Are university students known for being poor and living on a baked bean diet?

AZ — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:10:45 +0000

That was the impression i had when i was still studying A-levels and went to the Aston University open day. A guy was doing a talk about the life of student living on baked beans.

At my uni campus, a lot of the students don’t look poor. In fact they look like their living the high life wearing expensive looking clothes. They dont really look trampy and poor- the kind of image i was expecting. Perhaps they work.

There is a common Australian joke about Students “The good old 2 minute noodles”

Most of us can’t stand them after we graduate and get a full time job. Can you guys?

From my uni days, I remember students who looked outwardly well-off, but were thousands in debt, and living on noodles and rice.

Student loans are reasonably generous and can easily pay for basic accommodation and food, with money left over for going out and buying luxuries. However, once students come out the other end, with debts in excess of £20k, they wont be feeling so rich!! It can take a lifetime to pay this off for some people.

So yes there is a much higher standard of living thanks to Student loans, but we spend the rest of our lives paying for it.

When i asked from my friends about this. one of my friend said, “Well university students aren’t poor, but they live on a fixed budget. Low on the list of priorities are food. Higher on the list are booze, partying, certain drugs, etc. Typically university students are well off, but that doesn’t mean they have a limited budget. I had a budget of £200 a week for “fun” and that evaporated fast every week.”

Another friend of mine said, “That’s because when the grants come in at the start of the year they feel rich and go out and buy clothes. They still own those clothes later on in the year, but don’t have any money left to eat properly. Plus, many students won’t be poor, depending on what university you are at there may be a high proportion of students whose families have loads of money.”

A very cool friend of mine never been to big parties and she always in great style said. “I am a student at university and I am sorry to say that I do not go out at night and get totally wrecked, and I do not live on baked beans, if you are careful with your grant there should be no need to live on baked beans. I had my grant in September and I have still got quite a lot of it left, this will see me at through christmas and well into the new year when the next payment is due. Some students do work part time to help them meet the bills or travel expenses, I think students being poor and living on baked beans is a myth.”

Anyway, What i have noticed is that its down to the individual student, everyone is different.
I finished uni this year and I ate well, clothing were from christmas and birthday present (expect gladly a primark arrived in jan), got drunk and partied but also worked hard. I worked in the holidays too.

However students are actually all different, I do really hate the negative lazy stereotype their is.

So everyone please feel free to let me have your experiences.

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Are university students known for being poor and living on a baked bean diet?

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