can i survive on £50 a week

hello, I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but can i survive on £50 a week at uni, ill be living at home and there is a free uni bus that will take me uni everyday. the thing is i have a saturday where i get paid about £50 a day and my whole plan was survive on the money i get from work and save the money i get from my maintenance grant and other bursaries. i talked to a lot of people that live at home and go to the same uni and they all say that its impossible.

Reply 1

Blues Clues

13

Original post by alansmith123

hello, I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but can i survive on £50 a week at uni, ill be living at home and there is a free uni bus that will take me uni everyday. the thing is i have a saturday where i get paid about £50 a day and my whole plan was survive on the money i get from work and save the money i get from my maintenance grant and other bursaries. i talked to a lot of people that live at home and go to the same uni and they all say that its impossible.

...you're living at home. You're not buying food, doing laundry or any of that. That's more than enough! Even transportation is free. People have survived on much less :P Don't worry about it. Just make sure you're budgeting and not spending lavishly.

Reply 2

happysmile

18

Original post by alansmith123

hello, I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but can i survive on £50 a week at uni, ill be living at home and there is a free uni bus that will take me uni everyday. the thing is i have a saturday where i get paid about £50 a day and my whole plan was survive on the money i get from work and save the money i get from my maintenance grant and other bursaries. i talked to a lot of people that live at home and go to the same uni and they all say that its impossible.

yeah, its possible. If you don't have to pay for accomodation, the bills, transport. The weekly grocery shopping in our family used to be around £50 a week. Just budget carefully and don't buy unneccessary things.

Reply 3

dragonkeeper999

17

Yes, you should have plenty of money to live off! I go to uni in one of the most expensive cities and probably spend around 30 pounds a week - and I know people who live at other unis who are managing on half that. My main cost is food - as you are living at home you may be able to persuade your parents to help with this anyway? If you enjoy going out a lot it could get expensive - but again this depends a lot on where you are in the country, at some unis you can have a great night out for under 5 pounds, whereas for me it would be two or three times that!

This is assuming you are not paying for accommodation though - if your parents are expecting you to contribute towards this you may have more of an issue. Uni accommodation typically costs 70-150 pounds a week, but private accommodation is often cheaper - so your parents could easily charge 50 pounds a week and not feel guilty...

It would be a good idea to create a budget for the year to get an idea of what are essential costs (books, stationary, course costs/ field trips, accommodation, food, transport, etc. - although it sounds like the last few will be free/ pretty cheap for you) and what are optional costs (going out, socialising, joining societies, holidays, etc.). You can use this to work out how 'tight' you need to be with your money :smile:

Also, bear in mind that uni is much more work than A levels, so you may not be able to work a whole day a week without affecting your studies. Your priority should really be to get good results rather than to graduate with a bit more cash - having a 2:1 will help you much more in the long run than having a 2:2 but less debt.

Reply 4

yabbayabba

17

Yes that's loads, you're not paying for any essentials at all.

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Reply 5

zKlown

19

If you're living at home, not paying transport costs. You could survive on no money at all.

Wouldn't be much of a life but yeah

Reply 6

bumblebee342

13

Original post by alansmith123

hello, I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but can i survive on £50 a week at uni, ill be living at home and there is a free uni bus that will take me uni everyday. the thing is i have a saturday where i get paid about £50 a day and my whole plan was survive on the money i get from work and save the money i get from my maintenance grant and other bursaries. i talked to a lot of people that live at home and go to the same uni and they all say that its impossible.

I was in halls buying food and going out and lived off less than £50 when I wasn't doing so well with my money, you should be fine :lol:

Reply 7

Tiger Rag

22

Moved to Money & Finance

Most students living away from home live off less than that per week and get by.

Reply 8

2710

18

Why don't you just do a little budgetting? If you are living at home with free transport.....you practically have no expenses to pay.

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Reply 9

alansmith123

OP

yeah i think i may get by just fine, my main cost will most likely be food, and thats just during the day for lunch, everything else is pretty much free. i don't drink or go partying as so i think I'm sorted

Reply 10

alansmith123

OP

and my work place is a pharmacy and as I'm doing pharmacy i think it will be really useful and plus hardly anyone every goes in so i can study whilst at work :smile:

Easily