The Student Room Group

Big problem, £374 to live on for a year!?

I just added together my NHS bursary, NHS grant and Student Loan (Maintainance Loan) and it comes out as £5124 all together per year. My accomodation per year is £4750, leaving me with £374 per year to live on. I'm on an NHS course and will be required to pay for 2 sets of accomodation (1 up where i do my medical placement) and of course i'll need food, books and the ability to socialize every now and again!
How on earth am i meant to manage with £374 for all that? Someone help :frown:

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Reply 1
Unfortunately the only option sounds like a part-time job... I don't know of any other way of getting money, sorry
Reply 2
£1 chicken n chips everyday m8
Reply 3
Yeah i'm thinking a part time job will definitely have to be an option ... but even then it looks like i'm gonna be struggling! Yep, i'll be obese by the time i leave lol!
Or dead. From the malnutrition I mean.





On a lighter note, I hope you find a job :smile: Good luck, it'll be tricky but I'm sure you'll pull through!
Reply 5
A part-time job, on a medicine course....probably a bad idea considering how everyone goes on about how time consuming it is. :frown:

A few things could help though:-
- Find cheaper accomodation if possible, forget about en-suite and even wash basins.
- Open a student bank account and use the overdraft, E.G:- Halifax allow a £3000 interest free
overdraft.
-Hope that your uni do an insane amount of scholarships :/

And lastly beg, beg, BEG you parents, grandparents, cousins and people you meet on the street for some cash :biggrin:

That's my plan anyway. No wash basin FTW!
What about overdrafts? Student account holders can get them interest free from most banks.
Can you not borrow money from family?
Reply 7
your probably going to have to look for a job, and if you can't find one/ cant realistically have one with your course you will have to rely on your overdraft.
Reply 8
Is there no way you can get a flat halfway between the two and commute?
Reply 9
Blimey thats alot to live on lol

Seriously though do consider trying to get cheaper accomodation if you can so then you can try and save a bot of cash. And of course as everyone else said a part time job so atleast you will have some income, however it will be a struggle trying to work and study at the same time.
Reply 10
Original post by AnnaW123
I just added together my NHS bursary, NHS grant and Student Loan (Maintainance Loan) and it comes out as £5124 all together per year. My accomodation per year is £4750, leaving me with £374 per year to live on. I'm on an NHS course and will be required to pay for 2 sets of accomodation (1 up where i do my medical placement) and of course i'll need food, books and the ability to socialize every now and again!
How on earth am i meant to manage with £374 for all that? Someone help :frown:


That's quite a common amount to be left with I'm afraid, I had the same shock this time last year, and a lot of my mates had loans that didn't even cover their accommodation fully. I don't know if you have thought about student bank accounts yet, but one with an interest free overdraft is great.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App
Reply 11
Have already paid for the accomodation so will have to live in it for at least the first year, its only £95 a week but is for 50 weeks!! Malnutrition is a definite possibility haha :P I already have a £1400 overdraft, which is included in my calculations, after i get a part time job which i suppose i'll just have to struggle with alongside my course, my last things will be WAAA parents help me, or waaaa bank give me a personal loan please :tongue: Haha, thanks for your replies guys, keep em coming :')
Reply 12
Original post by AnnaW123
I just added together my NHS bursary, NHS grant and Student Loan (Maintainance Loan) and it comes out as £5124 all together per year. My accomodation per year is £4750, leaving me with £374 per year to live on. I'm on an NHS course and will be required to pay for 2 sets of accomodation (1 up where i do my medical placement) and of course i'll need food, books and the ability to socialize every now and again!
How on earth am i meant to manage with £374 for all that? Someone help :frown:


I agree with above, the accommodation cost looks excessive. It looks like that is way above £100 a week. Are you going to be in London by any chance? Either way, I'd advise looking for somewhere cheaper if anywhere is still available. How long are your semesters?
Reply 13
Nope its just £95 a week for 50 weeks! I've paid the deposit now so cant really back out without getting myself into more debt :/ eek, jeez why do they think that because my dad earns alright that he's going to pay me through uni! :P
Reply 14
Original post by OhNoes
- Open a student bank account and use the overdraft, E.G:- Halifax allow a £3000 interest free


If that really is your plan I'd suggest you ask Halifax about it. Because that's *******s.
Reply 15
What sort of uni expects 2 types of accomodation? Do they run concurrently?
Reply 16
You'll have to apply for cheaper accommodation. The cheapest is generally below the basic student loan amount (probably has to be), i.e. 3500. Living out in a house seems to cost about that mark as well. Plead financial hardship to your uni and they will happily transfer you to a different one, that sort of thing happens a lot, in many unis some people end up "twinned" for the first few days because they're still sorting out all the stragglers even in September.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 17
Yeah, though if i ask Halifax would that affect my current student account at co-op? Cos i know you cant have 2 :smile: And i'm doing a medical course, we have to pay for 2 accomodations whilst on clinical placement (one at the uni and one wherever our placement is) they re-fund the cheaper one at the end of the year... which is all well and good but we still have to pay it outright first!
Reply 18
Original post by Norton1
If that really is your plan I'd suggest you ask Halifax about it. Because that's *******s.


Halifax do allow an interest free overdraft up to £3000 for the duration of your course plus one year.
Reply 19
Damn, i'm already with Co-Op though :frown: Apparently my loan should be £3575 not £2343, so i'll be ringing them tomorrow demanding more money in the name of malnutrition!! :P

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