The Student Room Group

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It really depends on you. If you're including accommodation in this price, that will add lots to the cost, but you should know this already. Basically, how active are you? Do you drink? Do you smoke? Do you like to go out to clubs a lot? Do you buy DVDs and CDs every week? How often do you eat out? Do you like a snack? It all depends on these things, I mean if you want you can spend £150 a week, or you can spend nothing if you want, but I can try to outline the basic costs.

Meals out are generally not that pricey, and you can expect to spend between £4 and £20 depending on how much you want to spend. There are lots of great restaurants and things which are reasonably priced Durham.

Drinking is very cheap in Durham it you frequent the student bars, but if you do it every night it will soon add up! A pint will generally cost less than £1.50, and spirits about £1 a shot, with non-alcoholic beverages at about 50p a pint (at least that's what fizzy stuff costs). by the way, these prices are pased on Cuth's bar last year, but I don't think there's massive variety in prices. Obviously if you intend to go out every night and get completely loaded then you'll end up spending a fortune, and the non-student pubs cost more, but it's really up to you!

If you join societies then that's generally quite a cheap evening's entertainment, if not free! Naturally some of them could charge more (I haven't visited them all), but you're talking £3 or less for most. I joined Poker society in fresher's week for £5 and got a free pack of cards, went once and bought into a tournament for £3 and ended up joint second and taking home £35!

If you want to get snacks and things, there are lots of shops, but I suppose the 3 main ones are Iceland, Waitrose and Dunelm Food Stores (affectionately known by lots of my friends as Ali's after the owner Ali Sultana:smile: ). Iceland is generally very cheap, but a bit rubbish, and Waitrose is pricey, it being Waitrose and everything. Ali's is expensive in a cornershop kind of way, but has a massive variety of biscuits, and you can always find something tasty in the reduced thing by the counter.

If you like to go out clubbing a lot then you can spend quite a bit of cash. I think it's between £3-5 for entry and the drinks are more expensive than College bars, but nowhere near that of London or most places down south. I don't think you'll be paying £4.50 for a pint! I believe that the normal routine of things (I don't frequent clubs so am not an expert) is Klute on a Monday, Studio on a Tuesday, Loveshack on a Wednesday, and wherever on a Thursday, normally featuring a stop in Jimmy Allen's at some point.

You may also spend money on books, CDs, DVDs, clothes, etc, but that's entirely to your discretion.

Basically, for an active student, you can expect to spend about £15 a week in clubs, £15 in the bars, £5 on societies, £10 on fun paraphenalia and £15 for food, coming to £60.

Essentially though, it whatever you want to spend less you can, if you want to spend more you can! It all depends on you. I reckon I spent less than that last year because I don't really like clubbing and mostly ate in college and I had a great time, but I know other people who would spend £100 + and would also be happy.
Reply 2
Unfortunately this year, I believe the routine has changed to Loveshack on days that end in 'y', resulting in everywhere being rather empty, except Loveshack which is often hugely overcrowded.

There are exceptions of course. DSU nights are usually pretty busy, and studio tuesday has still survived.

edit: oh, and when I lived in college I spent between 40-60 a week usually depending on how much I drank, ha. Living out is more complicated, but excluding rent and bills, I spent about 65-85 a week. I guess I eat a lot.
Reply 3
thank you for your reply....now i know much better than before...all of you are enthusiastic
Reply 4
what about the cost of water and electricity
If you're living in college, the cost of everything will be in the price of accommodation. Are you a first year? Which college?
Reply 6
Hild Bede students average about 50 pounds (damn American keyboard) a week after rent and bills. I expect the same is approximately true of those around the university. In terms 2 and 3 I think I spent less, but is about right for term 1. Just depends how much you want to go out (or can afford too) and whether when you go clubbing you do drinking in bars or on your corridor or friends' corridors before hand.
Reply 7
Accomodation bills aside...you spend however much you want to spend, one of the perks (perhaps) of being a university is that you are independent and have control of your money...this is why last year I spent all of my money on DSU Brownies, M&S smoothies and Brownie bombers... i recommend you budget...
Reply 8
ssmoose
50 pounds (damn American keyboard)


ALT + 0163 on the numpad.
Reply 9
sarbruis
ALT + 0163 on the numpad.


I don't have a numpad and have struggled without pound signs for almost two years now. Is there any hope for me? $$$
Reply 10
Probably not. I haven't got a numpad either :frown:.
Reply 11
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Aha. An ASCII pound sign. My worries are over.
Reply 12
Use a tilde at the bottom, then no one will be able to tell the difference.
Day-to-day I'm quite a tight person money wise. So I don't like spending much on food, drink, etc, but I spent a lot on DVDs etc so it all balances out (hopefully). You don't really need to make a budget, just work out how much you can afford to spend each week and you'll always be able to flex what you spend in accordance to it. At the end of my first year I'd spent so little I still had my whole overdraft left to spare so took my girlfriend and mother with me to the UEFA Cup final, which cost £1,300. This year I spent little day to day again and have balanced out my overdraft. With catered halls you can spend as little or as much as you can afford to.
In first year I spent about £50 a week maximum, last year living out it was slightly more as I had food to buy but only by about £10 or so.

I'm not normally a gregarious person money wise anyway, and the money I don't spend per week I'll save up for the following week:wink:
£ Oh yeahhh!
sorry.
Reply 16
Go on. Rub it in.
How much you spend, especially when living in, varies a great deal; it depends on your sex (men seem to spend a great deal more on drink etc - girls can go out for a tenner), drinking ability (yes, it is an ability - ha), propensity to go out, and general attitude (thinking of champagne-loving friends).

I spent an absolute **** load first year; somewhere around £150 a week.

My male friends tried to keep to £60 but most were about £80-£100.

Good thing about Durham is it is possible to have a (relatively) good time for about £15, even as a guy, if you watch what you spend and so on. It's just more fun to spend £60+ on a night out.
Reply 18
jasper, could you go through a typical week, stating what you spent each day? Or, if most days are similar, a typical day. Did you go out every night? I'm having difficulty fathoming spending half of what you spent--or rather, what I would/could spend it on. You weren't self-catered, were you?
I wasn't self-catered. And, unlike my friends, I didn't have many take-aways or eat at the end of an evening. But if you start eating take-aways and post-nights-out, that can be something around £20-£30 a week. I avoid doing so for a variety of reasons.

I spent most of my money going out. There are other things that cost a lot of money though, such as washing (at Collingwood it was expensive), buying stationary and toiletries and maybe clothes.

Although, as I said, if you watch what you spend you can easily have a great time (as a fairly big-drinker) on maybe £80 a week; women and lightweights can expect to spend far less. It really depends, because if you start drinking at Riverside (at the DSU - before Planet/Revolver etc.) you can spend LOTS of money, also buying drinks actually at the clubs.

On a night out, maybe at Collingwood get a snakebite, two Skittles (with extra vodka/WKD or whatever instead of Orange) - then a few Double JD-Cokes halfway down the hill at the New Inn. Then Castle for some Turbo Smenergys. Then Jimmy As for a few triples (£2 on good nights) and then Loveshack with a few Woo-Woos or WKDs.

There's about £50 there maybe; you'll wake up not remembering much and seeking evidence on the course of the evening on Facebook.

Instead, you can stay at a lot of College bars down the hill and drink pints (£1.40 a pint means you're never going to spend that much), drink in your room (Waitrose has a very comprehensive spirit section) and so on.

It really depends on how much you watch what you spend. Hence the reason why there is a huge variability for Freshers in how much you spend; there a no (in essence) fixed costs living in (apart, of course, for the termly residence bill).

You're only a Fresher once. Most of my friends and people I know went out at least 3 times a week. You wont (I am led to believe) get away with this in the Second and Third years, if you want to do well.