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Where the money goes
DOSH DRAINS: WHERE THE MONEY GOES; 

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DOSH DRAINS: WHERE THE MONEY GOES

The single biggest cost is accommodation. The roof over your head is expensive, but an essential.

The next biggest expense is your tuition fees. But Push will leave those out of the equation for the time being as you don’t have to fork out for them until you’ve graduated. Unless you particularly want to.

Other biggies are food, travel, academic costs (like books etc.), clothes and bills. All essentials too.

Your entertainment costs are among the top wallet-wasters, too, and don’t think they’re not essential. You can’t have a successful time at university if you’re hating every minute of it because you’re too stingy to allow yourself a penny's worth of fun.

Think of it more as an investment in the wider education that university offers students (the education that teaches you how to survive a 9am lecture with the hangover from hell). Or you can think of it as the wise purchase of a support mechanism (otherwise known as ‘having friends’).

There’s a breakdown of the main wallet leaks below, but they vary from place to place. Even within the same town, costs can vary between universities depending on what kind of facilities they lay on and how good they are. 

Your choice of university can either cost or save you literally thousands of pounds. Who needs a better reason to choose carefully?

It’s all very well planning your finances like a military operation, but sometimes Lady Luck likes to shove an oar in and remind you who’s boss. She’ll dump an unexpected expense on you that makes all your finely tuned preparation look like doodles in the sand. 

They start from day one when you arrive in an empty room and need to buy a kettle, a few mugs and an ironic poster of Britney Spears or a tennis player scratching her arse. Meanwhile, you don’t know where’s the cheapest place to buy any of these things.
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Then there’s freshers’ week — there aren’t usually any academic commitments, just an endless stream of social events and red tape. Some universities make do with just a couple of days, others plump for a whole fortnight, but it’ll be an expensive time nonetheless. 

Freshers are particularly susceptible to ‘loan arrival frenzy’ – when the first instalment of your loan hits your bank account, it’s tempting to delude yourself into thinking you’re rich. But that apparently huge lump sum has to last the entire term and it won’t take much budget planning to see that it’ll barely stretch across the bar, let alone across the term.

Having said that, settling in is important and making friends is a good investment in the long run. Allow yourself some extra for Freshers’ Week. At least an extra £100 for entertainments (let alone all the one-off expenses like mugs and a hole-punch). Fresher’s Week is one of the few times it’s okay to push the boat out a bit. 

When it comes to family birthdays and anniversaries and Christmas, you’ll probably have to use your common sense and maybe a little bit of artistic licence to come up with a novel gift idea. Even with a big and demanding family, you should be able to plan and limit the expenditure and the good news is that however many presents you have to give, you’ll probably get about the same number back.

​Make this work for you by putting out the word about what you want good and early.

Every now and then (usually when you’re down to your last penny), some idiot so-called friend will decide to have a birthday and expect to be bestowed with lavish gifts. Improvise a bit – don’t be ashamed to get them something in the sales (it’ll probably be nicer than anything you could afford at full price) or to club together with a few friends to get them something they’d really like.
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By the summer, you may want a break from it all. Round the world cruises won’t be in your price range, but budget backpacking is a perennial favourite. Don’t be fooled by the word ‘budget’, however — it’s all relative

rent and housing

This is your biggest expense – it will eat up a whacking great proportion of your loan, perhaps about half your available income, and it will account for about a third of what you spend in a year. And, unless you're living with your parents or they have gone a step or two beyond the call of duty and actually bought a place for you, it’s an expense that cannot really be avoided or minimised. 

So be sure to make your dough work hard for you. 

Accommodation costs vary enormously. Depending on location and what you look for, a student might normally expect to spend anything from £75 a week, for a basic rented room in a student house, right up to £150 a week or even more for some catered or particularly flash digs.

​In London, however, you might end up forking out £200 a week just to get that basic rented room that would be rock-bottom of the market anywhere else.

food

Food will probably take the next largest bite out of your budget. The average weekly shop for a student costs £32.20 according to Halifax research and if you’re spending more than about £40 a week on food, you’re probably spending too much.

Remember that your food budget isn’t just what’s on your supermarket receipt. Don’t forget to count snacks, teas and coffees in the campus cafeteria and any takeaways. You can ignore eating out when working out the weekly food budget, so long as you remember to count it under your entertainment costs.

What you spend on grub is bound to depend on where you live, what you eat and how much, but set aside a realistic nosh dosh allowance and stick to it.

If you’re lucky, your parents will pack you off to uni with a big box of basics: fruit juice and tinned goodies, coffee, tea, pasta and so on. But students cannot live on basics alone and this lot won’t last long anyway. Just remember that odd little snacks throughout the day do add up, so take the long route home from lectures, the one that avoids the coffee shops, the newsagent and the snack-crammed vending machine.

Some savvy students go veggie (if they’re not already), which, so long as you get a balanced diet, is just as healthy and cheaper. Even cutting down on the dead flesh makes quite a difference. There’s also the appeal of it being more sound. In fact, buying politically correct products is often no more expensive, especially if you know where to shop.

Many student shops on university campuses stock a decent range of sound groceries from Fairtrade choc to biodegradable washing powder that are cheaper and just as good as leading brands.

Organic foods do tend to be more expensive, however – especially at the moment. But even the organic products at the market can be cheaper than the stuff blasted with chemicals at the supermarket.

For packet foods, own-brand stuff is almost always cheapest. Supermarkets are upping the range of products in their economy brands too. They’re often not noticeably inferior, they just package it like that to make you feel good about spending more. Don’t be fooled.

Eating healthily
It’s perfectly feasible to eat healthily, sensibly and cheaply all at the same time, but students tend to concentrate on the last of those three – at least until the pub closes and then they’re more worried about eating anything, fast.

As a result, students have a tendency to be junk food junkies. If you can’t order it with fries or bung it in a microwave or a toaster, it’s simply too much hassle for most. 

Or, going from the sublime to the sensible: some students think buying sea bass, a good Rioja and wild Hungarian rocket is justified because it means they are being sensible and eating well. Sadly even if your fridge contents looks like Nigella's, your bank balance certainly won't.

Okay, so we can’t all be Nigella Lawson or Gordon Ramsay but there are plenty of cookbooks on the market written especially for students, as well as freebie recipe cards, ta Mr Oliver, usually up for grabs at supermarket entrances.

Healthy eating on a budget is not as tedious as it sounds. In fact, learning to cook is one of the most useful skills you can acquire as a student (stuff all that computers and foreign languages nonsense). It’s also the best way of keeping your costs down.

​Fruit and veg are nutritious and a lot cheaper than meat or packet foods. Eating healthily is not only best for you – it works out relatively cheap and, once you’ve got into it, tastes damn fine too.

​HOUSEHOLD BILLS AND UTILITIES

To some students – if they’ve not lived away from home before – bills can come as a shock. The electricity bill would be an electric shock, Push guesses.

When you’re living out, the bills that are likely to come dropping through the door are as follows:

  • Mobile phones
Mobile phones are two-a-penny these days.

Well, not quite that cheap, but they’re a modern necessity. As well as the (dis?)advantage of being contactable at all times, you can get pretty decent message and data packages, with some data thrown in if you're lucky. 

Pre-pay phones are particularly handy for those that don’t use them that much – you can usually just top up the credit as and when you need to rather than having to worry about being tied into paying a fixed amount each month.

Contract mobiles are generally more expensive, but can work out giving better value to those with a social media addiction. As a rule, if you're spending over £30 a month, a contract will cost you less – aside from doing the obvious and sending messages by semaphore or pigeon. 

Most contracts give out a free or heavily discounted phone and then include a bundle of free minutes, texts and data as part of the package. Most contracts last 18 to 24 months and getting out early can be as easy as climbing a skyscraper smeared in margarine, so think carefully about whether you’ll be able to pay the bill for the whole period before signing up.

With several different phone companies in the country, it’s a competitive market and deals change all the time. Keep looking out for special phone offers advertised online; sometimes you can get the latest model handset with benefits for a steal.

Whatever deal you opt for, keep an eye on what you actually spend. You may want either to switch tariff or learn to talk quicker/breathe less if you're one of those call-making neanderthals.
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  • Landline phone and internet
Mobile-happy households may be able to cope just fine without an extra house phone bill to argue about. But if you do want a landline, make sure you get a good deal (perhaps one with an internet package included – broadband deals are getting cheaper by the day). 

There’s loads of competition here – BT is far from the only phone company around, so do a little research to find the best deal, especially if you make many international calls. Price comparison sites like www.uswitch.com are a good place to start. Check how long you’re signing up for – anything that requires a minimum commitment that’s longer than your academic year could prove to be a false economy.

If you’re sharing a line with housemates – which you probably will be – have a notepad by the phone on which everyone writes down all their outgoing calls. That way you can minimise the arguments when the bill comes. (Oh, and make sure you get itemised phone bills.)
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  • TV Licence
If you have your own TV set (whether in halls or in private accommodation) or have bought or rented one with your housemates, you’ll need to get a licence if you use it for live television.

It’s currently £147 (see tvlicensing.co.uk for the latest) for a colour telly, which isn’t so bad if it’s divided between several people. Dodgers are easily caught these days and it’s definitely not worth risking the £1,000 fine and criminal conviction.

  • Gas, electricity and other fuel
The costs will depend on how many of you are sharing, how many electrical appliances you have between you, how much you all enjoy steamy baths and warm rooms, and the time of year (rates will naturally be higher in winter). Gas is generally a bit cheaper, but an efficient electric central heating system is cheaper than an old gas boiler.

In rural areas you may still find you need to use oil or solid fuels (such as coal). It’s not common and they’re a right pain in the posterior – not too mention dirty, environmentally unfriendly and inconvenient when you run out of fuel.

  • Water rates
Your landlord may pay these for you, but find out where you stand because if they don’t, just having running water will usually add between £200 and £300 a year to the household budget (it varies in different parts of the country but set calculations mean the rates won't go beyond £300 for the next two years.

Students are usually able to split the costs as housemates, but still, it’s more money you haven’t got. 

Some houses now use water meters that measure exactly how much you use. Unless you need to wash your hands more frequently than Lady Macbeth and take one hell of a lot of baths, for students, these tend to work out cheaper.
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  • Furniture
In an ideal world, your house would come with everything from serviettes to a steam room. But on a student budget, that’s not going to happen and you might need to get hold of a few little extras to make it more homely.

A washing machine and/or dryer, for example. Compare the ease of being able to do your washing at home to having to haul your dirty keks all the way to the launderette. It’s like comparing a hover mower to cutting grass with nail clippers. Having your own machine may just work out cheaper too.

Similarly, a TV and DVD player can actually be quite a cheap form of amusement (even when you factor in the TV license) compared to what you might spend on a week's supply of E numbers and sugar to accompany an evening's entertainment down your local multiplex. It’s cheaper still if you can persuade your housemates to split the cost with you.

If you choose to rent kitchen appliances or entertainment equipment, it’s best to go with a recognised outlet and look out for student deals at branches in university towns. There are plenty of budget rental shops, but some of them are a bit suspect and their kit often has a tendency to break down on an exhaustingly regular basis.

However, it’s likely to turn out cheaper to buy stuff (splitting the cost between the house and maybe buying second-hand) rather than renting, particularly if you expect to stay in the same house for two years.

If you do go for a second hand model, you’ll have to fork out for any repair costs when your leaky old washing machine breaks down, whereas most new ones come with a warranty (check the small print). Providing your appliances survive the year, you should be able to recoup a bit of cash by selling them on.

Have a look at gumtree.com, where people often advertise unwanted furniture for free or rock bottom prices (particularly in the London area) and your local freecycle group (uk.freecycle.org) for unwanted items in need of a home.

  • Other bills
Students do not have to pay council tax but there may be other expenses such as maintenance costs or service charges (for flats) and general household repairs to watch out for. If you choose to host a party, there’s almost always a sacrifice to be made to old bacchus. If anyone breaks a window or puts their head through a wall, say, it’s down to you to get it fixed and such unexpected costs can be pretty expensive.
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  • Money-saving tips: bills
If you leave a bill long enough without paying, it doesn't transform from its brown envelope chrysalis into a beautiful butterfly, it goes red. And Push isn't talking sunsets and fireflies pretty red. What usually happens is that a few weeks after you get the first bill, you get a reminder (that often is, literally, printed in red).

They don’t warn you again. After that, they cut you off. Phone, electricity, gas, it doesn’t matter – someone at head office flicks a switch and you’re powerless. Literally.

To get reconnected, you have to pay not only the original bill, but a slap-on-the-wrist charge for being so naughty. Therefore, it’s best not to let the bills go red in the first place.

It’s so tempting to ignore bills when you have so many other financial pressures on you, but the best policy is to pay up promptly. Ultimately, it’s not just a matter of being cut off – you could be evicted by your landlord for not paying utility bills, or end up with a court summons.

Decide with your housemates who is responsible for which bills. Don’t leave it to each other on the assumption that someone will deal with it. Someone rarely does. If a red bill turns up, check what’s going on with whoever was supposed to pay it and, if necessary, work something out. But whatever you do, get it paid.

Ideally, keep the bills low in the first place, not just for your benefit but for the environment too. Switch off lights and don’t heat the house when you’re not there. That kind of thing makes a big difference. Some people like to keep a household kitty which everyone chips into and which you use to pay for communal things like bills and possibly even shopping for food (or for essentials like bread, milk, tea and coffee, at any rate).

In some households, for whatever reason, kitties don’t work – they just cause more arguments and friction. If you all have the same attitude to money, the communal approach is more likely to work and by pooling your resources you could save money and get bills paid on time.

Unfortunately, it’s usually only after you’ve lived with someone for a few months that you realise what a selfish so-and-so they really are, how they never wash up and how they never pay up their share on time even though they always seem to have money for their Netflix subscription.



From the start, make an arrangement with your housemates to avoid future tension. A good safety net is to make a different person responsible for each bill and divide the costs equally between you from there. This is far better than putting all the bills in one person’s name and leaving that poor sod to sort out all the payments. Especially if 'that poor sod' is you.

Another option is to open a joint account, which is basically a shared bank account for two or more people. Agree to each put in a certain amount of money each month and use it to pay the bills and any other shared expenses (toilet paper, party booze, you name it) that take your fancy.

There’s usually a limit to how many people can get in on the account and how many of them can have debit cards etc. – check with the banks for more details. Probably only worth doing if you trust the people you’re living with, however – remember that a bank account is a big deal and it’s not worth getting financially tangled up with someone you’re not sure about.

​It’s also worth getting an account with no overdraft facility to stop any of your dear housemates racking up debts when your back is turned.

Assuming you do split the bills fairly, they’re likely to cost each person about £50 a month.

clothes

You don’t have to be a fashion student to create something unique and wearable (and even stylish). You can always buy something from a second-hand shop and modify it to suit your taste. You could sew some beads or lace on to a top, embroider some old jeans, hack up a skirt or print your own designs on plain T-shirts. 

If you aren't so handy with a needle and thread, ditch the kitsch 'glue sequins to old flip flops for a refresh' spiel and try some of the below avenues.

There are a number of books on the market about how to clothe yourself on a budget and you don’t have to be Stella McCartney to step out in homemade style. 

  • Charity shops
They really do give you the best of both worlds – you get to maintain that archetypically scruffy student image for a fraction of the price, while helping out some worthy cause.

But seriously, it’s not all tasteless tank tops, corduroy dungarees and flamboyant flares. Just because you’re Oxfam’s most loyal customer doesn’t mean the fashion police will be after you. On the contrary, you’ll have more clothes in your wardrobe and more cash in your pocket. You can sashay past the big department stores in your battered old 99p Green Flash trainers with your head held high.

It does matter where you live, however. Not every charity shop is a resting home for retired designer wear, so it’s well worth trekking across town to charity shops in the posher or trendier areas to find a better class of old tat. 

If you don't fancy the trawl through a fashion blackhole in order to spot your must have, you can even shop online at Oxfam now at oxfam.org.uk. Alternatively go to ebay.co.uk - it's not charity but it's the same second hand principal and a great way of getting brands on the cheap - if you must have the brands that is.

  • January sales
If you don’t mind risking death by crushing crowds and suffocation, these are often a good bet. The discounts are sometimes unmissable – 75% off, or even more…

Then there are markets and stalls. Most are cheap – well, cheaper than high street shops at any rate. Places like Camden Market in London and the retro shops in Brighton’s North Lanes are renowned as treasure troves of cheap chic.

Second-hand and cheap gear sellers also often visit students’ unions and set up a stall.

Of course, nothing’s cheap if you buy more than you need of it, so don’t get blinded by the bargains. If necessary, only take a certain amount of cash with you to stop yourself just having to snap up another pair of eight-inch pink glitter knee-high boots – a snip at only £90.

Shopaholism is a recognised ailment in modern society and students are sadly not immune to this terrible affliction. Students from the ‘big cities’, especially fashion-conscious London, are particularly susceptible. All their self-control seems to wither away whenever they pass a fashion store. Which is why credit cards and store cards are potentially so dangerous.

Watch out for the impulse purchase. If you see a bargain, ask yourself: is it really such a good deal? How often will you wear it? Use the whole cost per wear system. There's no point buying a cheap coat if it has short sleeves and therefore doesn't make it out of the wardrobe much. Try to buy decent quality – clothes made of good material that’ll last longer than the next rinse cycle.

There are some special occasions when you’ll want to splash out, but as a rule don’t buy anything unless you have tried it on first and know you’ll be able to wear it regularly for many months before it falls off you in rags. It’s not that you have to give up on image. It’s just that you’ll need to exercise a bit of imagination to create it.

Don’t be tempted to update your wardrobe on a whim every couple of months (or every time you split up with a partner) – learn how to mix and match a few versatile items of clothing to create a range of different looks. Wear layers so that you can get use out of your summer outfit all year round.

Only treat yourself when you can afford to, which means sticking to your budget. Whether you like it or not, clothes represent an area of your spending on which you can cut back, so it’s best to see how finances are going before indulging. The average student spends approximately £576 a year on clothes, shoes and accessories.

To put this into perspective, clothesaholic footy wife Coleen Rooney has been known to blow a £15,000 in a single shopping spree – but that’s probably a smaller percentage of her income than £576 a year would be of yours.

As you can see from the figures above, £576, and certainly anything more, is pushing at the edges of the debt envelope – but you can decide to spend whatever you like so long as when you add it all up, it’s within what you can afford. Then you need to stick to it.
Distinguish between wants and needs and prioritise from there.

  • Washing, laundry and household sundries​
That fateful straw that cripples the poor proverbial camel is not from some super-heavy GM crop. Likewise, it’s the more mundane and easily overlooked costs that can dump you in debt just when you thought you were in the clear. It’s a looking-after-the-pennies thing. 

Washing powder, cleaning products, toiletries, kitchen towels, toilet paper… they may be little things, but, as anyone who’s ever realised they’ve run out of toilet roll at a critical moment should recognise, they’re not expenses you want to skimp on. These are areas where a household kitty could come in handy. 

You can economise by not using Clinique and designer smellies. To paraphrase L’Oréal, you may be worth it – but you can’t afford it. Don’t be afraid of own brand stuff – try Superdrug, Boots (make sure you get hold of one of their Advantage cards, for extra bonuses) and supermarkets for affordable lotions and potions.

Though if you’re comfortable making your own soap from the bins out the back of the liposuction clinic (à la ‘Fight Club’), go ahead.

Laundry costs (washing powder, electricity or launderette charges) can add up though there is, of course, the option of never washing or doing laundry. It has been known for students to get four days’ wear out of their pants through ‘quartering’ (wear them for a day, turn them back to front, wear them for another day, inside-out another day, inside-out and back to front… voilà, four days’ wear).

However, this route to cost cutting can mean you need to spend more on your social life to keep any friends.

And, by the way, have you ever experienced the mindless tedium of trying to iron your clothes? In fact, do you even own an iron? (Most university rooms will have a communal ironing board that doesn’t stay up, and an iron that doesn’t work. In which case you can pick up a perfectly good iron for under £20. Oops, there goes another note.)

​As soon as your clothes are dry hang them up if needs be and you should be able to avoid this pointless activity. If you prefer your jeans with a crease down the front though, it's time to go back home for the weekend and tell your mum how much you love her…

travel

There are two kinds of travel costs to consider: getting yourself there and, once you’ve done that, the cost of getting yourself around.

​Most students living away from home come back to the bosom of their family at least three times a year. That costs.

Then, most days you’ll have to get around town to lectures, the library, your part-time job, to go shopping, partying or whatever. If you’re at a multi-site university where you’ve got to get from site to site constantly, that can be a right pain in the back pocket.
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  • National and international travel
The further you live from home, the more it’s going to cost to get there and back. So either pick a university that’s not too far away or give up on the idea of making it back for your mum’s Sunday lunch every weekend.

Bus and coach services are usually quite a bit cheaper than the trains, but you may be looking at a much slower journey. Unless, of course, the trains don’t get any better over the next few years, in which case you’ll be sitting in a stationary carriage for hours anyway.

Either way, you’ll want to get either a Student Coachcard (for National Express and other coach services) or a Young Person’s Railcard. You could get both, but once you’ve picked your mode of travel, you might as well stick with it.

They charge a one-off fee after which you get big travel discounts – although sometimes you’ll find you can only travel on double apex supersaver trains on Tuesdays when there’s a ‘z’ in the month and you’ve had a rabies shot.

  • Young Person’s Railcard: a third off most rail fares in the UK. Minimum fares apply before 10am Monday-Friday (except during July and August). You can get a Young Person’s Railcard even if you’re no longer a young person, so long as you’re in full-time education. See youngpersons-railcard.co.uk for more. 
  • Student Coachcard: Full-time students or anyone aged 16-25 can get 30% off National Express fares in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland). All the juicy details at nationalexpress.com/coach/offers/studentcoachdeals.cfm.

As for travelling abroad, most universities have their own travel bureau on campus. They’re usually pretty cheap and specialise in student deals, but there’s no harm in checking.

There are discount cards galore for the international traveler – most of which cost money and usually only one of which will be worthwhile:

  • The International Student Identity Card (ISIC): Discounts at 2,800 museums and culture sites, 2,400 hostels and budget hotels, 1,200 buses, coaches, trains, ferries, and airlines,21,000 entertainment attractions and access to a 24-hour free emergency helpline in 106 countries worldwide – isic.org. 
  • Euro under-26 card: Heaps of discounts for travelers in Europe. 
  • Go 25: Much the same. 
  • YHA Membership (Youth Hostel Association): Access to budget youth hostels all round the world, plus selected local discounts (yha.org.uk). 

Also available are Inter-rail tickets (cheap tickets for a month’s unlimited travel on the railways of Europe) – see weswap.com for more info on this.

Local travel
​If you live out, you’ll probably have to get to campus most days (perhaps every day if you‘re on a science course). That will almost certainly mean using public transport, for which the operators have an annoying habit of charging fares.

Even if you live in, you’ll want to get off campus once in a while, if only to do the shopping – campus life can get a bit like nomination time in the Big Brother House and sometimes getting out and about is the only way to preserve your sanity.

So whichever university you attend and wherever you live, you’ll have to put aside a certain amount for local travel, probably anything from a few quid a month or, in London, potentially £50 or more every week.

Check out the cost and frequency of local buses to and from the university campus, the time of the last bus – perhaps you’ll have to fork out for a taxi after midnight – and the safety of the area in which you live. If it’s not safe to walk home at night, you’ll either be looking at self-imposed house arrest after sun-down or yet more cab fares.

Living on campus obviously cuts your travel costs, but even if you can find somewhere within a mile or two, you will protect your pennies, and what’s more you’ll keep fit, what with all the walking, cycling or even jogging you’ll be doing back and forth.

As soon as you get to university, one of your top priorities should be to find out about local travel passes. There’ll often be some kind of pass for buses and/or trains for students and young people.

​Passes are often restricted to a certain number of trips or to a specified period of a day, a weekend, a week, a month, a year – or sometimes even a term – and sorting it out near the beginning of term will ensure that you get the most out of it. They can also cost so much that you’ll want to get the expense out of the way before you’re too broke.
Lonely Planet 
lonelyplanet.com
Travel resource with an environmentally-friendly agenda.

National Rail enquiries
nationalrail.co.uk
Train timetables and the latest about how many of them aren't actually running and whether it's leaves on the line or the wrong kind of snow that's to blame.

​Q Jump 
qjump.co.uk
Buy train tickets online and check timetables.
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The Rough Guides 
roughguides.com
Thousands of destinations, both in the UK and internationally.

Student Universe 
studentuniverse.co.uk
Student travel, student fares.
Travel in London
​Most public transport in London makes burning money look like sound investment practice. The buses are actually quite reasonable, but they can still take forever to get anywhere. The same goes for the whole public transport system, actually, but that’s partly because London is just so damn big.

The sheer size of the place also makes walking impractical for a journey even a relatively small way across town. As for cycling, again the distances are a challenge and, if you survive the traffic and the fumes, you may just make it to your destination.

As you probably know, even if you’re not a Londoner, public transport consists mainly of the Underground (‘the Tube’) and buses - be it the controversial (as in people thought they were rubbish) bendy buses or double deckers.

There are also overground trains and other smaller networks like the Docklands Light Railway, Thameslink and the River buses (which are boats that hardly anyone uses). Students can get 30% off bus passes and travelcards by flashing a valid photocard. Get a form from your university, see tfl.gov.uk or call 0845 330 9876.

Using the pre-pay Oyster Card gets you cheaper single fares and cuts down the time you have to spend at congested ticket booths.

There’s a whole pack of travelcards for buses, Tubes and trains (many of these can be easily loaded onto an Oyster Card, though not all overland train stations are in on the shellfish act). They’re for different people, for different periods of time and even for different modes of transport (you can, for example, get passes for buses only, which won’t set you back more than a few quid).

Most importantly, they’re for different zones. Zone-wise, London is split into concentric rings with a circle in the centre. The circle is Zone 1 and the rings going out are Zones 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. If you only need to travel within a single zone, travel is relatively cheap, but cross the line and prices start climbing.

Unfortunately most of the universities in London aren’t in residential areas (or not areas that students can afford) and it can be tough balancing the cost saved from cheaper accommodation with the cost of getting from there to college and back again every day.

For example, a monthly Travelcard for Zones 1 (where most of London University’s buildings are) to Zone 3 (where the rents are more likely to be student-friendly) would set you back £153.60 – or £107.20 with a Student Card.

Don’t be tempted to resort to black taxis or minicabs. You could easily blow your weekly travel budget on one trip. Even late at night, you shouldn’t have to. The night bus network – although interminably slow and full of drunk teenagers (as well as drunk students) – will get you home eventually. Ubers and equivalent are another option if you're not keen on the night bus, but the fares can soon add up. 

Money aside, there’s a big safety no-no with illegal minicabs. Getting into an unlicensed taxi is about as dangerous as jumping into a locked vehicle with a complete stranger – in fact, that’s exactly what you’re doing and you have no guarantee that the driver has a valid driving licence and insurance, is sober and isn’t going to try to rob or hurt you.

Never, ever, ever hop into one if you’re with fewer than two other people. Ideally, never hop into one at all.
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Travel allowances
Students are expected to spend about £500 on travel in a year. But if your expenses are higher and you fall into one of the following categories, then you can claim more:

  • You’re disabled, especially if you are unable to use public transport and have to rely primarily on taxis.
  • You need to get to another establishment as part of your medical or dental course.
  • You’re attending an institution abroad as an essential part of your course.

Buses and coaches are the cheapest way to travel, but not everywhere’s on a route and if it’s a ten-hour trip, then you may want to think about the train – or even a plane. With no-frills airlines like easyJet, flying’s often not only the fastest, but also the skinflint’s way to get about, but beware of airports miles from anywhere with only an expensive train line or taxi to get you where you need to be.

London, for once, is on average the cheapest place to get to – but once you’re there, getting around town is as ridiculously expensive as a diamond-encrusted nasal hair trimmer. Travel in the capital often drains another £30 a week from a student’s budget.

At least London has night buses and the occasional night tube. After a night out in Newcastle, Sunderland University students have to dig deep for a ten-mile taxi trip.

Ten miles is a bit far to walk, of course, but Manchester’s compact enough to let you get from campus to nightclubs and back to the student ghettos, all by foot. Or failing that, by tram or bike.

God had students in mind when he created bikes. Around many universities, pedestrians walk in fear of being hit by oncoming two-wheelers. But at others it’s just too bumpy, too spread out or just too expensive to keep replacing bikes every time they cycle off on their own.
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It’s very rare that cars are the answer – they’re dirty things that cost a packet to buy, a packet to maintain and a packet to fill with fuel. Not to mention parking (oops, just did). But at some universities – particularly the more remote – they’re the most practical way to get about.

Cars

Amazingly enough, quite a few students are car-owners, despite the massive costs involved in running a four-wheeled metal monster and the havoc they wreak on the planet.

Why oh why, you may ask. Well, a car may make sense if you’re living with your parents, as your other costs are likely to be fairly low and your folks are unlikely to have had proximity to a university campus at the top of their list of priorities when choosing the family abode.

The course you do can also tip the balance in favour of keeping a motor. If you’ve signed up for something that involves a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing to get to various placements – medicine or teaching, for example – you may find you’re wasting hours of each day on public transport or having to walk for miles unless you have your own set of wheels.

For the rest of the student species, however, a vehicle is a harder banknote bonfire to justify. After buying the car itself, the biggest expense is the insurance and new drivers under 21 are unlikely to have much luck finding anything that doesn’t blow their student income out of the water.

Whether your car is shiny, new and sexy or clapped out and rusty, shop around for the best deal – you can save several hundred quid. It might be cheaper to take out car insurance from your home address rather than your university address or vice versa. Try a comparison site such as confused.com to compare prices.

If your car’s more than 25 years old, you may qualify for classic car insurance which cuts the cost like a machete through a mango. It’s still outrageously expensive, though.

And that's just insurance. Then there’s petrol, which ain’t cheap either (approximately £37 to fill a medium-sized tank), plus you’ve got road tax (from £100 to £400 annually – though unless Daddy bought you a range rover, student zip-arounds will be at the low end price-wise), maintenance and an annual MOT test on top of all that.

If (excluding the cost of the car) it doesn’t cost you an extra £1,300 a year, you’re very lucky or you’re using it so little you probably don’t need it anyway.

Should you be lucky enough have a car as a student, you could always offer lifts to friends and get them to chip in for the petrol – so long as it’s less than the price of a bus or taxi, everyone should benefit. However, don’t set yourself up as a minicab unless you’ve got a license. It’s illegal and they’ll take away your driving license if they catch you. 

Apart from the expense, possibly the biggest problem with owning a car is that it’s always you who has to drive whenever you go anywhere with your mates. Think about it. That means you can’t drink.
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Bicycles

Bike insurance is pretty pricey too, believe it or not. Mainly because the student who doesn’t have their bike nicked at some point is probably the student who doesn’t own one.

Some of the banks offer good insurance deals also. If you’re getting a bike – which, by the way, is a fantastically economical thing to do as a student (so long as you use it) – best to stick with one that doesn’t look too flash. It’s also worth splashing out on the most intimidating padlock and chain you can find.

And, by the way, you can buy a metre of saw-proof chain at a hardware store much more cheaply than a tailor-made bike chain. Try to get a bike with a removable saddle.

Bike insurance is, however, usually cheaper than car insurance, although premiums usually take a hike every year. Always check the terms and conditions of your insurance documents very carefully.

insurance

​Not everybody bothers with insurance but if you don’t, it’ll probably cost you many times as much in replacing everything or bailing yourself out of whatever crisis you find yourself in.

Basically, if you can’t afford to buy everything you currently own, you can’t afford not to be insured. There are many different types of policy about and lots of special student packages available. Try visiting the Endsleigh website for an estimate. If you’re not living in university housing, all insurance companies charge premiums for high crime areas that are so huge it’s almost as bad as being robbed (but only almost – so don’t try to penny pinch by not being insured).

  • Insuring your belongings
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking, ‘I’ll be okay, so long as I always lock the door.’ Despite their low/no incomes, students make rich pickings for opportunistic thieves who know one raid on a student premises can result in a bounty of laptops, iPods and lava lamps. It doesn’t matter whether you live in or out, it only takes a minute to grab a DVD player or walk off with a computer.

Another trap is to think that you don’t have anything worth nicking. The average student usually has £1,650 worth of stuff in their bedroom alone, according to M&S Money - and then there's whatever you've got in the kitchen, bathroom and living room to factor in as well.

You’d be surprised what people will take if they can’t find anything valuable. If they’re stupid enough to go thieving other people’s stuff in the first place, they’re stupid enough to think your clothes, your homemade music compilations, your books and even your mugs and half-used toiletries are worth taking.

Even students who don’t have a computer, a TV or even a stereo are often surprised at how much their combined possessions are worth. Unfortunately, they only usually stop to work it out when it’s been pinched and, because they thought insurance was an unnecessary expense, they’re now forking out to replace it all.

If you are in halls of residence, you may find that your rent charge includes a comprehensive insurance policy to cover all the students living there. But don’t assume that it does. Failing that, check your parents’ home insurance policy. Quite a few of them cover your belongings even though you’re living away from home (but sometimes they exclude student residences, so read the small print).

If you’re living out, your landlord should already have building insurance (to cover fire and structural damage), but it won’t cover any contents of the building that belong to you. You’ll need to take out either your own policy or a joint policy with your housemates. It’s likely to be a little more expensive than if you were living in, depending on the security measures (window locks, alarms and so on) and, most importantly, exactly where you’re living.

If after checking all these options, it turns out you’re not insured, you can get basic personal cover from pretty much any general insurance company or bank. There are companies that specialise in students, most notably Endsleigh (endsleigh.co.uk) and cover4students.com, although other companies such as The Insurance Emporium (https://www.theinsuranceemporium.co.uk/products/student) and Norwich Union (norwichunion.com) often have packages that are just as good, depending on where you’re living.

For total possessions up to a value of £3,000, premiums will usually be around £60, with higher rates for those in private rented accommodation off campus. Three grand isn’t actually all that much and if you’ve got a computer or any expensive bit of kit, you’ll need to talk to the insurer about either increased cover or insuring that item separately. (You might also want to cover certain items for accidental loss or damage.)

If you live in a dodgy area and have thousands of pounds worth of stuff in your room, there will be no avoiding a sky-high premium – but it’s worth it anyway. It’s higher precisely because you’re more likely to be robbed.

Generally, possessions insurance shouldn’t set you back more than £100 a year tops. If it does, either get another quote or see if you can leave some of your more valuable possessions back at home, especially things like jewellery. Cheaper policies will set you back about £40 but you have to ask yourself if they will sufficiently cover your belongings.

Just because you’re insured up to the hilt, don’t get complacent about security. Not only is making a claim a real hassle, but replacing stuff takes time and is never 100% satisfactory. Besides, there’ll probably be an ‘excess’ on your policy – a sort of buffer zone of anything from £50 to £250 to stop you making pathetically small claims. This means that whatever your claim, you have to meet the amount of the excess yourself – you always lose out. Or if you protect your belongings on your parents policy remember that your making a claim will screw up their policy and what they get in the event of a future claim too.

Just taking out insurance isn’t enough – be aware, too. Home office figures reveal that around a quarter of burglaries are through insecure doors and windows and students have a tendency to be especially lax at this. Lock doors and windows when you go out (or even when you’re in) and if you live on campus and see someone you don’t recognise wandering down your corridor in halls, ask them if they need any help (especially if they’re carrying anything valuable). They may just be visiting a friend. On the other hand they could be on their way to your room, to help themselves while you’re in the kitchen making a coffee.
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  • Travel insurance
Whether you’re travelling in the UK only, around Europe or all over the world, get yourself a good insurance policy. They’re not that pricey, and since it’s so easy for things to go wrong when you’re budget travelling, it’s important to know there’s a safety net to cover delays, cancellations, theft, lost luggage, medical bills and all your other nightmares.

Every policy’s different, however, so make sure you get the right balance of cover for your needs and shop around till you get it at the right price.

If your course includes time abroad, you’ll have to manage your finances to cover extra travel expenses.

academic costs

You might think that once you’ve paid your tuition fees, you should get everything provided – exercise books with you name written on them, a pencil, some crayons – just like primary school. But no – unfortunately, your tuition fees are just the start of it.

For a start, even though we’re at the beginning of the 21st century, books are still a vital element of every degree course.

Strangely enough, some students when confronted with a long reading list of academic titles, get a bit over-excited and rush out and treat it as a shopping list. Don’t be tempted. You certainly won’t need them all and, even if you do, that’s what a library is for.

With any luck, the list will be prioritised. There’ll be main texts and secondary texts. You may well want your own copy of the main ones. If so, your first port of call should be the university’s second-hand bookshop (if it has one).

​Or look for posters about your department from students trying to flog their old course books. If you’re lucky, you’ll get everything you need for half the usual price – maybe even less. Don’t worry if someone’s already written notes in the margins or highlighted bits. They may save you a lot of trouble.
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Try Amazon for second-hand textbooks as well as discounts and special offers on new titles.  Amazon Prime Student members get 10% off 1000's of textbooks.

Get hold of your reading list as early as possible, so that you can look for pre-enjoyed books before everyone else on your course buys up the complete stock, leaving you to buy your books new.

Whether you buy your books cheap or not, you’ll probably spend more on books during the first term of each year than at any other time. sellstudentbooks.com has stacks of cheap second-hand books, lovingly thumbed by their previous owners who then pass them on to the next generation.

Different courses have different demands for books. On an English course, for example, you need loads of books, but most of them are quite cheap and you might find quite a few of them second-hand. For biology, it may only be a few books a year, but they all cost a limb. For law, you not only need lots of books, but they’re all almost criminally expensive.

Many students feel they need a computer for typing up essays and for e-mail and internet access. Or for programming or spreadsheets if that kind of thing is part of their course. All universities have computers available for student use, so you may be able to get by without having your own, but often there aren’t really enough to go around or the opening hours don’t fit in with your through-the-night attitude to essay crises.

A buzzing, whistling, tea-making state-of-the-art computer will set you back a grand, but you can get a pretty good one (either second-hand or new) for a few hundred. Arts students should be able to get away with something more basic, but scientists or design students are probably better off investing in something superfast and superclever to cope with the hi-tech software their courses are likely to use.

As a (very broad) rule of thumb, laptops work out more expensive than desktops, but a laptop may work out infinitely more convenient if you’ll be going home over the holidays or moving house during your time at university.

Some universities have their own computer shop and some of the big companies do student discounts or clearance lines – try dell.co.uk, hp.co.uk and pcworld.co.uk for starters. Apple (click here for details) offer students free accessory deals and 10-20% discounts, but you're still paying way more than you would if you bought something from a different brand.

​It’s your call whether you really can justify the expense, but if you’re going to think about a personal bank loan for anything, a computer may be the right thing. Then again, that’s what birthdays and Christmases are for. 

Your choice of course affects the academic costs as much as your choice of university, but both factors make costs swing like pants in the breeze.

In this respect, art is just about the most expensive course you can do – all those oil paints and canvasses don’t come cheap – but it’s far from the only one with costs attached. Archaeology, for instance, means getting down and dirty with the digging once in a while. And no one’s going to be falling over themselves to pay for your field trip costs.
​
All courses have some costs – think ahead to work out what they might be. If in doubt, ask the university department before you apply.

costs you might forget to allow for

It’s all very well planning your finances like a military operation, but sometimes Lady Luck likes to shove an oar in and remind you who’s boss. She’ll dump an unexpected expense on you that makes all your finely tuned preparation look like doodles in the sand. Nonetheless, while it may be a contradiction in terms, part of financial planning is to plan for the unexpected.

One way of adhering to the Scouts' 'be prepared' motto, without tying knots or wearing head to toe green, is to get insurance, but there are also certain seasonal costs you can predict. ‘How?’ you might ask.

Because Push is going to tell you, that’s how:
Spoiling yourself
Jewellery, perfume or aftershave, magazines, cosmetics, weekend breaks… now and then you need some silver linings to outline your clouds. So long as you’re sensible the rest of the time and when you do take your weekend break you spend it in a hostel in Newquay rather than the Hilton in Hawaii, you should be able to afford the occasional treat.

See how much you have left each week after all the necessities have been paid for. If it’s more than nothing, decide if you deserve a treat now or later, or just put more into your entertainment budget for next week. The same goes for holidays. Use the long vacation to earn money in a foreign clime, although you’re likely to need a bit of cash to get you there in the first place.

If you work, you may even be able to put a little aside to save up for something really special, whether it’s an air ticket to India, a leather jacket or a scooter.

The secret is to learn to recognise a luxury item before you pay for it – distinguish between what you want (the stuff you can live without) and what you need (the things you can’t). Shoes are a necessity, for instance. Ten pairs, however, are a luxury. Prioritising expenditure is a central part of good budgeting sense.

​Stick luxury items on your Christmas and birthday wish lists and make sure the list does the rounds at the right time.
big events
​There are a few events during student life when you will feel the need to spend an obscene amount of money for something really unusual, special or just plain stupid.

University balls, for example. Most of them are basically just a big dinner and a disco – the difference being that you wear a posh frock and pay a posh price tag.

Usually, there’ll be more by way of entertainments than simply a couple of decks and a few flashing lights. Think ice sculptures and string quartets, cabaret acts and casinos, fun fairs and bouncy castles plus loads of bands – sometimes even has-beens you’ve heard of.

Some universities go for balls in a much bigger way than others. Some have them once or twice a year – modest affairs at about £30 a head. Other universities (Oxbridge especially) seem to have them almost every week and some of them are outrageously decadent bacchanalias more reminiscent of a Hollywood wedding than a student shindig, where tickets sell like hot cakes at over a hundred quid each.

On top of the ticket price, add the cost of far too much alcohol (some will probably be included in the ticket), obligatory dress or tux hire (or even purchase if you plan to go to several of these jamborees).

The whole thing can end up costing the same as several weeks’ rent. At that sort of price, these should be very special occasions. It’s worth checking out one while you have the chance, but there’s no need to go to every ball going. They’ll only become mundane.

Then there are job interviews.

Especially in your final year, you’ll want to have an outfit that says, ‘I scrub up alright and can look professional if I have to’.

Looking dapper is no good if no one gets to see it. Most big graduate employers should offer to pay your train fares (and if they don’t, it doesn’t hurt to ask), but getting to interviews for postgraduate courses or smaller, impoverished organisations can place a serious toll on your finances.

This is not the kind of worry a budding career-monster needs as they try to impress their way on to the first rung of the ladder. The good news is that you may be able to get some help. In the case of a job interview, your bank will often make allowances and allow you to extend your overdraft (but not by much, mind and don’t forget to ask first), so you can buy a suit.

For any other special events, you may just have to ask your parents or put in a few extra hours at your job if you have one – just one extra shift might earn you enough.

Remember that you may need to look smart at quite short notice. You may be able to predict family weddings or christenings a few months ahead of time, but if you have a funeral to attend, you’ll probably have other things on your mind than what to wear.

At the end of it all, you may want to look the part for graduation day. Maybe not – plenty of students have collected their scrolls wearing jeans and a T-shirt under their gowns. But even they had to pay to hire the gown and, if they wanted it, the gurning photo for gran’s bedside table.
having fun
Perhaps the only element of your budget that has any more give in it than a frozen pencil is entertainment.

Don’t imagine that you can just cut the whole thing, however. You will need to have fun from time to time. Apart from the fact that you’d fairly swiftly go crazy if you didn’t go out and kick back occasionally, you’d also miss out on a good chewy chunk of what student life is all about.

But if something’s gotta give, it’s gotta be the finances for fun.

When you come to work out your budget, you’ll need to allow generously for the cost of everything you can’t predict exactly. What’s left is what you can allow yourself for entertainment. With a bit of luck you’ll be under budget on other things and therefore be able to loosen up on your own spending restrictions, but it’s better to do that once you’re in the clear, rather than spend first and ask questions later.

Still, if you want to have a good time, but need to do it cheaply, at least it’s easier if you happen to be a student.

For a start, if your students’ union is affiliated to NUS, you’ll get a free NUS card at the beginning of your first year. It’ll carry your name, NUS number, the students’ union’s stamp and an invariably unattractive mug shot. This is your passport to discounts in clubs, pubs, cinemas, theatres, in fact just about anywhere where students will be welcome bums on seats. 

Within your university, too, the students’ union will be responsible for putting on ents ranging from regular club nights to hypnotists, from movies to plays – you name it.

The quality, quantity and the kind of entertainment varies from place to place – and even if it weren’t for those variations, the differences in costs would probably be wider than a hamster eating a frisbee. As it is, what you spend on entertainments will depend entirely on where you’re living, what’s available, what tickles your giggly bits and how often you do it.

Taking all this into account, you’re probably looking at a good-time budget of around £50 a week. This is to cover the usual: drinks, entrance to clubs, gigs and concerts, more drinks, movie tickets, eating out (if you don’t count it under food), a few more drinks and morning-after painkillers.

Drinking in student bars is almost always cheaper than regular pubs and if you get your drinks in during happy hours, you can squeeze even more alcohol out of your notes.

Always be on the lookout for free entry and cheap deals. Go to www.studentbeans.com for discounts and special offers at shops and restaurants etc. ​

medical costs
​For some people, medical costs are an ongoing expense, particularly if you wear contacts or are diabetic or asthmatic. Generally, non-prescription stuff like contact lens solution is just going to have to be part of your budget.

However, all too often, extra medical costs come as a nasty insult added to the injury of being ill or hurt in the first place. Fortunately the NHS, despite all the complaints, is still free and offers a pretty high standard of care. A lot better than anything most students could afford in the world of private healthcare, anyway.

Nonetheless because most students are over the age of 19, or will turn 19 in their first year, they don't get away with paying nothing: there are charges for prescriptions, eye tests and dental appointments.

Though you aren’t automatically exempt from prescription charges and the like, as a student with a low income you may be entitled to help with charges for eye tests, prescriptions and dental treatment through the NHS Low Income Scheme.

Take a look at the booklet HC11, 'Are you Entitled to Help with Health Costs?', available from your local benefits agency and probably from the students’ union welfare department and the university’s health service.

If you’re eligible, you will need to fill in an HC1 claim form, which you can get from a Social Security Office or your doctor. Once you’ve filled that in and sent it off, you’ll get an HC2 certificate which entitles you to full help with health costs.

Alternatively, the Prescription Pricing Authority can give more information or an HC1 form – check out www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-low-income-scheme

If you’ve forgotten to go through all this palaver or you’ve already had to pay out for treatment or prescriptions, keep your receipts – you might still be able to claim a refund for part of it.
gifts
​Every now and then (usually when you’re down to your last penny), some so-called friend will decide to have a birthday and expect to be bestowed with lavish gifts.

Okay, so if you’re all students you know that your mates can barely afford the wrapping paper, let alone anything to put in it. So improvise a bit – don’t be ashamed to get them something in the sales (it’ll probably be nicer than anything you could afford at full price) or to club together with a few friends to get them something they’d really like.

Think outside the box (or at least outside the wrapping paper) – why not get a group together to see a gig or play, go out for a nice meal or try something a bit different like paintballing or ice-skating. All chip in a bit extra to cover the costs of the birthday boy or girl so everyone gets a treat and, hopefully, something nice to remember.

When it comes to family birthdays and anniversaries and Christmas, you’ll probably have to use your common sense and maybe a little bit of artistic license to come up with a novel gift idea.

It’s not as if Christmas should come as a surprise. Apart from falling on the same date every year, you may find subtle hints of its approach in shop windows and TV trailers from late September onwards.

Even with a big and demanding family, you should be able to plan and limit the expenditure and the good news is that however many presents you have to give, you’ll probably get about the same number back. Make this work for you by putting out the word about what you want good and early.

Also, when the January sales come around, seize the opportunity to buy some reduced Christmas cards and half-price pressies.

Better still, make your own cards – the ones in the shops aren’t cheap considering they’re just bits of folded card. Making your own will give it that special ‘individual’ touch, even if you don’t have a single creative bone in your body.

After all, it’s the thought that counts. Although Push has always found that even believers of telepathy struggle to accept someone just thinking about buying a present. Nevertheless, if you can find something really thoughtful for a few pounds, it’ll often go down better than something impersonal for a lot more.

Oh, and don’t forget birthdays. A card on the right day is worth more than a hurriedly bought present three weeks late.
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cigarettes
​The average weekly spend on cigarettes is pretty low according to the many banks' stats on student expenditure: apparently students only smoke £1.70 of their budget each week on the nic sticks but this survey - and the others like it - are probably looking more at the students who decide a cigarette or two is a good idea after a boozy night out.

​If you have a twenty-a-day habit - expect to fork out around £10 on a pack a day, which is £70 a week on bad breath, smoky hair and a hacking cough. That’s more than £280 a month or £3,360 a year. 

When you consider that the basic maintenance loan is £3,928, spending most of that on cigarettes seems insane. You might as well get the cash, put it in a pipe and smoke it. 

Give up the cancer sticks and you can free up that £70 for something healthy and fun, like windsurfing, or Swedish massage.
Loads of students smoke just because it’s sociable, but why not get together with a mate who smokes too and resolve to pack it in together?
​
No more student loan up in smoke. You’ll feel better, look better, smell better and save money. What more incentive do you need?
Try Quitline (www.quit.org.uk or 0800 002200) for more advice and, hopefully, inspiration

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