The Truth About Uni | Finances

Going to Uni is expensive no matter where you study. Though it might be different studying in the UK or in The Netherlands. For all universities in Holland there is a certain amount of college fee you need to pay to the government every year. Besides that you can get a student loan for a maximum of 10 years after you first started studying. If you are studying longer than 10 years or you took a couple of years off, you can’t get a loan anymore. So basically everyone who goes to uni has a student loan.

In my experience studying is expensive and therefore I usually had a job besides studying. During my first 4 years of my bachelors I was very lucky to have a flexible job. This company organized beach activities for companies or friend groups and my job was to be the instructor of the activities. So whenever I had time off uni and there was work I could apply to instruct the activities. This was really nice, because I could basically plan work around uni. In my fifth year of my bachelors I did a paid teacher in training year, where I was teaching PE at a primary school. The experience of finally being a real teacher (not an intern) was a great experience!

Whenever I didn’t had the time (or not enough) during the uni year I worked during the summer holidays. In the first two years of my bachelors this were catering jobs etc. Since three years I’ve started to work at camps during the summer. Which obviously are much more fun to do than catering jobs. This summer is not going to be any different!

Work is one part of the finances during your uni years, but you also need to get the hang of budgeting, doing groceries, planning fun student activities etc. Of course you can find your way of dealing with these things along the way, but I would like to give you a few of my tips:

1. Take at the beginning of the week a certain amount of money out the ATM. This way you have a much clearer overview of the amount of money you spend. I find when I just swipe my card around during the week I actually don’t know what I’m spending. As when I have cash in my wallet I know exactly what I have left to spend.
2. Go to the grocery store just before they close, because they often have a lot of food for sale that goes off that day. It can really save you some money and make a delicious meal for less!
3. Bring your own coffee to uni in a tumbler. This will save you so much money, because you don’t have to buy coffee at uni (well at least during the morning). And of course if you don’t drink coffee this works for tea too!

Besides these tips it is always a good idea to keep all the receipts and write down every month what your spending in certain categories. This way if you want to save some money you know in which category you can try to spend less.

I hope you liked reading about my experiences during uni and the budget tips will help you! Don’t forget to check out the blogs of Jasmine, Tori, Kate, Saffron, Sophie, Bex and Jen to read their experiences! See you in two weeks!

Xoxo Annaleid