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

It’s not clear from your posts OP if she is getting the full maintenance loan (either in full or topped up to the full amount by you) and then after accommodation costs she has £60/week or if she isn’t eligible for the full maintenance loan and you can’t top it up and she’s left with £60 a week. Halls have rocketed in price in the last 2 years. My DD paid £150/week for an en-suite room in a new block next to uni. DS is going next year and all halls start at c£200/week including in the city my DD is in. We paid DD’s rent (we still do) and she’s responsible for everything else out of her maintenance loan. She has about £100 a week in term time. She also worked from 16 and works every summer. Her course is too full on to work during term time although she does pick up ad hoc shifts at a big sports venue. She’s been able to do this because she has previous work experience. Students without any experience struggle to find work because it’s so competitive. With DS we will do the same which will cost us about £2k more a year than for DD because of the cost of halls. We are having to plan for this now. I buy her a food shop when I see her and I still pay her phone contract. I also might buy her new shoes or other expensive items if she needs them. Ultimately your DD needs a job now - thousands of teenagers manage this with no detriment to their exam results.

Is uni spending a particular “thing”? DS lives in a uni city but isn't at uni, he’s in a flat share and works f/t. Once his bills are paid, he has between £50-£80 to live on for food and going out, and manages; it’s not a luxury lifestyle with takeaways every night, but he eats and goes out.

If DD has a food budget, then combining with a room-mate and shopping together can make some things cheaper, eg a pack of four chicken breasts will be slightly cheaper than two packs of two, and larger packs of mince will be a bit cheaper too.

Hello, just about to take my son back to uni for year 2. A few things to think about. If she gets a job at uni, it may not be easy to turn on and off. I know my nephew works in supermarket (from year 2 and now going into final year) which is great, but does mean he lives there all year round. He earns around £1000 a month and does night shifts which may not be suitable for a girl so much (I know I would worry about my DD being out at night). You may find it is cheaper for her to do term time only rental and live at home and work in the holidays, depending on your local economy. At least for the first year if she can do the minimum rental term she will only need to be there 9-12 weeks a term (depending on the uni). This saves a lot.

My son works in Cineworld in the holidays starting from after A levels. They tend to be busy in the school holidays so it actually works quite well for students if she is able to come home then.

The kind of jobs that we find our friends' kids doing that pay well and they seem to enjoy include working in a gastropub (good tips), holiday clubs (prefer either to be sporty or first aid), school uniform shop (good summer job). Another friend's DD cleans Oxford college rooms in the holidays (she doesn't go there). If she is staying around the year the uni often rents out accommodation in the holidays and keen to have extra hands for the rapid turnaround of rooms in holidays.

I think you are sensible to put aside some settling in costs. I started to collect things for DS from Year 12 - so when I was doing my online shop and saw a good offer for say a pyrex dish, or a duvet, I would stick it in my basket and pay for it then. It meant by the time he went we had everything needed. All the youtubers posting about uni hauls etc is quite OTT, they definitely don't need all that stuff. Also good to factor in annual subs for a club or hobby or two - they won't be expensive but they will get a lot out of them. DS is currently in two societies and this year has taken on Officer roles, in which he is learning great skills (emailing people outside of uni, organising things etc).

If it helps on the food front, DS budgets £30 a week. He works out a lot and has food allergies so this includes a lot of protein and things like oat milk which are more expensive. We do a massive shop at the beginning of term. We give him £100 a week and it is plenty - he could manage on less if he had to.

Very good luck to you and her - it is daunting but she will rise to the challenge and grow immensely in confidence by working through this - far more than those who have everything handed on a plate. I employ a lot of grads from top unis and almost 100% the ones who have had to work do much better and progress better in the workplace so don't feel guilty at all.

I don’t think you are doing her any favours by not encouraging her to work for fun money. I have 2 currently at uni. Both worked and saved hard the summer before they went to uni so went away for £2k in reserves (my daughter also funded 3 trips away from her hard work and achieved top grades in her a levels). After rent is paid mine have a similar amount of spends your daughter has, plus I send them off with a larder full of stuff and toiletries etc. And if money tight and funds run low I send a supermarket voucher someone starve. I also fund travelling home and phones. The rest they work for. My daughter has just started her first year and her employer transferred her to uni town for work so as well as having £2k in reserves she earns approx £400 pm with no overtime just working a Saturday shift, she’ll
do extra though. My son is his final year works over the summer to build up a reserve and also has work in his uni town (zero hours contract in student union. Suits him as he can’t cope With working excessively when has deadlines) so can pick and choose when he works. They both manage to run a Car also. Have to learn that if you want extras have to work for them. Not have it all handed on a plate.

Absolutely not. In fact my son had to do a shopping planner for school based on eating healthily for a week on £35, and we just about scraped it, and that was on a very basic vegetarian diet. £25 for travel, books, clothes and socialising and sundries on top of that?! What about toiletries and hair care etc? No way.

To all those saying “just get a job”: it’s actually quite difficult to get a job at the moment.

My dd has just started uni but she had a gap year and found it very difficult to find a job in London. That has been the experience of many of her friends. She eventually found one through a family connection. It’s a brutal job market out there and also employers don’t particularly want students. Our experience is that employers want people who have maximum flexibility and are likely to stay in the job long term.

Are there any good universities in commuting distance, so that she could do e.g. two years away and the final year at home?

it’s not hard to get a job in a student city!! I had 3 at same time at one point! Her budget is manageable, if she wants more she needs to put the effort in and work! And work all summer / other holidays. I saved over £2000 each summer holiday, my loan didn’t cover my accommodation costs so I needed to help myself.

My DDs loans covered rent and left on average around £100 spare a month for food, toiletries, socialising etc. I sent them£200 a month (previous they got £100 pocket money plus an extra £100 as I was no longer feeding them/reduced bills etc)
They managed ok but also got jobs quite quickly. Costa, McDonald’s, kfc, Wetherspoon etc are usually taking on. She will be best to start looking for jobs immediately as jobs filling up quickly.

One of mine has just graduated, the other is there now - not in the south thank the gods of finance!

£75 was a doable budget for this year - although they don't drink but do socialise somewhat.

I’d say it’s very tight if it needs to cover course material, alongside food and travel.

Thats less than £10 a day. A bus return here is £5.

If she lives in a city where everything is walking distance it may be possible.

I would really encourage her to try and get a few hours somewhere. If she did four hours a week it would give her a bit of extra money but more importantly, she'll have the experience to make getting holiday work easier.

If she works the three months between a levels finishing and uni starting she should be able to save a couple of grand quite easily.

I'm sure a levels have changed a bit but I managed 25 hours a week while doing mine. I did every Saturday and Sunday and two nights a week in a shop. I used the time between lessons to do the additional work and time on buses etc to revise.

Work is incredibly difficult to find in some places. There aren’t summer jobs here. Work is not seasonal. There’s large numbers of dc wanting work! The other issue is transport to and from work. There are no buses here. In the towns, yes. It’s very challenging to find work now unless you know someone or it’s family.

£60 is pretty good to have left over after rent from her only her loan. Many people have loans thay don't even cover rent. Mist students work in the holidays or term time or both. Many have a gap year before uni to work and save up to help fund the full 3 years. She should be fine because £60 will at least feed her.

@Lex345 Can you save each month a bit for her?

Also, it may be tempting to buy physical things if you see them on offer but you don't want them all around your house for a year.

The biggest expense was bedding for us, the halls have small doubles but most buy double to be able to use them in shared houses and that wasn't what we have at home. So DD needed everything.

Kitchen was a bit easier, she raided our cupboards and the grandparents kitchen for things plus some additions you can get cheaply.

They don't use books anymore, course material will all be online but that means she will need a decent laptop.

I would encourage her to see if she can work this year, it gives her experience and saving.

As a single mum and student at uni back in the90s I had £70 a week to live on. We managed. Maybe beating in mind this was two people and the time difference it’s similar and she’ll be ok. Pasta, rice etc. she’ll be fine.

Monotony and pulses save a lot. (And the cheapest spirits, concealed in underwear on nights out.) I used to make Dahl and leave it on the stove top (no fridge/freezer space) and it was fine. My friend grew up with meat stews treated this way - the whole pot reheated, added to each night, as fridges weren’t a thing in her parents’ youth - they never got food poisoning, though this was a winter thing in a coldish house.

There are a lot of hypotheticals here. A lot of applicants start with a dream of an ensuite room in self catered halls in their first choice uni. Then when rooms are allocated they're given catered halls with shared bathrooms instead. Many unis don't have the scope to give everyone their 1st, 2nd or 3rd choice.

Second year house shares will be a 12 months, so may well cost more than a room in halls from Sept to June. There will also be bills, wifi, insurance etc to consider.

Will she get the full maintenance loan and will that have to cover her halls?

We are paying halls and our yp is living off the minimum maintenance loan.

I'm another poster that says without help that budget would generally just do the food then she'd spend that much again on other things if she's being careful. I would say that isn't too bad because she then only needs to earn book and fun money and earning £60 a week between summer holidays and part time campus job isn't too bad. There are also often different schemes she can tap into to save money. On a lot of courses the hours are not too bad at all in first year. It's probably about time she got some work experience for the future it will help when job hunting. If she and you can save for the intense final year with dissertation and more challenging exams she might be able to take a break from working then but she also might be in her stride

My dd worked all through her A levels and is taking a year out to keep working as much as she can to save. I hear so many parents talking about paying the full cost of their dc's accommodation, but there's no way I'd be able to do that.

If it's not in the last three years then it's totally unrealistic. Food has gone up so much, joining societies costs, socialising is expensive.

I don’t think it’s enough.
My DS is in Bristol, lots of bar experience, could not get a job last year or over the summer.
buses cost quite a bit so it will impact if she can walk to campus.
it’s hard if they miss out on socialising because they haven’t got money for a couple of drinks.
is there any way you can free up another £100 a month OP?

• extend mortgage term
• sell a car for cash then lease
• put some big items on 0% credit card and pay off when she’s finished uni
• ask family members to help - they could send supermarket vouchers etc?

@theriseandfallofFranklinSaint I’ve not seen many halls of residence that are so cheap that they match the minimum loan! Where is this? Most are around £5,500 and go sharply upwards to around £10,000 plus.

@Lex345 Might I suggest that you and DD look very closely at what halls are available. Start with ones operated by the university and swerve anything en suite. They are always expensive. From your info, she’s presumably got £2,500 left over after paying hall but that indicates the hall is around £8,000. There should be cheaper halls than that. She and you need to look much more closely at halls but I’m assuming this is not London. That would indicate the hall is £11,000. DDs tend to want mod cons and reality might dictate something else.

Work isn’t that easy to find. Weekend jobs might be available but students do want them. What about working now? Save up a bit before she goes?

Alm these stories of “my day” are pointless and boys spend less than girls. You should also decide what you will pay for to help out. Fares home, clothes, computer, phone, haircuts, sports clubs etc. However your main issue is cost of hall and she needs to look again and you need to guide her.

It will be tight. DS1 finished a year ago and DS2 has just gone.

Both got the minimum loan. We paid accommodation and did a big shop at the start of each term. DS1 had an ALDI near by and DS2 is organising an ASDA delivery to his flat (they may all chip in and get one big one).
Both batch cooked and used the plastic meal prep boxes so they could stack things in the fridge and freezer.

DS1 worked in the holidays and did online tutoring. DS2 won’t be able to work so easily but gets PIP. If your DD could earn enough to add another £20 pw to her budget she’d probably be ok.

We were comfortable enough that we could have given them more but didn’t want to rush in a solve everything and they both managed / are managing ok so far.