Students at Marjon University in Plymouth are already grappling with the cost of living, but one expense is unexpectedly becoming a major burden to them: laundry. Lots of students are finding it difficult to manage the most basic household tasks due to the cost of washing going up, and it’s becoming a choice between keeping their clothes clean or keeping their budgets intact.
The washing machines and dryers on campus belong to Circuit Laundry, who have each wash priced at £3.60 and each time students want to dry their clothes it adds on another £2. If they choose to wash their dark clothes and light clothes separately and then dry them, it pushes £10 to do their weekly wash.
Of course, the price hike is more than likely down to rising energy bills for the company behind it, and this growing cost is the perfect example of how the smallest expenses can really affect students with financial difficulties. Circuit Laundry were unavailable to comment on that matter.
The prices are becoming tough to deal with for them, especially when it starts to become equal to, or even more than, takeaway food such as McDonald’s. A basic meal deal there would set you back anywhere from £6 to £8, so it really is making those on tight student budgets wonder how they are going to get by.
“I used to do my laundry quite regularly, but now it’s costing way too much to do that,” said Jess, a second-year student at Plymouth Marjon University. “It just makes more sense for me to go home and get my washing done there.”
She continued to say how she “doesn’t understand how the prices have gone up so much since last year.” She then said that she’d “understand a small price increase, but nearly a £1 increase is stupid.”
Clearly this is affecting students at the university, and they seem to all believe the price for washing is too high.
Comparisons to another launderette in Plymouth – Bubbles Launderette – allow us to fully understand whether the students really have it that bad. At this place, it costs £4.50 for a regular wash and then £1 for every ten minutes of drying you wish to have. That all adds up to an £11 trip to the launderette in this case, which is £1 more than the washing on campus at Marjon.
All in all, it is a £1 difference between the two, which really isn’t that much, and students seem to believe that the difference should be bigger, so do they have a point?
A student union at UWE Bristol managed to get a 65% reduction in laundry prices in recent academic years, and at the University of York, a campaign was started which was titled: ‘Stop Circuit Laundry’. It’s apparent that this isn’t just an issue in Plymouth and students all across the country are having the same problems with the same company – maybe Marjon needs their own campaign for washing.
The cost-of-living crisis will continue to put pressure on students and it’s becoming clear that basic tasks like doing laundry simply aren’t easy anymore. But it doesn’t just affect the students – we spoke to Leigh-Ann Robinson, a parent to a student who attends Marjon University, and we were able to understand the effects it has on her too.
“The cost of living has gone up every year, it’s like the comfort, the powder, the water bill, the electric bill – and I am having to do two to three loads of all their washing, so yeah, it’s really frustrating.”
But she wasn’t just worried about herself, she went on to talk about how bad it is that her son needs to resort to coming home and doing his washing. “And what’s more frustrating is that he can’t go to university and pay for his washing due to the price hikes, so at the end of the day, it’s unfair on both of us.”
She rounded it up by talking about how “he’s a student after all and they haven’t got much money – he should be able to do his washing without worrying about such a big price increase”.
It’s obvious it isn’t just an issue for the students, as these prices from Circuit Laundry seem to be having a knock on effect for the parents too. I got another students opinion on the matter – Lewis Beswetherick said: “I absolutely dread doing my washing each week and seeing how much I am paying.”
“I just doesn’t seem right to me that in just one month, I am spending basically £40 to do my washing – how is that good for us here at Marjon?”
“It is completely putting me off living away from home, and I doubt I can deal with these prices next year too.”
With no clear solutions available, students are left wondering: how much longer can they keep paying these fees?