To think £60 a week to live on will be a struggle for DD at uni?

This is totally possible- if she wants it to work, it will. If she’s a little bit takes money for granted as she thinks she can just fall back on you, it won’t.

as pp’s have said- if she’s a little can get a job now, even just a Saturday shift at a chain retailer/ supermarket, there’s a high chance they would relocate her to near Uni. So she can start saving now and will have some income when she’s there.

You could start buying the odd thing for her (towels, a pan/ bedding) here and there to build up beforehand so you’re not buying everything at once.

re clothes- no she won’t be able to just go clothes shopping when she’s there fancies, it’s a luxury/ treat really. Being a student is when you start appreciating new socks, pyjamas, hoodies etc for birthdays and Christmas!

I expect those free food apps are an amazing resource for students

Does he have his own fridge if not good luck with no other students eating some of that chicken during the week?

Agreed. That's always been the way though. Not particularly nice and I do feel sorry for boys as in my experience they need a lot more food than I ever did in the 90s as students. I happily lived off taramasalata and crisps..

My son has just started uni. I've suggested he roasts a chicken each week and lives off that so at least he gets decent protein and they are pretty cheap.

It was laundry my DC found expensive.

I think it's also helpful to pump prime the first few weeks. So if you or she have any cash, make sure there's enough locked away somehow to pay ongoing things like rent till the next student loan comes in, then accept she'll probably overspend initially. She'll want to be able to go out and get to know people in the first weeks and it's nice if she isn't turning down absolutely everything because she can't afford it. A few weeks in she'll have friends and it'll be easier to knuckle down to day to day scrimping. So if you're able to contribute anything, I'd give her some going out and having fun money for the first month, so she doesn't end up blowing all her savings and then running into trouble.

Does she get the full loan? If not, you are expected to top up to that level of funding. This never seems to be explained to parents.

Unfortunately she may have to come to the realisation that her costs are too much and she needs to rethink her plans.

When I went to university I quickly realised that I couldn't afford to live away from home and I would need a job. Sometimes a reality check is the most important thing. As it was, I still couldn't afford to go straight to university and so took a year out, got a job, and saved as much as I could.

It might not be ideal, but it would be doable, if all her rent and bills and already paid.

She may be able to find occasional work on campus - our flat volunteered to be a show flat for open days for example, and we earned £80 each for each open day. There were 6 scattered through the year.

Obviously ideally she will get a job while she's at uni, but I do understand why that's often not ideal, and it does take away from social aspects.

She needs to save up some money before she goes, and make sure she goes with a really good stash of long-dated foods, like pasta, rice, tins.

Students don't often eat like kings. They live on pasta, instant noodles and the like. But it's character building, and cheap.

Her options really are: work, or make do.

We paid rent, then the DC’s lived off their basic student loan and any money they had saved from summer jobs etc. One is still at uni in the final year. If they have a student bank account they get a free overdraft. We paid for their trains home.

Out of £60 in halls they need food, socialising money, maybe travel. Possibly textbooks, but that’s mostly online now unless maybe doing English.

Most students shop in Aldi or Lidl so cheaper, but I’d say that’d be at least £30pw so it’ll be tight.

This, they could club together and save on food costs? They just need one big slow cooker that could be prepped in the morning and put on, and then it'll be ready when they come back after lectures.

What uni is it? And are there any transport costs that are unavoidable? YP in Scotland get a free bus pass, I think DC had a friend at Southampton that did too, but Bath for example, the cost of the bus to and from campus was iirc over £2 per journey so there and back 5 days a week is a big chunk of your weekly budget. Walking down the hill home in the summer is ok, but up the hill is not for the faint hearted! Not an issue in yr 1 if you’re not on campus, but from yr 2 onwards you need to take that into account.

If you can say what the uni is there’ll probably be lots of posters here that will have lots of inside knowledge / advice

After my contribution, DD had about £30 pw in first years (catered halls) and about £45 pw in other accommodation (now in final year). She had a hospitality job before she left, so saved up about £2k to take with her, and now works there every summer, Christmas and Easter when she comes home for a bit. That gives her enough to survive on and means she doesn't have to work during the term time. I do a big shop for her every time I take her back that keeps her going for a couple of weeks, plus helps her stock up on store cupboard stuff. She also uses an online bank account that lets her put money in different pots so she can budget.

So it's tight, but doable. And she's observed where others struggle, and learns from it. Plus she says things like, 'I wish I'd saved everything from before I went to uni, I had no idea everything was so expensive!' and I nod sagely and restrain myself from yelling, 'I told you so!!'. So we've both learnt a bit of valuable restraint :) I think it's been absolutely worth it for the experience for her.

I think Aldi beans have gone up. I used to be able to get 4 for £1. Think that was around 2020/covid

think they are more like 40p + a tin now

but yes I get your point jacket beans cheese

or mince for £3 and spaghetti

can make cheap meals for 2/3 days

She will have to work! I’m 36 at uni with a mortgage and children and don’t have the option not to work! It can be done. I’m on an intensive course with months of placements M-F but I work Friday and Saturday nights in a pub until 2AM (that was very easy to come by as no one wants to work those antisocial hours) and a retail shift either on a Saturday or Sunday during the day. It’s knackering and I have no social life as I also have children to care for but there are plenty of work options out there if you look hard enough.

If she wants her independence, she needs to get a job!

Saturday jobs don’t really exist as such. If you look at job adverts they mostly all say 8/16/20 hours per week flexible over several days.

In 2022-23, DS at Midlands Uni managed on < £30/week for food, self-catering. He chose not to have a social life. £60 sounds to me tight but not impossible.

Get a job now weekend and holidays. All mine had to. Youngest earned 3k in the summer and 1k at Christmas when he came home. He was able to find work at university but just did shifts around his lectures.

He's doing his masters now his employer is happy for him to do two days a week.

Occasionally he'll message for some money for food, rent. But he and girlfriend manage to live frugally. Nine months to go and he's free.

Surely a job is an option. I worked all the way through uni. I worked on saturdays in a lettings agency and also at a bar a few evenings a week. I know some courses are more in person hours than others but a job is a great idea. Employers like people who have some experience in work, you get people and business skills even working in a bar. If you are working you arent spending and you meet intetesting people. Even a saturday job would top her up quite a bit.

It's going to be very tight but doable. Hopefully she will be able to supplement it with some part time work, either during the terms or in her holidays - or both.

I used to send DD an occasional Tesco delivery, made up of cheap basics plus a couple of treats.

I think the bigger issue here is that she can't manage her A-levels whilst working, uni is considerably harder and will require a much stronger work ethic and she will need a job too. £60 isn't going to be enough. My fear would be that she isn't really aware of the reality of uni life, especially living away from home. I would recommend she gets a job asap so she starts to learn the balancing act

I've asked this and OP won't explain only that the £60 includes what her parents (presumably two, as she's says 'we' ) give her.

That makes little sense to me, so either OP hasn't understood the loans' system or she is deciding not to fulfil the parental contribution.

@Lex345 How much are you and her dad going to contribute weekly to get this to £60?

I had a very good social life at uni

You also need to consider quality of life. There is surviving and then there is actually enjoying the experience. You don’t want her sat in every night with a pot noodle while all her friends are out socialising