{"id":11122,"date":"2013-12-11T14:07:18","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T14:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/12\/11\/budgeting-for-college-or-university\/"},"modified":"2013-12-11T14:07:18","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T14:07:18","slug":"budgeting-for-college-or-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/11\/budgeting-for-college-or-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Budgeting for college or university"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

We take a look at some of the average costs of going to university or college<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n

\"Money<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got the place and done the hard work. Now it\u2019s a case of sitting down and thinking about how you\u2019ll manage your finances over the course of your studies. We take a look at some of the average costs of going to university or college, and how you can begin to budget for these. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What are the average costs of being a student? <\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

For many people becoming a student is the first experience they\u2019ll have of living away from home, and with this comes the responsibility of dealing with the costs. The table below gives you an idea of the average costs over one year of a student at university or college (not including tuition fees): <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Cost type<\/strong><\/th>\n

<\/p>\n

Cost per year<\/strong><\/th>\n


\n <\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n

Accommodation<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a34,159<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

Food<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a31,440<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

Going out and clothes<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a31,707<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

Energy bills<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a3616<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

Travel, including going back home<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a3483<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

Household essentials, including toiletries<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a3376<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

Books and equipment\u00a0<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a3344<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

Insurance<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a3129<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

TOTAL COST PER YEAR<\/strong><\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a39,454<\/strong><\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

(Source: \u2018Cost of University\u2019 study by LV, 2012) <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Read more about the costs of going to university or college on the MoneySavingExpert website<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Working out your budget <\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

A budget is always based on the money you have coming in \u2013 your income, and the money you have going out \u2013 your expenditure. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As a student you may not have income from work, unless you have a part-time job, but you may have income from student loans, grants, and contributions from family. To make a budget you should try to work out how much income you will have each week or month at the start of each term. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But remember the final term will be shorter in terms of weeks, even if you receive equal termly instalments of your loans and grants. Don\u2019t forget to budget and plan for the summer months ahead if you will be continuing your studies after the break. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Once the income is sorted and you know how much you have to spend each term you can begin to look at the expenditure. Try to work out what your expenditure will be over the same period \u2013 weekly or monthly. The key trick now is to make sure that your income is either more or the same as your expenditure. If expenditure is higher you\u2019re going to run out of money! <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Example budget planner\u00a0 <\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Monthly income<\/strong><\/th>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Monthly expenditure<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n <\/th>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a3<\/strong><\/th>\n


\n <\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n

Student Loan \u00a3430\u00a0<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

Accommodation<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a3462<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

Grant \u00a3250<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

Food<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a3160<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

Family contribution \u00a3350<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

Going out and clothes<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a3190<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

\u00a0<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

Energy bills<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a368<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

\u00a0<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

Travel, including going back home\u00a0<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a354<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

\u00a0<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

Household essentials, including toiletries<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a342<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

\u00a0<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

Books and equipment<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a338<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

\u00a0<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

Insurance<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a314<\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n

TOTAL \u00a31,030<\/strong><\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

TOTAL \u00a31,028<\/strong><\/td>\n


\n <\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Take a look at the UCAS guide for working out your budget<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Use our online Budget planner tool to help you plan your spending<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What if my income does not meet my expenditure? <\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

This is a problem faced by thousands of students every year. There are four solutions to consider: <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Increase your income<\/strong> \u2013 you may be able to get some part-time work to increase your income. You may only be able to do this during your holidays, but it will still make a big difference to your budget. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Reduce your expenditure<\/strong> \u2013 take a look at the expenses within your budget. Are there any areas you could cut down on a bit? A night in, rather than on the town, once a week might help you to save quite a bit over the year. Swapping some branded food for supermarket-own brands can also make a big difference. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Speak to an adviser <\/strong>\u2013 your university or college is likely to have a student money adviser who can help you budget and manage your income. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Consider borrowing options<\/strong> \u2013 once you\u2019ve tried increasing your income and reducing your expenses you may need to consider forms of borrowing to make up the difference. Usually the most cost effective form of borrowing for students is through an interest-free overdraft, but other options are available. Only ever borrow what you need \u2013 don\u2019t be tempted to borrow more just because it is available to you. The money will have to be paid back, and the less you borrow the better your financial situation will be when you finish university or college.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This article is provided by the Money Advice Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We take a look at some of the average costs of going to university or college You\u2019ve got the place and done the hard work. Now it\u2019s a case of sitting down and thinking about how you\u2019ll manage your finances over the course of your studies. We take a look at some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}