A
female
 ,
anonymous
writes:I am a seventeen year old girl, starting university next month..my dilemma is that I have zero budgeting skills. I have always been a spoilt brat, which I admit. I am used to geting what I want, and I don't want to be like that anymore. I want to improve, now with uni coming up I really will have to. If anyone has any tips on how to save money, cheap stores, cheap and easy recipes and generally how to survive uni and keep healthy at the same time I would greatly appreciate it. I will be living away from home, in halls ansd will only be able to go home for money at weekends, but I have a feeling that I will spend a week's worth of money in a day! Help desperately needed. Thank youAmber
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female
reader, Bev Conolly  +, writes (13 August 2006):
 You probably should start right now, and get some practice in budgeting before you move away.
Get your banking sorted out, and draw yourself up a simple budget. You can do it on a spreadsheet if you want to, but even paper is fine. There's even an online one here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onelife/finance/calculator/calculator.shtml
On your budget, list the following: rent, meals, tuition, savings, books, clothing, entertainment.. and any other, very general, categories that you think of.
Next to each heading, put down what you expect to spend, reasonably, each fortnight. Add the total and, voila!... Your fortnightly budget.
Once you know what is, try living within those constraints at home and see if it's workable. You'll also see if there are other expenditure you've forgotten.
It's really important to develop some financial skills in your life. I know because I was exactly in your shoes when I went off to uni... I spent a whole quarter's budget in just a couple of weeks, because I had no concept of planning for the future. It wasn't long before I was living on raw carrots and cornflakes (cheap).
Eating well at university is a matter of finding a few things you like and learning to cook a new dish every week or two. Look at some of these to get some recipe ideas:
http://www.aboutcollege.com/recipe.htm
http://www.betterbudgeting.com/frugalrecipelist.htm
http://www.frugal.org.uk/recipes.html
Don't forget that there are other people, just like you(!), starting uni in September. Many of them are a few years older, having taken "gap years" or worked, so will probably have more specific ideas for you to use, as well. So ask, share, and exchange ideas with them.
Have fun with the new adventure!
A
reader, anonymous, writes (12 August 2006): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionthanks jonny, If u send me your email address, then i wil add to my msn list and we can help each other out where possible..
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A
male
reader, Jonny_05 +, writes (12 August 2006):
Hi i to am going to university in september however i have a job and have small income every month. I to have got to start saving so what i have done is opened another bank account and given my card to my mum so that i dont spend any of the money. As for shopping primark is a great place for clothes shopping and places like aldi, liddle and cool trader are great places to buy cheap food. Also when you go to uni leave it a couple of weeks so you get to know the place and then get a job to have extra income. Hope i have helped you. if you need more advise or just someone to talk to dont hesitate to get in touch because i could also use someone to talk to when i go to university!!
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