You know the scene: you return to your cramped shoebox of a student flat and decide to make dinner…after rifling through the mouldy cupboards, you emit a dismal sigh…it’s beans on bread again tonight (your toaster broke last week when you were making spaghetti on toast)...you cuddle your tweed Oxfam cardigan around your slight frame, as the sofa prongs its sharp springs into your bony buttocks and your shrunken belly groans…

You pop the final bean past your dry lips before retiring to your flea-ridden bed to sob yourself into an agitated sleep filled with dreams about your mum’s home cooking. Sound familiar? I’m guessing probably not.

Perhaps a once widely appreciated stereotype, the traditional image of students as impoverished, thrifty beings seems wholly irrelevant now, having observed the consumer habits of fellow students during my three years at UWE and through my own experience with the false friends of a generous overdraft and sizeable student loan.

Whether you view your loan as a vital lifeline or simply as a boost in your usual pocket money allowance, by accepting this money, you’ve effectively attended a dinner date with your future self and escaped through the toilet window, leaving them to pick up the tab. And a substantial tab it is! In their 2008 ‘Broke and Broken’ report, the NUS estimate that the average student will leave uni with £25,000 of debt (that includes all the interest you’ve yet to pay). It appears that in a country with a personal debt problem (as The Observer reported recently, The National Debtline is expected to receive around 200,000 calls this year alone), we’re lured into the habit of spending money that essentially does not belong to us from the moment we move out of home.

Fact is, whether you were born with a silver spoon or just plain old dribble in your mouth, students are constantly being targeted by businesses who perceive the contents of our freshly lined pockets as rapidly disposable. This is especially true for freshers who, shortly after receiving their first loan instalments, are bombarded with promotional offers from retailers, banks, clubs/pubs and eateries. I’m not suggesting that such loans equate to a substantial fortune or that students are diving about in pools of bank notes Scrooge McDuck style, but that the constant barrage of offers for goods and services (specifically aimed at our social sector) can create a challenge for even the most disadvantaged of us when attempting to live sensibly to our means and follow a budget.

However, as previously reported in Western Eye (Sept ‘08), the number of students undertaking paid work whilst studying has risen dramatically in recent times, particularly due to a substantial rise in living costs. Perhaps this could signify a shift in student spending habits, but however students supplement their income, businesses will continue to encourage student consumption on a grand scale. Whether you choose to spend your loan on furry cave girl boots and designer haircuts or text books and beans, I would urge freshers to be vigilant and not spend it all at once!

Photos by TheHutch and Fritish