Preparing to Stay after Uni

As some of you may know, I decided to move down south after I was done with uni instead of flying across the world where it's warm and lovely. I can say that I had it easy as I had parents who can afford to support me even though I did not prepare as much as I should have. Therefore, I thought I'd write about my journey of staying so that you can be better prepared if that's what you want to do. This post covers the period after university ended and immediately before I started work.

MONEY

I was on a 'loan/sponsorship' while I was studying so I had money being transferred into my account until the end of my final year which meant that if you're in the same position as me, from the time term ends and until you get your first pay, you won't have any more money than you already had. Because of this, you need to have saved up enough money, beg your parents to sponsor you or work. I begged my parents.

You would need to remember that if you're planning on switching visas, you would need to maintain a certain amount in your bank account for 90 days. If not, your employer would need to certify that they can provide you it. Therefore, when calculating how much you'll need, include that, your monthly spending, your monthly rent, visa fees if your employer will need you to pay it first, moving costs and your house deposit if you're relocating.

NOT LEAVING THE COUNTRY

Money aside, during the same period of time, I also got to see my friends, family and acquaintances travel abroad while I stayed because I didn't want to risk losing my Tier 4 visa. Obviously, you can risk it but it's always up to the people at the border that determines it. It really shouldn't be a problem. But with a graduate job waiting for me here and none in Malaysia, I decided to play it safe.

RELOCATING

I also had to relocate 150+ miles away. This took a lot of reading and researching though I left most of it except for finding a house to the last minute. This is because I wanted to stay in Sheffield until I got tired of it and Hannah didn't want to move to my new house with me until the term on our previous flat ended.

Finding the right house wasn't too difficult for me but deciding on my budget and the kind of house I wanted to stay in was a bit difficult. Moving down south meant that the rent would be so much more than it was in Sheffield. I am currently paying double my rent in Sheffield though I don't have much to argue about because I currently love the house and rent in Maidenhead is generally like that.

I used SpareRoom to find my current house. I contacted multiple landlords but my current landlord is honestly the best landlord I've ever had. As soon as I contacted her, she allowed me to view the house through facetime where my former housemate brought me around the house. She then asked for Hannah's (my former housemate) opinion on me to make sure that Hannah would be ok with me which is extremely considerate of her.

If you're too far away to visit the house before moving in, I would recommend you rent the place for the minimum period (usually 3 months) and then decide whether you like it or not once you've moved in. I initially planned on staying at my current house for a very short term because the rent is above my budget but because I love everything about it, I couldn't bring myself to move out.

Moving wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I reckon I spent about 1-2 weeks planning everything out. As I don't have a UK driving license, I wasn't able to hire a car for me to move. However, I found an amazing company called Shiply where I was able to find a small company to move my things for me... for only £60 which was probably cheaper than my train tickets!

This post is getting too long so I'll stop here, but if you do have questions, my email's up there. (Just casually ending my post like how Nurul did.)