<p>Hello everyone,
I have a chance to be an exchange student at UCR. I am worried about financials. I do not want to exceed $1000 per month. I won't be paying tuition, but I am expected to supply housing expenses.</p>
<p>Do you think I can manage to live in Riverside and not spend more than $1000 per month? (Including eating and housing)</p>
<p>It is OK for me to share a room off campus, or live in a dorm. </p>
<p>How would you comment on eating expenses? What are prices of fast food etc?</p>
<p>I am not much of a social person, I would plan to focus on studies even I could manage to come. I want to study at UCR, but my financial limits are very strict.</p>
<p>(I also wrote the same msg to UCSB page as well, if it looks familiar.)</p>
<p>Don’t live in a dorm. Dorm is about $1000 a month. Some of my friends live in a house and they split the rent… each pay about $400-500.</p>
<p>Fast food… standard price… Mcdonalds is like what $5-8 on a combo? lol… don’t eat off fast food ): Go to markets and buy real food to cook. That is definitely cheaper and healthier than eating food from outside!! How much you spend on food, of course, depends on you.</p>
<p>yeah dorms are super expensive that is the reason I am moving out of them during spring quarter. ( although I love my hallmates) my friend bought a house and we are making it a party house. Now back to the question. Dont buy food on campus its super expensive I spend about 35 - 45 dollar on food luckily Have flex max. But is possible I had to live on 600 dollars for three month after rent,tuition, and meal plan, and I ended up with 245 left which I bought and Ipod with. You’ll just have to learn how to manage your money wisely</p>
<p>Seeing what’s been posted so far, dorming is out of the question. Assuming you find a way to split rent for an apartment, then you’ll have 500 dollars to spend each month - </p>
<p>with a 30 day month, that’ll leave you with about 17 dollars to spend on food per day. I can’t quite see how to manage that without fast food…
One good thing to do is find a good buddy who has flex max (it’s literally enough to feed two people [How are you supposed to spend 3400 dollars just on food in a school year?])</p>
<p>Maybe this -
don’t eat breakfast (no one ever wakes up early enough anyways, so don’t bother)
spend 7 dollars on lunch and 10 dollars on dinner
if you can find some 5 dollar meals then save some money for snacks or drinks to keep around in your apartment</p>
<p>I believe you can spend no more than 1000 per month, but it’ll be pretty harsh on your stomach…</p>
<p>And, you’ll have to get some extra money to front the costs for textbooks (VERY expensive, up to 200 dollars just for one)</p>
<p>Oh and Jason - you broke 1000 on your post count :P</p>
<p>Ok I just put in an offer on two houses within 3 miles of UCR, and I’m thinking of renting it for $400 per room, you should also think of looking up Angel Food Ministries they can feed a family of four for a week on $30, so they should mathematically feed a single person for $30 a month, you don’t need to fill in an application or anything my best friend went to culinary school and thinks their food is great quality.So $400 plus utilities which shouldn’t be more than $100 max, plus $30 for food, plus $40 for Metro PCS If you don’t like it then just chuck it there isn’t a contract, would equal out to $570, for the month, now add in gas lets say $200, that’s $770, you still have a pretty penny to play with.</p>