Have you got what it takes to survive the student lifestyle, get a degree and cope with the financial side of Uni life today?
Welcome to the All About U virtual student experience. This tells a story about your possible first year as a student. You'll discover many of the ins and outs of student life and the sorts of decisions you'll need to make. Throughout the story you'll receive mobile messages from other students, some of which are helpful tips to make your money go further. You can find more financial tips gathered from real students at the end.
Term 1, part 1: A new beginning
Term 1, part 2: How to make friends and influence lecturers
Term 2: Mid-year madness
Term 3: Summertime, is the living easy?
More financial tips from UNIAID
Life begins anew for you. You'd better:
The successful Uni experience is all about balancing different areas of your life. How will you look after your money, get good grades, enjoy an active social life and take care of your health? You begin your first year like this:
Your virtual student bank account is open and you'll get access to £250 savings and £1000 interest free overdraft (to use not abuse).
Right, first things first. Time to get a roof over your head. Accommodation could cost you half your money, so it's important to make the right choice. Where you live has a big impact on your living costs. You get a bigger loan if living away from home, but how do the costs balance out?
You're faced with a choice of home, halls or a shared house. Let's say you choose to live in halls. It's £60 per week including bills, and it's very close to the Uni, so there are no travel costs.
Your total rent for the year will be £1750. That's £700 for terms 1 and 2 and £350 for term 3.
12th September 2005It's your first day at Uni. You go to register first.
You get chatting with some other freshers on the way to register. You meet Darren and Sanchia.
Darren tells you about a good idea. He summarises the idea in a text 'Hey, let's knock up some food together and split the bill. Cheap nosh means more dosh'.
Wow! The Union's busy and the facilities look fit for the Hello magazine annual party. You recognise a friend in the crowd. It's Joe who's studying architecture. It's hard to catch what he's saying in the crowds. Joes says he'll send you a text.
Next you go and check if your student loan's hit your account yet.
At the bank you find that the money's not in yet so you look at your budget, and try not to panic.
Oh well, at least you've got a cheque book. You go and register with the doc and dentist, which is a top idea. You never know when you might need the doc. In fact, you're not feeling so good right now.
As you leave the bank you see Joe. His household income is £14,000. So he gets a lot of financial help.
You're checking out campus when you meet Sarah. She asks you where the Student Union is. She's studying architecture with Joe, she's deaf and he's been helpful with registering.
You walk Sarah to the Union but your head's in a spin. Fresher's Fair is in the air. All those forms at registration have wiped you out, so you ask Sarah to join you for a nice warm cuppa.
17th September 2005After a long week of induction, you wake up with a headache, but you're still feeling flush. You're making a good start with your savings.
You keep being good by finding out how to use your internet banking. Your friendly but firm new Student Adviser shows you how to bank online. You're relieved. It's actually pretty easy.
There's so much going on, your head's spinning, and it's only midday. So you cane that student discount card and decide you'll cook up a storm of a gourmet meal tonight.
The student card is ace! You can save loads on everything from clothes to cinema tickets. You buy some serious grub for tonight's slap up meal.
Whatever happens, you're not going to starve, they sell dented tins of beans for 15 pence at the supermarket! You consult with Sarah - her culinary skills come close to Delia's.
It's been an exhausting time, but you head to the Union. Tomorrow you've got to crack on with work and soon you'll need to sort out this term's budget.
It's been a busy first half of your first term. Let's look at how you're doing?
You have £231 left of your savings of £250. That's great but you'll need to save more each week to stay afloat. Keeping an eye on your balance can stop you going over your overdraft limit.
You haven't started studying yet so your academic performance can't be measured.
Your social life is average. You're not setting the world alight but you're not friendless either. Your health is not bad and you don't have time to become a sporting champ but get some decent exercise and work up a sweat.
You've got the basics sorted, now it's time to:
You're in the virtual money! You'll have a virtual £4000 this year. The first term's £1500 has hit your account. You'll get £1500 in term 2 and then £1000 for term 3.
Don't forget there's also an interest free overdraft facility of £1000.
You'll still need to budget carefully so it doesn't run out before the end of term.
There are so many choices. You decide you need to spend the following:
You've already signed up for halls and this is the weekly cost of living there.
You've always been quite sensible with food. You plan to cook yourself 16 meals each week. Eat in the Uni canteen for three meals a week and buy two takeaways. This comes to a grand weekly total of £54.50. You'll also be eating up some time. All that munching will take 20 hours a week.
You've weighed up what you might spend on the basics of living: for example your toothpaste and shampoo, clothes, CDs, DVDS & downloads and a few squids for laundry and cleaning. The total you decide to spend each week on basics is £14.00
Studying isn't just a question of spending time. It'll also cost you money. Time at lectures and practical sessions takes up 12 hours of your time. You decide to spend another 10 hours on study time outside of lectures. You set aside a sensible amount for books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The total you decide to spend on printing at the library is £4.00. You'll spend a total of 22 precious hours per week on your studies.
You want to find time to experience all that Uni can offer. You'll be dropping by to see friends and watching telly for free. But what with mobile phone bills, plenty of visits to the student union, clubbing, watching films and working out at the gym you're spending £26.50 on socialising each week. The activities you've chosen will take up 16 hours per week.
Your income from your loan and savings only adds up to £136.26 per week. You'll be facing a shortfall of £22.74 per week. By the end of the first term that means that you'll be overdrawn by around £285.00. With the £1000 interest free overdraft on offer to you from the bank, you're relaxed about this budget. You can't wait to get on with the term.
19th September 2005Aaagh! You've slept through your alarm and are late for your meeting with new tutor Doctor T. Never mind. You hit Snooze and go back to the Land of Nod.
Yikes! Doctor T's not best pleased with your lateness, and demands a reason. You tell him total utter porkies.
Blimey he bought that, but how much time have you bought? You don't care as you've just bumped into someone you fancy outside his office. You get up the guts to speak.
You're on the same course. But, oh no, here comes their current partner. You creep to the canteen.
You meet Ruth in the canteen. It's her birthday and she's buying the drinks. She offers you one but you refuse. Its time to hit the books if you're going to stay on current form.
The library is having a sale, and you save twenty squid on textbooks. You wisely invest the difference in a new pair of jeans.
You've also bought a funky new t-shirt to go with the jeans. Then you remember you've only got 10 mins to get to your first lecture. Crikey!
Doctor T's in full swing and giving you evils, so you say sorry a million times.
On and on. The lecture is seriously dragging, you're trying to stay awake and stay out of trouble.
As soon as it's over you go home to catch your favourite programme. You put your feet up, relax with a well-earned drink, and thank your lucky stars it's the weekend.
23rd September 2005You go out to catch a gig. It's still early when it ends, so you head off for the Friday night knees-up. You meet Kami on the dancefloor. You talk about badminton and her home city of Hong Kong while you boogie.
Finally the lights come on with the ever-subtle cry of 'Everybody out!' Darren suggests you share a cab, but you feel like walking and saving the fare.
Your walk leads you to the local kebab house. You dare to enter and spend £2.50 for the dubious pleasure. Mmmm, nice. Let's hope you feel just as nice in the morning.
It's Monday morning. Your workload is growing fast but you need feeding and head straight for the nearest greasy spoon.
Mmm, stuffed. With your tummy bulging and arteries hardening, you decide to sweat it out in the gym.
The gym was a seriously bad idea. Kebabs, fry ups and press ups aren't best friends. You feel utterly rank. You try to get down to some studying anyway.
Noooo! You realise you've forgotten about an urgent assignment. It's all a bit much. You contact your Student Adviser and ask for help.
The Student Adviser suggests you ask for an extension and, next time, plan ahead and flag up problems a bit earlier. You go and talk to your lecturer.
Luck's on your side and your lecturer's given you an extension, so you decide to head home to relax.
When you get home, you realise your wallet is gone and you retrace your movements pronto. Better check out what the excess is on your insurance policy. You did take out an insurance policy, didn't you?
No sign of your wallet and on the way back home you find Kami distraught and in tears! It's a good night for crime. Her room's been broken into and stereo nicked! Bad news all round.
25th October 2005You bump into a happy looking Sanchia on campus. She's had a brainwave. As Halloween is just round the corner, why not make masks to make extra cash? Are you interested?
The nights are drawing in, and what better way to use those extra hours of darkness than make a load of scary masks and sell them for Halloween? You'll be getting together with Sanchia so any profit, or loss, you make will be split 50/50. You decide to join Sanchia in the mask mission.
They're a pretty lively lot at your Uni. A lot of people will be getting dressed up and even more might be up for at least sticking a mask on. Even so you decide to think carefully about how much to charge and how long you'll have to spend making costumes.
Students don't have much cash and often like making their own outfits. It probably won't make you rich but if you keep your costs low you could still clear a reasonable amount. You might make a name for yourself and get given extra work for other fancy dress parties.
Okay. You've got work to do if this is going to happen. You decide that you and Sanchia can cope by yourselves and don't need to get any other students involved. First off, you design your masks to be as scary as the terrible Doctor T. Then, you work out that materials cost one pound per mask. To add to your costs, twenty pounds buys you a stand in the Student Union where you'll advertise and sell your masks. After a quick calculation you figure that you'll need to sell ten masks just to break even.
28th October 2005You and Sanchia spend the day selling your masks. You're well chuffed as you managed to sell 27 of them. This earned you £135. Minus £47 for costs leaves £88. That's £44 each for you and Sanchia. Brilliant, you made a profit! Your formula for your small business was a success. Your bank balance is boosted and the experience you've gained will look great on your CV too.
31st October 2005It's Halloween, and it's time to let your hair down. A bunch of letters drops through your door. You check them out. There might be one for you.
There's a couple of letters for you, and you think one of them is from the insurance company about your missing wallet. You hope you're on your folks' policy! You open it and risk ruining your day.
Bonzer! Your post is an invite to the hottest Halloween party on campus and a payout for your AWOL wallet. At least you're flush again, but sadly none of your clothes are scary enough. You decide you'll hire a costume and start ringing round the fancy dress shops.
Bad news. It's going to cost £35 for a monster costume! With this mammoth price in mind, you make your own costume.
Sadly you've cut the eyeholes in the wrong part of your sheet and can't see out. Sanchia offers to knock you up a vampire outfit from a bin liner. You agree and Sanchia works her magic. Sorted.
The party's heaving with zombies, witches and ghouls galore, when you spot the person you fancy and go for the jugular.
Aaagh! In your state, you've only gone and hit on Doctor T's long term partner! Not good. You talk your way out of it. Luckily, you get away with it, 'masking' your embarrassment. You've had enough and do a runner.
7th November 2005You're run down and running out of money. Halloween and Guy Fawkes have played fireworks with your budget. Christmas is coming but you carry on regardless. Nothing interferes with your social life.
But the excessive partying is taking its toll. Down with the flu, the doc tells you to rest and drink lots of fluids (sadly non-alcoholic ones!). You try a health kick.
14th November 2005After taking it easy and giving up your excesses and bad habits for a week and a day, you're ready for anything. So you go on another bender.
That last bender didn't help at all. Now confined to your 'cage', too ill to study, you miss another deadline. You ask Doctor T for an extension but he's in a bad mood and won't give you any longer. You decide to sneakily put another student's essay into your own words. Desperate times. Desperate measures.
Uh, oh! Doctor T's on to your crafty ways and he's fuming! You lie and say the essay was original, and tell T where to get off.
You've really gone too far this time. Doctor T's blown his top, and it's not pretty. You leave his office with more work than ever, and a face as red as a baboon's bum.
Result! When you get home you check your account online and realise you're better off than you thought. You hit town for clothes shopping.
Oh no! You've completely blown your budget and have nothing left for your folks' Xmas presents. Bah humbug!
16th December 2005One term down, two to go! End of term is the time to review how you're getting on and re-budget for next term.
You've had an excellent time this term. Let's look at how you're doing?
You're getting the hang of Uni life, but how's the money situation? You need to:
Even though you're due the next £1500 instalment of your loan, you're in the red and seriously need to cut down on spending. It's time to re-budget.
You decide you need to spend the following per week:
Not a lot you can do about this cost if you want to keep a roof over your head. You've signed up for a year anyway. Accommodation remains £60.00 per week in shared halls.
You cut out the takeaways. Those kebabs weren't doing your health any favours anyway. Your eating costs are reduced to £42.50. That'll save you over £150 for the term.
Desperate times mean desperate measures so you cut CDs and DVDs from your budget and decide that you don't need any more clothes until next term. This leaves you spending £6 per week.
Can't do much about these costs, but it looks like you're going to have to get a job. To make time for this, you're forced to cut down your study hours to five.
Most of your activities have been free, like visiting friends and watching TV. It's important to you to keep things balanced, so you keep a commitment to doing some sport each week. Your treat is to go to the Union. You decide to keep this up. Your social spend stays at £26.50 per week and takes up 16 hours.
Even though you've slashed your budget you're still planning on spending more than the £129.63 you'll receive from your virtual loan. You've reduced the deficit to £9.37 per week.
You decide to try and get your finances back on track with a part-time job. You've heard about the work of Student Ambassadors and it sounds right up your street. Students go out into schools to talk about what Uni is all about. It'll look great on your CV, takes up only one afternoon a week and will earn you £25.00 a week.
Phew! This bumps your income to £154.63 per week. Take away your planned expenditure of £139.00 and you should be left with £15.63 to help pay off your overdraft, that is if you stay on track!
9th January 2006New Year, new you! Never mind all that, you decide to go bargain hunting.
You can't beat the January sales for a bargain, but wallet says 'no'. You window shop for a while, then drag yourself away from the shops and knuckle down to some serious studying.
You really need to settle down big time. There are deadlines to meet, and that scary Doctor T to get off your case. You need to return some books and spend some time in the library.
Oh, that's all you need. Three books late and you've been clobbered with a giant fine.
You avoid paying by schmoozing the geeky library assistant. Your charm gets you a smile and some tips on managing your schedule. But the main thing on your mind right now is RAG and Diversity week. You hook up with the gang to talk it over.
Sarah and Darren are organising activities during RAG and Diversity Week. You reckon you're up for a spot of burger eating.
Turns out you've been allocated the mystery date slot anyway. It better be someone hot.
13th February 2005You cross your fingers when the contestants are revealed. You're out of luck and it's only the Student Adviser, geeky librarian and a blow-up sheep behind the screen. It's a bad bunch, but you choose the geeky librarian.
Well, you've made your choice, and you'd STILL rather eat every book in the library than go there - at least you might save on those library fines! Time to catch up on your coursework and visit Doctor T.
Doctor T's come down on you like a ton of kryptonite. He gives you a list of things to do, and wants to see you first thing tomorrow. You go home and study like a maniac.
Oh no! Just when you were feeling saintly, your PC crashes and you lose the whole evening's work. You give up and hit the Union.
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, you bump into Doctor T, AGAIN, in the bar! You know you'll be in trouble tomorrow morning. You'll have to get that work done super fast now!
14th February 2006You're loopy about love, worried about work and mental about money. You get down to some serious work before your session with Doctor T.
Your brain is aching, and the work keeps piling up. You're behind on revision. You stomp off to the library.
As you leave the library you see Sarah. She reckons smoking is costing Darren over £1200 a year! It's burning a hole in his pocket and his lungs! You think about getting him some patches.
You're having a cuppa with Sarah, chatting about how funny Mystery Date was. With Valentine's coming up she suggests setting up a speed dating night to cash in on all the love in the air. What do you think?
Speed dating is really popular at the moment. With Valentine's day coming up you and Sarah could make a lot and split it 50/50. You reckon it's worth a shot.
Not all of the students on your campus will be single, but a lot are. With the right kind of promotion you should be able to fill a pretty decent sized venue. But how many would actually come? And what if only blokes turn up? You realise you've got to be careful on how much you charge and how you promote it.
If all goes well you could make up to £15 a head. You could also make a name for yourselves for running events and it'll look great on your CV too!
You and Sarah select a smart club to hold your event in but have to shell out £100 for it. You then spend £80 on classy flyers to get the word out. To add to the ambience, you include a drink and table snacks for £2.50 a head as part of the ticket price. The final cost is for some extra pairs of hands. The services of two students rack up to £60.
15th February 2005The night was a success with twenty three people handing over £15 to find love. This earned you an income of £345. Taking away the £297.50 costs leaves £47.50. Divided between you and Sarah, your cut of the profits is £23.75.
You rush off to town and spend your fifty big ones on a pair of trainers. Well, they were in the sale!
At the bar, you see Doctor T is playing Paxman at the Quiz Night. You take part and congratulate the Doctor on his new academic post.
A big cash prize has gone to your team, 'The Cheating Buzzards', but sadly the defeated team has skulked off. You go to the bank see how much you have left.
You bump into Joe en route, 'I think Darren should watch it, he's spending his loan like water! Not only is he letting the bad beer elves get all his money, he's got a few credit cards too. He's running up loads of debt! How's your cash looking?'
Crikey. Despite your pub quiz winnings, you're still really short on money, so Kami won't be getting a birthday present from you, unless you ask Sanchia to make something.
You bump into Sanchia in the pub. She's made some cool beanie hats and says you can have one. There's Kami's birthday present sorted! Now for some well-deserved refreshment.
30th March 2005It's the end of the Semester, and you've got less bread than a starving pigeon. You reckon you should get a job, but you'll probably spend the dough on socialising with your mates.
Uni's no fun when you can't even afford to hang out with your mates. So you start doing some serious networking.
Excellent. You get a call from the neighbours back at home. They need office help over the vacation. How cool is that? You reckon you can manage about 15 hours a week.
You bump into Darren. He's got some work mowing lawns over the next four-week vacation. They're paying £6 an hour. Not bad at all. Darren offers to 'cut you in' but you turn him down. After all you don't want your social life to fall apart and well, you'll need to fit in some study time.
31st March 2005It all goes so quickly, and that's just your money! Well done in getting a job for the Spring vacation. See you next term!
You've tried to be better with money. Let's look at how you're doing?
Time flies when you're having fun. How are you going to spend your last three months? Will you:
With exams coming up this term you'll need to focus on study. It's a short term and you're happy with your last budget, so you decide not to fiddle with it for the sake of it.
24th April 2006You've made a tidy wedge from your part-time job, but now the hard labour begins. Exams are looming, but you want to get fit before stripping off for the summer. Anyway you nosh on the usual fry up. You'll start getting fit tomorrow.
You've stuffed your gob and are all set for some fancy moves with the Grandmaster so you head straight down to martial hall.
That was an ace way to destroy that pesky exam stress. You need to do some serious last-minute revision, but you decide to collect the mascot for tonight's basketball game first.
You bump into Joe. 'I've just found something out. If I get a job paying £18,500 per year on graduation, I'll repay my student loan at a rate of £6.06 per week. I'm happy with that. Now where's that monkey?'
Mascot collected, you have to take him to the library with you to save time, but bump into Doctor T. You do as the Doctor says and get on with some revision.
The crammed library has given you a mother of a headache, but you've got a few more hours before the basketball game begins, so you drop by the Union for a quick half.
You order a large one, then feel well guilty, there are a zillion other things you should be doing! It's about time you went and visited Kami in hospital.
Flowers and a sexy bit of bling made by Sanchia have put the smile back on Kami's face but she's gutted she can't make it to the basketball game. Doh! Where is Mad Monkey? You must have left him behind somewhere! Better retrace your steps.
You see Mad Monkey coming out of the library, hanging off the arm of your love interest! You approach the cutie, explaining your relationship with Mad Monkey.
Wow! What a connection! Cupid isn't so stupid after all. You feel totally loved up as you skip down the stairs. You're walking on air, and miss the last step. OWWW!!!
8th May 2006You've had 4 stitches in your chin! Looking into your loved one's eyes as you fell might have been worth the pain, but let's hope being in Accident and Emergency hasn't taken up too much precious revision time. Now you're back at home you bury your head in the sand like a depressed ostrich.
Sanchia and Kami are swotting in the library, Joe and Darren are revising together, testing each other. Now you've got The Fear. You reckon the best way to relax your mind is a workout in the gym.
The workout means your head's now clear, but your tummy's playing up and you have to go meet one of your lecturers. You reach for the pills.
Blimey, you are in a state! Is it a hangover? No, it's exam anxiety and your lecturer tries to give you some advice. You can't take it all in. You go home and decide to complete the revision once and for all.
You're more focused now, but your stress levels are off the scale! You think its time to sort your diet out.
You see Kami in a shop on campus. She reckons you should always cook your own food. Not only will you save money, you'll stay trim.
Your concentration's improved three fold since laying off the kebabs and fizzy drinks, but you're still feeling stressed. You have a reassuring chat with Sanchia. If tomorrow never comes you'll be a very happy bunny. Sanchia seems sorted, but you're still all over the shop. Sanchia changes the subject. 'Hey, hey, Guess what? When I'm earning £21,000 a year, I'll repay my loan at a rate of £10.38 per week. How good is that!?'
Its time to head to the Student Counsellor.
You get some reassurance from the Student Counsellor and decide to hit your pit early.
You're feeling fresher and much more confident after a good night's sleep. That last paper was pretty easy and you're relieved, if you'd had to do re sits, you don't know how you would have funded it.
27th May 2006Those exams are finally over, and you can think about having some proper fun. Thank goodness you've got your ticket to the summer party already.
Yes you're going to the party! And a good thing too, it's sold out! You decide to do some serious celebrating.
You're with the gang. Darren's been thinking of selling burgers at the last game of the season in a few days. You'd have extra dosh for the party. What say you? The game's soon, so not much time to decide!
'Everyone loves burgers' Darren tells you, 'I used to run a burger stall and can get us all the equipment for nothing. We could make a fortune at the basketball game!'
There will be about 700 people at the game, with the right mix of meat and veggie burger you could sell to a decent proportion of them. As always there's a risk. The game's at 7 so there's a chance people will have already eaten. But charge a decent amount, sell loads and you could make a tasty sum!
Darren's convinced you that burgers equal cash, so you splash out £90 on enough ingredients for 450 burgers. The investment doesn't stop there with a pitch in the sports hall costing £100 and a £50 flashy sign for your burger stand.
You and Darren agree to charge £1.90 for a burger. That means you'll have to shift at least 127 of them to break even.
28th May 2005The game goes well but not enough of the crowd are hungry. You sell 189 burgers which brings in £359.10. Minus the £240.00 costs you and Darren have made £59.55 each. Not bad, but not the mega cash you hoped for.
29th May 2005In the pub again, Darren turns to you and says, 'I found out today that when I'm making £18,000 a year I'll pay my loan back at just £5.20 a week. I've just realised that's the same as a pack of fags!' He's well pleased.
Aaah! That massage was the best, even if it has set you back a few squid. You feel seriously relaxed and ready for anything.
30th May 2006And the party's kicking off in fine style. Darren's singing in his band and Joe's DJing, while Sanchia and Kami are chilling. You feel like doing a spot of singing. Soulful warbling is cool.
The excruciating but fun karaoke machine has been wheeled out, and everyone's giving it some welly. You give your tonsils a thorough workout.
To your dismay, you sound worse than a cat being strangled. It's time to work a fast groove on the dance floor.
You're shaking it on the dance floor, the music's hot and you're getting hotter. You want to dance the night away.
Your over enthusiasm leads you to trip over Sarah's bag and go flying. You decide to head off for some well-earned rest and refreshment.
The party's almost over and you're thirty quid down, but happy. You ask the person who has been looking over at you all night if they fancy grabbing a bite to eat. Disaster. You realise you've only got a tenner left, so you explain your predicament, and ask if you can go Dutch.
You munch on cheap and cheerful tucker, split the bill, and save money by going home for coffee and to set the world bang to rights.
On the way home you bump into Sarah. She invites you to another party. You go, you're up for anything.
31st May 2005You can't remember what happened last night, you're skint and, worst of all, your friend has vanished!
On top of all that, you promised to help Sarah clean out her digs, and it's farewell to all the gang till next year.
But wait: didn't you get that telephone number last night...?
So you've reached the end of your first year. How did it go?
As you've seen, life at University is full of ups and downs. You've experienced a lot, including:
We hope you've enjoyed the experience and now feel better equipped to do it all for real. Remember, wherever you are UNIAID is here to help you out.
Hungry for more? There's a whole load of info on surviving life at Uni out there. We've had a hunt around and compiled a list of brilliant resources to help you out, available now from the All About U site.
Here are some of the top tips submitted to UNIAID by students during a recent survey.