Studylink is a god-send for students. Not only do they provide absolute bops while you sit on the line for 2 hours, but they loan us an interest-free $1000 for ‘Course Related Costs.’ They lovingly turn a blind eye when we don’t actually buy protractors or highlighters. Bless the poor souls who have to use the money for textbooks. That’s probably just every law and science student. *Names changed so Studylink can’t find us
For those lucky enough, Course Related Costs can be a nice bank balance boost. It’s a chance to have a bit of a reserve and maybe treat yourself a little more than the usual Munchy Mart snack. This seems to be a shared sentiment because I’m not sure I’ve met anyone who hasn’t taken the whole $1000 out every year. But, are we using this money wisely? Or are we lining up at UBIQ and actually buying the textbooks for classes, like responsible, well-organised idiots?
The Good
Nothing screams “welcome back to uni!” like the copious reminders from Studylink to re-apply for our student loans. Although I’m still mildly salty that my first year of uni wasn’t free, I feel like I truly have finessed the system. Some people may think actually using the $1000 course-related costs on textbooks and stationery is the way to go, but lemme tell you! Ditch the compulsory reading lists and HOP card concessions and instead, broaden your horizons (literally). Every year since my first year, I’ve been saving my $1000 and spending it on flights overseas. And I genuinely believe this is the best way to spend dat money. Although I do value my education, sometimes I value sipping cocktails on some random beach in the Pacific just a tad bit more. Uni can get very hectic and I understand that sometimes you want to spend your mid-sem break stressing/preparing for the upcoming sem, but please remember you could definitely do this in a place that is not rainy, sad Auckland. AND don’t feel guilty about spending that moolah. We’re all drowning in debt anyway. Who’s another sneaky thousand gonna hurt? Me? Oh yeah… – September*
In the middle of last year, my group of friends was feeling particularly stressed out. It was our third year at uni, and we were exhausted from non-stop alternating between school stress, work stress and life stress. A few weeks out from the inter-semester break, we put aside three days to escape Auckland and go down to Tauranga. We rented a beautiful AirBNB, next to a gorgeous river and away from any other people. We told a cheeky white lie about the number of people staying there to get it cheaper too. After weeks of looking forward to it, we road-tripped down and spent three days doing absolutely nothing. We just drank, soaked in the spa, and sat around talking, admiring the beautiful view the whole time. That trip helped us all to recharge and bond more as friends, and we returned to Auckland feeling brand new. I know that Studylink has paid for my entire student loan, but I still feel like that trip is the most valuable thing they’ve ever bought me. – Gone Fishing*
In my first year of university, I desperately needed a new laptop. I paid $1000 from my own pocket, and my lovely parents paid for the rest. Later, I still took out the whole $1000 and said laptop as the reason, since I knew I had the receipts if they tried to catch a bitch. I brought O’Week tickets to Toga, Party in the Park, random fresher events, and then the rest of the money went towards a pretty insane experience. The bender of first-week, financed by Studylink, opened countless doors to try new types of alcohol and experiment with drugs I hadn’t tried. It was an absolute banger. I’ve worked full time since then, so technically I’ve paid that $1000 off. Don’t try to find me Studylink, I don’t owe you shit. – Rini*
Warren Buffet ain’t got nothing on me. Inspired by a couple of finance podcasts I listen to, I decided last year to invest all my Studylink money. The plan was super simple: automatically transfer my Studylink payments into an ASB term deposit account. Leave the term deposit alone for a year to accrue interest. At the end of the year, the term deposit would have more money in it than what I put in. Then I’d just have to dissolve the term deposit, reclaim all the money, and pay back Studylink, which would leave me with the interest I’d made in the meantime. I was convinced I was a fucking genius – but after the bank took its service fees, and a cut for closing down the account, I came out with about 200 bucks. Enough to cover a big night out at Shads, but not quite the Wolf of Wall Street millions I was hoping for. – Bitcoin *
The Bad
Last year I took the $1000 out and spent it all on parking at uni. It wasn’t intentional, but by the end of the first semester, I had given Auckland Transport a pretty big chunk of my course-related costs. Although driving into town, and picking up an iced coffee on the way, was a sweeter trip than taking the bloody bus, it really hurts to look at my bank account and know I could have an extra grand sitting in there. My parents would kill me if they knew. – Prince *
In my first-year, I properly planned out the spending of my course-related costs (to the cent!) and stocked up on stationery, tech, and textbooks. Unfortunately, I was so over-eager that I bought an extra textbook, for a class I wasn’t even taking. I felt like such a knob, and I was too embarrassed to take it back, so I sold it for a quarter of the price on Facebook. The guy I sold it to was perplexed as to why the book was so new. I guess it probably looked like I had stolen it. Since then, I have made much better investments and stopped buying the textbooks for any of my classes. JUST GET IT FROM THE LIBRARY! – Big Wallets*
I bought a Poke bowl with ALL the toppings: banana, pineapple, coconut chips, mango purée, corn flakes, mint leaves, walnuts, deez nuts, pumpkins seeds, goji berries, almond butter, toasted almonds, jeffery epstein, chia seeds, didn’t kill, himself, dates, dried apricot, cinnamon, grapes, scrote cheese, edamame, onion chips, seaweed salad, cucumber, pickled ginger, teriyaki glaze, sesame mayo, nori, never gonna, give you, up, never gonna, let you, down, sesame seeds, never gonna, run around, and, desert, you, kimchi, edamame, radish, coriander, sprouts, fiji yellow fin tuna, ora king salmon, gisborne tarakihi, free range chicken, and non-gmo tofu. I don’t regret this. Please don’t put this in the bad section. – Hungry Caterpillar*
This year I will be splitting my costs over textbooks (boring) and my horse’s injured leg. Yeah, it’s a bit weird, but when I was in Europe over summer, which I financed without Studylink’s help, my horse managed to hurt his front leg pretty badly. The girl who was looking after him took him to the vet, and those bills have been outstanding since January. I was planning to buy an RnV ticket, so this feels a bit less exciting. – Horse Girl*
Last year I went on a six-month exchange to Japan, and I was super sceptical about whether a semester’s worth of my clothing, plus all of my new purchases, would fit in my suitcase for the trip back. I got out my course-related costs, so I could have some more dosh to cover the fee for an extra bag. It also allowed me to spend up LARGE for my last few weeks in Tokyo. When I finally packed my bags to come home, they ended up so full I had to sit, stand, and then jump on them to close them. It ended up costing me approximately $350 to get my stuff home. My friends better fucking appreciate their souvenirs. – Buggy*
And the Ugly
This story is so very dumb, I know. I spent my course-related costs going blonde at the start of my second year. I don’t know why I did it; maybe it was all the Pinterest posts of blonde Asian baby girls I followed. I wanted to be edgy, and go all the way there. I’d fooled around with balayage, but with my dark, Asian hair it just looked like construction ash dirt (as my dad so kindly put it). So, I thought, yeah let’s go full-on blonde. I went to a boujee ass place in Mt Eden and talked about my relationship problems for 5 hours to the hairdresser. He reassured me that I had this Brigette Bardot carefree look, and I completely believed him. I enjoyed it for a while, and deeply savoured it, mainly because I had spent all $1000 on it. It all went to shit after a year, because a year afterwards turned GREEN when I went swimming in a particularly heinous pool. Not a great look. Soon after that terrible incident, I did a corporate sting, with a name tag, fingerprint scanner, all while having green hair. My colleagues and boss had an absolute hoot. – Troll Doll*
