I’ve been looking at my accounts for last academic year (reckoning from 23rd September 2004 to 22nd June 2005, since my bank statements are calculated on the 22nd of the month for some reason, but that matches my time in Cardiff almost exactly). In those 39 months, I spent around £100 pounds more than I budgeted for myself, which 
Since I’m moving out of halls and into a house this year, the financial picture changes somewhat this year. I know that the rent for the year will cost more than I paid to be in halls, but I don’t know what the subtle impact of sharing a house with four friends will be. There will be bills to pay which we didn’t have to worry about in halls, but on the other hand, could sharing the cooking reduce our food costs? It’s swings and roundabouts, and until we’ve been there a couple of months, it will be difficult to judge our likely living costs.
I recently came across the NUS’s estimated average student expenditure for academic year 2005/2006, and found it rather astonishing. Although my costs in some areas, such as rent, are pretty much average for outside of London, in others I find the predicted “average amount” to be far beyond what I’ve spent or would even consider spending.
Take the amount spent on “Leisure”, for example. The NUS has an average figure of around £1500 for a 39 week academic year, which works out at around £38 pounds per week. That’s not all that many pounds off my weekly budget for all my general expenses – i.e. for food, clothes, stuff for my course and leisure as well. I might spend that much on leisure per month, I’d guess, between stuff like going to the cinema, meeting friends for a drink, the occasional book to read or DVD to watch, and so on. But there’s so much to do as a student that doesn’t require spending loads of money (and indeed, any money at all) – there’s loads of student societies which are free once you’ve paid to join.
I guess seeing those figures helped me to realise just how big a culture gap there is between me and many of my fellow students. Someone once said “It’s the empty soul that craves constant entertainment” and if that’s true, looking at our entertainment-obsessed culture should make us weep for the emptiness gnawing at the heart of our society. As I said in one of If in the nineteenth century, religion was “the opiate of the masses”, by the twenty-first it has surely become the media.
Despite reading numerous articles telling me that as a student, my overdraft is my best friend, so far I’ve not needed to have any debt beyond my student loan (which is non-commercial and is only repaid as you earn the money to do so, and as such I’m not going to worry about paying it off until after I’ve finished my studies).
So don’t believe the hype – you don’t need to spend loads of money to have a great time. I had the time of my life in my first year at university, and without all the sex, booze and big spending that many will tell you are the essential parts of the university experience, because such people are sadly mistaken.
Tags: University Student life Finance