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Video: how were your finances during Freshers?
Financial independence. No matter when it comes, it’s a huge deal and a landmark milestone in life. For many, it comes during Freshers – with a freshly-minted student bank account, and a well-timed loan drop. As we prepare to welcome a new cohort of students to university – and to financial independence – the native team reflects on their own first steps into #adulthood.
Priyanka Nagpal, Key Account Executive, native: I have to say that having your student loan drop into your bank account as a little 18-year-old was probably the worst thing that could happen to me! I spent most of it in the first few weeks at Freshers. I am a very influenced person. I bought a lot of things I didn’t necessarily need, but I did buy some nice plants! I bought all kinds of stationary for all the notes that I did not write during my lectures and things to decorate my halls – just to make myself feel more at home.
Andy McCreadie, Media Revenue Director, native: There are a couple of items I bought during Freshers. One was my first ever newspaper, which is a little bit odd. It was the Guardian newspaper, and I was given a free Guardian cereal bowl during Freshers. I’ve still got that bowl – it’s actually over there on my desk. That really just caused me to try it out, and give it a go. I ended up working there for nearly ten years, so that was some decent ROI they made off that campaign!
The other item that I remember purchasing was a big roasting tin to cook those 2am pasta bakes because they were healthier than the kebabs on offer!
Mark Hodge, Gen Z Marketing Strategist, native: So I very much vividly remember my first purchase. I basically forgot all my bedding, so the first thing I had to do was go over to Sainsbury’s, which was the nearest place where I could buy all these items while I was at it. I bought a 24 pack of Carling, a 24 pack of Guinness, and that basically was sustenance for the first couple of nights. Then the rest of Freshers Week was spent looking at lots of independent shops. I wore things that were different – a bit quirky – things that kind of suited me and my personality! I was buying very random items that you wouldn’t have bought before. I bought a couple of very, very expensive guitars as well over that period, just because it had to be done.
I used to work for a jeweller, randomly – and they had a branch in Wrexham where I studied. The student loan was dead handy, but it didn’t last very long. I went scarily into my overdraft quite quickly by the end of the first term. It was a constant cycle of trying to get out of it, and then going quickly back into it again.
Sarah Harding, Chief Operating Officer, native: Freshers wasn’t really about buying stuff in that era – it was much more about the union, the club and the society offering more than anything else. At the heart of my campus, there was the union and the shop, and a couple of little food places. But really, I can’t remember buying stuff at all. Having looked at universities in the last couple of years, I’ve really noticed how far things have come. Students are regarded in a different way nowadays – it’s really different.
Before I got to uni, I’d worked in a pub over the summer, so that was part of [my finances]. Part of it was parents, part of it was a little bit of grant – they hadn’t quite got rid of them at that point. I think actually when I was at uni, that was when they brought in loans. So quite a major change. So lots of stuff going on for me – lots of different strands.
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