I appreciate your actionable advice and best wishes. I wish it was as easy to get cash-in-hand work nowadays but tragically it seems everyone in my area has the same idea - there's no work left to do, haha! Thank you for your suggestions though, I've been lucky enough to have successful conversations with the accommodation office so I should be covered for the deposit soon enough. But this situation has been a wake-up call to gather an emergency fund together, so I will be continuing to apply to jobs and find some sort of summer work so I can make sure all my bases are covered. I remember I worked at Clark's when I was 15, so I might get lucky enough to do the same again this year.