Move-in Day and Housing over the Summer

Move-in day was both exciting and scary! It was an early start of 6am for myself, my Dad and my boyfriend. We drove the 3 hours to Southampton, packed everything from my room in halls into the car before the move-out time of 10am and then set off to the new house, which was only a five minute journey away.

When we arrived, one of my housemates was already there moving in, so it was exciting to see her! It was a case of get everything out of the car and into my room and we'd sort it from there - organised chaos! I was very lucky to have my two guys to haul things up and down stairs for me! My plan was if I get stuff in, I can easily come up another time to organise it all the way I want it, or it will be something to look forward to in September.

Once the hectic move-in was done, I left the boys unpacking a few things in my room and started sorting in the kitchen. We were hoping to be able to set up all the bills on the day, but our student account was not up and running by that point so I had to leave that in the hands of my housemate who is staying in the house for the majority of the summer. (That is, apparently, easy enough to set up. They set up a direct debit over the phone and just need details and a meter reading - luckily we'd been shown by the previous tenants where the meter was!)

We also had the chance to meet the people living in the house that is joined to ours. We are an annexe, and so share the bills with the other house. Therefore it was good to meet them and get to know them a little on the first day so that we weren't strangers in September - plus we need their internet! They seemed very welcoming and nice, and many people on the road are students so I feel we have picked a good area to live in!

Over the past couple of weeks since we moved in, my housemate, who is still at university, has decorated the house with bunting, fairy lights and cushions! She's been baking lots and working out how everything in the house works. It's such a girly house, and I am excited to move in properly after the summer!

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We were able to move into our student house on 1st July and, like most student houses, the contract is a year long. This means we have to pay rent over the summer. Sounds okay, until you realise that the summer is about three months long - and that's a lot of money!

I made sure that I worked out exactly how much I would need to pay, both for bills and rent, and put this aside so that I didn't spend it. However, this left me with rather a small amount of money to last me the summer, as Student Finance does not account for this period of time, and, having been told that I only had one shift at my summer job, I was left a bit stuck!

Again, my budgeting notebook had to come out, and I had to work out how much I could spend per week and still have some money left over as a safety net at the end of the summer. On top of this, I began doing cleaning jobs for my parents at home and at work, just to earn a little bit of money. Luckily, I was able to pick up a few more shifts at work and things worked out okay - but this was the first time in my life I'd been worried about the possibility that'd spent too much! I'm always very careful with my money, so not having quite enough was a bit of a shock to the system.

Obviously this isn't me complaining that I have no money, because I am very fortunate to have what I have, and the opportunity to even go to university! This is just my way of saying keep an eye on your money, check what you're spending and what you need to save for essentials, and budget sensibly.

Finding a student house

This is something that everyone seems to struggle with, especially in first year! It's a new concept and you don't really know where to start.

My advice, though, is to find out what your university offers in terms of support. My uni had a specific website for searching for student housing, where you could put in a location, how many rooms you wanted and other criteria and then it would give you the best matches. Also, the Student Union put on housing events that helped you find what you were looking for, and gave you information about paying bills and how to go about choosing the right house for you. They compiled a list of agencies which were not so good for students - and I'd recommend paying close attention to that list! So the uni can be of great help in the housing search.

I also found that through societies and clubs, you get to know people in different years, and they will be happy to give you advice on areas to look in, agencies or landlords to go with, or even just how to get started. The current tenants of our house got in touch with us, as they were looking to sell some of their furniture to us. We went to look at the furniture, and ended up chatting for a long period of time and we really benefitted from the information they could give us, as they'd already done what we will be doing in a month's time!

Another important thing to look out for is the agency/landlord. Many agencies charge you a fee for using them in order to find a house, so often it is better to go straight through the landlord, something the Student Union or a simple walk around the area looking at the 'For Rent' signs can help you with. You must make sure that the landlord from whom you are renting will come and fix things if they go wrong. If at all possible, try and find people who have rented a house from them before, or try and meet them in person before you sign the contract. Our landlord showed us around the house, and was very open with us. We felt comfortable around him, and he owns many other properties in the area so we thought he must be okay!

In terms of finding house mates, by the time I was looking for a house I had some great friends who I was sure I wanted to live with. However it can be a really tough decision - you're having to make this decision based on a friendship of possibly only a few months! Therefore I really would advise making sure you know the people you're thinking of living with, and making the decision based on what is best for you. Often, though, the university can help you find people who do not yet have a house/housemates, and social medias such as Facebook groups are a good way of getting in contact with other people in your situation.

So don't worry! The university will have lots on offer to help you, and there's no rush! There will be enough housing for everyone, and make sure you are happy with who you are living with and where you are living - don't make rash decisions.

Thanks for reading!

Laura