Stressed out please help!

J

Jennie

Guest
About to start college this sept in trinity after a few years of working and travelling. Last year I did a PLC course in my home town and had to live a poverty stricken existence for the entire year despite working every hour under the sun. Am determined never to experience such depressing hardship again. Need to buy laptop etc before i go. Can anyone tell me how much i will need to borrow and where would be the best place to get it ie bank/Credit union etc. Dont want crippling repayments! I am stressed out over this it is keeping me awake at night!
 
See if Trinity have some sort of arrangement with a manufacturer.

Do you absolutely have to have a laptop?

Does it have to be new?

If you are a student, the CU may be the best option (if you have to borrow).

No offence, but there are worse things in life than worrying about how to finance a laptop. Many students find themselves in similar situations (I was frequently broke in college-you forget it pretty quickly).
 
Hi Jennie - I don't think that anyone is going to have any magic solutions on this one. In terms of how much you need to borrow, there are a huge number of variables. What kind of accomodation you are looking for, what kind of travel costs you will incur, what is your general lifestyle (smoker? drinker? etc?). I'd guess that you'll need to do some sums yourself based on your experineces over the last year.

In terms of repayments, you probably know that the longer you stretch out the repayments (e.g. 3 years or 5 years), the lower the monthly repayment will be (and the higher the interest paid to the bank ofer the life of the loan will be). I'm sure you'll find that the branches of the big banks near to Trinity will have student officers used to dealing with such loans. It might be worth shopping round with your credit union too.
 
The amount you will need to borrow would depend on your circumstances Jennie. Do you intend to work part time while you are at college? Will you qualify for a grant? What kind of accommodation had you in mind? Have you any money put aside already?

You will need money for:


1. Rent and bills
2. Food
3. Transport
4. Books and software
5. Clothes and toiletries
6. Social Life
7. Mobile phone

Maybe you should do out a budget and see if you can estimate what you might need to spend in a month
 
CCOVICH said:
No offence, but there are worse things in life than worrying about how to finance a laptop. Many students find themselves in similar situations (I was frequently broke in college-you forget it pretty quickly).
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The laptop is the last thing on my mind thank you very much. I am a fully grown woman please do not mistake me for some kind of idiot teenager.
 
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Im gonna sit down and do some sums and shop around and see what I can do for myself. Thanks again!
 
Jennie said:
The laptop is the last thing on my mind thank you very much. I am a fully grown woman please do not mistake me for some kind of idiot teenager.
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Jennie said:
Dont want crippling repayments! I am stressed out over this it is keeping me awake at night!
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Whatever.
 
Jennie said:
The laptop is the last thing on my mind thank you very much. I am a fully grown woman please do not mistake me for some kind of idiot teenager.
Click to expand...

I don't think an " idiot teenager " would lose sleep over the procurement of a lap top - don't know anyone who would to be honest. It's all relative I suppose, €1000 over 5 years will cost you around € 21 a month if you want to spend that much - good choice of stuff available for under a grand if you look at the Dell or PC world sites, to mention just two.
 
Jennie said:
The laptop is the last thing on my mind thank you very much. I am a fully grown woman please do not mistake me for some kind of idiot teenager.
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That attitude will get you lots of help! :rolleyes:
 
mature people dont usually snap back at people who are trying to help them.
with that attitude- you can solve your own problems.
good luck
 
From a female perspective, some of the last few posts were a bit harsh!!

Given that the interest rate has just gone up AGAIN, think its safe to say most people are stressed to a degree!! (or maybe thats just stressed getting a degree:D )
 
ACA said:
From a female perspective, some of the last few posts were a bit harsh!!

Given that the interest rate has just gone up AGAIN, think its safe to say most people are stressed to a degree!! (or maybe thats just stressed getting a degree:D )
Click to expand...

What difference does it make if you are a female or male?
 
Maybe it's a Waterford thing?

Anyway, I think most people have had their say at this stage, so let's just leave it at that.
 
CCOVICH said:
See if Trinity have some sort of arrangement with a manufacturer.
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From what I remember from my time there the IT department do indeed have some offers in place. It also allows for (slightly) easier integration with the systems on campus from what I recall (if you go for another option I believe its simply a matter of allowing IT a day to make sure your set up correctly and have the necessary security in place on the laptop [but was a few years back so things may have changed or my memories could be slightly off]). You will be provided with most of this information in the first week or so of your course so if you can hold out until then that may be of help to you.
(You may also contact them in advance to request some additional information if needed I would guess).

If financial worries are causing concern it could be worth putting the purchase off for a while.
The swipe card systems in the college allow computer access 24/7 for free if you can be on campus when you need them (guessing this may not be the case but thought it worth commenting on).
You could also consider picking up a second hand laptop which could save a lot of money (seem to remember a lot of flyers on the notice boards around the college from students about to travel for a year looking to get rid of the now redundant "thesis" laptops that were so vital).
 
I don't think anybody was trying to patronise you. To be fair, from your e-mail it did come across as though the laptop was the most important thing to you at the moment, and you mentioned that you were having sleepless nights .... so people were giving you replies based on the information you supplied
 
Jennie said:
Last year I did a PLC course in my home town and had to live a poverty stricken existence for the entire year despite working every hour under the sun.
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I never realised that PLC courses were that expensive.

Rgds Billo
 
It was a long time ago, but in my time in Trinity in the early 1990s they had some deals going that you could get a computer for about 60% of the then cost price. I would imagine that the on campus banks would also be favourable to giving you a loan for that purpose.
 
Is the laptop a requirement for the course? Maybe you should wait and see if it is really needed once the course begins? Desktops are a lot cheaper and if you get a flash memory key, files are easily transferred to other computers. Also Trinity have plenty of computer facilities so it may turn out that your laptop would be left unused much of the time.
 
Or ,you could do what I did and use the IT department on campus.

I think I was more worried about my rent and travel costs when I was in
uni rather that buying a laptop.
 
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