Tips for student survival

Very few people, let alone students, have 'enough' money. While the number of tertiary education students living below the poverty line remains undetermined, financial hardship is a fact of many students’ lives.

All groups of students are affected by debt: full-timers, part-timers, mature agers, school leavers. Probably the only group that is exempt is made up of those are working full-time, but they have a big problem with time management rather than money.

While the picture looks bleak, there are four rules to survival.

Rule 1 — Face facts

Rule 2 — Adjust the facts to suit you

Rule 3 — Work out where the money will come from

Rule 4 — Learn how to cope with fiscal flame-out

Rule 1 — Face facts

There are more things that demand money than you might think. The main ones are:

• Housing
• Transport
• Food
• Clothes
• Fun
• CSP or full fees
• TAFE and Registered Training Organisation tuition fees
• Amenities and service fees
• Course expenses
• Childcare.

One thing that catches many people out is the expenditure at the beginning of the year or semester when you're buying books, paying student union fees (though these are now voluntary), setting up in a new house or flat, and so on.

Rule 2 — Adjust the facts to suit you

Although there are some costs you can't get away from, many of these expenses — or at least the magnitude of the cost involved — depend on you. You can decide:

• Where to live. The thing that makes the biggest difference is whether you need to pay rent. While many school leavers can choose to live in their parents' homes, there is probably no such option for many mature age students. However, if you have to rent there are also significant differences between cities (Sydney is the most expensive; Hobart is cheapest) and between cities and country towns (most, but not all, country towns are cheaper that cities). Living on or near campus cuts transport costs.
• Whether you study at uni or TAFE in a government subsidised place or at uni or a private institution paying full fees.
• The course you do. Course fees vary, not just between different types of institutions, but also different fields of study.
• To live cheap and shop smart. Preparing your own food is cheaper than eating out. Op shops are cheaper than Target and Target is cheaper than most other shops. Libraries are the cheapest place for books, then second-hand stalls, then bookshops. And so on.
• What you can put up with. This does depend a lot on who you are and what you are used to. Adults who have been earning for a few years find it particularly hard to go without.

Rule 3 — Work out where the money will come from

Check out Student Income .

Rule 4 — Learn how to cope with fiscal flame-out

If it all gets too much you can:

• Borrow some (more) money
• Downsize your living arrangements
• Go part time (and earn some money)
• Pull out for a while (and earn some money).

Note that the third and fourth of these options require permission from the institution you're studying at.

Many students find that a discussion with the campus counsellor helps. It can help you get clear about the problem and the options, and often things just feel better because they have been talked about.

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