Updated: 28 April 2025, 19.46 PM
Living costs can vary among students in Melbourne, depending on your lifestyle, accommodation location (near vs far from the campus), and personal situation (such as being single vs. with family). Most of your monthly allowance will be allocated to housing (40-60% of the living allowance), then food (eating outside or cooking), and bills (water, electricity, communication). These are my notes on students living in Melbourne from my experience as a PhD student at the University of Melbourne.
TODO: accommodation, mobile provider, saving electricity, laundry, places to visit, prayer room, and halal food.
Table of Contents:
Union Market. University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) provides weekly free groceries for students. No registration is required, but there is a 100-student quota per session. It's open from Monday to Friday, from 10-11 AM and 4-5 PM, in Room G30, Building 1888, Parkville Campus. You can only attend one session each week. You will be allocated 40 points that you can exchange for various goods, such as carb (such as rice, pasta, oats), veggies (such as potatoes, carrots, celery, sweet potato, onion), fruits (seasonal, such as apple, plum, banana), protein (rarely, such as nuggets, sausage, yogurt), sauces and seasoning, canned foods, and sanitary goods (soap, detergent, etc).
**Unimelb Food Relief Program.** There are two main programs: Frozen Food and Fresh Food. You can opt into the Frozen Food program and get up to 6 frozen meals weekly. Halal and vegetarian options are available (the logo is visible on the packaging). The menu may include butter chicken, minced meat, pasta, rice, and curry. You only need to reheat the food in the microwave for 4-6 minutes, and add some seasoning to your liking. For Fresh Food, you will get up to 5 kg of veggies and fruits, usually once a month. The veggies and fruits offered depend on availability, but they typically include potatoes, onions, and carrots.
Typical fresh food content.
Typical frozen food content, supplied by FareShare.
Participate in research as a participant. Be aware of this information. If you are selected, some research will give you an incentive for your participation. To find this information in Unimelb, log into your My Unimelb page and search for the My Latest Notices section. Click all notices, then filter them to Research. The incentive for participant diverse based on the complexity and duration of the experiment. Choose responsibly, and remember that your contribution to science and arts development should be your primary reason.
Credits to Sinan for this information.
Be aware of what happened on campus. Follow the UMSU Instagram or newsletter for potential events with freebies or free food. Follow your faculty or school to get the latest event information. There are a lot of events that will provide snacks or lunch for you. Bring a water bottle or cups, and a food container if you want to take it away for later consumption. Some events you can check: O-Week (orientation week), Welcome International Sponsored Students event, Induction, UMSU International Brekkie (every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), Welfare Brunch and Dinner, etc.
O Week freebies.
UMSU International Brekkie. Check their Instagram for menu update and ingredient list.
Hard Rubbish. Hard rubbish is large, and bulky items are too large to fit in a regular household bin. This includes furniture, whitegoods (fridges, washing machines), mattresses, and e-waste. People usually put their hard rubbish out for collection in front of their house. Surprisingly, sometimes the stuff still works! You can get some furniture or appliances for free by taking other people's hard rubbish. This is usually an acceptable practice in Melbourne. Keep your eyes on the housing area to find hard rubbish. I also recommend checking Facebook groups such as Hard Rubbish Melbourne, Hard Rubbish Rescue Merri-bek, and Brunswick Good Karma. They are active so that the good stuff might go quickly. Some people allow you to book an item, while others leave it on their home porch (first-come, first-served). An item with PPU means it is booked by someone (PPU = pending pick up).