Funding focus (iv): typical budget

What the incomes and outgoings amount to from day to day forms the fourth part of the Funding Focus.

Now that you know how much money you have for your respective years of study, it seems a reasonable proposition to determine what this lump sum translates into in terms of living from day to day. How much money can you spend in your weekly shop? Can you go to the cinema more than once a week? Is there any room for savings? What if you fancy more than just the one pint on a Friday night?

Of course, to determine all of the above, you have to budget for the year.
Advice on how to budget is hardly difficult to come by: student support services at universities will be well versed in how to make your money go further, alongside literally hundreds of results on a simple internet search for "student budgets" [1].

Instead of simply repeating this advice, therefore, I think it is more beneficial if I simply show my current budget and how I came to realise my weekly spending figure. At least then there is a realistic and tangible reference point for others to start from. (A further good example is available at the University of Bath's money management section [2]).

The first thing to consider about the budgeting process is that all tuition fees will be paid direct to the institution. All that needs to be worried about, therefore, is the maintenance grant and how to ubdget this accordingly. Fortunately, the maintenance grant is paid in four quarterly installments (i.e. every three months, starting towards the end of your first month) and so it becomes a case of budgeting for smaller periods that for the entire year, which is obviously easier. Such blocks mean that the budget below is calculated for a period of 13 weeks.

Budget: January — March (13 week period)

Income
Maintenance grant payment: £2375

Outgoings
Rent
3 months at £333.33 = £1000

Bills:
— phone = £15 per month = £45
— electricity = £10 per month = £30
— water = £10 per month = £30
— gas = £10 per month = £30

Savings
One off payment = £500

Total outgoings: £1635

Weekly spending
The above outgoings leave a total of £740 for everything else over the 13 week period, which equates to £56.92 a week. It is from this amount that I buy my weekly food stuffs, occasional outings to the cinema, various books (both for my course and for pleasure) and things like train tickets etc. Generally speaking, if I have a one-off expense one week, such as a text-book or a treat like a take-away, I usually make up for it either the week before or the following week by spending a little less on the supermarket trip or something else.

It is important to note that the obve doesn't include something like council tax payments or television license arrangements etc. Since the above approach requires that I budget every three months or so, I tend to keep track of such things so that I am aware of one-off payments when they are needed and incorporate those into the main expenses calculations.

None of the above takes into account any additional income such as marking/teaching duties and/or part-time jobs. Neither does it consider events such as conferences and holidays etc., the main reason for being that the above is designed to be the "base" standard, if you will, on which everything else is based. In the next part of the Funding Focus we will deal with such income and expenditure.

[1] Google - search for "student budgets"
[2] University of Bath Student Money Service - budget guides for UK postgraduate students