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Living at uni on a student budget

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Original post by brownsugar-xx
Thanks for the help :tongue:


No problem :tongue:
Original post by SophieSmall
Lots of frozen veg every few weeks, frozen mixed fruit pot every few weeks, bags of frozen chicken or fish every few weeks, pasta is incredibly cheap as is pasta sauce. Greek yoghurt to mix with things such as fruit can be super cheap. If you're smart about it it really isn't hard.
I bought that exact same stuff pretty much at uni but I couldn't manage less than about £17 a week. Perhaps that extra £7 was because I am a guy so I need to eat more?

I don't think less than £10 a week is possible even for a girl. Not unless you don't eat meat or you eat tiny portions.
Original post by snowman77
I bought that exact same stuff pretty much at uni but I couldn't manage less than about £17 a week. Perhaps that extra £7 was because I am a guy so I need to eat more?

I don't think less than £10 a week is possible even for a girl. Not unless you don't eat meat or you eat tiny portions.


I don't know I eat quite a lot (gained weight in fact D: ), but I found it easy on around £10 or just under a week, and I did eat meat :tongue: I shop around, I buy value stuff and I cook stuff properly.
Original post by snowman77
I bought that exact same stuff pretty much at uni but I couldn't manage less than about £17 a week. Perhaps that extra £7 was because I am a guy so I need to eat more?

I don't think less than £10 a week is possible even for a girl. Not unless you don't eat meat or you eat tiny portions.


Definitely possible to do £10 a week. That was fortnightly for two people at one point for us.

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Original post by SophieSmall
I don't know I eat quite a lot (gained weight in fact D: ), but I found it easy on around £10 or just under a week, and I did eat meat :tongue: I shop around, I buy value stuff and I cook stuff properly.


:top:

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Original post by SophieSmall
I don't know I eat quite a lot (gained weight in fact D: ), but I found it easy on around £10 or just under a week, and I did eat meat :tongue: I shop around, I buy value stuff and I cook stuff properly.
I shopped in several different places but couldn't manage below £16 or £17 a week without cutting portion sizes. This was bulk buying frozen chicken, pasta, vegetables, milk and eggs.

I'd love to know a breakdown of your prices and quantities you bought! :tongue:
Original post by snowman77
I shopped in several different places but couldn't manage below £16 or £17 a week without cutting portion sizes. This was bulk buying frozen chicken, pasta, vegetables, milk and eggs.

I'd love to know a breakdown of your prices and quantities you bought! :tongue:


Hmm maybe you do really eat a lot more than me :tongue: do you lift bro? :3
I live on average of £6 a week and I even shop in Sainsburys.

Tip is to bulk buy and get the deals. I only go shopping every two months, but I spend £50 or so at a time.

It's manageable if you love frozen food, tinned soup and noodles! Of course I did manage to squeeze in a tub of Haagen Dazs. :smile:

Sainsburys own brand and basics food is really good quality. (Especially their cookie dough ice cream...)


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(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 28
You all make my £45 a week budget look like absolute childs play to keep to. I spend like £25 a week on food, the other £20 is for fun stuff.

At the start of the Freshers Mum thought I'd be OK on £35 a week. By the time the first Carnage came around in mid-November she saw a picture of me looking rather skeletal. I told her that I was having to decide between meat for a week or a 3rd night out a week so she caved and gave me an increase. I get another one to £55 per year this year apparently due to the increasing price of food so I am happy!
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by rayquaza17
I live on average of £6 a week and I even shop in Sainsburys.

Tip is to bulk buy and get the deals. I only go shopping every two months, but I spend £50 or so at a time.

It's manageable if you love frozen food, tinned soup and noodles! Of course I did manage to squeeze in a tub of Haagen Dazs. :smile:

Sainsburys own brand and basics food is really good quality. (Especially their cookie dough ice cream...)


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I love the sainburys own brand apple juice! It's so much nicer than tescos :tongue:
Reply 30
Original post by AsleyM
Hi all I'm new on here! And will be in my first year in September at uni.

My my question to you guys is about budget and managing your money.

After my accommodation is paid off I will have about £470 left of my maintenance loan to live off. I will hopefully of saved about £900 by the time uni rolls around to add to this. This should give me about £1370 for the year.

I will abously have to get a job to support my self, but can it be done on such a tight budget? My parents will help were they can but I want to go this alone and stand on my own two feet.

What are your experiences, and is anyone else also worrying about money intheir first year?


From my calculations, that means that you will have £28 per week to spend.

You need to factor into this not just food (I spend about £25/week, but one of my flatmates spent between 10 and 15), but nights out (£5 club entry, plus alcohol), textbooks, paper, stationery, toiletries, toilet roll, washing up liquid, any new clothes/shoes/underwear, washing clothes, EMERGENCY MONEY (very important, cost me £30 to replace a key that I had lost)...

So potentially you can, but it will be tight!

I spent £2840 last year on everything that I needed/wanted. Not including rent.
Correction: When I said £6 a week I meant £6 for food.

Apologies.


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Original post by brownsugar-xx
under £10!? what do you buy?


Original post by SophieSmall
Due to being in a low income family I luckily don't have to worry about budgeting to much as I get high student finance, but my family have lived off an extremely low budget all our lives so I am used to budgets and not having luxuries. For a single person if you really try your best to budget and not splash out on brands or be too fussy on food you can easily do a weekly food shop for £10-15 I usually spend just under ten pound a week on food.

You need to start setting up a budget now and looking at how much things are going to cost you so it comes as less of a shock in September.


Same :smile: I wouldn't say £10 but for around £20 you can eat quiet healthy. One advice would be try buying food that can be used in different recipes. For example making a veggie pasta. The leftover sauce could be used to make tortilas/tacos. Btw this example is rubbish because I couldn't think of one at the moment.

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Original post by lala121
Same :smile: I wouldn't say £10 but for around £20 you can eat quiet healthy. One advice would be try buying food that can be used in different recipes. For example making a veggie pasta. The leftover sauce could be used to make tortilas/tacos. Btw this example is rubbish because I couldn't think of one at the moment.

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I understood what you meant :tongue:
Reply 34
I'm will be in a similar (although more generous) situation where I'm left with £1,700 for the year, and I've planned for a max. of £20 for food+toiletries a week...I generally like most cheaper food but still eat a lot of pasta/noodles/soup and fresh fruit and veg ^^
Budgets will mean nothing, especially during freshers.

The way I managed on my loan was to eat extremely cheaply and RARELY buy takeaways, I bought maybe three McDonalds and pizza then subway when my bro visited in my first 2 years.

Butchers and greengrocers are your friend as are LIDL/ALDI.

Always have something delicious and available to reheat at home/halls after a night out, this will save so much money.

It can be tough though, when I was at uni 2006> I could get a full week of shopping for about £11-14. It's surely much more now.
(edited 9 years ago)

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