Uni students: How much of your loan have you spent so far this year?

Out of your maintenance loan (apart from accommodation)

Not including accommodation, I'd estimate that I've spent about £900.

To break that down, I spend about £100 a month on everyday expenses (mostly food and toiletries, I usually get any new clothes I need as christmas or birthday gifts). Add £100 on top of that for leisure activities (TV, theatre, dining out, cinema, books, Netflix and other subscriptions). And then the other £100 is travelling home for Christmas, because I live quite far from my parents.

I know that's probably a fair bit more than average, but I work summers and I worked part-time during term last year, so I've been treating myself to nicer stuff this year.

To me, I thought travel would be a lot, but of course depends where the student lives.

Food being £100 a month.. I feel like that’s reasonable ~ i dunno if i could manage it though

£100 on leisure is decent...

How much is your accomodation if you don’t mind me asking? Also r u living in halls?

Lastly, when did you look to get accomodation and how does it work with puttinf a deposit but not going to that uni? Ie deposit on accomodation for the insurance and firm uni?! Thanks

Yeah, my only travel expense is travelling home, because I live close enough to uni to walk (I've caught the bus maybe 2-3 times this semester, because I was out late).

My accommodation comes in about £900 a quarter (most student places won't charge you monthly in my experience) and then on top of that about £300 per quarter for utilities (tho we pay for all inclusive which is more expensive). This is private rented accommodation. I've splashed out for a nice house this year; I've lived in much cheaper accommodation (about £1100 a quarter including bills) and it wasn't really that bad.

I lived in halls in first year and found the rent to be frustratingly high, though at the time I had never worked so I only had my loan which deffo wasn't cutting it for me (I had £150 spending money a month, £50 of which was lent to me by my parents, who I've since paid back).

I can't say what happens with a deposit if you don't get in, because I got into my firm choice university.

I don’t want to live in halls the first year, as I want my own place and am not a party sort of person ~ prefer my own place, though i’m social. But my worry is costs.. while living away, i may have to take a bus to uni if private accomodation is far from uni..

Did you book accomodation for your insurance as well though?

If you're applying for a city university, you should have no issue commuting from private accommodation. In my city, the university is closer to most private accommodation than to halls.

If you're planning to live alone just on student loans, you may struggle. Private accommodation tends to be cheaper in my experience, but even in private accommodation everybody I know house shares. My rent would be triple if I didn't house share, which student finance would nowhere near cover.

I didn't book accommodation for my insurance. In general, people don't do this. Student housing companies are aware of how the firm/insurance system works and they'll be able to help you find a place to stay in most cases.

Also, I know you didn't necessarily ask for advice on this, but I just want to put in a quick word for halls. I'm definitely not a party person, I've been on one night out this whole semester, but I really enjoyed living in halls and it's a much easier way to acclimate to student life. If your university has halls that are known for being 'quieter' (which mine did), it might be worth checking out.