Here's the estimated expenditure, for the first year of university of a student in the UK, courtesy of my school's careers advisor.
Tuition -- £9000
Accomodation -- £3360
Food -- £1500
Mobile phone -- £300
Travel -- £208
Socialising -- £1200
Laundry -- £200
Sundries (toiletries, paper, printer ink) -- £150
Clothes -- £200
Gym/society membership -- £150
Deposit for second year house -- £200
Vacation spending -- £500
Insurance -- £50
TOTAL: £17,018
In my opinion, there are places where obvious cuts can be made. To start with, the food cost is estimated at £50 per week for a 30 week teaching year. Ridiculous!
"Socialising" is based on a calculation of 16 pints of beer per week at student bar price of £2.50 per pint, for 30 weeks. For starters, the students I've encountered don't even bother with the student bar. Secondly, I can't even imagine drinking 16 pints of beer a week!
Clothes -- seriously, why would I buy new clothes? My current clothes cover my nakedness perfectly well.
Gym/society membership -- Why should bother with the gym when I have free weights that cost me £0/year to use?
"Vacation spending" -- This seems to be referring to travel costs for meeting friends outside of term time (when most people go back home to their parents). Not really sure about this one.
What do you think of this? How little is it possible to spend above the "baseline" of ~£12k/year for accommodation and tuition, and still get the same quality of experience?