Is £50 a week enough for the first 17 weeks of uni?

Hi all, i've looked at how much money i'm entitled to and deducted this from the accommodation costs. The problem is that i'm going to have around £50 left over for the first few months of university. Is this enough, bearing in mind i should be a catered students? How much do people usually spend during freshers?

Thanks.

Reply 1

Chicharito14

Yep, all sorted, especially since you are catered.

I'm in self catered halls at the moment, and i spend £30-£50 a week on food, depending how lazy i am with cooking etc.

Considering you are in catered halls, you will probably only need to spend £20 max on food, per week, depending on how many meals per week your halls provides (it varies from each uni).

For freshers, i took £200, and that was just about more than enough. See if you can get around £100-£200 for freshers, and you'll be more than sorted.

Reply 2

Darkphilosopher

I've looked at how much money I'm "entitled" (i.e. student loan) to and it turns out that it isn't even enough to cover accomodation costs...

Reply 3

tamimi

Money's tight for most students.

Seeing as you're in a catered hall, at least you have the comfort of knowing you won't starve. You should be fine as long as you're not a big spender.

Try and tone down on nights out and meals out.

Also, you can always sign up for a P/t job with the SU.

Sin Cera

Reply 4

Tiger Rag

Original post by Chicharito14

Considering you are in catered halls, you will probably only need to spend £20 max on food, per week, depending on how many meals per week your halls provides (it varies from each uni).

To me, that seems high if you're catered.

Reply 5

SirMasterKey

Original post by OU Student

To me, that seems high if you're catered.

Depends really. For example if you just breakfast and dinner but no lunch, you might just buy something everyday so can easily spend £20. Personally I'd say £50 is more than enough in first year.

Get to second and third year when you have to consider bills as well :P

Reply 6

hypercaine.

That will be more than enough, I had less than that and was catered for first year and I lived very comfortably. You wont spend £50 a week, I had to buy my own lunch twice a week and didnt really go to breakfast, you will buy other stuff though such as you only get given the 3 meals a day.

Reply 7

senator88

Original post by Chicharito14

I don't even spend £20 and i'm self-catered

OP, it sounds like you will have enough, but you should still work out a budget i.e. how much you intend to spend on nights out per week etc :smile:

Reply 8

AliceStrawbs

Original post by senator88

I don't even spend £20 and i'm self-catered

OP, it sounds like you will have enough, but you should still work out a budget i.e. how much you intend to spend on nights out per week etc :smile:

I totally agree - £35-£40 big shop can last me up to 3 weeks if I just top up on milk and maybe bread and some extra veg.

To the OP - £50 will be plenty, most people at uni pre-drink anyway and don't spend money once they've paid to get in to places. Obviously some nights on freshers might include a bar crawl but you'll just have to be savvy :smile:

Reply 9

CJAW

You might need a bit more for the first couple of weeks - joining clubs, the gym etc. But if you take a 17 week average, £50 will probably be fine.

Reply 10

Chicharito14

Original post by OU Student

To me, that seems high if you're catered.

Original post by senator88

I don't even spend £20 and i'm self-catered

OP, it sounds like you will have enough, but you should still work out a budget i.e. how much you intend to spend on nights out per week etc :smile:

Again, it depends on the individual, where he shops for food etc. Who knows, he might play sports, and has a larger appetite than most, so will spend more money on food. Depending on how many meals he has chosen to have at self catered (some uni's provide an option for this), will obviously affect how much money he needs to spend on food throughout the week.

Reply 11

senator88

Original post by Chicharito14

It depends on the individual. I'm trying to give the guy a rough idea, because he hasn't specified how many meals he gets a week at his halls. He could be having 10 meals a week, so will obviously need a bit of money if he wants to eat out, buy food etc.

Again, it depends on the individual, where he shops for food etc. Who knows, he might play sports, and has a larger appetite than most, so will spend more money on food. Depending on how many meals he has chosen to have at self catered (some uni's provide an option for this), will obviously affect how much money he needs to spend on food throughout the week.

Yeah, obviously if you shopped at Marks and spencers or bought all brand food you could easily spend it but if I only had £50 budget a week and was catered I'd spend my money on other things! lol