10 Things I learned self-funding my PhD (& Masters): Pt.1, Money + 10 ideas for low-cost housing
I’ve been asked to do this for a while, so here it is:
I’m going to preface this by saying again that everyone told me not to do this, and with good reason. This isn’t a decision to be entered into lightly, particularly if, like me, there was no family money, partner money, lottery money, insurance money, rental income, investment income, owning-a-home-ourgithness, middle-classness, etc. etc. But as one of my good academic friends said, “this will determine how much you want this”.
When I did this several years back, there was no student loan available for postgraduate study, and as I believe you have choose what type of debt you’d like to get into and why, I wouldn’t’ve decided to get into debt for this degree (maybe an MBA, but not this…) so here are a few things I learned along the way:
Today I’m going to focus on just a few of the things I learned about money as I went through this journey, which (I’m pretty sure) are true at the time of writing this:
HMRC: In the eyes of HMRC, you can’t be a full-time student and in full-time work, even if your real life you are :D Go figure, Schrodinger’s Student.
Bills/council tax: Depending on your council, you might not have to pay council tax as a full-time student, including the writing-up year(s), viva prep time, AND corrections time. (Obviously, this is of the greatest benefit if you live alone). Also, you can contact your utility company for a means-based reduction on the basis you’re on a low income if you are. (Again, most beneficial if living alone).
Travel/retail:
Student travelcard - that £30 I spent for the 1/3 reduction in train fares actually made the trains affordable! I miss this!
If you’re a f/t student that card also gets you a 1/3 reduction on your Oyster card (I think for off-peak travel).
10% retail discounts if you’re full-time (not important for me, but in case you like to shop! I don’t… :D The only thing I want discounts for are records, & I gladly pay for those).
Arts funding: Even though you can’t get arts funding towards your studies, you can use their fees to cover costs, even though, in a sense, you’re doing double the work for that fee, i.e. the work the fee is for, and then the work of studying. Still, it’s money that can be there.
Budgeting models: I found if I asked ‘How can I receive full-time pay for part-time work?’ it opened my eyes to possibilities. That was my chosen model (or, at least, that’s largely what I stuck to), but others I’ve seen are:
A friend who started a programming business & used that to finance their doctorate.
Another got loans they the paid back with the full-time job they got after their PhD.
Extras I built in to my budget:
Saving money for my final write-up year (I found the write-up much more involved than the research) (that’s an understatement!).
Money for materials, people’s time, & in my case, to pay an ensemble at least a very basic fee, feed them, & pay travel.
Contingency money for 1) the thesis, 2) when things go wrong. As another friend said to me “real life continues while you’re doing a PhD”, and they were so right.
Conferences
Tax!
Things I compromised/negotiated on:
Subscriptions & renewals e.g. insurance. I cancelled all my subscriptions & refinanced A Thing.
What hardware & software to renew, repair, or leave as is. Not enough people repair, imho. This has saved me a fortune & I’ve learned a lot too.
Personal life, practice time, rehearsing/playing with other musicians. ‘Plays’ were out the window from the off.
Treats in excess of what I agreed with myself! No ‘I’ll just buy this small thing…’
Some ideas for funding beyond personal loans, student loans, & research funding bodies:
Staff scholarship schemes: companies want(ed…?) to invest in their staff as it feeds back into the organisation; you have to prove your qualification’s use to your job. These might be available whether you’re employed or self-employed.
The trusts & grants register - most libraries have one & nowadays most of it’s on the internet. I made a list of keywords that described me/my situation & started there. Some of it’s quite obscure e.g. ‘£500 for a tuba player from Gloucester researching mouthpieces’. Be prepared for archaic things like your uni to have to rubber stamp a cheque or a bit of paperwork and it costing you £££ to collect it (eyeroll!).
Arts sector organisations run more schemes supporting postgraduates these days, e.g. for musicians it’d be Help Musicians, ISM, etc. that’d have the list of potential funders.
University research funding & its other incentives & schemes.
Hardship funds both in & outside your university.
Housing: This was the cost I really wanted to keep down. Students & self-employed often need guarantors (I heard of someone recently - who earns very decent money - whose parents were refused as guarantors because they were deemed too old!). Here are some other ideas I found for low cost housing:
Homeshare - there are several (what looks like) lovely schemes doing this.
Almshouses - not just for the over 55’s/65’s, one friend got into a rural place as no one wanted the flat (which was lovely!), another cos they lost their job; I know of them being offered to younger people sometimes when things like demolition means they can’t offer long-term 65+ accommodation… might be worth asking around.
Community Land Trusts - can offer rent at local median rent.
Community Land Trusts - can also offer flatshares while building on-site.
Word-of-mouth - by far the best way to get sweet deals imho.
Rural Urban Synthesis groups - these are things like the self-build communities most councils have.
University housing lists - I found a beautiful place once; £400pcm, all-in, sharing with just one other person, London Zone 2, on the top floor of a victorian townhouse & was very happy in it.
Housesitting - loads of websites have sprung up for this now and some of the options don’t look that bad if you don’t mind moving around a bit.
Guardianship - my all-time least favourite option, but it is there… there’re organisations around now that specifically cater to artists. Absolutely 100% not for me, but if you’re that way inclined…
Arts housing charities - I got sent this by a friend just the other day, I didn’t know they existed, but here’s one in Folkestone: https://www.creativefolkestone.org.uk/folkestone-creative-quarter/available-spaces/apartments/
There’s also cohousing: https://cohousing.org.uk
10. What I should’ve budgeted for: A self-employed income protection plan :D
There’s a next part to this which will focus on the mindset/approaches I implemented to make working & studying alongside each other work, which I’ll post soon.