 2 - £66.22 per week for 40 weeks = £2648.80
Choice 3 - £67.50 per week for 40 weeks = £2700.00

Course fee

£3,290

Other expenditure

Travel is free during term time if using buses.
Books - £200
Food - £50 per week for 40 weeks = £2000
Colour TV license - £145.50
Other - £1000 estimate

Total

£9,335.50 estimation
£10,000 per year

or because Ryan is a shlong

$15,000

In other words, even with my grants, loans and whatnot, I am up shit creek.

Now my problem is this: my grandparents who are my legal guardians are trying to enforce their pension money onto me so my financial burden won't be as bad, but I really, really don't want to do that. It isn't fair on them because they don't have much money as it is and I would hate to be a burden on their shoulders.

What do I do?

 

[Banishing Blade]

"Get a job" comes to mind.

 

[Ehres]

Er, I kind of realised that, thank you very much. Even taking those earnings into account they still want to give me money.

 

[Key]

Well, you could try telling them that they need that money first.... that's what i tell my grandparents when they try to give me money. :/

 

[Space Cowboy]

Have you applied for a Maintenance Loan and Grant?

I know the Loan part is more money that you'll have to pay back, but it is a good thing to have.

Trying to remember what that was for me...think I got £3200 odd spread out across the year.

 

[Ehres]

I've applied for the Maintenance Loan, Tuition Fee Loan and Maintenance Grant. From that alone I'll be getting £6403 (the Tuiton Fee Loan goes straight to the uni and isn't passed by me) as well as the £500 for living local and the £1000 for studying what I study as well as a minimum of £310 bursary from the university which apparently can go up to as much as £900? Which is £8,213 at least. I know it sounds a lot but most of it is my loans and I don't want to be getting out of uni with £40,000+ debt since my course is 4 years in length. There are charity bursaries you can apply for, too, but most of them I'm not eligible for, so I only see myself getting £1000 from the Vegetarian Charity for being a vegetarian.

I just despise the idea of debt. It scares me to heaven and back.

 

[Enchanted Rose]

As well as the Maintenance Loan, if your family is earning below a certain amount, the government should give you a bursary each year - or at least that's what I got, but it may have been scrapped under the new government.

Go for the cheapest accommodation; none of those are as expensive as some halls I've seen that are over £100 per week.

Budgeting will be essential. The main cut is going to have to be your spending every week. You won't need to spend £50 on food per week, particularly if you're good at cooking and enjoy it. I usually try to spend £30 on food weekly. Books, you can often get second hand - your uni will probably do a second hand book sale with the previous year selling their books...or you can use Amazon. Regarding the TV license, could you not split it with flatmates, or just go without a TV. People always watch stuff online, and you'll find you wont have much free time, so you'll be watching selective TV anyway.

To be honest, there are quite a lot of student deals - nights out at your student union will cost virtually nothing, and often clubs, bars and restaurants try to undercut each other for students' custom. I also sometimes use Save money with exclusive UK student discounts and free stuff | studentbeans.com because it has loads of vouchers and the like.

Just remember that a lot of people will be really strapped for cash. I've known people who've had to eat only Tesco Value until their loan comes through. Somehow everyone manages to scrape by.

That is a rather annoying dilemma, I understand you not wanting to take any of your grandparents pension money. In the worst case scenario, you could always defer entry by a year, take a gap year to get a job and save money..?

 

[Ehres]

I picked my accommodation based on its price. The three I listed are the three cheapest and I've seen the actual standards of the buildings as opposed to what you see on the websites, and it's pretty appalling. Fortunately at Salford you can opt to stay in a mixed- or single-gender house/flat, so I opted for single gender since boys are messy.

The £50 is just for back-up. Food prices are sky-high these days and sometimes I tend to spend loads of money on a product if it looks nice. This will definitely have to stop. I don't mind cheap chocolate. x3 My grandparents have lots of cookbooks, all of which are vegetarian so I won't be completely lost. But I'll have to specially buy stuff that hasn't got meat in, and vegetarian ingredients can be really expensive at times. I'm studying languages and I already have a thousand dictionaries so I'll just take those with me and the few grammar books I bought at college in a sale they had. As for the TV license; you need one to watch TV online since it's still receiving TV signal. But, yeah, I figured I could split it. I'd have to ask the girls I'm going to be staying with.

Thank you for that link. I've saved it in my favourites along with Student Cash Point.

As for a gap year -- I wish! Nah, I've applied and accepted everything now, so I have to go through with it. Plus there are literally no jobs where I live. I asked last week but it's always "drop off your CV" or "wait until Christmas", so...

 

[Space Cowboy]

. As for the TV license; you need one to watch TV online since it's still receiving TV signal.

I swear that that's only if you watch live tv. You should be fine otherwise, you'll probably get a letter or two saying you should buy a license however everybody gets those letters. I know people who have tvs in their room yet still get their letters.

I actually got a "This is the second letter we've sent to you..." from the license company in my second month in accommodation.

As for the bursaries, my university does them up to £600. I think it depends on the University as the range we go from is £10 - £600 bursary.

You can find yourself with the need to buy less food than you think with this £50 a week shiznits. I find that £20-£30 normally suffices. Cheap chocolate is the best chocolate : P I know one guy who didn't get ANY of his loans till easter and he managed to survive which was amazing.

For books, I remember at one lecture the lecturer was saying about a skip (literally) full of second hand books about our subject and just go and take the ones you want. Second hand books would be best I think, I managed to get an apparent 'essential' book for my course for a pound off Amazon.