Being a university student that is almost halfway through their second semester, I have noticed that the main topic of conversation, other than drunken stories, is money.
I am now reaching the point where I have to except that my overdraft will be in use by the end of term.
The bulk of my money this term has been spent of tour in April. Don't forget about all the extras that come with it. I'm now having to spend £80 on a passport renewal.
Then there is the ridiculous amounts that get spent on takeout. It may seem like just a fiver at the time, but trust me you will regret it later.
Birthdays are another thing. Of course we all want to celebrate our flatmate's and our friend's birthdays, but remember that this does add up. There's the present, the decorations, the meal and of course the night out, and don't forget taxi money.
Its important to remember that there will be payments every few weeks that you weren't anticipating. Just yesterday I had to buy a new pair of headphones off Amazon because mine decided to give up the ghost. ALWAYS go for free delivery, no matter how long it takes. The days of agony, anticipation and disappointment when they don't arrive on the first day stated will be worth it when you review your next bank statement.
There are other small things that can be done for a slightly cheaper student life. I've started buying Quorn rather than actual meat because its so much cheaper and no risk of food poisoning. Also it's so much nicer not having to plan meals in advance in case you need to defrost something.
Buy the supermarket's own brand products and always look for the deals. Just today I saved £7.00 on my food shop from doing this. Also, Poundland is a God send. One pound for a bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup? Yes please.
I cannot tell you how glad I am I saved the majority of my paychecks from my old job for uni. It's the only thing that's got me through this year, because let's face it, student loans are complete bull****. I'm fortunate that I have money left over after my accommodation fee goes out, but some people aren't so lucky. This is the one time in life when you're glad your parents have a terribly paid job and you have younger siblings that live at home.
I think it is important to point out however, that you can be as careful and stingy as you like, but at the end of the day, living without parents and university life in general is expensive. There's simply no way round it. If you can get through uni without having to once worry about money, then every student out there hates you right now.
I think it's safe to say, the adult world can really suck sometimes.
But it's also the best thing ever.
Monday, 10 February 2014
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Formula 1 2014: The Latest
The cars for the upcoming Formula 1 season are finally being unveiled! As a massive fan of the sport this could not come sooner. The months December through to mid-March are so boring for me.
This season is seeing some radical changes to Formula 1 rules. We have said goodbye to the V8 engine which are replaced by V6's and a seemingly bizarre rule change to double points for the last race of the season, among other changes.
From the latest released pictures from Ferrari, Force India, Williams and McLaren, the most obvious change to the style of the cars are the noses that is now being dubbed the 'anteater' nose. This is thanks to new rules that require the nose to be lower to the ground for safety reasons.
One of the biggest questions that have resulted from the changes to the 2014 season is whether or not Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull will continue their dominance that they've had over the past few years.
Either way, there's guarantee that Ferrari and their 2014 drivers Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonnen will both be competing to become world champion again.
Team personnel has also been shifting and changing within the teams. Eric Boullier has left Lotus for McLaren, with co-chairman Gerard Lopez replacing him at Lotus.
The driver line-up for 2014 is almost complete as well, with a number of drivers switching teams and also seeing the return of Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi to Caterham.
Latest driver line-up:
This season is seeing some radical changes to Formula 1 rules. We have said goodbye to the V8 engine which are replaced by V6's and a seemingly bizarre rule change to double points for the last race of the season, among other changes.
From the latest released pictures from Ferrari, Force India, Williams and McLaren, the most obvious change to the style of the cars are the noses that is now being dubbed the 'anteater' nose. This is thanks to new rules that require the nose to be lower to the ground for safety reasons.
One of the biggest questions that have resulted from the changes to the 2014 season is whether or not Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull will continue their dominance that they've had over the past few years.
Either way, there's guarantee that Ferrari and their 2014 drivers Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonnen will both be competing to become world champion again.
Team personnel has also been shifting and changing within the teams. Eric Boullier has left Lotus for McLaren, with co-chairman Gerard Lopez replacing him at Lotus.
The driver line-up for 2014 is almost complete as well, with a number of drivers switching teams and also seeing the return of Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi to Caterham.
Latest driver line-up:
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Back to school for Wills
It’s that time of year again when schools and unis restart
for a new term. Although for many this might not be seen as a good thing,
Prince William can’t seem to get enough of education.
He already has one degree under his belt, but the Duke of
Cambridge has decided to go back to university, starting today, to study
environmental management on a ten week course at the University of Cambridge.
The course is designed to help him when he takes over the
Royal estate in Cornwall.
Wednesday, 1 January 2014
Happy New Year
It’s time to say hello to 2014. It’s finally here! The past
24 hours have been awash with tweets and statuses informing the rest of the
world that ‘a new year is a new me’ and all the usual trivial quotes that
usually get forgotten about come January 3rd.
Which leads us to ponder New Year’s resolutions. For me they
are worthless, my rule is if you’re going to break them don’t make them.
Despite this I see it time and again every year from all sorts of people
claiming that they are going to lead a better life in one way or another by
making a new year’s resolution.
But what did we learn in 2013? Well...
In the world of entertainment we learnt that even Oscar
winners aren't afraid of acting like fan girls when they meet their heroes as
demonstrated by Jennifer Lawrence when she met Jack Nicholson mid-interview.
huffingtonpost.co.uk
It also became OK for number one singles to reference sexual
harassment.
alexshye.wordpress.com
Hundreds of journalists and news crews decided to have a camp out in front of some hospital.
telegraph.co.uk
Tom Daley told us what we already knew.
theguardian.com
And we said goodbye to some of the most influential
political figures in history.
Forbes.com
Npr.org
Now as we look back on some of the pinnacle moments of 2013,
we welcome in the New Year and wait to see what 2014 has in store for the next
12 months.
Sunday, 22 September 2013
Miley, please just stop
She's been at it again! Miley Cyrus has been twerking her way into my (and I'm sure many other people's) most annoying celebrity of the year list. This time she stepped out at the iHeart Radio festival in Las Vegas in a cringey fishnet dress showing way too much for anyone.
It appears that it can get worse after her awful VMA's performance in which all I could shout at the TV was "who told her that obsessive tough thing was attractive?" and "stop trying to twerk when you clearly can't" Even worse than the Wrecking Ball video which lets face it, is not 'art' or whatever she wants to call it and is just an excuse to cause havoc in cyberspace when there are more important things in the world that need to be discussed, like the fact that people are dying from inhumane chemical weapons in Syria. What makes it worse is I'm now blogging about her, all be it negative, no doubt she find satisfaction in being heavily criticised and bitched about seeing as a lot of people are currently doing it.
I don't buy this "oh, she's just doing what every twenty-year-old does", because being just two years younger and knowing some 20-year-olds myself I can say that no self-respecting twenty-year-old decides to get on a massive foam ball naked and put it all over the internet.
To top it all, now that she's officially broken up with Liam Hemsworth, all I think about is that its only going to get worse from here.
It appears that it can get worse after her awful VMA's performance in which all I could shout at the TV was "who told her that obsessive tough thing was attractive?" and "stop trying to twerk when you clearly can't" Even worse than the Wrecking Ball video which lets face it, is not 'art' or whatever she wants to call it and is just an excuse to cause havoc in cyberspace when there are more important things in the world that need to be discussed, like the fact that people are dying from inhumane chemical weapons in Syria. What makes it worse is I'm now blogging about her, all be it negative, no doubt she find satisfaction in being heavily criticised and bitched about seeing as a lot of people are currently doing it.
I don't buy this "oh, she's just doing what every twenty-year-old does", because being just two years younger and knowing some 20-year-olds myself I can say that no self-respecting twenty-year-old decides to get on a massive foam ball naked and put it all over the internet.
To top it all, now that she's officially broken up with Liam Hemsworth, all I think about is that its only going to get worse from here.
Thursday, 19 September 2013
The REAL Important Questions when leaving home
Leaving home is an step we all take at some point in our lives. I'm doing it now at 18, having just moved into my new flat at Winchester University. Your parents or guardians or other mature adults you live with always try to give you little pearls of wisdom when you leave that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Such nuggets include, "Never set up a direct debit on a credit card" or the classic, "don't spend all your money on alcohol so you can't pay the rent and end up in debt with an interest rate overdraft".
These problems however, are nothing compared to the real world problems I have come across in the past three days. The utter confusion of having three different cleaning products - Cif, bleach and disinfectant. Or the threatening question of whether a blue and black stripey dress should go in the white or coloured wash.
Luckily however, it appears I am not alone in dealing with these problems as my flatmates all seem to share the same issues. So although we may have perils to deal with along the way, like trying not to accidentally stain the carpet with bleach, I know that the next three years will be some of the most important in becoming fully grown adults.
Oh, and getting the degree at the end obviously.
Monday, 20 May 2013
About Bloody Time: Gay Marriage plans to go ahead
Plans to legalise gay marriage
are to proceed through Parliament in England and Wales backing Labour, despite
opposition from some MPs.
The bill will be debated over two days with a final reading next
Tuesday when if passed it will go to the Lords where it is expected to face
more opposition.
Conservatives had offered an amendment to
allow heterosexual couples to have civil partnerships if gay couples
could get married.
Tim Loughton (Conservative MP) said the amendment would make the bill "less unpalatable since extending civil partnerships to co-habiting heterosexuals would address a "glaring inequality" in the current proposals as well as encouraging family stability.
Nick Clegg said he had no problem extending civil partnerships
to heterosexual couples as well.
On
Sunday, 34 current and former local party chairmen delivered a letter to
Downing Street opposing the gay marriage policy as "flawed,
un-Conservative, divisive and costing us dearly in votes and membership".
They said it was
causing "crisis of conservatism" saying that Europe, same-sex
marriage and the "contempt" for party membership from the leadership
were "destroying the party".
My thoughts...
Stop thinking about
your God forsaken party and start thinking about all the couples in the England
and Wales that are going to benefit from the same-sex marriage bill. Its
already taken this long for the bill to go to Parliament now lets just pass it,
with an amendment for civil partnerships for all if its going to make you
happy.
Happily, another
letter was sent to Cameron from 100 Tory activists praising him for his stance
on the policy.
Under the new Bill, Church of England
and Wales would be banned from performing same-sex marriages because of their
strong opposition and other religious organisations would be able to opt-in.
Last week France became the ninth
European country, and 14th in the world, to legalise gay marriage. Earlier this
month Rhode Island became the 10th US state to allow same-sex marriages.
All I can say is just
do it already for the sake of equality and freedom.
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