Your student loan is finally in your bank account but you may not be so gleeful if you spend it all half way through term. Here are some tips to guide you on your quest to sensible spending.
Do
- Revel in your new found independence. You might not be working, but at least you have a source of income that isn’t your parents, right?
- Piggy banks are the way forward. Two pence pieces can buy packets of noodles, and provide you with a fun day out at an Arcade.
- Play up to the student stereotype and constantly lament over your skint and unemployed status.
- Spend your bursary wisely. It may be free money but it could prove extremely useful when you’ve spent all your loan and are in desperate need of books.
- Get extremely angry at Student Finance, like every other student or parent who has tried to communicate with them.
Don’t
- Think that because you have over a grand for the first time in your life, you’re suddenly rich. This money has to last you a whole term.
- Get a huge overdraft. Keep it negligible so that your summer can be spent partying with exotic animals rather than being a crew member in your local factory.
- Forget that you do have to pay it all back some day. So maybe think twice about blowing it all on a spontaneous Ikea trip.
- Waste all your money on £4.50 sandwiches. The taste of guilt will override all other sensory pleasures.
- Refer to loan day as ‘getting paid’. Nice try.
Steph Muldoon