Leaving the school uniform behind and coming to varsity has its advantages. You get to gain some independence from the parents, meet new people, unwind at your local haunts without being asked for ID and finally graduate with a degree (hopefully) but it isn’t all fun and games. Varsity life can be quite a costly business. Whilst living at home you don’t have to worry about the food prices increasing, the cost of petrol or your pocket money ever running out thanks to having a mobile ATM, aka your mum or dad, by your side 24/7. So where are students going wrong? Surely if our parents can manage, so can we, right?
There are certain requirements when it comes to being a Rhodent that didn’t apply to any of us when we attended school. Before a big night out on the town a new outfit has to be bought, pre-drinks need to be chilled and a small sum of money needs to be tucked away for sobering oneself up with Pirates Pizza. All of the above would have all been taken care of when living under our parent’s roof thanks to a little thing called Mastercard. The repetition of this weekly spending spree usually results in many students uttering budgeting plans for the next month which naturally fall away as soon as shear desperation results in a phone call home asking for some extra cash.
Other wallet lighteners for students at Rhodes include having to buy litres of bottled water each week from Pick ‘n Pay or Checkers due to Grahamstown water tasting like it’s from the toilet cistern. Fantastic! I have yet to find another varsity where the faeces content of the water out-numbers the H20 particles. I’m still waiting for my drink to suddenly come to life or grow fangs like a failed experiment from a science fiction movie. Thank you very much Makana Municipality. I’m sure you must have a fantastic deal with the Grahamstown food stores who are rolling in boodle due to selling so many bottles of a natural resource, which flows basically for free from our taps, in non-biodegradable bottles. No wonder students are feeling the pinch at the end of every month. If we get tired of carrying 10 litres of water up the hill every week and finally decide to stop buying it, we then have to pay medical fees due to health issues caused by highly contaminated H20. Nice one!
Res food adds to a student’s struggling cash flow. Not only are many of the res food options usually inedible, they’re usually unrecognisable too, so naturally students avoid eating the donkey meat with gravy option and choose to buy ready-made meals which are stomach friendly. This shouldn’t be the case seeing as staying in res costs our parents around R20 000 a year. Don’t get me wrong, not all res food is bad nor do all students hate it, but not being able to decide if your meal consists of beef or rat meat makes one wonder if spending a few extra bucks on nibbles from Pick ‘n Pay isn’t worth it. It may not be the healthiest option for a student’s wallet but with the current craze of being thin, maybe your wallet losing a few pounds isn’t such a bad thing.
As a student at Rhodes I have learnt that I have a fantastic ability to spend money but am useless at counting it, hence me being a BJourn student and not a BCom student, so saving a few extra Rand every month has been a bit challenging. After being tired of trying to stretch R20 over a two week period, I decided to try and satisfy my spending addiction whilst making use of the many student discounts that are available from various food and clothing stores. It hasn’t been easy due to a girl needing nearly every new product that appears on the pages of Cosmo but by cutting down on the nights out and making use of a few money saving tips from the parents, I have managed to avoid the dreaded pinch before pay day and no longer fear the balance on my ATM slips.
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