My Final Year University Experience: Finances

This is the third post of my final year university experience series. The first post was focused on the academic side, where I discussed each module, my dissertation and my final degree result. My second post was focused on the social side of university, which was very different to previous years due to the pandemic. If you haven't read those two yet, click the links and check them out.

This third post is going to be short and sweet. It's all about my financial position during the year. To find out how I coped with my finances, just keep reading.

STUDENT FINANCE PROCESS 

The student finance application process is always a hassle and third year was no different. It took ages for my parents to finally get their portion done because so much was asked of them (as usual). There needs to be a petition to allow students to get however much they actually NEED. I mean the government have EVERY form of ID anyway, I can't exactly run away and not pay it back. 

Anywayssss, I ended up applying for both the tuition fee loan and maintenance loan like in previous years. I didn't get as much as I was actually entitled to, which was frustrating but I managed to make the money stretch since the virus situation stopped me from doing....well anything. I didn't need to spend that much in final year, so actually this was the perfect year to be given incorrect funds. 

STRUGGLES 

The biggest difficulty I had in terms of finances was not being able to work. I work in hospitality, so of course due to the several lockdowns, I wasn't able to work all year. It made me heavily reliant on stretching my loan as far as I could. I wasn't applicable for furlough due to the lack of hours I worked in the two months prior to the first lockdown. I work on a casual contract, so I was able to take three months off from work to focus on competition season with my university dance team. I had only done one shift at the start of the year, so that meant no furlough for me. 

Besides that, finances weren't too bad. Could have been better but it could have been far far worse. 

POSITIVES 

The lack of events, in-person contact hours and of course living at home, saved me a lot of money. I was able to treat myself more often which was really lovely. Usually I would get the bus to campus every day but because I was working from home, I didn't have to pay for a monthly bus pass. That in itself saved me a good amount of funds. 

Even though I wasn't working throughout the year, I still had my maintenance loan which I was able to live off throughout all of 2020/21. I also put myself on a spending ban from January to April as way of saving money for summer time and to feel more satisfaction once I could purchase something after university finished. I allowed myself to spend on things I needed, like empty essentials, lunch, stationery etc., however I stopped myself from buying beauty products hyped up by Tik Tok, clothes that I didn't need, gimmicks from Amazon etc. It was definitely satisfying when I made a well awaited Shein order after submitting my final assignment. 

WHAT'S NEXT? 

As you will know if you've read my previous posts, in September I will be doing my PGCE to teach secondary English. To pay this I will have to take out a student loan again, which is £9,250 here in England. Some subjects offer a grant/bursary for trainee teachers, however English is not applicable, which is very annoying but what can you do? I've applied for a maintenance loan on top of the tuition fee loan because I can't have access to a bursary. The course is only 1 year, so hopefully I won't have many issues with finances. 

How did you manage your finances as a pandemic student this year? Let me know in the comments below. 

Thanks for reading,

Have a great day x