What ‘grinds my gears’: Being a skint student

What’s become a revelation to me in since coming to University is how much careless spending and wasting money eats away at my soul.

A slight over exaggeration there, I admit, but the competitive talk of comparing how far one person is in to their overdraft compared to the other, makes me choke on my own fury at their pretention and ignorance.

Nothing annoys me more than the bragging, concealed as a self-deprecating admittance, about how much someone has spent on a night-out or on clothes because of the allure of student discount.

Now, I’ve had my fair share of needless spending, but my attitude toward is one of shame for my willpower, and deep regret. Especially when the sad reality hits emerges after Reading Week you have blown much of your loan on miscellaneous things that you can’t seem to pinpoint when the dreaded phone call about budgeting comes from Mum and Dad.

It may be how alien or unusual it is to have to consider practical aspects in your spending that disables my ability to get my head around controlling my spending.

Only now I have the security of a little money coming in from, (shock-horror) a part-time job, that I’ve adopted an angry disposition to any topic of conversation involving over-drafts or superfluous spending.

And though I may seem like a bitter student complaining about the mere small-talk of others through this mouthful of Sainsbury’s 11p noodles, but over-spending has made me more adamant than ever that I will not ration my life at University—so I got a job to counteract my spending.

I suppose what annoys me the most is those who complain about the financial aspect of student life, and do nothing to help themselves. Grrr.

So before you trip over yourself to tell me how much you drunkenly withdrew from a cash point last night and haven’t seen since, hold back, and don’t bother; as I may tell you where to go, or worse– give you a pamphlet on financial planning and self control.