Here’s how not to be at the end of your overdraft after Freshers’

Okay, so it’s nearing September and you’re ready to embark on the next chapter of your adult life. It’s all been leading up to this. Uni. You’ve never had more than a hundred quid or so in your bank account and you’re literally about to be stinking rich with over a grand of “expendable cash”. What could possibly make this situation difficult?

Sorry to break this to you but: everything. The one thing no one told you when filling out your UCAS forms was that you’ll spend the majority of your educational career counting up pennies and plotting how to make a kilo of pasta last until next year. But it’s not all gloom and doom – we put together a surefire guide on how to make the most of your loan, and everything you need to know before you get caught out at the bottom of your overdraft.

Make the most of your money with a NatWest Student Account, and
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Not today Satan

FRESHERS’ WRISTBANDS WILL BE THE WORST PURCHASE YOU EVER MAKE

Avoid promoters outside your halls at all costs. They prey on weak and wide-eyed freshers all for a £1 commission on each wristband they sell. Absolute scam.

You will inevitably buy one of these thinking you’ll have the whirlwind of a first week you were promised, coming out with more friends than you can handle. The reality is you’ll either find yourself in a sweaty SU bar with 30 people around you or worse, outside a club they’ve oversold tickets for, unable to get in and having to befriend the rejects like yourself. No one you know will ever talk about how their freshers’ wristband made their uni experience. Find the nights you want to go to and just go, without the dorky wristband.

FIND OUT THE COSTS INVOLVED BEFORE JOINING A SOCIETY

It’s a given that you’ll be keen to get involved in societies and groups at uni. Especially when you’ve arrived with no mates, it’s a guaranteed way of finding people on your wavelength. But ask yourself – how much do you reaaaally like the idea of wine tasting every week? Most societies will sway you into joining with the promise of incredible socials and trips away all the time. Then you get jumped with all these undisclosed initial costs, and for sports teams there will be a £70 fee to play for the uni and nearly £200 on the kit. That’s essentially half your loan gone in an instant, faster than you can say AU social. In conclusion? Go ahead and join, but factor in these costs.

BUY YOUR TEXTBOOKS SECOND HAND, IT’S A SCAM

You’ve packed the essentials, secured that garlic crusher your mum convinced you that you won’t survive without, and you’re now checking up on your reading list. But hold on – £130 for a textbook you’ll use for one module? I didn’t get myself into unquenchable debt for this. That’s four weeks’ worth of food. Eight if you own tupperware.

Get second-hand books online or help a hungry second year and find someone selling their old copies. Or, just go online – who writes anything down these days anyway? There’s always a PDF.

Open a NatWest Student Account and choose from either a tastecard, Amazon Prime Student or National Express Coachcard

SUCK IT UP AND BUY A BUS PASS

Obviously, forking out £200 to get to and from uni is a painful transaction, but you don’t want to be that person asking for someone to lend them £1 as you “don’t carry change” and “thought the bus pass was a rip off”. Think of it this way – you won’t have to worry at all about transport until next term when you actually have money again. PLUS if you’re fully broke, at least you won’t be walking for nearly an hour to your 8am lecture. Do your future self a favour.

PREPARE FOR THE WASHING MACHINE COSTS OR FIND A LAUNDRETTE

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The worst part of your halls experience will be the washing machines. You’d think that by 2019 they could have computerised this to such an extent that you didn’t have to wait outside the machine for two hours watching someone else’s boxers get cleaned, for fear that your load will stop halfway through. The worst part? They’ll swallow your cash if you let them. Your washing machine card most likely won’t work unless there’s £5 on its balance – so you’ll never get away with just paying £3.

Budget wisely and load up your card at the beginning of term, or find a laundrette in town that’s cheaper and actually works. Or just take it home to mum.

START AS YOU MEAN TO GO ON, BUY YOUR FOOD FOR THE WEEK

You’ll get smacked with takeaway deals the moment you set foot into halls. But for the sake of your health and your overdraft, start doing a weekly shop. Find your nearest superstore, buy food that will last (not just loads of chicken you’re not going to have time to cook during Freshers’ anyway) and continue this throughout the year. You can easily do a shop for £20 a week, maybe less. And then at least you’ll still be able to eat by the end of term.

SIGN UP FOR EVERY STUDENT DISCOUNT

You won’t believe how much these matter until you don’t have access to them anymore. Theatre buff? Get a student membership. Gym head? Get a student membership. Pretty much anything you do, whether it’s going to the cinema, eating out, or getting a coach home, you can get a discount on. Saving a pound here and there goes a long way once it hits December.

With a NatWest Student Account you can choose from either a tastecard, Amazon Prime Student or a National Express Coachcard – open an account here

This could be you but you’re wasting your pennies

DON’T SET OFF THE FIRE ALARM IN YOUR HALLS OR THEY WILL CHARGE YOU

It’s all fun and games until some absolute novice decides to burn his bacon and the smoke alarm goes off. The result? Everyone gets turfed out of the flat for a fire drill and a fine of £100 each for letting it happen. EACH. You would think for a uni making £9k a year out of you, they’d spare your stupidity and be merciful.

And if you’re in self-catered halls, you could have someone coming to check your kitchen weekly to see if you’re keeping it clean. If that doesn’t already sound shockingly annoying, they can charge you if they deem it unsatisfactory. Just play by the rules and keep your money safe.

SECURE YOUR EARLY BIRD TICKETS FOR EVENTS

The ticket tier system for club nights is a military operation – for the most in-demand places, you can sometimes secure an early bird ticket for literally a quarter of the price of the final release. It’s easy to put it off, thinking you’ll secure a cheap one closer to the date – but alas this is not the world we live in my friend. Don’t get caught on the day paying quadruple the starting price, or worse, unable to afford the night you wanted to go to. Thank me later.

BOOK YOUR TRAVEL HOME EARLY

You may be tempted to hold off on buying your ticket home incase anyone sticks around uni at the end of term. Newsflash: they don’t. Realistically, everyone is trying to get home to mum’s Waitrose food shops and duck feather pillows. And so are you, let’s be honest. By putting off the inevitable you’ll end up paying triple the price just to get home. Buy your coach ticket early and you could be getting home for under a tenner. No brainer.

NatWest have a Student Account that could help you make the most of your money this Freshers’

Choose from either a tastecard, Amazon Prime Student or a National Express Coachcard

Open a NatWest Student Account today