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

I had £50 a week in 1998, plus separate contributions from my Mum for books.

My daughter did it but she was naturally frugal, tee total and veggie. She could usually walk to campus. We did cover phone and contacts. If you dd wants to drink on nights out, she’ll need to supplement it

We just dropped DD at uni.

We pay the room and her phone. She then gets £80/week to live and socialise on.
December will be the time we reevaluate if that is enough.

She worked during the summer so she has a bit of a nest egg and she got some money from the grandparents "for fun things". That should stretch her for clothing and going out if the money from us is not enough.

We as a familiy decided that she not applies for a maintenance loan, it would be minimum anyway so us paying the rent was already planned. We then looked at our outgoings and with some things not payable anymore (hobbies, an insurance and pocket money) we decided to fund her the first year and see how it goes.
I personally just couldn't justify it to myself to get her take out the loan and have debt when I have the means to pay.

She does have the tuition fee loan though.

She has ASD/ADHD so working while studying won't be possible that easily.

We started off with £75 a week and it crept up to £100 a week. My son also managed to pick up tutoring work as well. Initially my son was using his savings money as it wasn’t enough so we increased.

This! Even locals are struggling. Supermarket work is disappearing and some places are swamped by students. They can’t miss lectures.

@Lex345 you are correct. £60 a week will be a tadge tight. It’s doable but not easy. Given she’s £2k savings she can use that for societies, gym membership etc and maybe as an emergency fund.
DD started freshers with a fair bit saved up so could afford to join the societies. She then had £75 a week, which we funded. It’s an expensive city. She got herself a job by Feb in the uni city but did apply to a lot, it wasn’t easy. Plus the shifts could be hit and miss, with no guarantee of hours / income so we didn’t reduce the £75. There happens to be the same shop here so transferred to home town during holidays, with lots of shifts. This helped enormously.

Just had to pay £400 for my son’s student bus ticket for the year.

Easier said than done. A lot of employers do not want students because they are likely to want to return home for holidays when they are busier. This plus the numbers of students in a uni town all vying for the same type of work. It is really difficult.

My DS has all bills included so like your DD. He gets £300 a month for everything else except his phone and Spotify (we still pay those). He manages fine within it, but he lives very centrally so he can walk everywhere and he doesn’t drink. We also do a big shop and fill his cupboards at the start of the year and bull buy toiletries, cleaning stuff etc so it really is just food he needs to buy. He’s not remotely interested in clothes but we buy him new pants and socks from time to time!

OP,
how long ago was that because its 2025 now......

No they do not provide laundry free, it’s extortionate what is charged .

I think £60 a week university term time is doable assuming where your dd is living is relatively close to the university and there aren’t massive travel expenses involved.

I used to eat pasta and tinned things sauce, jacket potatoes and beans, pizza, cheese and bean toasties, noodles and generally a lot of toast when I was a student. Those things can still be made cheap and cheerfully and you could start buying tins and packets as part of the shop now so your dd can take them with her. Clothes and toiletries can be bought mainly as birthday and Xmas presents. Which should leave enough for at least a very cheap night out a week. We used to drink a bottle of cheap wine each before we went out back in the day and we only went to cheap student nights anyway 😁

Particularly when you have to have a family income under £25k to get the full loans. The minimum loans don’t even cover accomodation and it needs to be topped up by parents who also have to pay for any other living expenses whilst paying their own mortgages and increased costs which are ever rising.

Yet again it’s the squeezed middle who will be miss out the most.

She’ll neeed to find a part time job to top up her money.

My dd has taken a year out and saved 10k and will continue to work when she’s at uni.

I had £50 a week to live on in the early 2000s so I think £60 a week now will be very tight if she’s not topping it up.

First year should be cheaper as most halls provide the laundry for free, all bills included and there was free bus travel.

Mine really struggled to find a job first year (despite working part time since he was 16). He does lots of odd jobs, building site work etc when he’s home over the holidays. It looks like he’s got something now but it seems to be a lot harder to get something at the moment (not even Deliveroo).

I hate to say it, but when my DCs were at uni around 15 years ago, we paid them a living allowance per term, OR paid their rent in halls.
Many parents factor this into their own work/ savings, years ahead.
We had 2 at uni at the same time and were paying £700 a month in total towards their housing and living costs.

There was a deficit between their loans and what they needed to live on. IME most parents have to contribute something.

They had holiday jobs (at the end of terms) which meant they had a nest egg to fall back on.

I don't think £60 a week is doable because even if she only spent £5 a day on food, that's £35 a week so very little left for anything else like books, fares, clothes, going out.

Her only option is a p/t job.

Buy a bus ticket. Much cheaper than rail travel.

There are next to none now particularly if you don’t want to miss lectures.

My DS graduated in 2021 and had £35 a week to live on after his accom costs. Most of this went on food. I feel bad that he wasn't really about to afford nights out and socially I know he did suffer.

He studied nursing and was required to do shifts on placement so additional work wasn't really an option. Even though he did join the bank and was promised shifts in reality these went to the HCAs.

The cost of living crisis has pushed food costs up even more since then. I think that uni education is going to become a luxury that few can afford soon.

My son receives the lowest maintenance loan which just about covers his halls but we top that up to pay it off each term. We then give him £100 a week to live on (food shop, travel, socialising, etc.)

This is what all our friends do as all the kids receive the lowest maintenance loan so the parents top it up.

Does that include the “suggested” parental contribution? Max loan is £10544-4915(min loan)=5629 we are expected to pay for DS. Accommodation is around £5500 for 40 weeks going him £125 per week to live off. For the average family it’s going to be tough but we chose to have kids so it’s a cost we have to pay.

Being a student was the only time I embraced being a vegetarian. I also worked and unless she is doing a very hard course with really high contact hours then she needs to work. I know people bang on about affording socialising but ultimately it’s about the degree.

What about looking into work at children’s holiday clubs? They always seem to be mainly staffed by uni age people. That way she could just work in the holidays and not have to juggle uni work and work work?

I have £70 a week and I have 2 kids a house and a car to run . I’m sure she’ll be able to survive in that . I was better off when I was a student I worked with a care agency and got a discount in my council tax. I was a mature student with a mortgage to pay

That's exactly how much I had to spend per week after rent and bills, but twenty years ago.

Obviously food and transport has gone up, but this 'course materials' is a bit of a myth. I didn't buy anything, I went to lectures and listened and used the library.

I also didn't need new clothes as I took that ones I had and there isn't really time for shopping sprees and expensive lunches.