The Student Room Group

Students- How much do you live on a week?

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Are these amounts your all posting after accommodation, contents insurance, mobile phone, laundry, course costs and saving for the weeks ur not at uni for the bill that still need be paid? If not ur more skint than you thought. I always try to work out worst case sanario so that there is a buffer for unexpected ocurances. And after all this i have £28 a week for food. Dnt know how im going aford a life yet. Need a shed or somewhere to clean scrap and sell it on ebay lol


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Asian shops are great!

Buy a fat sack of potatoes (onions too) but KEEP IN THE FRIDGE.

Lidl and aldi are your friend.

As has been said buy in bulk.
Reply 62
Original post by Chronist
What about transport? Or do you just walk? Toiletries? Don't be dirty!


sacrifices must be made :P

but yeah I can walk just about everywhere I need to in Birmingham and the toiletries where kind of covered in the weekly food shopping :colondollar:
Reply 63
Original post by robthefool
My loan is the minimum (£3,560 or whatever it is) yet my accommodation is £4,300! I come from a large family and my parents are well off, but because there are more of us they can't afford to give me lots of money to help, it's not fair!


I'm pretty sure SF takes that into consideration. Why else would your parents need to list the names of dependents?


I think some students are a bit off their heads... £55/week? What are you eating?

Last year I was living off £25/week including sweets, cakes and ice creams. Sometimes I'd stretch to £30 or £40 if I was going out or to any event.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 64
Original post by Chronist
Filling? Go ut 3 times per week? How much (or rather how less) do you drink? Also females have free entries to most clubs because of the meat market theory. I don't want to be disrespectful but you are female. Most females are focused on diets and don't really eat that much. I would like to know how much calories do you ingest per day. The minimum is around 1500-1800 kcal for females. :smile:


I live with 6 other people and we all put in £10 for food a week. Guess that solves all the queries. :colondollar: Still spend £5 a week on my own lunch things though. However I do have a friend who does exactly the same as me, but doesn't put in money for a group shop and still spends £40 a week.

I drink about half a bottle of vodka or 1 and a 1/2 bottles of wine and some vodka before going out.. Then when out I have about 4 or 5 tequilas or sambucas (they are £1 or £1.50) and a couple of vodka and cokes (£1.50). However I think I save money here because I often get brought drinks by friends etc so barely spend anything in the club. :colondollar:
£15 on food
£10 bottle of vodka or £8 wine.
£15ish in clubs

As for food. I am health concious and live with my personal trainer (handy eh :tongue:) However all evening meals consist of something like toad in the hole, shepards pie, homemade pies, chicken parcels, lasagne etc and I freeze portions for future meals. Lunch consists of lots of protein and carbs. My mum's a chef so I guess her influence has helped a lot in saving money.
Some weeks it's £30, other times its £40. Either way, some of the people on this thread get a stupid amount!
I eat around 1,300calories a day as I'm loosing body fat at the moment and toning up.

Original post by Aramiss18
Teeeeeeeaccccccccch meeee!! :tongue:

Just finished my third year so relatively experienced I could never afford 3 nights out a week.


I think the fact that I put £10 into my flat's weekly shopping budget is the solution to your problem. :colone: However my friend also lives on £40 a week and she buys the own brand things and is very concious about what she buys. Making sure that each meal she does, uses up the ingredients she has brought. She also freezes most things and could easily go two weeks without buying anything and eat the frozen meals. Coupons, shopping around, going to the reduced section at the right time (2 salmon fillets for £1.20) and spotting a deal also helps. :smile:
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 65
Original post by welshfrankie
I hope so! How much is your accommodation costing?


ermmm. around £95 a week, which isnt so bad but because student finance have ****** everything up im left with £194 a term to live on! plus whatever i can save
Reply 66
Original post by kiai8
ermmm. around £95 a week, which isnt so bad but because student finance have ****** everything up im left with £194 a term to live on! plus whatever i can save


:eek:
Reply 67
Original post by mrppaulo
sacrifices must be made :P

but yeah I can walk just about everywhere I need to in Birmingham and the toiletries where kind of covered in the weekly food shopping :colondollar:


You are lucky you don't live in London. Here that would be impossible. I mean it's even impossible to get everywhere (within 2 hours maximum) by BUS!
You could easily live on £55 a week. There is also the option of a part time job to bring in the extra cash.
Reply 69
I live off £515 a month at the moment. From that you have to deduct £235 for rent and bills, £100 for food, £42 for a public transport season ticket, which leaves me with a not very spectacular £138 (£40 a week) for everything else. Larger purchases e.g. curtains and a new pedal bin just have to be put off until my partner (who earns about the same as me) has finished his professional apprenticeship (Ausbildung) and is earning a starting salary of about £20 000 a year. He has even less because he has a very expensive phone contract and refuses to give up smoking. Just one year to go!!
(edited 11 years ago)
I find my weekly shopping bill is £15-£20, so how are people saying £30 for food O_O. I could make that cheaper if I didn't indulge with that slightly too! Bus ticket= £280 for the year or works out less than £5 a week. Other expenses are what I incur really, such as going out, or going dancing. Around exam time if I'm not doing anything £30 a week is enough. Although I guess you have to factor 'other' in there, but that for me would be about £15 a month maximum.
Reply 71
Original post by Chronist
:eek:


Student Finance are mean :frown: I really don't want to live in halls, I want to find like a house of first years to cut my costs down :frown:
My budget for the 2012-2013 academic year:

Accommodation and Food/Toiletries: $11,500 (though will probably only spend around 11k...I always go a bit over on my budgets to be safe and make sure I have enough)

Fun: $200/month - $1,800 total

Travel: $2,000

Miscellaneous: $100/month (books, clothes, etc) - $900 total

So if you cut it down to a per week basis, it's exactly $450, but that includes accommodation, not just spending money.

And before anyone judges, I'm paying for this all by myself.
Original post by SaySaam
I find it a lot cheaper not to buy the kits. You can buy 8 tortilla wraps for £1.20 and then bulk buy spices to add to the chicken or whatever you'll put in it. It's more initially but it means you don't pay out for ages afterwards.

And also, learn when to hit the reduced sections of the local shops - it makes meat and things like that a lot cheaper :smile:


Ahh good point! Thanks :smile:
Reply 74
Just wondering, how much did you guys spend during freshers week? Could I last the week with about £150/£200 or do you spend A LOT considering you are going out and drinking?
Reply 75
Do you think it is realistic to work 20 hours a week in the first year??
Reply 76
My allowance last year was £68 per week minus rent, and I always managed to keep my costs below £30, usually closer to £15-20 on food alone. Even managed approx. £10 on food on some weeks, but it depends on your cooking style and how good you are at finding cheap products. That, and whether or not you're the sort of person who buys snacks/fizzy drinks.

Honestly, £55 is probably more than enough. Obviously, it depends on the cost of living at your city, but if you shop smart and try to hunt out clubs and venues that have lower entry fees you should be all good. That, and try not to go shopping for new clothes, etc. every week - a girl in my old flat had the exact same amount of money I did, yet found herself in her overdraft multiple times in the year, whereas I've managed to finish my first year with more money than I started with. You might want to reclassify some things as a "treat" that you need to save up for.
Reply 77
Original post by ivka
Do you think it is realistic to work 20 hours a week in the first year??


my uni recommends 10 but depends on the course you do
Reply 78
My mate works in a racing yard and he put me on all the best horses and made about £3500 in my first week of this accumulator he told me to do and I used that to spend during my first year.
Reply 79
I've been at uni for three years (1 year foundaton and 2 years undergrad) and you can easily live on £25 a week (not includin alcohol because i don't drink) But its all about budgeting and making sure you only buy what you need (meal plans, shoppin lists and freezer space will be your friends) I tend to buy more (i.e. 500g of mince instead of 2x 250g as its cheaper) cook a bi spagett and freeze it. this also means i have cooked once but eaten for 4/5 days. Also cook with a friend(s), this make it cheaper and you don't always have to cook either.

Aldi, lidl and reduce sections are great, try to pre drink at home and get to clubs before they start charging entry. Don't order a cab unless you really need to (but don't walk alone!) and have fun.

Also freshers week is a great chance to get lots of free pens, mugs, bottle openers and vouchers for clubs and food. Don't miss it!

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