3 in 4 Brits believe students wouldn’t tell a parent if they have financial troubles

New research has uncovered students' spending secrets and bargain blunders, and while 68% of respondents believing that students have no issues managing their money, over three quarters (78%) said that students would never tell a parent if they were experiencing financial troubles. 

The research, commissioned by printing and visual imaging company Epson, has unveiled that the UK believes that students' most prioritised purchase is alcohol (65%), compared with just 31% who thought that students were more inclined to buy academic books, and 8% who thought students would spend significant amounts of money on printer ink. Alcohol was also ranked as a more important purchase than essential items such as food (54%) and rent (41%). 

The research has also unveiled that the UK believe students spend a large proportion of their finances on social activities and night outs, with a quarter believing that university students prioritise socializing over academic work. 

Despite this, many underestimate the cost of essential university equipment, with over a quarter of those surveyed believing that printing a 200-page dissertation with colour images costs less than 5 GBP, despite the realistic cost of up to 35 GBP. On average, respondents estimated that students use 277.44 GBP worth of ink on average over a standard three-year course, however, the actual average could be as high as 1,000 GBP.

For those that were able to save money on essentials such as printer ink, paying off bills and saving money for a holiday were the most common ways to spend the extra cash.

Costly university essentials are also thought to make students struggle to pay important bills, with over one in five (23%) respondents believing that students struggle to pay bills because they spend too much money on printer ink. Many students may feel trapped and concerned about money, especially with much of the UK believing students financially prioritise unacademic purchases.

Charlie de la Haye, communications manager at Epson UK was behind the research and is hoping to recommend how students can save money on essential but costly university equipment.

"Students often associate cheap purchases as the most suitable purchases for them, and while it's easy to get woo'd into buying a cheap printer at the beginning of your three of four-year university career, this is likely to cost you a lot more money in the long run in order to replenish it with printer ink cartridges every time you run out of ink," says de la Haye. 

"Cartridge-free printing with the Epson EcoTank is a larger upfront cost in the beginning but comes equipped with 88 cartridges work of printer ink, or enough ink to print 14,000 pages, and will spare you up to 1,000 GBP that can be spent on the day to day living costs. Spending money on printer ink cartridges shouldn't be a concern for students during their university career, and an EcoTank is one way to ensure that printing won't be one of the financial pitfalls that students may fall into."