Summer 2011 Internships – How to Budget
We’re back again with the second article in the summer 2010 internship series. If you missed the first one you can click on the article: Summer 2011 Internships – Where to Start to catch up. We’re looking at budgeting for your Sydney/ Melbourne 2011 summer internship in this article. This is something that a lot of people worry about. But with some planning and of course some saving it is very doable for a 10 -16 week summer internship in 2011.
So it’s August now and most of our summer internship students will start in June/ July of 2011. This gives you around 10 months to save and plan.
Click here to see some of the students already signed up for the 2011 summer internship programme.
Let’s get into some numbers; we will be looking at the cost of getting you to Sydney or Melbourne and what it will cost to live there. The individual living costs in each area vary slightly between Sydney and Melbourne, but the overall cost of living in either city is about the same.
Now some research is going to be needed on your part, so we have included a couple of websites you will be able to get quotes from so you can tailor your budget. We will also have some of our students writing on the blog, about how much they are spending each week in Sydney or Melbourne.
| Flights | £500/ £900 | Usually around June flights are at the lower end and this depends on your departure and return date. You can compare flights on a website like Ebookers.com |
| Insurance | £40/ £150 | It pays to look around, it also pays not to take the cheapest quote you find! Check out the article on: |
| Visa | £90 | Done online and Intern Options helps you out |
| Accommodation | £90/ £180+ pw | We can organise you accommodation sharing with three people to a room for £89 or you can have your own room for around £190. This includes all bills and sometimes wireless
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| Food | £50/ £100 pw | This cost depends on how many meals you eat out per week which can increase this cost a lot. |
| Transport | £15/ £30 pw | Transport costs in Sydney will be bus, underground, ferry’s and for Melbourne also trams. This cost will depend on how far from work you live. |
| Entertainment | £ ?? | This is so hard to guestimate as everyone is different, have a look at the list below for some common areas you will spend money on entertainment |
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This should give you a start on budgeting for your 2011 summer internship. Excluding entertainment you should budget between A$300 and A$600 per week for living costs which roughly translates to UK£150 to UK£300 per week depending on the exchange rate at the time.
Below are some estimated costs for entertainment, they are all in Australian dollars so you will need to divide them by the current exchange rate. At the time of writing that was 1.75 Australian dollars to 1 pound. So divide the figures below by 1.75 and that will be the cost in pounds (hope you’re not reaching for your calculator 
).
| Movies | $15 |
| Eating Out | $30+ |
| Take away food | $10 – $15 |
| Lunch in a café | $8 – $10 |
| Cup of coffee | $2.50 – £3.50 |
| Fast food (McDonalds, KFC, food courts) | $5 – $10 |
| Nightclub entrance | $10 – £25 |
| Pint of beer (570 ml) | $5 – $7 |
| Taxi | $1.55 per kilometre |
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Any questions or comments we would love to hear them, you can leave a comment at the bottom of the page or click through to our Facebook page where you will find over 4,000 students asking questions and giving feedback on their internships.
To see example company and position descriptions in your subject area, click through to the Summer 2011 Internships page for full details.
To talk through the kind of internship we can look at for you in 2010, or if you have any questions on Australia or New Zealand, pick up the phone and call the experts on 0207 353 7699.
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Articles in the Summer 2010 Internships series
This is the fourth article in the Summer 2010 Internship series, if you missed the first three articles, don’t fear you can check them out here:
Article One – Summer 2011 Internships – Where to Start
Article Two – Summer 2011 Internships – How to Budget
Article Three – Summer 2011 Internships – What’s the Big Deal
Article Four – Summer 2011 Internships – What do Employers Think
Article Five – Summer 2011 Internships – Get Work Experience Early
