21yo university student reveals reality of her budget

A university student has revealed the small amount of money she’s left with at the of the week after paying all her bills.

Being broke at university has always been a rite of passage, but with the cost-of-living crisis, students are doing it tougher than ever.

Chloe Oriel, 21, is studying for a degree in medical radiation and working two part-time jobs to put herself through university.

Even with conscious budgeting, after paying for essentials including rent and bills, she’s only left with $30 a week to live on.

Comparison website Finder found that 92 per cent of full-time students are somewhat or extremely stressed about their financial situations, and 66 per cent of full-time students have less than $1000 in savings.

In Ms Oriel’s case, she’s pretty much living week to week.

She's revealed her weekly budget. Picture: TikTok/ chloeoriel02

The 21-year-old is studying at University. Picture: TikTok/ chloeoriel02

Every week the student works five to seven hours at a pub, which brings in $200, as well as doing four hours of tutoring for about $120.

She also gets Youth Allowance from Centrelink, which amounts to $770-a-fortnight.

In total, her weekly income is $700, which she calls “piss poor” because it only just covers her bills and doesn’t leave her much to play with.

Ms Oriel worked out that paying for her basics costs her $475.00 per week.

Her rent is $225, Wi-Fi is $15, electricity and gas are $25, car insurance is $35, pet insurance is $30, car registration is $15, fuel is $50, food is $50, and dog food is $30.

That leaves the university student with $230, but she funnels $100 into an emergency fund, puts another $100 in savings, and is ultimately left with $30.

Because she’s only casually employed, she can’t count on her income to stay the same, so she puts money aside for weeks that she doesn’t get the hours she requires to sustain herself.

“Obviously, if I don’t work one week at the pub or it is the school holidays, I’m just not able to put money into savings or stuff like that,” she pointed out.

Ms Oriel thinks that if she accounted for the weeks she worked less than usual, she’d probably be in a financial “deficit”.

She's broken down how much she spends on bills. Picture: TikTok/ chloeoriel02

She's left with $30 after paying for the essentials. Picture: TikTok/ chloeoriel02

Ms Oriel told news.com.au that she’s “very frugal”, and while the $30 set aside every week doesn’t sound like much, she does make it last.

“If I really want something, then I save that $30 each week until I can afford it; I’m very much of the opinion that if I can’t afford it, then I won’t buy it,” she explained.

Currently, she has $500 in savings, and while she knows it doesn’t sound like heaps, it is enough to stop her worrying.

“I know a lot of people may think that isn’t a lot, but I think it’s all about perspective, and since starting this budget a month ago, I have managed to save this much up, which I’m really proud of,” she said.

The university student says she makes her limited funds work for her by never splurging.

“This may sound crazy, but I don’t really splurge on anything; if anything, I would say I splurge on my hair, but I only get it done every six months so that I can save as much as I can,” she said.

She works two part-time jobs. Picture: TikTok/ chloeoriel02

She saves money by not eating out, cooking at home, not liking coffee and being aware of what she spends.

“A great tip I’ve learnt is whenever I want to buy something, I write it in my notes app and come back to it after a month. If I still want it, I know I actually do, and I haven’t been influenced,” she explained

Ms Oriel is also very aware that being a university student has never been more financially challenging, hence her diligent budgeting.

“It has definitely become harder since the cost-of-living crisis. They say that your rent is supposed to be less than 50 per cent of your income, but that’s become impossible, especially for university students who can’t really work full-time,” she said.

“Then on top of that, necessities like food and fuel have risen so high that one food shop will be over $60-a-week for one person if you value your health and don’t want to eat two-minute noodles every day!”

Despite calling her income “poor”, Ms Oriel said she’s ultimately “pretty happy” with what she earns and acknowledged that if things got tough, her parents could also help her out financially, making her luckier than most.

“I could definitely do with a little bit more money but you do what you can do.”

Originally published as 21yo university student reveals reality of her budget