Welcome to our Money Diaries series. Here, you can step into the shoes of students from all walks of life at UCL and uncover an intimate glimpse into their weekly spending habits. Now more than ever, we believe it's important to open up the conversation about finance while working to support you through the use of our Union services.
Interested in taking part? Start by submitting your information here. We're always looking for a range of different people to take part and we are interested in understanding a wide range of financial experiences. If you're selected to feature, we'll get in contact with you and ask you to log your spending over 7 days. Remember, all Money Diaries we publish are anonymous.
Amara (name changed) is an undergraduate student living in a rented flat with no debt. She’s an international student from a big city equally as expensive as London, so she’s familiar with the need to budget for inner city life, but does need to live on a budget. She currently works weekends (making London living wage) and other freelance jobs for various companies.
Pronouns: she/her
Age: 21
Location: Camden
Living Costs: £1080 a month for a flat in Camden that is very close to uni. Shared with three other flatmates, bills aren’t included in rent.
Monthly expenses: Phone bill: £16, Grocery: £125, Subscriptions (iCloud + Google): £3, Spotify £5.99
How are you funding this year? My parents pay my fees and rent, and I’m lucky to have that. I fund my living expenses and bills.
Do you have debt? Thankfully, no!
Do you have a job? I work 14 hours (7 hours each day of the weekend) and do other freelance writing/social media gigs
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
My parents are immigrants and taught me the importance of money, saving, and making sure you have an emergency fund. They made it a point to invest and save for my education. Our financial condition varies a lot, because the industry my parents work in is volatile by nature, and both of them are self-employed (and divorced, so finances are separate). They both really emphasised money management.
I was lucky enough to learn how to save from my mother; she taught me how to shop smart (every single cent counts).
I regularly had conversations about the stock market and investment with my father. He has turned me into the finance bro son he always wanted, I read the FT on a daily basis (you get a free subscription with your UCL email!) and secretly have a stash of Patagonia gilets and Lululemon trousers (this is a lie, I own neither). Both of my parents have raised me to not spend extravagantly, so living in London does make me feel guilty because I feel like I get charged for breathing.
Both of my parents have raised me to not spend extravagantly, so living in London does make me feel guilty because I feel like I get charged for breathing.
The city I’m from is also a finance capital, so conversations about money and stocks are normal for the general population, I would say financial literacy amongst young people is much higher where I come from than it is in the UK, which was a strong culture shock for me.
Do you worry about money?
Of course! In this economy, who doesn’t? I feel guilty about my expenses, especially food related, on the other hand I work so that I can fund my lifestyle. Some months are great, and I can save a decent amount. Other months (like this one) are terrible, and I’m really pushing it with my budget.
A lot of my friends are wealthy (and I mean wealthy), so it’s difficult to have a social life because I can’t spend the same way they do – my budget keeps me at home, which is a good thing because I’m a menace in the streets.
Nonetheless, I’m really lucky to have my parents fund my university fees and living expenses – it's a huge privilege. Being an international student means I can’t just pop home for a meal, or get my laundry done at home, so expenses can be a bit high, but I love the independence of living alone and will forever be grateful for the money spent on my education.
Day 1:
08:00: I had eggs with toast for breakfast – that’s my usual breakfast. My secret ingredient is Lee Kum Kee Chiu Chow chili oil.
12:00: Made lunch, probably rice with vegetables and some sort of protein.
14:00: Got a coffee from Printroom and went to a two-hour seminar, saved some money because I have my own cup. £2.80
16:30: I return home, make dinner: pasta with mushrooms and spinach (no protein, deal with it).
19:00: I eat and do nothing for the rest of the day. I probably studied; I’m pretty boring. I cram all my work into the weekdays because I work on weekends, and I don’t really go out anymore because I have to get up early for work. Ironic, considering I was a huge party girl back in the day.
Daily Total: £5.85
Day 2:
08:00: Breakfast is toast with eggs, I am a woman of habit.
08:45: I have an intercollegiate seminar at another university that I’m pretty late for. It starts at 9am, I always walk in 15 minutes late. Punctuality is a social construct. I take the bus because there’s no way I’m walking. TfL strips me of £1.75. I miss the cleanliness, punctuality, and efficiency of public transport back home.
10:00: Our professor gives us a break in between, so I get a SU coffee that’s worth £2.70.
11:00: I bus back from class and do a big shop at Sainsbury’s which sets me back £14, and another £1.75 for the bus fare.
12:00: I get back, make myself some lunch – same general combo as yesterday. Just rice and ma po tofu (I have recently discovered Tian Tian sells the same spicy soybean paste they have back home, I am reveling in this discovery).
14:00: I take the tube to Victoria; I’m visiting my friend and sending myself to some cute tiny town known as Tigglywinkshire (this is made up) in the middle of nowhere (as most places in England are). There goes another £2.80.
14:15: I realise her parents are going to be home, which means I need to get a gift – I was raised by ethnic parents, this is non-negotiable. I spent £8.75 at M&S on some chocolates.
14:55: I take the FlixBus to Tigglywinkshire. It takes a good four hours to reach. The bus was £6.99.
18:55: Her parents pick me up from the bus stop and drive me to theirs. I am fed, life is good. I have not had a homecooked meal (that isn’t my own slap-dash cooking) in ages. I miss my mum’s cooking.
Daily Total: £38.74
Day 3:
08:00: Breakfast is whatever we can fish out of the very well-stocked fridge, thank goodness for my friend’s fridge.
13:00: I stay at her’s another day, we decide to go into town. I spend £2.80 on the Stagecoach service in and out of town (£5.30) in total
13:45: In town, we head to Waterstones, I get a cheese and tuna toastie (I know, yuck, let me eat my nasty food combinations in peace!). The toastie is £5.30
19:00: We’ve bussed back in, dinner is at my friends’ - an aloo paratha that’s practically bursting and home-churned butter that melts gloriously on the piping hot bread. I buy my ticket for the bus back home the next day for £8.99. Out of all the green coloured transport, the FlixBus has got to be the best - I’ve had one too many close encounters with Hackney millennials on Lime bikes.
Daily Total: £19.59
Day 4:
08:00: Breakfast was pancakes we got at Aldi the day before, I eat them in a rush because I have to catch the coach back to London
14:00: I get back into London and book myself a haircut for 17:00 at Splash Goodge Street for £25. If you do walk-in, you get a 20% discount. I was silly and didn’t realise that. The tube back from Victoria Coach sets me back another £2.80, and I pick up Five Guys because it’s way past lunch - £5.95 for a cheese toastie with unlimited toppings, which I don’t hold back on.
17:00: At this point, I have not cut my hair in a year because I couldn’t afford to previously – seriously, I was hacking it on around £200-300 a month which sounds like a lot, but if you’re honest about your expenses, is not actually that much. I just got my first paycheck in a while and was splurging a little this week because I finally could afford the little things like nice food and a haircut.
The haircut was great, my head felt lighter, and my hair is no longer the bird's nest it had been for the past three months. The hairdresser chopped a good three inches off on account of all my hair being dead.
19:00: I make myself a quick dinner, probably rice and tofu again. I don’t have variation in my diet.
Daily Total: £33.75
Day 5:
08:00: Breakfast is eggs on toast. Is anyone surprised?
10:00: I had a lecture, and then a meeting for a society. I hold a committee position in a sizeable society, so my work is quite time consuming. I wish I could do more societies, but as a third year, my priorities lie elsewhere.
12:00: I can’t be bothered to go home and make lunch; it’ll interrupt my already unsuccessful study session, and I’ll likely end up cozy under the covers if I set foot in the flat. Meal deal from the union shop it is! I kiss goodbye to another £3.85 - I swipe my bank card more than some of you swipe on Hinge. In the distance I hear the muffled sounds of my bank account weeping.
13:00: I go to the library and try to get some work done. In spite of my best efforts, not much is done. It's a miracle how little I manage to get done despite being sat in a silent library with my phone turned off. I could win a gold medal in the do-nothing Olympic category.
14:00: I have another lecture. I do a very dry humanities degree, and despite my faculty’s best efforts, I spend most of my afternoon trying to stave off the temptation of a mid-seminar snooze. The lecture was undeniably interesting though.
16:00: I have freed myself from the shackles of my very expensive education (my lecture ended). I go home and do what I do best: nap.
21:00: Where has the time gone? I know – it's the ‘nap’ I took. Time to make ‘dinner’, which should be called breakfast 2.0. I make fried rice and put some aside for work the next day.
23:00: Time to sleep some more; little has occurred between my naptime and my bedtime. I need to get up at 6 for work tomorrow, so I convince myself that napping is supplementary for the sleep deprivation that faces me.
Daily Total: £6.05
Day 6:
06:00: I rise from my slumber, feeling very unrefreshed. Eggs and toast again, plus what I like to call my ‘picky bits’ - some olives, a date, and some cheese to get me through the day. The timings for lunch breaks at work are unpredictable, there is a very good chance my next meal will be at two in the afternoon.
07:00: I sit down to study until I leave for work and am surprisingly productive – I feel myself falling for the early bird propaganda.
08:30: I leave for work, £2.80 on the Tube.
11:00: We get a 20-minute tea break at work, I pick up a £1.50 coffee because we get a staff discount.
14:00: Lunch! Finally! Do you remember the kids in primary school who would say their favourite subject is lunch? I never outgrew that. Lunch is the greatest time of the day.
I scarfed down my fried rice, narrowly avoiding asphyxiation, and got another £1.50 coffee as an apology to myself for refusing to chew.
17:30: I finished work and went straight to the Tube; the station is horrifically crowded. Saturdays are always terrible because of the tourist rush. I spent another £2.80 and the rest of my energy nimbly avoiding bumbling tourists who decided to stop smack-dab in the middle of Victoria station.
19:00: Somehow, despite leaving work on time, I get back half an hour later than I usually would. Thankfully, I bought frozen dumplings during a previous grocery run and had them for dinner.
21:00: I meal prep for the next day, fried rice as usual! I eat a little bit of it because I can’t help myself, and then do some readings until midnight.
Daily Total: £11.9
Day 7:
06:00: I wake up early again, make the same egg and toast breakfast, alongside my usual picky bits, and then study till I have to leave for work.
08:34: I am leaving four minutes late, this is life or death. I spend £2.80 on the commute.
09:15: Somehow, I make it to work on time.
11:00: Today, I don’t get the £1.50 coffee, I spend my break rotting in the staff room instead. A good chance to eavesdrop on work gossip that I never-ever-under-any-circumstance take part in because I am a good colleague.
13:55: Lunch break, I cave and get the £1.50 coffee, do a little bit of studying, and then go back to work. Minutes later, I am confronted by an angry visitor who can’t find her husband. This is a great time to say that Air Tags are a good investment!
17:30: Time to go home, the Sunday commute back is infinitely better, thankfully London stays home on Sunday evenings. I spend £2.80 on the commute home.
18:30: Time to make dinner and do some readings
23:00: I watch a little bit of Sex and the City so I can lie to myself that the city-girl lifestyle is worth it and then fall asleep mid-way through. I’m slowly growing immune to propaganda.
Daily total: £10.4
(All days include an estimate of the meals prepped at home – coming to an average of £1.10)
Weekly total: £126.28
This is slightly higher than my weekly average. I usually don’t splurge on things like haircuts or visiting friends, but I got paid the week before and was liberal with my spending. My main expenses tend to be coffee and lunch. It’s excessive, but the amount of time I save on cooking sometimes justifies the price.
Budgeting tips for Natalia:
- If you haven’t already, as we come to the end of the first Term, now is a great time to reflect on your spending. Creating a budget will help you start the new year in a clearer financial position – check out Money Saving Expert’s Student Budget Planner
- For those who do wish to have an alternative to the Tube or Buses - Remember to make use of promo codes and referral benefits – Lime Bike’s Referral Program.
- If you haven’t already, see if you can save on travel costs with help from TFL Student Travel
- Discounted haircuts are available for students, have a look at Save the Students 17 Top Tips
- Ahead of the gifting season, have a look at The Hanger’s Black Friday Sale for gifts for family and friends
Our trained and experienced team can offer free, confidential, and independent financial support and budgeting advice, including money management, and hardship funds. You can get in touch with the Advice Service by using this contact form to submit a query or request an appointment.