I was irresponsible with money - and I paid the price

ALL students have probably been a little frivolous with their funds from time to time, particularly when starting at university and revelling in the new-found financial freedom of a student loan. Whilst most of us learn to rein in our spending after a dose of guilt and realisation of the need to budget, a few don’t wake up to the problem until it’s too late – as one student tells us.

"When I got to university and banked my first student loan cheque, I felt amazingly rich, as I imagine many people do. With only a fraction of it going on my halls rent and my parents agreeing to pay my tuition fees, I think I subconsciously decided that the rest of my money was there for me to have a good time with.

"I made friends with a lot of non-medic students during freshers’ week. As we’d never lived in a big city before, we wanted to try out some of the posh bars and clubs – which were inevitably very expensive to get into and then to buy drinks at. We quickly got into a routine of going out 3 or 4 times a week. But we were having such a good time, it never really occurred to us to go to cheaper places, let alone the student union.

"I didn’t keep track of my spending, and when it came to December, I realised I’d almost completely spent my first loan instalment and had nothing to spend on buying food – forget Christmas shopping. I sheepishly told my parents, who bailed me out. In a way, I wished they hadn’t – I didn’t learn from the experience and repeated the same mistake the following two terms.

"I’d tell myself I was on a hard course and therefore deserved to have some fun as well, and would go clubbing and spend anything up to £80 on a single night out in the city centre. But rather than admit the problem to my parents again, I took out two credit cards and used them to pay for everything. I didn’t really understand the interest rates, instead getting drawn in by clever marketing, and found myself in a mounting pile of debt at the end of only the first year of the 5-year medical course. I later found out that my friends, as well as being only on 3-year courses (a fact I’d conveniently ignored!), had all been getting regular handouts from their parents – something mine couldn’t afford to do!

"By the end of the year I realised I had to change my lifestyle. The priority was to pay off the credit cards as soon as possible as the interest rates were horrific, so I joined a temping agency and worked the whole long summer after the first year, whilst my friends went on holiday. Through this and weekend work during the second year, I finally paid off the horrendous debt and cancelled the cards.

"Now that I’ve dug myself out of the hole, I force myself to budget for food and books and so on before spending money on going out – and I’ve learned to have a good time at cheaper places!

"My advice to other students would be to keep track of your account at least weekly so you know where your weaknesses lie; budget for the sensible stuff first; and stick to debit cards unless you know exactly what you’re doing."