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We asked, you answered: Your biggest student spending regrets

Anna Allgaier

10.08.23 (updated more than 1 year ago)

Read time 1 minute

First things first, let’s approach this topic with some positivity. The kind of positivity you’d see in an Instagram post from your Mom’s friend. The ones with an inspirational quote on them over a sunset saying something like “always learning, always growing.”

Here’s my inspirational quote:

“Regrets are just opportunities to learn.”

Namaste 🙏

I created a lot of opportunities to learn throughout my student years:

Ordering what looked like a life-time supply of animal crackers on the internet after a 🍸 too many
Spending all of my money at Zara and having to eat pasta with peanut butter for a week
Getting to know the entire customer service team at the bank I was with to request my monthly overdraft (obvs, I now use Wise, how naive I was) before I realised how fabulous Wise was)

I asked my lovely colleague to ask the www the following:

What's your biggest spending regret from when you were a student at college or university?

Arguably my faux pas are probably a little higher up on the regrets scale. Nevertheless, the people of the internet delivered.

Free yourself from regret

1) A pair of garden gnomes and a discounted spatula set after a couple of drinks, in the UK

Kicking off with a bang. This person is clearly a fabulous human being. I bet they didn’t even have a garden.

2) Purchasing a new phone when it was released

I feel you. The Motorola pink flip phone, that sidekick that Paris Hilton made look so cool, I’m really showing my age with these examples.

3) Alcohol

Naughty

4) Used bank or telegraphic transfers with high fees

I’m saddened to hear this. I’m also confused by telegraphic, but it sounds cool. I bet your bank didn’t have a multi-currency card with easy-to-use savings features, access to over 150 countries and over 40 currencies with the smallest fees available, no mark ups, and the ability to spend like a local with the mid-market exchange rate Say that 10 times, I dare you.

To hear more about fees we don’t hide and what you’ll get with Wise, check out our Terms of Use and Wise Fees & Pricing page.

5) I didn’t know Wise

Loving the shoutout, thank you.

This person is clearly dedicated to the cause because they remember the old days, but we’re Wise now and we’ve had a makeover since then. The kind of dramatic, powerful makeover we saw in the Princess Diaries, Miss Congeniality and, of course, The Devil Wears Prada.

6) Buying a new shirt almost every week

Hard relate

7) Parents' money I wasted by becoming a dropout

Honesty’s the best policy

8) Books. Some of them, even “Used” cost like $120 and never used

Oh dear. They hadn’t discovered beautiful book summary websites like Sparknotes. They’re free AND you wouldn’t have had to read the book at all. Which is totally the point of studying, right?

9) 3 day stay in Paris

Dream big. Dress for the job you want. Fake it till you make it.

10) Got no regrets

Rock ‘n’ roll

Make up for the past

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