Money – the great vanishing act

Nothing goes as far or stretches itself as thinly as the student loan. Yet every term, there it is: that feeling of impending doom in our stomachs when the overdraft limit gets too close for comfort. After this regular end-of-term deprivation, getting a thousand pounds in one go is like parachuting a drug addict into an opium field in Afghanistan. Well, nearly. But it’s true, sometimes things seem to get out of control and it is far too easy for money to seemingly disappear like those lost memories of drunken evenings out.

Students are particularly susceptible to this phenomenon of disappearing money, and readily available access to various cash sources and ATMs seem to be likely sources of blame. A couple of trips into town on the Metro (the train system in Newcastle): £10, lunch with a friend: £6, a night out with your housemates: £30, a coffee with a new writer wanting to get involved in the student paper: £6, buying The Guardian every day at Tesco: £4, the look on my face when I realise I’ve spent £56 in a week without paying any bills, buying a book or putting any petrol in my car: priceless.

As students, keeping a more than active social life is a priority just as high as getting that ever-important 2:1 or being involved with the Union, the student paper or sports teams. But, such activities can be financially draining, particularly when it’s September and the bank balance seems healthy and the liklihood of blowing all of your money by Christmas seems an unlikely possibility. However, before we know it, we are haemorrhaging money from our pockets like water from a leaky pipe. I found that many a time during my years as an undergraduate I simply couldn’t account for a lot of the money that went out of my bank account and I noticed a pattern; small cash withdrawals regularly. £10 here, £20 there, £30 at 2am to buy even more drinks in a club - it is these instances of spending that can cause the most concern because it’s simply impossible to maintain a budget through these spending habits.

My penchant for coffee, lunchtime gatherings in the sun at a street café or simply a fairly regular happy-hour pint on the chic Osborne Road in Newcastle all meant I was spending lots of money on very little. I dread to think—and try not to speculate—on the exact sum of my ‘luxury’ spending on coffee and lunches out and in retrospect, wish that I’d kept a hold of my finances a little better. I was a lot better in my final year (mainly because my time was spent writing my dissertation and editing the news section of my student paper), rather than procrastinating with the other yuppies and Mac users in Starbucks. However, I would strongly suggest that freshers start polishing your budget-keeping habits straight away- old habits die hard and it’s much easier to get hold of your aberrant spending before your money has started disappearing.

So, here’s a few solutions on how to make those little luxuries like coffee, nice lunches or an afternoon pint a bit nicer on your wallet

• Buy your favourite daily at your Student Union for a reduced rate. All the dailies are around 25-30p at Newcastle University Union Society. Check the prices in your Unions!
• Buy a coffee-filter machine between your housemates (or on your own). You can get a cheap one for around £9.99 at Tesco, M&S or any similar store and they all do a job and make great coffee! Then a pack of cone-shaped filters 70p and a bag of Tesco ground (fair-trade!) coffee for about £1-2:enough to make about 25-30 cups of delicious coffee. If you like cappuccinos, heat some milk in the microwave and then froth it up with a whisk, spoon it half and half with you coffee and put some cocoa powder on the top! Not as good as the real thing, but not a bad, cheap alternative!
• Walk walk walk! No petrol for the car, no train fare for the metro or the bus and think of the environment! Getting the train in the torrential rain is allowed, though.
• Spending a lot of money on a night out can be difficult to cut down on but if you are a hardcore party-goer, try drinking a few soft drinks throughout the night. Not only will it be more pleasant for your bank balance but will help to re-hydrate you and thus ameliorate your hangover the following day.
• Lunch with a friend- cook something fun together or make friends with a future Masterchef champion who can do the cooking for you while you have a glass of wine. Think about what you’d order at Starbucks or at a café- a panini with salad will cost you about £4-5 in a half decent café whereas you could easily make a similar alternative for a lot less. Or, if you definitely want to eat out somewhere, give your Student Union your custom. You’ll get value for money AND be putting some much-needed funds back into your union.

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