I attempted to live off £20 a week in Glasgow’s West End

So we’re fully into the swing of uni life and as the buzz of freshers week is fading away most of us are realising that we have spent more than a considerable amount of our student loan. Time to up the anti on scrounging. I wonder how much they’re paying for liver donations these days?

Only one of these for a full week

While trying to figure out how little we had left to spare for the remaining weeks of term my flatmates and I decided to compete to see who could make £20 last the longest in the notoriously expensive West End. I know what you’re thinking – 20 quid for a week, easy job. Let me shatter those illusions immediately. Once you’ve bought your weekly shop, scrounged your way through a night out in Viper, and frittered your remaining pounds on essential coffee breaks in the library you soon realise that a measly 20 pounds is nothing.

Living on cheap goodness

Nonetheless, the week starts on an optimistic note. A trip to big Tesco goes down a treat. Despite a rainy walk from the West End to Maryhill (exercise for the week, check) we pick up some pretty special bargains. With a much bigger range of frozen pizzas and assorted offers we easily bag enough food to last us the week. Sorry mum, I promise I don’t live off ready meals the whole year round. After a reasonably sized weekly shop I’m £10 down and my flatmate has spent £13.

You just can’t afford cute brunches

With Monday Night Heat comes our first real financial challenge. I’m stuck between the option of a sober night in Viper (no thanks) or drinking the dregs of any leftover bottles of Tesco’s Nikita vodka I can find around the flat. Once suitably prepared we make our way there to find that, unable to buy any drinks due to our budget, we’re struggling to stay very long. And as for cheesy chips from 727, at the price of £2.30, there’s no chance. Deflated at this realisation, we make our way back to our flat to drown our sorrows with … water and toast.

Cheap as chips vodka and mixer

The next few days were not so bad. While nights out or casual drinks were limited (yes, we had some very sad and quiet nights in), by Thursday each of us had around £6-7 to last us the weekend. Unfortunately, I end up going way over budget whilst on a sports social – apparently after a few drinks, challenges like this seem futile and the ability to use a contactless card in Hive does not help the matter.

I eventually became sick of cans of beans

With various commutes into town and classic West End coffee dates to catch up with friends, my flatmate had easily used up the rest of her £20 by the end of the week. And the overriding feeling seemed to be that living off such a small amount for a week is definitely not the best idea in the world.

Personally, unless you’re desperate to save some cash I would not recommend this to a friend. In Glasgow’s West End, there are far too many places to spend your student loan, particularly with the opening of the new Bread Meats Bread on Kersland Street. I mean, who doesn’t need a cheese-laden burger after a long hard week of doing nothing at uni?