The Culture Vulture Guide to Student Budgeting
Rebecca Jackson (@viewsofeye) has some great tips, scams and borderline illegal dodges to stretch out that student loan …
It’s that time of year again: freshers’ week has well and truly begun, and at this point you’re probably spending money like it’s going out of fashion. Enjoy yourself – that’s what freshers’ week is all about. However, when you are ready to function again, take a look at my guide to student budgeting. It’ll save you some pennies, which means more money for beer and, erm, pencils.
Condiments are there for the taking
Fresh out of sugar/tomato sauce/mayonnaise/salt? Believe me, you may think you can do without or find a substitute (never works), but when a surprise visit from the relatives pops out of nowhere and grandma, “I’ll have three sugars please, dear,” comes to stay, a sly visit to your local fast food restaurant may be in order.
Subtlety is key. If you go in there and start piling fistfuls of sugar into your bag, they may just catch on and you’ll be thrown out faster than you can say, “please sir, can I have some more?”
Stir-fry saviour
I guarantee you’ll do anything to avoid a stir-fry after you finish university. Why? Because you’ll be sick to the back teeth of them. While you’re a student though, vegetables and noodles are your best friend. A stir-fry is the student saviour: cheap, nutritious and a nice break from greasy takeaway pizzas. You might even have enough money to treat yourself to some meat (or some yummy tofu!Ed.), if you follow my budgeting advice. Visit Leeds Kirkgate Market for oodles of noodles (and vegetables) for a very reasonable price, or you can pick up a stir-fry deal from most supermarkets.
Take advantage of the freezer
When your favourite soup is selling at half price or the supermarket has reduced a loaf of bread to less than 20p, grab what you can and stock up. When you get home pile it into the freezer. You might not win any housemate points for taking up all the space, but you will have spare food at the end of term. If they complain, throw them a free can of soup to sweeten the deal.(Throwing a can may land you in serious bother! Not recommended. Ed.)
Student discount haircuts
Look out for model nights at local hairdressers. Model nights give trainees the opportunity to practice their skills on you while simultaneously performing a loud and harrowing evil laugh. Only joking, of course. If you go to a decent salon you can get practically the same service for a fraction of the cost. And if you’re not keen on the idea of letting a trainee loose on your locks, plenty of salons round the city offer student discount deals. Rebel Pin-up on New York Street offers 50% off for students Monday – Wednesday.
Toilet troubles
Back to the pub/restaurant again. Deciding who buys the toilet roll can become an issue in a shared house, especially after you realise you’ve bought it for the past six weeks in a row, and, while we’re on the subject, you’re also starting to wonder why your shower gel goes down faster these days. Meanwhile, the guy who tends to only make an appearance at night (there’s always one) hasn’t bought so much as a tube of toothpaste – hint: that’s because he’s using yours.
Make use of restaurant/pub/library bathrooms with plentiful supplies of toilet roll – just remember to bring a big bag. This also works for soap, matches and any other useful items there’s more than one of. The important thing to remember is to remain opportunistic, but don’t take the piss.(Culture Vultures does not condone theft! If you can afford to go to the pub you can afford some Happy Shopper loo roll. Ed.)
Supermarket deals
In the last 30 minutes of a supermarket’s opening hours you will find great bargains among the pile of reduced food (this is where you’ll find that loaf of bread for less than 20p). Be prepared to fight off other bargain hunters to get to the best deals – it’s not for the faint hearted.
Interesting. Now I know where our loo roll, liquid soap and bin liners might be going at our cash-strapped cultural venue, Temple Works. Hint: did it not occur to you we have to pay for them? Sorry – it’s stealing, and there is no way round it. If someone can afford to pay for a drink or a ticket, then they can buy their own loo roll and bin liners like normal people, please.
Nabbing packaged condiments is – uh – just sad, and also stealing if you haven’t paid, or are taking more than you need for your own paid-for meal. Who do you think gets it in the neck for wastage and pilfering by light-fingered customers? The underpaid staff. Have you never heard of Cash and Carry, Costco and Pound Stores? Go get some big bottles of condiments for a tiny sum that last all term.
I run a venue on a shoestring, and I’ve also been a hard-working, underpaid waiter / kitchen staff in my own student days (no loan or grant, paid my way by working through 3 degrees). In both roles I have no time for entitled, pilfering students who can’t be bothered to make a budget and just grow up. Our own very hard-working student interns at Temple Works spend half their time trying to locate our supplies of loo roll and bin liners (and sometimes condiments!) after we have had the marauders around. They too have better things to do!
I’m sorry you feel that way and that you are having trouble with people taking your belongings. The article was only ever meant to be taken tongue in cheek. Hence why I have written it in such a light-hearted manner.
You’ve shed light on the more serious side to light fingered customers, who perhaps don’t see the harm in taking things like condiments etc, and also how it affects our city’s much-loved independents like Temple Works. It would definitely make a very good subject for a counter article.
I stand by my piece because I didn’t mean it to be taken offensively, but I also apologise if your business has been suffering from people stealing from you.
Becky.
It’s not our “belongings”. We have none other than a famous, culturally engaged 10 acre Grade One Listed national monument at Temple Works, under repair, supported critically by students such as you, and we are not that viscerally attached to our loo roll, of an evening… unless it goes missing.
No. It’s our business collateral: therefore it’s our (very very slim) margins that suffer. That means – for instance – staff pay, or in our case as no one is paid to run this venue – we just can’t raise a show. This is an incremental issue, but it is one of all venues / shows / gigs / restaurants / shops/ bars face. Show some respect.
If you want a meal, condiment, loo roll, piss, outfit or show, PAY. There are people behind it, like you. Or go to the wonderful charity shops, co-ops, barters, deals, maker/markets and others trying to get your attention!
I guess this assumes you can pay, Susan. If I didn’t have a nice middle class job, then I wouldn’t be able to sort my son at uni’s cash flow when landlords are threatening to evict him and banks are charging him £8 every time he buys something that goes over his overdraft limit.
It doesn’t mean everyone else isn’t suffering too but it was pretty easy to get a job when I was at uni. My son spent most of his summer writing web posts for nothing so he could have something to put on his cv. But he and his mates have found that jobs paying cash are pretty rare.
Hi Ali
I take your point. In response.
Quite apart from my own self-funded education – and it had nothing to do with the UK economy, but a much much tougher Canadian / Australian educational reality at that time – THIS is the here and now: our own unpaid student interns do support themselves with part time jobs – as do our young residents who need to support their theatre work.
They don’t feel the urge to steal. They can see the effect this has on people and venues, and instead they help us and each other by recycling and repurposing. We buy nothing new – we skip-jump. They help each other with leads on work, as do we. We help them with whatever hands-on training we can offer, CV’s, references, business planning and how to hold an event for which they keep the profits. Whenever possible we find ways to pay them from events and speed them on their way to their next paid or education stage. We are very proud of the fact that so many of our “kids” go onto their dream course, event, review, or job. We’re not middle class parents – we’re just a bunch of creative schmucks who know that the biggest emergency at the moment in the UK is young people, but it is also our biggest joy.
There are many ways in which young people can survive without “middle class parents” – and mutual /creative support is one of them.
My point on this student-budget article was this: stealing is not a budget option! It’s un-funny, self-indulgent and harms others.