This question is directed to those that live off-campus, on either student housing or in an apartment, basically those who live away from their parents. How are you able to live on your own, without help from your parents?

I want to live off campus next year when I begin third year. But I want to do so without considering any help from my parents. I would have to figure out tuition, rent, meals, books and other costs on my own.

Osap can help me a bit, and so does working an average of 30 hours a week during the summer, but it still seems as if it won't be enough. And once I am done undergrad, going back to living at home may not be an option.

It seems the average cost for a decent house comes to just over $400 a month including utilities. Multiply that by 12 and the cost comes to $4800 per year in rent. Add about $3000 to that for meal costs. $6000 for tuition. Including the book and other minor costs, that comes to roughly $15000 a year...

How do you guys make this happen?

Two words: Online Poker.

Student Line of Credit from your local bank.
Also you can try to declare yourself as an independent to get more OSAP

I usually get a job or two during the school year. If you're not making enough with OSAP, you may wish to consider a line of credit from a bank. That is if you can't make payments.

Coming from a very low income family, the way I look at it, is the biggest stuff to cut back on is extraneous expenses.

For example, I group:
Alcohol
Clubbing
Movies
Expensive restaurants

all under those.

You'd be surprised at how much you can save by ordering a light snack or salad when going to a restaurant and then having a full meal at home, instead of buying something at a restaurant.

There are other "small expenses" that add up really fast.

Coffee/tea
Bottled water
Pop
Chips
Cookies
Ice Cream
Pizza, burgers, takeout

Again, you'll cut out tons of food costs by eliminating those dietary options.

For food, I recommend buying in bulk. If you're like most people and don't have a list of allergies and intolerances, you'll be fine with:
Rice (so much cheaper, and less likely to get sick of in comparison to pasta)
Veggie drinks
Eggs
Meat
A few sauces and spices.

Spend more on a spice/condiment/sauce rack because it'll make your meals go a lot longer. Leftovers are your friend, but freeze them, don't just put them in the fridge. Chances are if you hated eating it for lunch and dinner on Monday, you'll likely hate it on Tuesday. 2 weeks later though, you may like it.

I hear peanut butter, and KD is also good but you can get healthier alternatives like organic peanut-free peanut butter and rice noodles, that you can then season with your own spices. (Lower in sodium as well)

I hope that's a bit helpful. I'm not exactly sure what the goal of your question is, as it's a bit vague, but if you need assistance or budget saving tips in a specific area, let me know.

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

I usually get a job or two during the school year. If you're not making enough with OSAP, you may wish to consider a line of credit from a bank. That is if you can't make payments.

Coming from a very low income family, the way I look at it, is the biggest stuff to cut back on is extraneous expenses.

For example, I group:
Alcohol
Clubbing
Movies
Expensive restaurants

all under those.

You'd be surprised at how much you can save by ordering a light snack or salad when going to a restaurant and then having a full meal at home, instead of buying something at a restaurant.

There are other "small expenses" that add up really fast.

Coffee/tea
Bottled water
Pop
Chips
Cookies
Ice Cream
Pizza, burgers, takeout

Again, you'll cut out tons of food costs by eliminating those dietary options.

For food, I recommend buying in bulk. If you're like most people and don't have a list of allergies and intolerances, you'll be fine with:
Rice (so much cheaper, and less likely to get sick of in comparison to pasta)
Veggie drinks
Eggs
Meat
A few sauces and spices.

Spend more on a spice/condiment/sauce rack because it'll make your meals go a lot longer. Leftovers are your friend, but freeze them, don't just put them in the fridge. Chances are if you hated eating it for lunch and dinner on Monday, you'll likely hate it on Tuesday. 2 weeks later though, you may like it.

I hear peanut butter, and KD is also good but you can get healthier alternatives like organic peanut-free peanut butter and rice noodles, that you can then season with your own spices. (Lower in sodium as well)

I hope that's a bit helpful. I'm not exactly sure what the goal of your question is, as it's a bit vague, but if you need assistance or budget saving tips in a specific area, let me know.

If you get frozen pizza on sale you can probably get them for 5$ which isn't that expensive in my opinion... But I guess compared to pasta it's expensive. But then again, what's not expensive compared to pasta. 1 pound bag of pasta on sale = 1$. 1 can of tomato sauce on sale = 1$. 6 italian sausages on sale = 2$. I usually get 3-4 meals out of pasta, 2-3 out of tomato sauce and 3 our of sausages. Which would mean 1 meal is 1.25$ to 1.50$. Cheapest Dinner that's actually filling?

I work about 15 hours/week during the school year. I live in a two-bedroom apartment with one roommate; my share of the rent is $407, which = 39.7 working hours a month, just under 10/week, so my job covers my rent and my share of the hydro/internet and renters insurance.

Summer savings and OSAP cover me for tuition, books, food and leisure expenses. I am considered independent, so I get a good chunk of OSAP + bursaries.

I spend no more than $1000 on groceries in a year, but I do share food expenses with my roommate. I can feed us both for a week on $40 or so, and we trade off so I only do that every other week.

I don't even live that frugally, but I am careful and I don't spend more than I earn... I don't dip into this money for expensive extras... if I need an extra $200 to buy Christmas presents, I'll work an extra few shifts, for example.

Originally Posted by forcajovem

Add about $3000 to that for meal costs.

That's... ~$56/week.
Dude. How does your food cost that much? Even if I went out to a restaurant once a week, I wouldn't be paying that much.

1) Get a full-time job during the summer. Don't blow your money on booze and fast food.

2) Apply for OSAP

3) LEARN TO COOK. You may think you're saving money buying frozen pizzas and TV dinners, but YOU'RE NOT! Cooking from scratch is your cheapest option. And no, it doesn't take too much time.

4) Live within your means. You may be temped to hit up Snooty Fox, 1280 or the Phoenix 3 days a week, but if you can't afford it, you shouldn't be doing it...

My rent is 425 a month + utilties and is a may-may contract. I have osap, but they aren't giving me enough so I've been working two jobs and I'm going to continue to work during the school year. It sucks, but not much can be done about it.

1) Jobs. Since you qualify for OSAP, you qualify for work-study. Aside from that, there are tons of opportunities within Hamilton for employment. You have a bus pass which helps with commuting to work, so look for work beyond just the area around Mac. For the school year, people generally start hiring around August. For the summer, you have to start applying from February onwards. Job hunting is a relentless thing. Always check OSCAR PLUS. And always check the MSU site.

2) If you don't have a savings account, make one now. The more you deposit money in savings, the more money you make off of the interest collected. You can put some sort of barrier on your savings account (I have a $5 fee I have to pay if I try to withdraw anything from savings directly) to stop you from touching the money. It essentially becomes money that is unusable on a day to day basis (i.e whenever you're wtithdrawing or swiping), but is always there if you need it.

3) If you're moving out completely, list yourself as an independent so OSAP will give you more. There are also bursaries/grants/scholarships available for independents from various other places like Scholarships Canada.

4) Your budget has to be strict. You make a list of the fixed variables (rent, utilities, internet, etc) and then make a list of the changeable ones (food, clothes, books). The second list is where all your savings happen. It's not hard to stretch a dollar, especially in a city where the primary focus is the university.

.Buy in bulk where you can

.Always check out the flyers for local grocery stores online. If you see something you don't plan on eating anytime soon but it's cheap, buy it and freeze it. You can freeze just about anything.

.Learning to cook is going to take you a long way. It's not difficult either, especially now that we have the internet

.Whenever you have to go out, ask a friend if they're willing to split a dish or just get something really small. Bushra's right, eat small at the restaurant and then go nuts at home.

. Here are some of the ways people get free books. If you have courses that require novels. rent them from libraries. If you can't find them, there is a used book store in Westdale called The Bookworm. DC++, PirateBay, etc are your best friends.


Aside from all the tips and tricks people will tell you, once you get started (which is easier than you think!) it's a matter of discipline. You should set yourself realistic financial goals for everything on your budget, and then try to live within those.

yeah its really expensive, so many costs associated with this.. i completely understand

Originally Posted by AelyaS

1) Jobs. Since you qualify for OSAP, you qualify for work-study. Aside from that, there are tons of opportunities within Hamilton for employment. You have a bus pass which helps with commuting to work, so look for work beyond just the area around Mac. For the school year, people generally start hiring around August. For the summer, you have to start applying from February onwards. Job hunting is a relentless thing. Always check OSCAR PLUS. And always check the MSU site.

2) If you don't have a savings account, make one now. The more you deposit money in savings, the more money you make off of the interest collected. You can put some sort of barrier on your savings account (I have a $5 fee I have to pay if I try to withdraw anything from savings directly) to stop you from touching the money. It essentially becomes money that is unusable on a day to day basis (i.e whenever you're wtithdrawing or swiping), but is always there if you need it.

3) If you're moving out completely, list yourself as an independent so OSAP will give you more. There are also bursaries/grants/scholarships available for independents from various other places like Scholarships Canada.

4) Your budget has to be strict. You make a list of the fixed variables (rent, utilities, internet, etc) and then make a list of the changeable ones (food, clothes, books). The second list is where all your savings happen. It's not hard to stretch a dollar, especially in a city where the primary focus is the university.

.Buy in bulk where you can

.Always check out the flyers for local grocery stores online. If you see something you don't plan on eating anytime soon but it's cheap, buy it and freeze it. You can freeze just about anything.

.Learning to cook is going to take you a long way. It's not difficult either, especially now that we have the internet

.Whenever you have to go out, ask a friend if they're willing to split a dish or just get something really small. Bushra's right, eat small at the restaurant and then go nuts at home.

. Here are some of the ways people get free books. If you have courses that require novels. rent them from libraries. If you can't find them, there is a used book store in Westdale called The Bookworm. DC++, PirateBay, etc are your best friends.


Aside from all the tips and tricks people will tell you, once you get started (which is easier than you think!) it's a matter of discipline. You should set yourself realistic financial goals for everything on your budget, and then try to live within those.

Don't listen to her - she lives at home!

Do you people not work during the summer?

HERE COMES THE RANT!

To the threadstarter: Why didn't you save money from the moment you could work? I had a paper route at 13!

With OSAP, my summer job and my paltry (yet existant) EAP, I have scrubbed together the necessary funds easily thus far - with money to spare on going out and stuff. I don't work during the school year but I will this year (my last year of undergrad) just because I'm keen on saving for the bloated ass Masters/Ph.D costs...

I come from a middle class home, my parents make jack diddly squat (as do many others).

I honestly just think people are shit with money. Like, stop buying the newest iPhone, drinking at Rams/Snooty's/Parties every thursday/friday/saturday, stop buying the most recent $67 Xbox 360 game, stop spending millions of dollars on fucking vacations and trips with you and your boyfriend/girlfriend to Tijuana. I know a LOT of people who CONSTANTLY bitch and piss and moan about "how poor they are", and, even though, yes, one or two of them are actually less well off than I am at a baseline, they STILL don't realize that many of the things that they do/buy are what contribute to their inability to see anything past a fat zero or a big negative on their chequing account balance.

Needless to say, you should all feel lucky. If this were the states more than half of us wouldn't be able to even be here, because of their messed up system.

/rant

I agree... students generally do suck with money. Hell, I suck with money, I never really have too much in the way of savings but I have no credit card debt and I support myself without the help my parents. I'll never understand how people our age can afford to go on vacation every reading week or take these long Euro trips in the summers or tons of video games or booze, cigs or other *ahem* party "supplies" every weekend or even everyday... If they can afford it, all the power to them but don't spoil yourself and then claim to be too poor to support yourself.

Get a rich boyfriend or girlfriend to pay for everything : D