Freshers' week: where the money goes
Just for starters, you’ll probably have to pay either your rent for the term or at least your first month’s rent and a deposit. That’s several figures down already.
Then there’ll be…
- All the clubs, societies and sports teams you want to join (some of the do-gooding ones might be gratis, but most will set you back about £5 to £15 a pop)
- Drinks to buy – and there’s a whole lot of drinking going on in Freshers’ Week, what with unmissable ents on every night
- Pubs and clubs to check out
- People to impress
- New kitchen cupboards to fill up with grub
- Plants and posters to make your room feel less like an asylum cell
- Books, paper and pens to buy
- Endless passport photos to get for all the forms and ID cards.
Allow yourself some extra for Freshers’ Week. At least an extra £50 for entertainments alone (let alone all the one-off expenses like mugs and a hole-punch). Freshers' Week is one of the few times it’s okay to push the pedalo out a bit.
Splashing out is part of settling in, getting to know the people (biblically, in some cases) and consuming cheap beer like it’s going out of fashion. It’s almost an initiation ritual – after a week of binging and parties, you wake up with a hangover, late for a lecture and completely broke. You are now, officially, a student.
But after this initial spurt of justifiable madness, it’s time to take a chill pill (or an aspirin) and review your financial status before you drink yourself into a false sense of security.
Even during Freshers’ Week there are some reins to pull on. Don’t pay out money for anything unless you know you’ll benefit from it.
For example, don’t join every student society that looks more interesting than belly button fluff – join only those where you think there’s a genuine chance you might actually turn up to something they do in the next few years. (But be open-minded – you’d be surprised what strange and perverse pastimes you might find yourself drawn to.)
And don’t feel like you have to be a big spender to make friends or impress anyone. If you insist on getting all the rounds in, you’ll look like a prat because everyone’s facing the same financial minefield. (In fact, students often don’t bother with buying rounds at all.) You’ll end up with everyone taking advantage of you for a week and then being too poor to go out again all year.
Last updated on: 14 November 2008