Talking Money

Hi my name is Ursula. I'm currently doing my second medical degree at University College London. My first disection was quite scary but because all the blood and things had been removed it wasn't as intimidating as I thought it might be. We had six foot rugby players fainting and things so I cope reasonably well compared to them.

Interviewer: Could you tell us about your wildest night out?

Ursula: I don't know if my parents are going to be seeing this at some point. I was in bed by 1 am. Let's just put it that way. So it was a good night out.

The UNIAID calculator worked out that I spent about 10,000 pounds on eating out and socializing. I also run the Good Food Society at UCL. It's part of my GT. But yeah; it's quite expensive. I should probably learn to cook. That would probably help.

What, where and why, part 3

Ursula: My name is Ursula, I'm doing medicine at UCL, University College London.

My first degree was Molecular Cell Biology and it was a 3 year BSE course.

A medical degree is a really demanding degree you'll probably be in most hours of the working day so 9 til 5 standardly, and it varies as you go into clinics as well but it is definitely a really intensive course but you still find time to have fun.

In terms of earning hopefully in 5 years when I finish my medical degree I'll be on roughly £25-30,000 and 5 years later if I progress onto a consultant level I'll be earning between £60-100,000 so it should definitely be enough to fund me eating out like I do now.

Investing in your future

Sarah: OK, tell me when to start, directions please. Hi I'm Sarah, I'm studying at the London School of Economics in my first year.

Mike: I should be earning anything between £40,000 and a £120,000 a year.

Ursula: 5 years later if I progress onto a consultant level I'll be earning between £60-100,000 so it should definitely be enough to fund me eating out like I do now.

Vinit: Education, as my dad once said, is one of the best investments you can make. Research your course and talk to as many people as you can because it's one thing you wouldn't want to get wrong.

Mike: Any investment in my future will definitely be worth it.

Claire: Money is always an issue, it does get me down sometimes 'cos I'm thinking what am I going to do if I don't have money, but what am I going to do if I don't have this career, what will I have for myself.

Buying your own place

Ursula: So the idea to buy my own property was probably because I'd seen other people, other medical students in particular doing it. The money that would have been going on rent pays for the mortgage instead.

The best bits of living alone and having my own place are you don't have to deal with your flat mates partners, you don't have to fight about who used what for the bills, I get to have company when I want and I can have a quite house when I want and I can view whatever tv programmes I want and I don't have to watch the football.

The don'ts of budgeting

Sarah: 'Top tips to save money'...I think I am the wrong person to ask!

Naz: I made quite a few extravagant purchases. I used to just spend money as I wished. Clothes shopping was a very bad habit of mine.

Alex: There are some people who are going to be at university who are very rich and can do whatever they want so be very careful with say, if you're going into town with them, they'll take you along to the fancy restaurants. Be prepared to say 'no, I'm just wanna go and get a sandwich from a shop'.

Ursula: I have been known to spend like, I don't know, a hundred pounds on my card in a club. So it's not good for my bank balance the next morning.

Blowing it all on going out

Vinit: A day in the life of my first year would probably be something along the lines of getting up around about twelve o'clock, missing some very important lectures, finding the time to get a bit of breakfast at around about three o'clock in the afternoon, thinking of doing some work and then going out at night. And, I did that quite a lot in my first term and very soon after I begun to regret it.

Ursula: Charlotte Street, I've pretty much been to every restaurant there and I've spent like forty-five pounds without knowing it sometimes, on one meal.

Vinit: I wasn't expecting to have to do so much work. I had a tendency to go out too much, not take my work seriously and that meant i was getting poor grades in my first year.

Ursula: And in terms of alcohol as well, I have been known to spend about a hundred pounds on my card if I buy cocktails, mojitos, whatever.

Vinit: I managed to scrape through in my first year and I've learnt from that by becoming more serious about my work.

Eating on a budget

Rosie: In my cupboard I've got lots of pasta and tins of tomatoes. I've also got lots of things in the freezer because it's quite useful to buy things in bulk and then freeze half of it for later.

Vinit: Having a balanced diet is really essential. Balancing work and stress and a healthy lifestyle is very important.

Claire: I'm a bit of a let down when it comes to being a student, because I love fruit. Being New Year I'm trying to eat healthy and things. So I think I've got one banana left, half a punet of strawberries, some blueberries, some raspberries some salmon, some salad and soya milk, because I'm trying to refrain from dairy. Apart from that, most of my friends live on a stable diet of pizza and pasta and sausages and things like that I guess.

Ursula: Even the Ritz has offers. You can eat pretty much anywhere. So I don't know if you've heard of Gilgamesh in Camden, it's quite a nice restaurant. I can eat there for free now because I've got so many points.

Rosie: It's really useful to learn to cook before you go away because then you don't spend so much on take-aways and things.

Claire: People fresh from home can be frustrating. Teaching them to cook spaghetti Bolognese i left the room for a moment and he put a whole packet of spaghetti for his tea into the pan and it's like, 'What are you doing?!'.

Budgeting top tips

Mike: Budgeting is a really important part of managing your money.

Ursula: Use student deals for restaurants and living and eating out.

Mike: List all your income and all your expenditure.

Aaron: Don't buy what you don't need.

Lucy: Err.. I can't remember what number 3 was! Err. There's that one where if you go to the supermarket late in the afternoon they have all the marked-down food.

Jemma: Get to like jacket potatoes. They're really cheap, they're healthy and you can have lots of different toppings on them.

Jana: There are loads of things that you can do for free - walking, hiking, borrow books or films, if you want to watch DVDs you can borrow them from the library. Take advantage of the many discounts that are offered to students.

Jemma: Jacket potato fillings - butter, tuna, mayonnaise, egg?!

Lucy: No!

Jemma: Prawn

Lucy: Yeah!

Jemma: Chicken..

Lucy: No

Jemma: Chili!

Lucy: No

Jemma: Salad..?

Lucy: Yeah

Jemma: Fish! ... that's it.

Getting money from the folks

Ursula: If you are lucky enough to get some money from your parents to help you through university it really makes a difference. I get £400 a month put into my bank account from my mum, and then my dad will give me extras for travel and things like that.

Jemma: When I came out of uni the debt was quite a shock, and I think I wouldn't have done anything differently because it was really good having my own money which I had to be responsible for, but my parents said to me well we can either help you now to pay it off, or we can help you with a mortgage later.
So I probably won't get a house.

Ursula: There is a lot of guilt attached to it, but like I say, they work hard for me and hopefully I will be able to repay them later... Um, not with the cash though.

What's in store for graduates

Ursula: After my second degree, my medical degree, i'll probably have at least £30,000 of debt.. erm.. which is quite depressing but hopefully i'll be able to pay it back!

Rosie: I suppose it's just this anxiety, this feeling of it looming over you and that i've got to pay it back at the end of the 4 years.

Jemma: When I came out of uni with quite a lot of debt it was quite crushing that I didn't realise how much it would be. However I wouldn't have done anything differently I think it was good to have my own money although it was borrowed to have at uni.

Aaron: In terms of repaying your loan, you don't need to start repaying it until you earn a certain amount of money which is around £15,000 a year. However, they say your loan is "this much" but it does have a interest. The amount that you borrowed for your 3 or 4 years isn't what you'll pay back, it does increase.

Sarah: At the moment i'm just hoping i'll get a really good job to pay it off!