The economics of college

WHEN IS free not so free? When it comes to the Irish education system, obviously. Putting a child through our free primary school costs about €12,000, while sending them to a free secondary school costs €13,000.

But the real kicker is the cost of seeing a child through their third-level education. According to research carried out by Bank of Ireland, that costs more than €40,000 if a child is living away from home.

And that does not include any of the administrative fees or college fees that may well be imposed at some point over the next 18 years, or even this year. Student registration fees are likely to increase again in December’s budget, despite the fact that the last government upped the fee from €1,500 to €2,000 and the current Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, promised to reverse the increase in the run-up to March’s general election. He didn’t.

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has put the average cost of going to college for a year at €9,000 when all the learning, eating and partying is factored in – although we suspect the USI does not allow much for partying. There are ways, easy ways, to save money as a student, however. Here are just 10 of them.

LEARN TO COOK

Forget pricey takeaways and ready meals and just cook your own food – we're talking idiot-proof stuff, such as curries, chillies and tomato-based sauces. It's not only better for you, it'll save you a packet, too. A tin of tomatoes, a clove of garlic and an onion cost 50 cent all-in; a jar of processed tomato sauce containing much the same ingredients, with extra sugar and salt, costs three times more and tastes half as nice. Porridge is as cheap as chips (a whole lot cheaper, in fact) and will keep you full for longer. And cooking will make you a big hit with the opposite sex (as long as you don't cook them porridge, just to be clear). There are not many first-year male students who can invite a woman back to their house and cook them some class of amazing pasta dish. If you become one of them your life will be a whole lot better, trust us. Buy just one cookbook – can we suggest The Really Useful Ultimate Student Cookbook– if for no other reason than its no-nonsense title. It has hundreds of recipes which are cheap, wholesome and simple to cook with hardly any implements.

A RENTER’S MARKET?

Rents fell dramatically as the property bubble started to deflate three years ago, and while it has stabilised in recent months and remains at a premium in some areas, you should be paying at least €1,000 less this year than students were paying three years ago.

We would like to suggest that you start your flat hunt early to find the best and the best-value places to live but it’s too late for that now. Yet you can give yourself at least some sort of edge by dressing smartly when you go to view a potential flat. It doesn’t matter if you live for death metal: when you’re going to view a place to live, dress like a seminarian. Impressing a would-be landlord with an air of quiet respectability is probably the best way to get yourself the best deals.

PAY LESS FOR LIGHT

Wherever you find yourself living, it is important that your landlord has switched to the cheapest electricity provider on the market. While you pay the bills, they make the decisions on providers, so make sure they are making the right ones for your pocket.

Energy prices are rising but if the house is getting its gas and electricity from Bord Gáis Energy or Airtricity, and has been doing so for a couple of years, more than 10 per cent can be knocked off the bill by switching back to ESB Electric Ireland.

BREW IT YOURSELF

Homebrew beer is back in a big way, and if you devote just a little time and effort to it you could be drinking on the cheap for the year ahead. Kit brewing involves using hopped malt extract, to which you add water and yeast. It is the simplest method of brewing, but it allows little or no control over the final product. The main problem with this kind of brewing is that frugal people tend to buy cheap kits and boost the alcohol content with table sugar, resulting in very poor quality beer. The kits cost around €70, and enough brew for 80 pints will cost €26.99. Extract brewing is more advanced, requires a bit more skill and takes more time, but results in better beer.

The process involves using dry malt extract, hops, steeping grains and yeast. The kit will cost around €250; the brew, again for 80 pints, will set you back around €35. For guidance and equipment check out thehomebrewcompany.ie or thehomebrewcentre.com.

SIGN ME UP

Join the best-funded, most well-organised club or society in your college, even if it is of only marginal interest to you. It will have the biggest budget, the most regular drinks parties, and you’ll get to meet a whole bunch of potentially nice folk, which is always an added bonus.

DISCOUNT HEAVEN

Scores of clothes shops offer substantial discounts to students, and cinemas offer cut-price tickets at certain times of the week. Always carry your student card, stay informed about what’s on offer, and always ask for a student discount.

Sign up to every online deal and coupon service you can find or, better still, sign up to sift.ie which goes through 29 daily deal sites each day and can be customised to send you a single daily e-mail with the deals you like. This will stop you having to delete the hundreds of offerings of micro-dermabrasion and hair removal that seem to clutter up the Price Watch mail box every day.

JUST SAY NO

Back when our banks were phenomenally stupid and hysterically careless with their (our) money, they were offering credit cards and overdrafts to students who were as poor as church mice. In the event that you are offered either a credit card or a sizeable overdraft facility, say no. Credit cards are grand but wait until you leave college and have yourself a full-time job. It will turn into a millstone around your neck. If you need to buy stuff such as airline tickets or books online, you can always sign up to the O2 Money Card – you preload it with cash (cash that you actually have) at any O2 shop, ATM or Payzone point, and it works in exactly the same way as a credit card – only without the interest.

BROUGHT TO BOOK

Join a public library. It’s old-school but it also happens to be a cheap form of entertainment. A newly released paperback will set you back as much as €15, and a hardback costs at least twice that amount.

By ploughing through five paperbacks a month and a single hardback, readers could spend more than €1,200 a year on books, most of which they will only read once. Join a library and it’ll cost you nothing. They also have CDs, DVDs and free internet access, although that should not be a problem given that all third-level institutions offer the same stuff free, too.

SURF’S UP

When you get older, couch-surfing is precisely the kind of thing you’ll regret not doing when you were a student. The growing couch-surfing movement, couchsurfing.org, enables people to find free accommodation – and it doesn’t have to be a couch – all over the world.

With cheap flights to hundreds of destinations across Europe so readily available, a long weekend away can be yours for less than €100.

TRACK IT

Keeping a close eye on your finances might sound a little dull, but it is hard to control your spending unless you know what you’re spending. Work out exactly what your income is and what your outgoings are, including all costs such as laundry, rent, food, nightclubs, tattoos and books. Then for a month, keep a spending diary of all incidentals, such as coffees, bars of chocolate and pints of snakebite, so you’ll have a full understanding of where your money’s going and what you need to do to make it last longer.