The Sneaky Student

Based on the 80-20 rule, I’ve created a simple list of tips that will help minimize the majority of your main areas of expenditure, and therefore keep it as simple as possible to implement, whilst reaping the most returns i.e. saving as much of your cash as possible.

1. Weekly Meal Plans.  > Not hardcore, know what each of your meals are going to be, meal-plans, but you should be able to shop bi-weekly for your groceries, and make the portions last for the 3-4 days that you’ll need them, without having to go out and buy more food. I’ve found that as well as saving some money, this is also a great way of getting more fresh food into your diet, since it means that you need only keep fresh food for 3-4 days max. before you will eat it. This will also reduce your wasted food items, which will in turn minimize your cost per calorie.
2. Pre-drink.  > We all know drinks at the bar cost a heck load more than when you buy it at the off-license or supermarket. So limit yourself to entry fee + one drink inside the club. You don’t need buy more drinks when you’re out…
3. Eat out as a treat, and look for deals.  > The last two times I ate out were on 2-for-1 offers. The cost was significantly less, and the food was equally good. Since you’re buying your groceries twice a week, eating out is no longer required out of necessity: make sure you buy enough when you shop, and you wont go hungry. Instead, you can eat out once or twice a week, and it will be a treat. Go with a friend or two and enjoy it.
4. Simplify your wardrobe.  > This is a moot point, and some girls wont be able to do this.  Guys, on the other hand, should think about their clothes stash, and what they currently wear and don’t wear. Do you need that new t-shirt that you saw in Top Shop or can it wait to be gifted at a Birthday or Christmas? I find, if I make a point of waiting a week or two before making a decision, I find that I haven’t really missed the item, and so don’t buy it after all.  On the other hand, if there’s a good sale on…
5. Don’t snack & keep to water.  > These are two biggie’s. Snacking out on chocolate bars and, really, anything other than fruit will substantially increase the amount spent on food in a week. Good way of avoiding the temptation to snack-out are: not buying the stuff on your grocery shop, switching to fruit snacks (apples, oranges etc.) and also exercise, which depresses the hormones which tell your brain you’re hungry. Drinking water, as opposed to soft drinks, will keep your food bill way down.

These few tips should decrease costs by 30-40% each week, which you can either save, or put towards something you’ve had your eyes on for a while. For instance, with the money I saved over the last two weeks (+a little extra) I decided to splash out on a nice new keyboard to use with my laptop. It’s the Logitech DiNovo Keyboard for Notebooks, and it’s super hot!

So, today I had a pretty beastly exam; it shouldn’t have been hard, but for some reason, I always get a really bad memory-block whenever I take exams, especially for dates and specific events in a given time frame. I course, today’s exam was a French history paper too, so on top of all that, my answers had to be written in french. Double-Whammy.

I mate of mine had the same exam, and had done as little work towards this module as I had, so we agreed to revise yesterday for it. Sadly, we both got up at around lunchtime and did nothing but play FIFA and go to the gym until around 10pm. Having done no work during the day, it was clear we were in for the long haul, and went to the shop to grab some redbull and sweeties for an immense double-team combo of caffeine and sugar. We managed to revise the whole subject in about 5 hours (1-7:30, broken up with FIFA and an occasional power-nap [crucial])

Anyway, the paper was as expected, and I felt like I knew a fair bit about each of the questions I was writing on, but I just didn’t get any real content into the answers. It’s a good thing this module is only worth 3 credits, but I still need to pass it. We shall see.

What we both agreed on, was that cramming seems to work pretty well for most people, but not immediately before the exam. Instead, it should be done a day or two before, leaving your brain a proper night’s sleep to organize the information in your brain.

Now, I have a nice break until Friday 29th, the last exam (but I do need to do an essay by the end of the week as well, on a wholly unrelated topic).

I thought some non-student would like to know what a typical student revision day looks like, and share it with other students too so they know they’re not the only ones doing more or less no work.

So, here’s what happened for me today:

9:30 Alarm goes off. I turn it off, and go back to sleep.

12:30 Decide to get up and check emails. There’s a package to collect, and it’s my new keyboard. Whoopie! I get up and go downstairs to collect it, and it is exactly as good as I hoped it would be, and is probably going to speed up the time it takes me to write these posts, and do any of my written work for school too. Double whoop.

1:30 Tell my flatmate to get up and start revising with me. We go to the kitchen/common room, and start playing FIFA 09 on the PlayStation 2 he decided was a great idea to bring in for revision and exam week. We quickly move onto a weird game called Shadow of the Colossus, one of us pretending to be doing some reading on the French Revolution whilst the other tries to defeat the Colossus (we took it in turns).

2:30 I make lunch, and continue to procrastinate/play video games whilst my books are open on the table.

4:30 Still there.

5:30 I’ve noticed that it’s dark outside…

7:30 I prepare a protein shake, and we start play Rugby 07…

8:30 Gym time. I do 20km on the exercise bike, and feel knackered. It was a good session.

9:15 Back to the kitchen to make a salad and play some more rugby.

11:00 Adjourn to my room, having made a pact with my mate to actually do some work tomorrow, since the exam is on Wednesday. Whoops.

12:30 Chuck [Season 3 Episodes 1,2&3] are finished downloading, and I watch them back to back. Very tense, and a rather unpredictable ending to episode 3 which left me very sad indeed.

1:30 Check blog stats and decide what the work-out plan is tomorrow.

3:30 Write this blog post.

3:45 Sleep [Hopefully].

So that’s how a non-revision day goes. For students reading this, it should seem pretty standard. Anyone else, well, you’d probably find it fairly predictable anyway .