The Joys and Travails of Being a Student

P.S. I apologize for this mega long write up, but there were many requests last time for tips for students going abroad and I thought finances were always a major concern. So please bear with me.

[JUSTIFY]"Student Life" - These two words bring forth romantic images of freedom - freedom to study, enjoy, live a life free of responsibilities, think and dream. The other side of the coin is having to live on a shoe string budget. Well, this may not exactly apply to those who lead well-cushioned existences at home. But it is true for students in other countries - yes, even those who are on home ground.

Let us return to the fortunes of Satchi who took off into the unknown to pursue her higher studies. Satchi came from a middle-class family. One thing was made adequately clear to her from the outset. If she entertained any dreams of flying off abroad, she would have to make it on her own steam. Her parents could keep her in comfort at home, but could not afford to pay for her to go abroad. Period.

So it was that she eventually got a scholarship and landed up on British soil in search of many things - qualifications, cultural experiences, independence and an opportunity to travel and see various places. Now having stayed at home with her parents - if not exactly in the lap of luxury - in reasonable comfort and never having bothered her little brains with anything to do with money, it was a new challenge to learn how to survive on the 500 pounds a month. If she ran into trouble, there would be no one to buffer her financially.

Of course the scholarship had generously provided for warm clothing allowance and book allowance on arrival as a one off. The initial expenses were unavoidable. Things like buying basic essentials like plates, cups, groceries, electrical items she would need, like a toaster, a kettle, iron, hair drier etc. And then she was charmingly drowning) innocent and had no clue about how to use road maps and had to use public transport. She had no idea about how they functioned and tried to buy two tickets to get to her destination when one ticket was perfectly in order.:bonk We know how some decent public officials helped her save a few pence at that time.

Somewhere along the line Satchi woke up to the fact that she needed to draw up a balance sheet documenting how much she earned, how much she spent on food, travel, clothes and other miscellaneous items.:coffee Well, with the enthusiasm and fanaticism of a new convert she set out to do the needful, documenting every penny she spent and positively beaming when she spent a few pennies less on certain days. Yes, Satchi the spendthrift was changing into a female version of Uncle Scrooge. Every month she would balance out what she had got, what she had spent and what she had managed to save. When she managed to save a fairly large sum a sense of triumph would overtake her.

With time Satchi learned some tricks. Most of them were based on simple sensible living and the practice of the maxim “A penny saved is a penny earned”.

• She preferred to cook for herself whenever possible. That was certainly cheaper than eating every day in the canteen. Besides it gave her the chance to eat what she liked, when she liked.

• She walked wherever she could. Of course sometimes this female Scrooge got carried with dreams of saving, converting into rupees and then being rich some day. :crazy :rotfl She would walk back long distances with huge loads of grocery just to save 50 pence. It was Rs. 25/- you see? (Of course her wrists did not take very kindly to this and on her holiday home she was wincing and yelling with pain every time she tried to put weight on her hand to get up. When mom asked what the matter was, she explained much to the amusement of her mom who said to her dad “Ketiyala, onga ponnu romba paisa save panindiruka”. “Dad, did you hear? Your daughter is saving a lot of money”. She was amused that the daughter who always liked to travel by luna or auto rickshaw was scrimping so much). Well, it was my hard earned money, you see? :exactly2

• She learned to use the crazy system to her advantage. Those days British Rail had some strange offers. (I don't know if things have changed since then, after the Railways were privatised). Let me give you an example. If Satchi wanted to travel from London to Reading on Saturday and come back on Sunday, a single ticket to and a single ticket fro would cost 5 pounds each way – a total of 10 pounds. However if she bought a return ticket it cost only 4 pounds total. So she would always buy the return ticket. A saving of 6 pounds on the total.

• She would go to museums and films during off peak hours when tickets would be very cheap and also avail of student discounts wherever possible.

• She used her visa card to her advantage. (Yes, those days the banks gave students visa cards too). She discovered that the billing took into account purchases made between the 1st and the 26th of each month. The bill could be paid by the 10th of the subsequent month. So if she bought all her stuff between the 26th and 30th of each month, she could pay in the month after the next. That would save her a few pennies on the interest. :crazy. It sounds absolutely loony/petty/silly, but this cheap thrill – the joy of “parting the bank” with a few extra pennies of interest can be experienced only by a student.:hide:

• The college hostel where she lived allowed students other than first and final year students to stay only a semester. After that they had to move out. Since living outside would cost more by way of rent as well as the travel expenses, she kept moving from room to room every time someone moved out and had moved about 6 rooms in the same hostel in the course of 2 years. Then finally she moved to an international hostel which was way more expensive than the college accomodation, but was very comfortable, convenient and provided a very rich cultural environment. She walked the distance to work whenever possible and on other days availed of a day travel card to use on the bus or train. Later on she bought a monthly travel card which was very reasonable.

• The international hostel catered to singles, married couples as well as to families. So Satchi did some baby sitting once she ran out of her scholarship at the end of the 3rd year. This not only supplemented her other funds in a small way, but also gave her the pleasure of looking after absolutely adorable babies with whom she fell in love. She also applied to a few charitable organizations who by way of funds provided one off payments.

• Calling home used to be an expensive proposition those days. This, however, was something she never deprived herself of. It was something that kept her going. Then cheap calling cards came onto the market. Those days, if you introduced some customer to the company, you got free calls in proportion to their first purchase. As there were many overseas students from all over in the hostel, Satchi made good use of this facility and got many free calls home in the bargain.:cheers

When Satchi left India she had looooong hair. However she found it increasingly difficult to maintain it and had it chopped off. One day she decided to sell it off and get whatever money she could for it. She managed to convince the owner of a wig maker's shop to part with more money than he strictly wanted to. When he heard that she was a student, he was more than willing to part with the money. He seriously thought she was on the verge of starvation. That is the impression that all “respectable, earning” members of society there have of students.

One day Satchi's handbag was stolen from the department. She lost her cards, her money as well as her room keys.:rant That day she had the experience of visiting a British police station when she went to report the loss of her cards. She had to do that if she wanted to report the loss to the bank and to recover the money that had been misappropriated from her account using the cards – 400 pounds. Speaks for the system when she says she got all the money back without a whimper.:thumbsup

Thus through prudence and an innate streak of mild lunacy and occasional charm, Satchi managed to save enough money to pay for her own tickets when she needed to return to India and then back to defend her thesis. Of that she was very proud. She learned to be proud of her independence and ability to fend for herself. She was an individual in her own right, something she would never have learned if she had stayed secure within the confines of home and under the protection of her parents.

I am sure many students who have left home have experienced all this and have struggled a lot more. Satchi had a relatively reasonable time, having been on a scholarship for the major part of her stay. But I thought that it would be interesting for prospective overseas students to learn a trick or two. Will save them from having to find that out for themselves.[/JUSTIFY]

 

Dear Dhaanika, thanks so much for the very prompt reply. Talking of therapeutic, anyone who upset me very badly risked having a cabbage substituting for his/her head on my chopping board that day. :rotfl .

 

Hi Shakambari, that is a really prompt reply. At this time of the night that too. Thanks so much for that as well for the very kind words.