Have I saved enough?

I've saved just over £8.1k as of today. Is this enough to get me through my A levels and first year of university after I get a part time job?

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by Vyshto Andeddu

I've saved just over £8.1k as of today. Is this enough to get me through my A levels and first year of university after I get a part time job?

That would very much depend on where you study and yourself as an individual. It would also depend on what specific expenses you would need to pay for e.g. rent, as well as whether you have any other sources of funding e.g. grants, student loans.

The rule of thumbs that I would use:

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£30 per week for food (or £960 over 32 weeks in an estimated academic year - this might vary depending on your college/uni)

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Rent would vary depending on the location; generally I would use £300-400 per month as an approximation, but this can go as high as £650 in London and as low as £200 up North (if not lower)

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About £30 a month for your mobile phone (unless you are splurging on the more expensive plans)

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About £7 a month for Netflix (or similar) - because we all need something to entertain us, unless you just want to watch YouTube videos

Public college for A Levels tend to be free for UK residents, unless you go to a grammar or private school. In which case, it depends on what bursaries, scholarships, and funding from the school you can get.
Uni tuition costs £9250 per academic year for UK students, but you can often get student loans for those.

Other than the above, it would depend on what study material you would need and want. I don't know what A Level subjects you're doing (not that study material for A Levels usually cost more than £100 per subject) and I don't know what degree you're doing (uni textbooks are relatively expensive with some costing as low as £30 but can be as high as £100 each), so it's difficult to say.

Assuming you're living somewhere near home for college and you're attending private school, then £8.1k should be more than enough to get you through A Levels. For uni, you're stretching it, depending on the location and what you study. £8.1k should be adequte to study for one year of uni in the most expensive parts of the country, provided you're very conservative in your spending.

However, it's difficult to say at this point in time without knowing specific details of what you intend to do.