Put together the grants, the student loans and the money from parents and each student can reckon on having £5,000 plus.

 So what are the main expenses, then?

• Rent and housing
• Food
• Household bills and utilities
• Clothes
• Insurance
• Cars and bikes
• Travel
• Academic costs
• Having fun
• Costs you might forget about

The single biggest cost is accommodation. The roof over your head is expensive, but an essential.

The next biggest expense is your tuition fees. But Push will leave those out of the equation for the time being as you don’t have to fork out for them until you’ve graduated, unless you particularly want to.

Other biggies are food, travel, academic costs (like books etc.), clothes and bills. All essentials too.

Your entertainment costs are among the top wallet wasters, too, and don’t think they’re not essential. You can’t have a successful time at university if you’re hating every minute of it because you’re too stingy to allow yourself a penny's worth of fun.

Think of it more as an investment in the wider education that university offers students (the education that teaches you how to survive a 9am lecture with the hangover from hell). Or you can think of it as the wise purchase of a support mechanism (otherwise known as having friends).

There’s a breakdown of the main wallet leaks below, but they vary from place to place. Even within the same town, costs can vary between universities depending on what kind of facilities they lay on and how good they are.

Your choice of university can either cost or save you literally thousands of pounds. Who needs a better reason to choose carefully?

• Rent and housing
• Food
• Household bills and utilities
• Staying clean and clothed
• Insurance
• Cars and bikes
• Travel
• Academic costs
• Having fun
• Costs you might forget about

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