How much money will you be living off per week at uni?

About £300 a week after paying for accommodation. I really doubt I'm going to be spending all of that...

The question is: is it better to keep the spare money (maybe in a low risk investment that keeps up with the interest) or to not take a loan in the first place?

I'm sorry what?
I've been studying in London for the past 3 years and I've neve spent that much in a week apart from freshers week and that had a £50 uni trip cost thrown in. You can easily easily have a brilliant time on half that.

Depends where you're living in relation to Uni, and what hobbies you have. My accommodation is far enough away to mean that I'm straight away paying £20 a week on public transport. My sport society requires £6 a week, Gym membership £7 a week, printing/books for Uni probably average out at £6 a week. £30 on food if I'm lucky (and I have a big appetite and need meat and fresh veg, so that is really pushing it). So that is already £70 a week, not including going out, phone bill, and any of those other little costs that seems to add up.

Now I know you could say walk instead of public transport, but the walk is well over an hour, I'm in uni everyday, and also need the transport to get to gym, societies, nightbus after a night out etc. I could get rid of the gym, societies, meat fresh veg etc, but that would be sacrificing my general health/well-being.

All in all, I really regret coming to Uni in London. Up north I could be paying 50% less for accommodation, no need for public transport, and nights out with Jaegerbombs for £1 as opposed to £5!

Don't go to London kids!

I'm sorry what?
I've been studying in London for the past 3 years and I've neve spent that much in a week apart from freshers week and that had a £50 uni trip cost thrown in. You can easily easily have a brilliant time on half that.

Really? Taking in to account food, travel costs, and going out? I'm a big drinker so... But I'm pretty crap at budgeting & I like spending ridiculous amounts on clothes but I've cut back on that now.

Depends where you're living in relation to Uni, and what hobbies you have. My accommodation is far enough away to mean that I'm straight away paying £20 a week on public transport. My sport society requires £6 a week, Gym membership £7 a week, printing/books for Uni probably average out at £6 a week. £30 on food if I'm lucky (and I have a big appetite and need meat and fresh veg, so that is really pushing it). So that is already £70 a week, not including going out, phone bill, and any of those other little costs that seems to add up.

Now I know you could say walk instead of public transport, but the walk is well over an hour, I'm in uni everyday, and also need the transport to get to gym, societies, nightbus after a night out etc. I could get rid of the gym, societies, meat fresh veg etc, but that would be sacrificing my general health/well-being.

All in all, I really regret coming to Uni in London. Up north I could be paying 50% less for accommodation, no need for public transport, and nights out with Jaegerbombs for £1 as opposed to £5!

Don't go to London kids!

EXACTLY LIKE ME I have found a kindred spirit, my friends think it's funny that I'm so frugal and I split my pay packets between my savings account and my current account every week. I'm like, let's see who's laughing when you've run out of money at uni and I have the savings I set up as a 17 year old to fall back on xD

I think the maximum loan and grant is £7177.


Depending on which accommodation I choose I'll be living off either £105 or £94 or £80(en-suite) per week. I'm not sure whether that's comfortable or not though.

You'll need some extra cushion-y money for housing deposits and so on, so if I were you I would take it and save it, you'd not lose much if you used it to pay it straight back at the end of uni.
(You may be able to take it just for the first term)

This is true, but I mean at the end of my course, is it better to have £10-20k in savings that keep up with the interest (eg peer lending) or a student loan that's smaller by that amount. Looking at various calculations I could end up paying back a lot more, but the benefit would be either a large amount in savings for when I need it, or the option not to borrow money at much higher interest rates if I need to pay for something like a car or a deposit.

I genuinely don't know - I would say it's better to have that lump sum.

Thanks, I wouldn't really expect anyone to be able to say, but my instinct is that it would be better to have it as well, especially given the uncertainty of whether I'll actually end up paying it back or not. If I go into my first choice, which is academia, there's no chance I'm going to pay the whole thing back so not taking the loan would be refusing free money I guess.

haha I have two bank accounts too - I'm planning to transfer all the money I am not allowed to spend from my main one into my other one for uni, so I only have the money intended for that year in my main one so I don't see all my money in my account and think "hmm, i have a lot of money, taking this out won't hurt" (although I doubt I'd do that anyway). Plus, I don't have expensive tastes so stuff like sainsburys basics/aldi food is good for me, to keep food costs down.

Hey! Now that you speak about bank accounts. Can u help me with this: I am EU student and don't have a bank account. What kind of account / bank do u recommend? Thanks a lot

Ah same, I think being too young to go out drinking works out in my favour... I know people who go out two or three times a week... That's not a cheap habit to maintain!

Each to their own but London living doesn't have to be that expensive.
I don't know how much your phone bill is but I still don't know how you'd be spending another £55 pounds a week on top of these things.
Societies are normally annual costs so that's pennies a week not pounds.
If you're paying Gym Membership weekly you're likely to get charged a lot more - why not go for a monthly or even an annual cost?

I understand the transport cost but do you have a student oyster? or if you have a young person railcard put this onto your oyster and then you can get a discount of around a third on weekly/monthly passes which are always cheaper than daily ones.

If you have the means to live on this lifestyle than by all accounts ignore me but don't tar the whole of London living with the same brush. I have held down part time job(s) during my studies and still don't spend that much. It's definitely do-able.