Living Expenses

Paralysis

Hi all!

I'm a UK applicant coming to Trinity for Uni next month, and I was wondering if anyone would be able to tell me what, approximately, the cost of living will be per month? Not counting rent. As i'm afraid I haven't a clue! I'm planning on living in Trinity Hall (hopefully!) and studying medicine, if that factors into it at all.

Also can anyone advise about travel cards or anything that do discounts on bus/dart/luas travel? Or would it be worth bringing a bike (or even a car??)

Thanks! I'm sorry i'm so clueless!

Paralysis

Histie

As far as basic living expenses (excluding socialising, etc.) are concerned, if you shop in a cheap supermarket and do some cooking you could spend as little as €25 or perhaps less on food. For other basic living expenses (toiletaries, cleaning equipment, etc.) you could probably get away on about €20 a week. So before transport you could live on about €180 a month, but I have to emphasise that that would be if you lived quite frugally. I'm sure there are things other than the bare essentials you would like to spend money on, but as I don't know you, I can't factor them in.

For transport, a student travel card is available on campus (ask at the Students' Union shop) for c. €12. If you want to get best value from the Luas, buy a weekly student ticket (but be careful that you remember to renew it or you may be fined if it goes out of date). This can be purchased for about €11. I mainly used the Luas when I lived in Halls, so I am unsure of the situation with respect to the bus. Including the walk to and from the Luas, that option takes about half an hour to get from Halls to College.

Cycling takes about 20-25 minutes, and there is no shortage of places to put your bike in Halls. It is also quite safe. The price of the bike depends to a large extent on how much quality you are willing to sacrifice for money. I would suggest you could probably get a reasonably good bike for about €200 as a rough figure.

I hope you enjoy your time in Trinity!

Paralysis

Histie wrote: »

As far as basic living expenses (excluding socialising, etc.) are concerned, if you shop in a cheap supermarket and do some cooking you could spend as little as €25 or perhaps less on food. For other basic living expenses (toiletaries, cleaning equipment, etc.) you could probably get away on about €20 a week. So before transport you could live on about €180 a month, but I have to emphasise that that would be if you lived quite frugally. I'm sure there are things other than the bare essentials you would like to spend money on, but as I don't know you, I can't factor them in.

For transport, a student travel card is available on campus (ask at the Students' Union shop) for c. €12. If you want to get best value from the Luas, buy a weekly student ticket (but be careful that you remember to renew it or you may be fined if it goes out of date). This can be purchased for about €11. I mainly used the Luas when I lived in Halls, so I am unsure of the situation with respect to the bus. Including the walk to and from the Luas, that option takes about half an hour to get from Halls to College.

Cycling takes about 20-25 minutes, and there is no shortage of places to put your bike in Halls. It is also quite safe. The price of the bike depends to a large extent on how much quality you are willing to sacrifice for money. I would suggest you could probably get a reasonably good bike for about €200 as a rough figure.

I hope you enjoy your time in Trinity!

Fab! Thank you so much for your reply

Irish_wolf

Transport to and from halls for the whole year will probably cost more than or the same as a quality second hand bike. I'd invest in one if you cant bring yours over. Keeps you fit and wakes you up for your first lectures.

find a place that does a cheap chicken fillet roll €2-3 that's your lunch paid for for the week for 15 euro usually with some veggies to keep you getting scurvy. There's various water fountains around campus which are pretty clean so invest in a good water bottle and keep it for the year for "free" water.

Thing is you're doing medicine so odds are you wont have much time to go out (if you want to pass anyway). So you'll save quite a bit on going out money.

I'd say budget for €200 per month for most things (Excluding rent). Easy to do but you certainly wont be living in luxury.

Slugabed

Honestly, I'd say around 300 euro a month is realistic. It'll provide you with the basics - food, toiletries, phone, etc. while leaving you with a little wiggle room for other stuff. There will always be unexpected things that you'll have to drop money on. Your shoes might fall apart, you'll lose your photocopy card after having just put ten euro on it, etc. That stuff happens, and it's okay, just make sure you'll be able to deal with it when it does. Also, unless you're very, very strict with yourself, there will be really fun stuff that you'll want to do, and it'll be worth spending a few extra euro on, so leave yourself some money for that if you can.

mardybumbum

Irish_wolf wrote: »

Thing is you're doing medicine so odds are you wont have much time to go out (if you want to pass anyway). So you'll save quite a bit on going out money.

This is not necessarily the case.

languagenerd

Histie wrote: »

For transport, a student travel card is available on campus (ask at the Students' Union shop) for c. €12. If you want to get best value from the Luas, buy a weekly student ticket (but be careful that you remember to renew it or you may be fined if it goes out of date). This can be purchased for about €11. I mainly used the Luas when I lived in Halls, so I am unsure of the situation with respect to the bus. Including the walk to and from the Luas, that option takes about half an hour to get from Halls to College.

The TravelCard is €15 these days. I assume your €11 Luas ticket is from Stephen's Green to Halls only? I live along the Red Line and I pay €18 a week for a student ticket. Could pay €16 for a stop-to-stop one, but €18 gives me unlimited travel in any direction, any zone on both lines.
Basically, OP, there are a couple of types of Luas ticket. For me, it's better to buy a student flexi-ticket (as described above), but you can also buy a weekly ticket that only covers the zones you travel (i.e. if you decide to travel a few stops further or go on the other Luas line, your ticket won't cover you).

You need to buy the Travelcard before you buy the Luas or bus ticket, because you can be fined for travelling on a student ticket without it. I don't know how much bus tickets cost, but they do have an advantage over the Luas ones, because the days don't have to be consecutive. A 7-day Luas ticket goes from one date to another, whereas the if you don't get the bus for three days, you can carry those three days to the next week.

Oh, and the Travelcard gets you discounts in places like Boots and Costa Coffee.

Paralysis

languagenerd wrote: »

The TravelCard is €15 these days. I assume your €11 Luas ticket is from Stephen's Green to Halls only? I live along the Red Line and I pay €18 a week for a student ticket. Could pay €16 for a stop-to-stop one, but €18 gives me unlimited travel in any direction, any zone on both lines.
Basically, OP, there are a couple of types of Luas ticket. For me, it's better to buy a student flexi-ticket (as described above), but you can also buy a weekly ticket that only covers the zones you travel (i.e. if you decide to travel a few stops further or go on the other Luas line, your ticket won't cover you).

You need to buy the Travelcard before you buy the Luas or bus ticket, because you can be fined for travelling on a student ticket without it. I don't know how much bus tickets cost, but they do have an advantage over the Luas ones, because the days don't have to be consecutive. A 7-day Luas ticket goes from one date to another, whereas the if you don't get the bus for three days, you can carry those three days to the next week.

Oh, and the Travelcard gets you discounts in places like Boots and Costa Coffee.

Oooh travel card sounds like a very good idea - getting one of those! Where would I buy one? Just any random post office, or is there a special place? Thanks so much for the post

Ash_M

Paralysis wrote: »

Oooh travel card sounds like a very good idea - getting one of those! Where would I buy one? Just any random post office, or is there a special place? Thanks so much for the post

You'll be able to get a travel card in the SU office during Freshers Week, which is in House 6 (directly on your left as you walk through Front Arch).

Histie

languagenerd wrote: »

The TravelCard is €15 these days. I assume your €11 Luas ticket is from Stephen's Green to Halls only? I live along the Red Line and I pay €18 a week for a student ticket. Could pay €16 for a stop-to-stop one, but €18 gives me unlimited travel in any direction, any zone on both lines.

The one I was referring to covers all stops from "Green 2" to "Central 1", so you could also use it to travel to one or two stops south of Milltown. I gave the figure needed for travel to and from College, as I am not aware of what further requirements there may be.

Lisandro

Histie wrote: »

The one I was referring to covers all stops from "Green 2" to "Central 1", so you could also use it to travel to one or two stops south of Milltown. I gave the figure needed for travel to and from College, as I am not aware of what further requirements there may be.

Your name isn't a reference to the Hist, is it?

Lisandro

Histie wrote: »

No, it just happens that I'm a Trinity student and my username is the same as a term which refers exclusively to active members of Trinity's foremost society .

Hail and well met fellow! I didn't recognise you at first because of the briefer posting style in the headlines I glanced. If I had dug a little further back, I would have discovered all I needed to know. This shall be a topic of conversation at the pub this evening...

Kwekubo

If you're opting for bus, best value is the 30 Day Student Rambler. €82 for a ticket that allows unlimited journeys all day for 30 non-consecutive days. That's about €2.73 for a day's travel; by comparison, a standard one-way fare between Trinity Hall and the college is €1.90.

languagenerd

Paralysis wrote: »

Oooh travel card sounds like a very good idea - getting one of those! Where would I buy one? Just any random post office, or is there a special place? Thanks so much for the post

No problem. As already said, there's a Travelcard office in Trinity When you buy it in September, it lasts til the December of the following year (16 months), so it's not bad value.

Histie wrote: »

The one I was referring to covers all stops from "Green 2" to "Central 1", so you could also use it to travel to one or two stops south of Milltown. I gave the figure needed for travel to and from College, as I am not aware of what further requirements there may be.

Fair enough, I was just wondering if that was the whole Green Line weekly or just zone-to-zone. I just elaborated because the OP isn't yet sure if they're living in Halls so I figured I'd give them the other figures just in case

SharpBerry

Kwekubo wrote: »

If you're opting for bus, best value is the 30 Day Student Rambler. €82 for a ticket that allows unlimited journeys all day for 30 non-consecutive days. That's about €2.73 for a day's travel; by comparison, a standard one-way fare between Trinity Hall and the college is €1.90.

Its €86 now.

OnlyMessin

Anyone use a Leapcard? Are you able to use it in conjunction with a travel card or what's the story with it?

oppenheimer1

You'll need between €75-100 a week minimum to get by. The idea of being able to survive 7 days on €25 worth of food is laughable. I'd spend that much a week alone on lunch - and I make it myself.

Lawliet

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

You'll need between €75-100 a week minimum to get by. The idea of being able to survive 7 days on €25 worth of food is laughable. I'd spend that much a week alone on lunch - and I make it myself.

I get by on €25 worth of food no problem, if you don't have the luxury of spending loads on food you learn to budget a lot better

Maybe_Memories

You can get food so much cheaper if you get it straight from the producer. There;s a guy I know who gets 20 chicken breasts for 20 quid. You can fruit and veg mad cheap as well if you go to the markets since they'll probably have offers on. Pasta is also dirt cheap if you buy the big kg packets.

languagenerd

OnlyMessin wrote: »

Anyone use a Leapcard? Are you able to use it in conjunction with a travel card or what's the story with it?

No, there are no student ones yet. It's cheaper than a normal fare (about 15% cheaper) but not as cheap as a weekly student ticket.

I have one that I use outside term-time (when I'm not going into town everyday, so it's not worth getting a weekly ticket). It's also handy for the bus - I normally get the Luas, but if I have to get a bus somewhere, all I have to do it swipe the Leap card and the driver takes off whatever the fare is (no need for exact change or knowing how much it is before you get on). Of course, you have to keep it topped up.

Histie

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

You'll need between €75-100 a week minimum to get by. The idea of being able to survive 7 days on €25 worth of food is laughable. I'd spend that much a week alone on lunch - and I make it myself.

Well I could provide you with the receipts from my supermarket to prove it if you really want. Not only is it possible to survive on €25 a week per food, but it's also possible to get a balanced diet.

Unless you're very rich, you'll see a noticeable and welcome difference in your financial situation if you are careful with the money you spend on food.

Curlyhatescurls

Wow, it must be because I'm vegan and meat and dairy is really expensive because my weekly food shop costs around 15-20 euro and I eat loads and loads. Maybe some people aren't as good at shopping around and getting stuff on special offer, shopping only in Aldi and Lidl, having only packed lunches, I live on quite a bit less than what the other posters have said you need.

Ash_M

I ate rather well on a max of 30 quid a week on food, and that's including more discretionary spending (like an addiction to Rolo yogurts and an inability to walk past chocolate eclairs if they were on offer...). It's dead easy to spend very little if you're sensible. Also I recommend trying to get a group dinners thing going. There were about 6 of us who did one dinner for the group a week, and that made things like meat and whatnot a lot cheaper without eating the same thing for a week. And while yeah, a dinner for 6 can be expensive, it can also be done for a fiver if you're having a pricey week, and you're not paying for dinner again til next week. Also communally buying milk if you're not a big milk drinker is the way forward, I only use it for my tea so if I was on my own I'd have been throwing out sour milk the whole time and wasting money.

oppenheimer1

Lawliet wrote: »

I get by on €25 worth of food no problem, if you don't have the luxury of spending loads on food you learn to budget a lot better

I would really struggle on that little amount of food. I do like meat and that bill alone is about €20. I would be spending at least €40 on food alone. The rest of the money is spent on things like bus tickets, stationary, entertainment, phone, clothes, the odd haircut, etc. While you won't have all those expenses every week, I found thats what it balanced out as.

I noticed my fellow students seemed to forget about those other expenses when they were budgeting. Yeah you'll have cheap weeks (there was one where I spent less than €10) but you'll have expensive weeks to cancel them out.

Of course this is all on top of rent and bills - which I had a separate budget for.

NeuroCat

It would drive you to vegetarianism!