Article: Five things you should budget for at uni - the rest is up to you

A couple of things not mentioned on there.

-don't forget to budget for a deposit for second year accommodation. And a lot will start asking for rent before you get your next student finance payment through. So be aware of that, or you could end up in the ****ter.

-Remember that often you get less student finance in your final year, up to a third less. Though you still have to pay for the same amount of accommodation. So unless you put some money aside for final year or have family who can help out. You're going to find the most stressful year of university...even more stressful.

Why do you get less student finance in your third year? I thought it was means tested year on year?

Student finance are pretty sneaky about it, it's a shock for most students. It only says in one of their online information PDFs (which is hard to find) that in final year you can get up to a third less. The reasoning for this is that you don't need the full amount as you finish in May (usually) and as such shouldn't need the money to cover you over summer when in previous years you are still counted as a student over summer.

That's really stupid! And surely with final year stuff like dissertations you need more money? Whoever invented the student finance system has a lot to answer for!

Yeah, it is pretty silly. As like I said you still have to pay the same amount in accommodation costs. The thing that really annoys me is that SF don't inform you before hand, and so it is a massive shock to students who are already very stressed.

They could at least inform you before you agree to your 3 year (or 4 in Scotland) Uni course. They tell you to budget, but they don't give you a clear idea of the amount of money you will actually have! Well, I'm pleased I'm forewarned so that I can save up a bit before then, so thanks I'm so annoyed that they don't make this clear earlier though! It's like the government scrapping maintenance grants next year, even though everyone had already applied to Uni by the time of the budget. Of course, if your parents are rich you're fine. Typical. What happened to the idea of social mobility in this country!?

Yeah, I don't understand why they're not clear about it. they much get thousands of calls that could have been avoided all asking why they don't have as much money. If they were just clear about it in the first place they'd save everyone time and money. It's absolute idiocy.

It's like they're persuading everyone to go to Uni then leaving them in the lurch in third year. It's the same with how late they pay you once you're at Uni, my payment timetable says I get my money from SFE on the 21st and my accommodation has to be paid on the 20th. I should be able to aford it at a stretch (and with temporary use of student bank account overdraft) but it's a pain. They don't seem to understand that not everyone has access to unlimited funds, and I know some people will be in a worse position than me.

Yeah, the reason they pay the first instalment that late is that they want to verify with the uni that you're actually attending before they pay you any money. You have to be registered at university.

But I feel your pain, my rent was due on the 1st, don't get my SF instalment til the 28th.

Ouch! Well, the system clearly needs reform. I'm really annoyed now. I think I'll go on change.org and sign a few petitions to make me feel better haha.

Regarding textbooks, which are ridiculously overpriced, you can normally get them online all for free. if you google them you can normally find a download somewhere which can help the poorer uni students immensely