Saved 30k during uni

Next week on TSR "i got a 100k a year grad job straight after uni, is this good?".
Seriously, if you are clever/skilled enough to save this amount of money then you should be clever/skilled enough to know this is a very silly question.
Greg

Hi Guys Hope everyone ok! So basically went to college didn’t work then took a gap year didn’t work and just claimed Universal Credit for the year as I was trying to find an apprenticeship or full time work, then I worked for a cash in hand job whilst in the first 1.2 out of the 3 years on university on extremely low wage, and got the cash in hand wage and student finance. Then I found a proper job pays me around a grand a month starting in 2023 during the second year of my degree and then was also getting student finance maintenance loan. In the 3rd year currently I’m still working the same job and abit of cash in hand on the side making me a grand a month around 1.2k altogether. For some reason I didn’t get my last instalment of maintenance loan in April so don’t know but not bothered anyway. Additionally, now that I’m going to be graduating from university this year in end of may I was wondering how much do student have saved. I’m on target to reach 30k end of July that everything that I saved. I’m only 22 and have max expenses of £400 a month, during this time I also purchased a car for 5.5k and got insured on it 3 years totalling of £4000. Have I saved enough, next year won’t be saving anything as I’ve got a grad job which may require me to relocate but might not save anything full next year. Let me know how much you have saved! And your thoughts

Is that £400 a month after rent or before?

The fact all this was "cash in hand" the whole time and you saved this much makes me think either a) you weren't declaring your taxable income and paying taxes or b) the income was from something illegal or c) both.
And if your "monthly expenses were max £400 a month" I can only assume you were living in a very cheap area of the UK in a shared house with low overhead or living at home with parents. 100 a week roughly including rent is a very tight budget for students to manage these days. Maybe 6-10 years ago it you could just about manage that (I did when I first went to uni by living in very cheap accom in a then cheap city and not spending almost any money otherwise) but with the cost of living crisis, continually rising rents and massive housing pressures, and most cities being more expensive nowadays than that example, I can't see many other explanations.
Most students can't find part-time work paying that much which will fit around their studies as well. Around 1200 a month after taxes would be ~£14 an hour for about 20 hours a week roughly. Most students wouldn't be able to work that many hours and still do well in their studies even if they can find a job with hours that are flexible around their uni schedule, and most student jobs are going to be paying a lot closer to minimum wage than that.
Ultimately I think this presents an unrealistic expectation of potential savings during uni for the vast majority of students and I strongly suspect there are some outside factors not being presented here as above, which would skew the picture significantly.

Breakdown

Lives with parents

£130 boarding roughly

£100 train

£15 Fuel

£60 evening classes

Rest on other stuff

Only a minute part of the income was cash in hand, rest of it was declared through the tax system’s automatically as it was a government job so Tax and NI was all contributed towards. As I choose to study local and commute it used to cost me £24 a week for trains over 2 days and use the work the rest of the week 22.3 hours, being from the northwest Blackburn area you should know it’s very expensive to moderate. I’ve managed to balance both studies come out with a good grade and work part time- it’s a doable thing for many students as I’m trying to network to people similar to myself and not unrealistic, what other factors would you like more information on, rather than just having a yes you doing well answer I would like to know how to improve be better and where about on the table do I sit especially when I come from a very low income family, please let continue this question and thread as it’s important to me and like your response

When you mean boarding do you mean rent, food? What do you mean.

Yeah if I was only paying 130 a month for all my rent and food costs and bills to my parents then I too could save 30k in a few years. Most don't have that option.
Were you also claiming the full SFE maintenance loan while living in your parental home or did you declare this to receive the reduced loan?
Also as I said before, most students will not reasonably be able to get a post time job paying £14 an hour with that many hours a week which does not interfere with their lecture schedule. So not really realistic for the majority of students, no.
Most will not be living at home, paying significant costs for rent and bills and living expenses, will be limited in the jobs they can take due to limited availability and needing to schedule around lectures which will usually limit both pay and hours.
Even if we charitably take this in good faith it is rather obviously atypical and not a realistic option for most and it's disingenuous to frame it otherwise.

Yes that includes rent food etc

Very true, yes I was getting full maintenance loan. I need some advice about from August, as I’m starting a new job the company want me to be mobile and want me to relocate which I am reluctant to do due to the cost etc etc, so if I commute my total expenses will increase from £400 to £1000. So I will carry on saving the same but don’t know if this is a viable option

Really up to you, hard to understand what the pay situation is in this case or if you'll still be studying.
If you'll be earning a similar hourly rate but full time then it may be a consideration if there is scope for progression in the role later. If not then those expenses relative to the income may be a little higher than you'd like although not unworkable.

So basically I won’t be studying at university it’s a 3 year program where I’ll be studying either CIMA or ACCA but will be in different places within the UK. The current first year will be 3.5 hours of travel. I don’t wish to relocate but I do wish to commute as I have realised that I’m home sick and rather be at home. The pay will be around 2.2k after tax according to my calculations. My total expenses will be quite substantial more as I will have to stay over one night minimum as it’s two days in the office. I will be travelling on the day to work before and will be staying over there for the night and then travelling back the next day after work. How much will I be earning hourly if I’m on 2.2k a month.

Expenses will be -£ 540 a month for commuting
Home boarding will be :£130

Other expenses £200

So in total in the year I will be spending around £15033 which includes everything from boarding, commuting, direct debits insurance etc etc all expenses which are forecasted for the year.

Should I take the job or shall I just stick to the same NLW job that I have now and take home salary will be 18k minus all the expenses will be 7k after everything but saves me the hassle.

Any advice on commuting weekly basis or should or just wait for another grad job to appear in this competition world.

My ultimate aim with this saving is to buy a property for cash as ethically interest and mortgage isn’t allowed and get married for under 5k go for pilgrimage which will cost like 8k per person or 16k if I’m married.

3 and a half hours is not a reasonable commute. You need to be aiming to relocate or look for another job.
It's normal and expected in rotational training schemes that for more distant locations you would relocate for the duration of that rotation. They may even offer relocation support for this.
Ultimately you will need to move out from your family home sooner or later so it makes more sense to do it in this situation rather than putting it off.

The issue is that I’m not willing to relocate because of the hassle of relocating and the financial burden and me living on my own it’s not very suitable, I know people and majority of people don’t relocate especially when it’s in London and prefer to commute instead but commuting on a weekly basis is an issue even if their choose one day a week, more of a financial factor that I consider plus I don’t and can’t live on my own as I don’t have the experience to do so

3 and a half hours is not a reasonable commute though. There's a difference between a 45 minute commute on the tube in London and a 3.5 hour commute elsewhere.
Also most people do indeed pay to live where they work at significant expense. This is my point about why your entire framing of your savings is disingenuous - most people do not and cannot live like that. Spending a non-trivial amount of their monthly paycheque on rent (not to mention food, bills, etc) is the norm for the vast majority of the population.
This is part of growing up and becoming an adult - learning to support yourself and live independently. You need to learn to cook for yourself, you need to learn how to clean up after yourself, you need to learn to manage your finances with rent and bills going out. If you choose to live alone rather than with other professionals in a houseshare then you also need to recognise you will be paying more for that privilege.
A very significant number of people going to uni develop these skills at uni by moving out.