Chris wrote:How much have you spent on fags, boozing and nights out?
Don't know about you but I get the impression that far too many students spend their money on fags, booze and nights out rather than on general costs of living. How much of your £4k or thereabouts goes towards expenses that you can cut back on for a month or two?
Perhaps this is the ideal time to give up smoking, eh, Jamez?
I'm a student and I don't have any of these problems, when I didn't have a job okay I had some problems with money as my bursary payments were very low.
Money management seems to be an issue a lot of my friends suffer - partly because they're out every Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday. Some have cars and go shopping frequently. I don't go out every other day like it's religion. Every so often. I can go shopping and I can now afford to pay for a car without getting into serious money problems.
My money problems I did gain last year are in a stable situation and I'm managing them well.
What I fail to understand is why mdta spent so much decorating his room - this to me isn't classed as a compulsory expense and could have gone undone. A tub of white paint can cost around £10 and another colour around £15 from Dulux. Did well on my room. Unless the rooms falling off the side of your house you didn't need to have it done up.
As for PC Components - this also bugs me with a lot of students. I've heard some instances and it seems with Mdta these occur every month. PC Components do not need replacing every month or every other month. If you are doing this then you need to look further ahead when buying these. Looking to what your going to need a graphics card for next week is no use when you might have something bigger a year down the line. Colleges & Universities don't have parts replaced every month and most PC/Mac systems will work on the same parts when software demands more from them. If you spend a larger some on one component and have planned ahead when buying it then you won't need to replace it until it breaks or ends up a few years old.
Bit of pot, kettle & black there as I go through hard discs at quite an alarming rate which some quick working show I need a new hard disc every year. I use my PC a lot for everything, it's on for over 12hours each day and the heat in the room can vary and cause problems. I do however plan ahead and have recently invested in an external disc to store data which should reduce the strain on the internal drives.
If you get your bursary or loan in installments every 3 months or so budget some of that to go on PC parts, I've done this and so far come out with a high quality A3+ Printer, scanner, digital camera, external hard disc, graphics card, internal hard disc. A mass of printer ink, paper and other bits. All of which leaves me with plenty for travel, food, etc. I still live at home so these things aren't an issue but I could easily live on what I earn in wages, loands & bursary.
Jamez I sympathise with you as I've been there but I raise serious questions on what some of this debt and overdraft has been spent on. You say you can't get to the bank until today is it? Then why is that? You don't have a job so what are you doing that means you can't get there til then? If your studying then your course tutor/leader or whoever I'm sure will sympathise with you and let you leave to go to the bank. If however your falling behind with your studies then again why is this? You need to keep on top it. No silly debt. No days off because of hangovers. Go out less. And less on things you don't need.
If your landlord has cashed the cheque sooner than expected than you should have written a date further on when it would be more convenient.
