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Cost of Living Advice and Tips

VIDEO: My Weekly Spend as a Student in Belfast

Northern Irish student Olivia is here to tell you what she spends on a weekly basis as a student at Queen's.

Breakdown of Olivia's weekly spend:

Monday: £0.00 spend

Tuesday: £20.74 - Tesco grocery shop £13.74 plus £7 lunch in Maggie Mays

Look out for yellow stickers on reduced food and Clubcard offers

Wednesday: £0.00 spend - in class all day

Thursday: £9.20 - photos from FreePrints and a few eBay purchases

Friday: £16.49 - Klarna payment*, a record in a charity shop, a latte

*Klarna provides short-term, point-of-sale loans for online and in-store purchases, so shoppers can buy now and pay later. You may incur late fees or negatively impact your credit score if you miss payments

Saturday: £0.00 spend- I went home to my parents house

Sunday : £6.00 - I took my car to the car wash!

Here are some of my fixed expenses:

  • Gas and Electric - 5 people in a private house, we pay £5 per week each
  • Luckily WiFi is included in our rent
  • Rent - 5 bed house, 2 baths, nice house, £62.50 per week
  • Phone contract £10 per week
  • Sim contract £2.50 per week
  • Amazon Prime Student £1 per week
  • ITV Hub+ (So I can watch Love Island without the ads!!) - I only pay for this for 2 months of the year- £1 per week
  • Petrol for my car: £30-35  to fill my car per week

Total: £169.51 per week

I generally do think Belfast is a very cheap student to live in as a student, compared to other cities.

Find out more

Cost of living

Student Budgeting and Tips: Making Your Money Go Further

Olivia Watson 

2nd year Adult Nursing | Undergraduate  | NI

Hi there! My name is Olivia (or Liv) and I am a second year undergrad adult nursing student at Queen's. I am from NI so Belfast isn’t exactly new to me but the experiences and opportunities I've had since starting uni here have been totally different to anything I’ve done before. I have loved getting involved in student life here, including being a member of QUB Christian Union and playing for QUB hockey club. A nursing degree doesn’t allow for a lot of free time but, when I can get some, I love walking my dog, baking and open water swimming. I started making videos on YouTube as a hobby during the first lockdown in 2020 and I hope that the content I create here can be of benefit to you!

Follow me instagram: @oliviaarachel 

Nursing student Olivia Watson
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