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Weekly costs at Oxford

Hey everyone, to all current Oxford students, barring rent, what are your average weekly costs at Oxford? Much appreciated!

Reply 1

Madprof

This year (my first), I spent £30-£35 a week on top of rent, but that's a rough mean, including weekly stuff like food as well as everything like society subs, stash orders etc (a lot of which I bought at the start of the year/term), and I spent more in my first term than in the others, so if you're depending on your student loan only (it's payable termly, with largest amount in summer) bear that in mind.

Depends on what you do/where you buy stuff/how much free stuff you can wangle. You can spend a lot less or a lot more.

Reply 2

Drogue

I spent quite a bit, usually something around £90-100 a week for everything except rent. But then, food in college, while cheap and subsidised, adds up. Even at £2 a meal, it hits £42 a week if you eat 3 meals a day in hall. Add in the occasional night out, meal out, ball ticket and regular stuff like clothes, haircuts, etc., and I don't know many people who manage on less than £60-70 a week.

If you eat in college, expect to be spending £60-100 a week depending on your tastes. If you're college gives you kitchens and you're happy using them, you can get it down to £40 or so, or less if you forgo much of a social life (or see friends for free and skip the bar/club/cinema side of things). I know people who've managed on £40 or so, but usually they don't go out to bars or clubs and watch their money carefully when it comes to food and other normal expenses.

Reply 3

meef cheese

Drogue

I agree completely. No idea how you could spend only £30 a week. I was spending loads in Michaelmas ie ~£100/week. But in Trinity it was more like £60 due to exams and personal poverty.

Reply 4

Cirsium

Agreed.

In my first term I came out at £100 a week; but that was eating every meal in hall, because there was no other option, so an instant bill of around £40 for that. Plus joining the Union, and various societies, as well as the Union Ball and the college dinner dance.

Nowadays I still budget £800 a term, but that takes me from 0th week to 10th week (i.e. 11 weeks not 8) and I still come out under, even though I still eat in hall regularly (rowing = breakfast virtually every morning, plus lunch on the days where i have lectures and labs in one day and dinners on a Thursday after choir).

I'd say it'd be very hard to manage on less than £50 a week, but it's easy to stay shy of the £100 mark if you're watching cash, and especially if you're catering for yourself.

Reply 5

°lemontree°

I spent 56 on average in Trinity...including battles but excluding stash, books and two ball tickets. If I include everything except for rent and flight tickets, it's 76 a week.

Reply 6

Quistis

According to the budget imposed by my parents, with their money-providing powers, I should be spending £30 a week, but in reality I normally spend around £35-45. However, most of that is food, toiletries etc., because I don't go clubbing (not deliberately; it's just that none of my friends do) and when I do drink it's mostly in friends' rooms or at formal. And that excludes things like impulse-buying half of Primark, which I pay for using my other bank account, and ball tickets, which my parents buy for me. :wink:

I would agree with what Drogue says - it's more than possible to get your expenditure down to the £40/week range, but only if you're prepared to make certain lifestyle choices. If you want to go out to a club a couple of times a week, drink as much as the average student does, and especially if you smoke, then you can't manage it; but if you genuinely need to stick to that sort of budget, you can find a way.

Reply 7

Madprof

Yeah, I cook for myself (one of my criteria when choosing a college was having plenty of kitchens), buy a lot of my food from the market and don't tend to drink, so what I spend is probably quite unusual. I guess it's partly due to comparatively high rent vs student loan + paranoia over keeping most of my earnings for clinical school making me not want to spend loads, partly just out of force of habit: I don't feel especially poor or like I'm sticking to a particularly tight budget. I don't 'forgo much of a social life'!

I tend to go for the free or cheap stuff, like going to the park, bringing a flask of tea to the physiology cafe and sitting with friends who're eating there, generously polishing off bottles of wine at formal, walking back from clubs rather than taxi-ing.

In the evenings, there are cheap events in college, bops, or you can go clubbing for whatever you pay on the door (or for free eg guestlist/event deal), and drink tap water - not as good as cocktails or a decent pint mind, but you still spend just as much time with your friends for a lot less. 'Even' on my budget, I do more expensive stuff like go out for meals in nice restaurants for special occasions.

Reply 8

Athena

I probably spend around £40 a week on food, and then between nothing and £30 a week on stash, train fares to go home (£20 a throw, even with a rail card), ball tickets, clothes, entry to competitions (trampolining ones), transport, occaisionally the cinema, clothes, books, stationary, and wine to take with me in lieu of payment when I go to formal hall at college. So pretty variable tbh, but it works out about £65 a week.

Reply 9

not1

Anyone have any insight as to whether you spent about the same / less as a postgrad? I have a feeling I'll be in the library too much to have a very extravagant lifestyle. :rolleyes:

Reply 10

not1

Popa Dom

The one gift I've known anyone to receive from a postgrad was a bottle of lambrini. Make of that what you will..

Ha, I suppose that just about sums it up...

Reply 11

Elles

edders

Anyone have any insight as to whether you spent about the same / less as a postgrad? I have a feeling I'll be in the library too much to have a very extravagant lifestyle. :rolleyes:

Undergrad days I can give you an average to the pence. Postgrad days I can't - detailing the income/outgoings became red too quickly & too depressing = lost the urge to update my Excel. :p:

So mine has been much much more - but for the reason Madprof mentioned (it's not paranoia! they are out to get us :wink:

) = "clinical school". It's mostly a ridiculously long term effect - rather than necessarily per week. Although transport expenses have added to a weekly one (they only refund outside of the ringroad) and the quantity of clothes needing to be 'professional', plus books would if i followed advice and bought my own.
Socialising probably is cheaper = MCR & medicy stuff available - plus the need to be in hospitals by 8/9am!

Some postgrads have quite luxurious lives with their tax free sponsored stipends. I'm currently at the mercy of the NHS student "support" system, where the bursary has yet to materialise in the 2nd week of this academic year leaving me with a reduced loan income of £36 per week - to include rent. :hmpf:

Reply 12

Quistis

Elles - can you offer a vague idea of what your expenditure is during the clinical school years? I'm not sure I'll end up at Oxford, mind, but it'd be good to have an idea - I realise it'll cost me more, but at the moment am just trying not to think about it (the fact that my dad recently retired and so I'll be entitled to maximum student loan makes me feel better, as does the generosity of my parents, but I still want an idea so I can start to save next year if need be). Also, do you need to drive during clinical school? I'm hoping to learn over the next year, but set myself that deadline only because I assumed I'd not have much free time to learn after that, rather than because I might need to, shock horror, actually drive...

Reply 13

not1

Elles

Undergrad days I can give you an average to the pence. Postgrad days I can't - detailing the income/outgoings became red too quickly & too depressing = lost the urge to update my Excel. :p:

...

Ah. Hmm. Well I've budgeted for 6k a year (I'm self-funding), and as I managed on that in London (student loan is about 6k) I figure there's no reason why I can't do that in Oxford. :confused:

Reply 14

heliotrope

at least 100 for me i think. but thats because when i cook i cook nice food. and i take my girlfriend out to dinner quite often. it is a good job i have a job.

Reply 15

RawJoh1

I probably spend around £80 a week in a cheap week, and £120 in an expensive one. I reckon I could easily get it down to £60 a week though - I tend to eat out at least once a week.

Reply 16

RadiantJewel

So are your parents paying everything? It´s virtually impossible to have a job on the side right?
I really like going to the cinema, clubs, clothes etc. But I would feel terribly guilty spending 60 pounds a week from my parents account! On top of the college fee etc.
My father says we can´t afford it unless I´ll be very strict with money.
I have a sollicitation for a job next week so IF i get in (very very very big IF) I have some savings for the first terms. How do you guys cope, money-wise?

Reply 17

Drogue

RadiantJewel

So are your parents paying everything? It´s virtually impossible to have a job on the side right?

It is impossible - the university doesn't allow people to work during term time.

RadiantJewel

I really like going to the cinema, clubs, clothes etc. But I would feel terribly guilty spending 60 pounds a week from my parents account! On top of the college fee etc.
My father says we can´t afford it unless I´ll be very strict with money.
I have a sollicitation for a job next week so IF i get in (very very very big IF) I have some savings for the first terms. How do you guys cope, money-wise?

Partly student loan, partly parental help, and partly working during holidays. Some people can manage without parental help, but it's very, very tight. Though remember you have ~26 weeks of holiday a year. Getting a full time job during the holiday makes it a lot easier to make ends meet.

Reply 18

RawJoh1

RadiantJewel

I have savings (I had two jobs at the same time for the 2nd year of my A-levels). On top of that, the provisions made for poorer students at Oxford are excellent. If your parents earn less than £37,425 pa you'll be eligible for the Oxford Opportunity Bursary, which is a great scheme, and one you want to be involved in if you are eligible. On top of that, you can get non-repayable maintainance grants from your LEA if you are one of the poorer students. If after that, you're still hard-up financially (which would be difficult - the OOB is excellent and generous) colleges are always willing to help out if you are genuinely in need.

There is no reason for anyone not to come to Oxford due to financial circumstances.

http://www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/finance/bursaries/