What Can £1,000 Buy You as a Postgraduate Student?

#1 A long-distance research trip

£1,000 is a comfortable budget for a at least couple of nights abroad in most locations. For example, a return flight from London to New York, which hosts 100s of academic conferences each year, might set you back £600. This will leave you with £300 for two nights in a decent hotel and £100 worth of spending money.

Degrees in Geography and related disciplines will often include some type of fieldwork. £1,000 could buy you a significant stretch in some of the world’s most unique locations. A flight to Iceland can come in at less than £100, for example, leaving you with enough budget to spend several days exploring its volcanic landscapes, glaciers and outwash plains.

#2 A new laptop

There couldn’t be a more sensible investment for someone embarking on a postgraduate degree than a good piece of tech to do it with – and if the laptop you used during your Bachelors is soon to draw its last breath, now could be the moment for an upgrade.

£1,000 could buy you a laptop on the flashier end of the spectrum – Apple’s latest MacBook Air currently retails for around this price, for example. Or if you need a more heavy-duty laptop that can handle complex tasks or specialist software (if you’ll be studying a Computer Science subject, for example), then you may also benefit from a more expensive model.

#5 A year’s worth of streaming services

We’ve calculated that a year’s worth of Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime (with student discounts applied) will come in at just under £910. That should keep you plenty entertained in your downtime – and with £90 to spare!

#6 (Almost) enough pot noodles for a year’s worth of meals

If you’re looking to lean hard into the student stereotype, £1,000 will buy you a £1 pot noodle for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for one year (well technically this will set you back £1,095, but we hope even the most devoted pot noodle enthusiasts among you might take a break over the holidays).

#7 4,000 Freddos

The rising cost of the Freddo bar has long been used as a benchmark for how horribly unaffordable everything else is. We’re happy to report that you can still purchase a single Freddo for 25p, a price that has largely held steady since 2016 (though still a 150% increase from the heady days of 2005). This means that a £1,000 budget will by you 4,000 of these delicious frog-themed snacks.*.

So there you have it – some sensible (and less sensible) ways to spend £1,000 as a postgraduate student. To enter Santander’s giveaway, apply online before 11 July.

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