In this podcast, you will find tips for saving as a student, along with the reality of the student spending lifestyle. Watch as I speak to Maddie Kneen and Kate Davis, both second year students at Newcastle University who have come to terms with the costs of university, about their experiences with student budgeting and how they have learnt to manage their finances. In this podcast, we talk specifically about weekly budgets, unexpected university costs, over and under spending, and the costs of socialising.
Transcript
Millie: Hey guys!
Maddie: Hello.
Millie: How are we doing?
Maddie: Very well.
Millie: Good, would you mind introducing yourself?
Kate: I’m Kate.
Maddie: I’m Maddie.
Millie: Hey Maddie. What do you both study at uni?
Maddie: Biology.
Millie: Do you like it?
Maddie: It’s alright.
Millie: What do you think of Newcastle as a city?
Maddie: Its really cheap. Pretty, it’s old as well, very old.
Millie: It’s got nice architecture.
Kate: Especially the uni.
Millie: Yeah, it’s a nice student vibe.
Maddie: Very nice student vibe.
Millie: I feel like its more student vibe than a lot of other uni cities as well.
Maddie: Oh definitely yeah.
Millie: Do you think it’s affordable to live here? Or more affordable than other uni towns?
Maddie: Yeah definitely.
Millie: Yeah, 100%.
Millie: And for both of you, what is your main source of income as a student?
Kate: My job. That I do when I go home for the holidays.
Maddie: Same for me.
Millie: And you get a student loan as well.
Maddie & Kate: Yeah.
Millie: Do you think that’s a reasonable loan? Does it cover all your costs?
Kate: No.
Maddie: No, it’s not even close actually.
Kate: It doesn’t even cover our rent, for first year accommodation.
Millie: Where would you say the majority of your budget goes?
Maddie: Food, I think. I spend a lot of money on food.
Kate: Yeah, well apart from rent and bills.
Maddie: Oh yeah, apart from all of that.
Millie: Rent and bills eats up so much.
Maddie: So much of my money goes to that. Pretty much all of it.
Millie: And then yeah, whatever you have leftover sort of goes towards food. If there even is anything left over. But as you say, you sometimes need a job over summer to make ends meet.
Millie: How much disposable income would you say you had right now?
Kate: None.
Maddie: None, I’m negative in my overdraft so quite literally no money whatsoever.
Millie: It’s getting near the end of the year.
Maddie & Kate: Yeah.
Millie: Thats the thing.
Kate: Theres nothing there.
Maddie: And I haven’t worked since summer so I have no money.
Millie: Thats the thing, end of term sort of… You try and plan in advance but sometimes it doesn’t necessarily stretch all the way to the end of term.
Millie: Do you have a set weekly allowance?
Kate: No, probably should but I don’t. I just sort of take my money out as and when I need it.
Millie: How do you make sure you don’t overspend?
Kate: I keep it in a savings account and I just take it out, so I kind of roughly know how much I’m spending. But I don’t track it.
Millie: How much would you say roughly a week?
Kate: £100, probably. Like, including everything. Not the bills and stuff though.
Millie: No, because also we metro into uni don’t we.
Maddie & Kate: Yeah.
Millie: So that takes up quite a lot of money.
Kate: That takes up quite a lot of money. More than I expected.
Millie: Yeah, but with a pop card it is so much easier. £2.20 a day.
Kate: Much cheaper.
Maddie: Yeah its good.
Millie: On average, how much do you spend of socialising a week?
Maddie: Um, it depends how many times I go out I think.
Kate: Yeah, I think it’s probably like £40 of £50.
Maddie: Ive had some really bad nights where I’ve spent too much but sometimes I’m really good, sometimes I’m really bad.
Kate: I feel like your budget can, even if you have a budget, you’re not sticking to that when you’ve had some bevs.
Millie: No, no, literally.
Millie: How does your spending here compare to your spending habits back home?
Maddie: I don’t really spend much money back at home because I literally just eat food that my parents give me and then I go to work and I come home. So that’s literally my life when I’m at home.
Kate: You don’t have to pay for transport or anything.
Maddie: Literally, its pretty much all free when I’m at home which is great.
Millie: And also because you’re literally just working when you get home, you’re not doing as much socialising.
Maddie: Yeah, just working. As sad as it sounds.
Millie: Would you consider getting a job at uni?
Maddie: I would like to.
Kate: I would like to, I’ve tried, but its so hard to get one. Obviously everyone wants to get a job so hopefully.
Millie: Do you have any advice for future students to help them navigate their finances?
Maddie: Maybe do actually make a budget. If you can, and try and stick to it. Don’t like, I don’t know. It’s so tempting to always bring money out of your account and shove it in but think, do you actually need it.
Kate: I would say be prepared to like know how much you are actually going to have to spend when you’re at uni, because I think there was so much that I didn’t know like things were going to cost, like societies, nights out, rent, knowing that you have to put your deposit down on your next year house when you’re still paying rent on the current place. Like everything adds up and I wasn’t really aware of that before I got to uni.
Millie: There are so many like, little costs that you don’t think, like you have to be financially prepared with a budget that you think you’re going spend, and then you’ve got to have so much more.
Kate: Unexpected costs.
Millie: Exactly.
Millie: Any tips on saving as a student?
Maddie: Clubcards and things like that because in shops, you do actually save a lot of money with them.
Kate: And a pop card.
Maddie: A pop card is great if you’re going to take the metro.
Kate: I think there is also a uni food discount card isn’t there.
Millie: Yeah.
Kate: For food on campus.
Millie: And different cafes around town I think do a student card discount.
Kate: Unidays.
Maddie: Yeah Unidays is great, get your student discount.
Kate: Eldon Square student night.
Millie & Maddie: Yeah.
Millie: So true. There are loads of places that do student deals.
Maddie: Yeah a lot of places.
Millie: What would you say your average ‘day in the life’ spending habits would be?
Maddie: Well normally when I get up and go to uni, that’s already £1, because we take the metro to uni everyday. Um, so that’s normally a start. I normally really want a croissant from Co-op in between lectures so that’s normally, I think that’s like 90p so that’s another one. To be honest, I don’t normally spend that much unless I go do a food shop or go get a Greggs or something and then I’ll spend a couple pounds but I never spend too much.
Millie: Yeah, I feel like it depends if you’re going to a night out that night as well.
Maddie: Definitely.
Millie: Suddenly you can go from spending £5 in a day to £35 you know.
Maddie: Easily, because drinks are never that cheap. I mean they’re cheap up here compared to like other places in the UK, but they’re still expensive.
Kate: I also feel like it is the small things that add up and make you actually realise you’ve spent a lot of money. Like going to Sainsbury’s in the evening after dinner and you’ve spent £4, but over a week, that could be £25 that, you’ve not wasted but, you didn’t really need to spend.
Maddie: Don’t need the extra bag of chocolate.
Millie: Mindful spending.
Millie: And how would you say it compares to other uni cities you’ve been to? Newcastle?
Kate: Um, I have a, my best friend is at Cardiff, and their rent is pretty similar to ours actually, but the area Cathays where they live in Cardiff is not as nice as Jesmond is. It’s, there’s quite a lot of crime, it’s quite rough. Um, and the drinks in town are obviously not as cheap as they are here, so nights out are much more expensive.
Millie: Do you notice a significant difference between other uni cities and Newcastle?
Maddie: Definitely. My mate at Brooke, like her house is like ridiculous. its nearly £200 a week like for a really like bad house, like its not a nice place. They live in a really dangerous area and they’ve already been robbed once, haven’t even been there that long. Like, and their drinks on nights out, I think their pints cost like £7, which is ridiculous, even if you’re a student, so they spend so much money.
Millie: And in Oxford, I think club entry is like £10/£12.
Maddie: I think I spent £10 when I went there just for club entry and then there’s like one club and its really, not even that good so its just, yeah, very different.
Millie: Where would you say the majority of your weekly budget does towards?
Maddie: Food, definitely. All food. I spend way too much money on food I think. Because if I see something I want, I just get it and then I regret it later because I didn’t really need it. Like I could have… And I’m lazy and I don’t go to the cheaper supermarkets, I go to like Sainsbury’s and Tesco which is, not expensive, but like, it is quite expensive really.
Millie: Close and convenient as opposed to getting in the car, going to Aldi.
Maddie: Yeah go to Aldi. And actually get quite a lot of food forces money so.
Millie: What about you Kate?
Kate: I feel like, unplanned socialising, like going to the pub just casually in the evening and then I’ve spent £20.
Millie: Yeah, yeah.
Kate: And I wasn’t even planning to go.
Millie: So true. And how do you manage that? Say you’ve had like, you’ve gone, you’ve done some unplanned socialising, you’re £20 down for the week. How do you manage that? Do you just cut back on everything else in the week, or?
Kate: Not really. I mean I work so much when I’m not at uni that I’m able to kind of take that extra money spending, but I’m lucky that I have a job that I can go back to. Not everyone has that so.
Millie: And what would you guys say, say you had a younger sibling coming to uni next year, what sort of advice would you give them?
Kate: To get a student bank account. I have one with HSBC, I don’t know who yours is with.
Maddie: Santander.
Kate: Yeah and they give like big interest free overdrafts, so mine is I think £1000, um, and you’ll get perks with it as well, I think you got a railcard.
Maddie: Yeah I got a free railcard.
Kate: I got £100 for free, um, but its really good and really nice having that safety blanket of knowing you’ve got an overdraft and its okay if you run out of money.
Millie: Completely. How about you Maddie?
Maddie: Make sure you have a lot of money before you go into uni, because you’re definitely going to need it. And if you have a job, you know, make sure they’re okay with you, you know, being away for quite a while and then coming back and, uh, yeah, make sure you’ve got loads of money before you get here.
Millie: Well thank you so much guys!
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