The truth about China 2012

Basically, the ugly truth is that I don't have the funds, the money, the moolah, the greenback, the silver dollars, to exist in China for a full year. I'm going to be living and studying in Shanghai- as for which institution... I'm not quite sure. Maybe I should actually look into that. That would be a good, sound, logical idea.

Anyway, I racked my brain yesterday night to see if there was anyway possible way to rort me if I put the amount of money that was currently in my savings account online. I figure that if I just put the amount and not my bank account number, actual name, financial institution my account is held at... so on and so forth, I should be safe. Now, I'm just going to put my client number and password for online banking below.
NOT.

Here's my projected expenses for 2012:

Accomodation: 60 RMB per day with an 800RMB deposit which will be refunded on checking out. There's also electricity, which I'm not too sure about... I'm also just using figures from an institution, but I'm not sure if it's from the one that I'm actually going to be at. But yes, it figures out to 22700 RMB (which, according to the Universal Currency Convertor (http://www.xe.com/) converts to AU$3292.52 at this point in time)

Food: I've been Googling, and because I'm tired I haven't been bothered to properly research (you know, where you look at various sites, compare the information each gives you before synthesising it into an averaged figure like any smart traveller would do), I've relied on the Lonely Planet website (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/practical-information/money-costs). I'm not sure when this was created and updated, but I trust Lonely Planet, not only because it's funky and targeted at the youthful and/or indie demographic, but because it seems to have its information set out in a no nonsense fashion.

So, according to Lonely Planet, "[f]ood costs remain reasonable throughout China. In the cheaper western provinces you can eat for under Y25 per day; in the more expensive regions, figure on at least Y40 to Y70 per day. " I'm going to live on the high end, so I'm using 70RMB (has it changed from Y to RMB?) to calculate my ultimate cost, which seems to come to 25550 RMB (=AU$3704.85) ?!
OK... so apparently food is going to cost more than accomodation.

Utilities: I'm not sure how electricity will be worked out with the university, but I'm just going to put a big fat question mark next to this one. ? <-- There.

Travel insurance and airfares are going to be paid for, thank god. Um... I guess next is spending money?

Whimsical spending: Or money in case I get into a medical emergency or something not quite as fun as splurging on cute items, or items of fake brandwear. I'm just putting it at AU$5000. Why? Just because it sounds like something that will protect me like a warm puffy jacket when things go down the drain.

Total projected expenses (in AUD): $11987.3. Just for the hell of it, I'm going to bump it up to $12000.

And now comes the awful, inconvenient truth (that isn't related to global warming or Al Gore's revived career as a 'climate change is for real' advocate). The amount I have currently in my savings account is $4,977.14.

Just $7022.86 to go.

Yep. I'm going to go have a cry now, haunted by ghosts of payslips past. Why didn't I save? My answer is another question: why do people make nice things to sell in shops?