How much money do students need?

[bevelino]

Eldest dd will be going to uni this year and has chosen catered accommodation. Tuition fees and accommodation costs aside, how much extra cash will she need to live on?

A friend gives her Dd £250 per month, another gives £500, and another gives nothing and says they expect dc to get a job. Dd is unable to work as uni frown upon students working during term time. I have to budget for 4 dd's (triplets) at uni at the same time and this is a serious issue/question.

[Katymac]

DD gets £10 a week from her G'ma & saved enough for £10 a week from her summer job - so £20 spending money (plus £25 food money from us)

[bevelino]

Thank you Katymac.

[mrsmeerkat]

Do parents really pay accomodation and give an additional 250 .. faints

[Buttercupsandaisies]

They just have to work! Doesn't matter what the uni think - almost every student I know works even if it's a day/evening or two

[JennyOnAPlate]

I have a feeling this thread is going to scare me. My parents paid my tuition fees (admittedly only 1k per year) but I had to pay all my accommodation and living expenses.

[AndNowItsSeven]

No most students don't work, not in my experience. They should work in the summer and save that though. We have budgeted for £60 a week.

[FishWithABicycle]

Fees accommodation and food all covered so what's left:
Text books (sometimes 2nd hand or library OK but sometimes only new will do)
Occasional social nights out
Clothes
Snacks and drinks for between meals, if needed
Cost of running a phone?
membership subscriptions for student societies
Any costs associated with sporting activities

It's obviously a "how long is a bit of string" question so you have to consider what level if luxury you are prepared to subsidise for these things.

[elephantoverthehill]

My Ds is just finishing his first year. He knows I don't really have very much money. I have only had to sub him on a couple of occasions.

[AndNowItsSeven]

The £60 was for everything including food.

[BennyTheBall]

I was expecting to top ds up by about £250 a month, but I keep hearing other people say it's £500.

[Buttercupsandaisies]

Really not working? Maybe they've come from families who e never had too then. I know loads of students (Dh is a landlord)and most I know work- bars, shops etc. I worked 6-1am 3 nights per week in fast food as a student plus holidays. As you don't pay tax as student I averaged £100/wk. I do think many are too proud to do such work these days but up north such temporary jobs near me are plentiful if people can be motivated. Not all courses are 9-5.

Having said that I think the whole culture has changed over the years, with kids maturing later (or mummies for longer). I'm 37 and everyone iknow had Saturday job by 15- such things are not encouraged now which is a shame imo

[georgetteheyersbonnet]

buttercups I teach at a uni which specifically bans students from working during term-time. Not only would they face penalties if it was discovered they were doing so, they definitely would not be able to keep up with the demands of the course.

[superherostrawberry]

I've assumed from 'university frowning upon part-time job' you mean your DD is heading to Oxford or Cambridge?
If so, this is correct. I went, and yes, with only 8 weeks per term, it is not really OK to be working during this time, it doesn't matter what 'normal' students do or don't do, it's a v different environment. It's intensive learning and studying - it should be more hours than a full time job. My college would call you in for a word if they discovered you had a job. They would rather loan you money than have you take a term time job. The holiday periods are long (6 weeks at Christmas and Easter and 14-17 weeks in summer, so this is when the students can earn money)

However, for first year, you haven't just spent the summer earning £3k, so yes, she will need you to supplement her income for first year..
I went 10 years ago, and my parents supplemented me probably £200-300 a month (so twice a term, as the term was only 8 weeks long)
This was about enough to just about get by/have a social life and get involved in what my new friends were doing.
10 years later, I'd have thought £350 a month/£700 for the term would be appropriate (just)
To include:

• sports and societies, subs/fees and kit
  
• gym membership
  
• a couple of nights out in the student bars/society socials/crew dates for sports
  
• christmas and summer ball tickets (around £140 per ticket)
  
• text books / study equipment
  
• clothing / shoes
  
• travel
  
• coffees with friends
  
• cinema/leisure
  
• phone/internet
  
• launderette/laundry card for college at £20 per top up
  
• snacks and drinks for in her room/in halls/during all night essay deadlines
  

£700 seems quite conservative actually thinking about it... for Ox and Cambridge anyway, they're expensive cities...

[Buttercupsandaisies]

Shocked a uni would ban working - how awful - it must totally exclude poorer families

[superherostrawberry]

Not sure about other universities, but at Oxford it is necessary. There simply isn't enough time to pass and work - they spell it out for students like this, simply so that they don't fail. As mentioned, the terms are short and the holidays long, so we used to work through the holidays to ensure our term times were for academia (alongside all our holiday assignments and revision that is). Not that different really in terms of £££ earned over a 12 month period, but the first year is tricky as you haven't had a chance to build that up ahead of term.

All students have the opportunity to have their parents' income means assessed for grants that don't have to be repaid, if they are coming from a low-income household. Most colleges will also offer small loans to tide students over during that 8 week term so that they don't resort to working during that time.

[superherostrawberry]

Also, there are prizes and scholarships on offer at the end of first year for those with top marks - some quite valuable cash amounts if I remember correctly

[elephantoverthehill]

Gosh! No wonder the impoverished don't get to University as a given.
*- sports and societies, subs/fees and kit

• gym membership
  
• a couple of nights out in the student bars/society socials/crew dates for sports
  
• christmas and summer ball tickets (around £140 per ticket)*
  

I thought students went to university to study.

[MadameJosephine]

My DS is managing just fine on a budget of £60 a week in central London. His uni also discourages jobs and to be honest with his workload he wouldn't have time as he is doing joint honours and has to do 75% of the single honours curriculum of each of his 2 subjects. I am a single parent and not well off but thankfully the uni also has a very generous bursary system in place for any students with a household income below £60000 (on a sliding scale, I believe the maximum is £6000pa) so I haven't had to top his income up at all

[MadameJosephine]

Sorry should have said that £60 budget includes food but not rent (which his loan/grant just about covers)

[AndNowItsSeven]

I think they have scrapped grants for low income families and its loans now. They are still are good option though if you view them as a " graduate tax".

[Sistersweet]

Interesting racing. In the mid 90's I recall my dad giving me £400 a month. Rent was £140 and I had £240 spending money. We've just started thinking what we would need to be thinking about when eldest were working on about £1k a month.

[Buttercupsandaisies]

Do be careful with loans - I was one of 120 from one uni who graduated with a science degree. I got a first and still started on 14k!!!! My neighbour graduated from Oxford last year and is still working in a shop in town having got a first BA degree. Graduate jobs are very competitive and imp, except maybe London, the money isn't there. There are many disillusioned people graduating. Honestly I'll be encouraging my kids to only go to uni were they come out qualified to start work - by choosing to study for a career not a subject. The average debt is crazy now they'll paying it off forever.

[Sistersweet]

That figure of £1k would obviously include rent and bills but not fees. If in halls we would cover the Accomodation and then give a weekly amount prob £100 a week I guess

[BackforGood]

My ds's loan pays for his accommodation (I think it leaves him about £50 spare over the year.
We then give him £35 pw from Sept to end of May.
He is not in catered accommodation - that covers all his food, etc. that he needs to buy and some spending money.

I asked both my nieces, before he went (1 yr ahead and 2 yrs ahead at University in different places), and both, independently said they spend £20 or less on groceries in a week - 1 niece did say the lads in her house do tend to eat more than her. Ds is coming up to end of his 2nd yr now and is managing.
He has always worked in the holidays but hasn't managed to get a job where he is a university.

[Emz449]

My parents paid my accommodation fees and I worked during the holidays and made do with that and my maintenance grant. It was more then enough especially as I could earn about 2-3 grand during the summer holidays