Cost of Living at UoB

but surely £40 otherwise is a little excessive?

I'm in the Quads, so I'm assuming that with my catering credit I basically have my lunch or breakfast (one of the two) covered each day with the £25 per week allowance. (If it could be used in the supermarket on campus, I would wager that I could cover both, but I can't .) On top of that, I'd assume supermarket shopping for meals I'd cook for myself (basically cereals/toast in the morning and fairly cheap meals - eg cook four servings and freeze three - in the evening) would only amount to around ~£25 per week also. I know that adds to £50 rather than £40, but what I'm getting at is that if I was wholly self-catered and I made my own lunches (for a fraction of the price I'll be paying at the eateries with my card), surely the total cost for food would be nearer to £30 a week? (Just considering my second year.)

Also, in terms of the sports and social costs: I'd probably expect to go out once or twice a week (that could be anything from just going to the SU bar to clubbing) tops throughout most of the year (I have a separate budget for freshers), and I only really plan to go to the gym (£259 p/a = ~£6.8 p/w) rather than play a competitive team sport. Would I seriously be spending £40 per week on both? Again, I'd say ~£30 a week would be more reasonable.

Final, most important question, does the SU bar do discounted pints/other drinks? If so, the second budget will go a lot further, haha.

Hi there,

I'm a fresher and have just been a little thrown by this particular page concerning 'average' living costs at Bath. Most things seemed fine price wise, except for food (£40 weekly) and sports/social (£40 weekly). I understand that food could end up costing this much if one doesn't cook for them self much, but surely £40 otherwise is a little excessive?

I'm in the Quads, so I'm assuming that with my catering credit I basically have my lunch or breakfast (one of the two) covered each day with the £25 per week allowance. (If it could be used in the supermarket on campus, I would wager that I could cover both, but I can't .) On top of that, I'd assume supermarket shopping for meals I'd cook for myself (basically cereals/toast in the morning and fairly cheap meals - eg cook four servings and freeze three - in the evening) would only amount to around ~£25 per week also. I know that adds to £50 rather than £40, but what I'm getting at is that if I was wholly self-catered and I made my own lunches (for a fraction of the price I'll be paying at the eateries with my card), surely the total cost for food would be nearer to £30 a week? (Just considering my second year.)

Also, in terms of the sports and social costs: I'd probably expect to go out once or twice a week (that could be anything from just going to the SU bar to clubbing) tops throughout most of the year (I have a separate budget for freshers), and I only really plan to go to the gym (£259 p/a = ~£6.8 p/w) rather than play a competitive team sport. Would I seriously be spending £40 per week on both? Again, I'd say ~£30 a week would be more reasonable.

Final, most important question, does the SU bar do discounted pints/other drinks? If so, the second budget will go a lot further, haha.

It would be really great if any current students could tell me whether I'm being unreasonable here!

Thanks!

The main influence on food costs is your diet. If you're an average male, eat a lot of meat and do a lot of sport then you'll spend far more than if you were a 5 foot vegetarian girl.

£40 per week on sports is very OTT in my opinion, most sports are free to do with the exception of venue-booking activities like snowsports, hang gliding etc.

The SU bar & parade both do happy hour drinks, and there are several pubs in town that do great drink deals on certain days or with certain sports memberships, in the £1 pint region!

In my 1st year I was budgeting £70 per week for everything, which was food, drinking and going out. By 4th year work took over a lot more and I was on £50 per week, and would have been a lot lower if I made sandwiches instead of buying meal deals twice a day..