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

Totally agree. In my view some parents are out of order expecting their ‘D’C to live on less than prisoners get spent on their food.

Snacks! Are these really necessary? Or a marketing-person, generated essential indulgence, to keep up your energy levels?!. I started snacking during Covid. In addition to the usual cup of coffee, at home, I had a chocolate biscuit !

The idea that the standard student cooks all their veggie meals and doesn’t drink or socialise isn’t portraying the norm though. On another thread (the £40 a week one) a student eats noodles. Fun life that must be.

By the way, some people pay £40 a week to feed a dog.

Mine is the same- doesn’t eat meat and is eating really well for around £25 a week. Washing is £3.50 a load and as they don’t drink her £50 is enough for some treats. They’ve worked in the summer and saved a chunk of money but hasn’t used it yet!

@CornedBeef451 One student isn’t the majority though - but good luck! Often overpaying for en suite rooms in halls (dc don’t have them at home) leads to low weekly money after rent. A lot of university owned halls will be in excess of £9,000 in many cities: they are not all private. Location and cost of housing locally is a big issue. With careful planning dc can have enough money if they don’t over spend on halls with frills.

We did a big shop when we dropped dd off, and she’s now shopping for £25 a week. She’s vegetarian and doesn’t drink much, so that does help. We’re happy to give more, but she’s been meal planning and batch cooking and seems to enjoy the challenge 🤷‍♀️

A shift or two in a pub every week while at uni will both be good for her - will keep her from spending money that evening while still being social - and will earn a bit of cash. The shifts I used to do we would get a meal as well from the kitchen.

@OhDear111DD is hoping to go to Cardiff which is one of the most affordable cities for students. She will apply for the cheapest halls, which are slightly more than the minimum maintenance loan, but there is no guarantee she will get one of those.

There are threads on here about students ending up in private halls at £10k and parents struggling to find the rest so we’re preparing to have to cover a mid range one and hoping we don’t have to!

I joined a FB group recommended on this thread and one student got their 10th preference for accommodation at Cardiff so it sounds like it depends on luck as to how much you end up paying.

@CornedBeef451 Why cannot DD look for cheaper accommodation? The rent the op is looking at isn’t the lowest! Choose a uni with lower prices and money goes further. No one ever suggests this but it’s the easiest solution. The money is there but it’s being spent on higher priced halls. There’s no need for this.

Work is getting more and more difficult to get. We live rurally. Very little work here for teens and no buses either. City people have all the options. In small towns, it’s who you know!

They just have to work really. DD worked since 15, she supplements her student budget with tutoring and working in a cafe. When she’s home she works in the pub. She was lucky enough to get a paid internship over the summer but those are difficult to come by. All her work experience was really valued by her intern placement and she’s been offered a grad job. It’s amazing how many young people graduate without any work experience.

This is absolutely fair.
welcome to adult hood , it’s tough out there will all be worth it in the end tho.
That and value tinned Toms on toast - we all survived.

She will just have to do what many students do, get a part-time job.

In Scotland students receive their loans monthly (the first is a double payment) and can also choose to receive their loans over the full 12 months rather than just the academic year. This really helps with budgeting. I can imagine a lot of students in England could go a bit mad the first couple of weeks and leave themselves not a lot to live on for the rest of term.
I think it's also important to recognise that there are upfront costs like flat deposits if not in halls or halls asking for rent in advance before loan payments are received. My ds moved into a new flat in the summer. He had to pay roughly £2000 (fees, deposit plus 1st months rent) before he got the keys. This can wipe out the majority of a students savings unless the parents can afford to pay it (luckily we could). Also in my experience students rarely get their full deposit back so we accept that money is gone - just another parental contribution.
They will also need a guarantor for their rent which is something for parents to think about when deciding how much allowance you can afford. I have heard of parents being forced to pay their children's rent in halls when their children defaulted or even dropped out. This will probably be over £800 a month.
When our children all left home to go to uni I continued to buy the same amount of their favourite cupboard food and batch cooked the same amount of curry etc for the first year or so, so that when they came home for a visit they could raid the cupboards / freezer.
On a positive note, your electricity bill will really fall.

I meant to say, if £60 a week is what you can spare then that’s what they can have!

It would be lovely if we were all rich enough to pay for everything and for the DCs to not have to go into debt but that’s not real life.

All you can do is make it clear what you can pay and then your DC can decide what to do. I don’t feel any need to provide DD with “fun” money, if she wants fun that costs money then she’ll have to earn it!

This has been very helpful for me so thanks for all the suggestions.

We will need to top up DD’s accommodation costs so guessing about £1k per term for 3 years which we have saved.

We’re also planning on giving her £200 a month from our normal monthly budget, probably all year rather than just in term time. (She currently gets £50 a month pocket money so the £200 is that plus her quarter of our normal grocery budget.)

I’m planning on sending her with a big shop of staples each term/ visit, and I will buy her a prescription prepayment certificate, pay for glasses if she needs them, and continue to pay for her phone. I will probably also pay for travel home and she will get random amounts from various relatives so I think she’ll be ok. She is already very frugal, doesn’t drink and is tiny so doesn’t eat nearly as much as giant DS will when it’s his turn.

DD has been trying to get a job for ages and hopefully starts waitressing in a few weeks. She is hoping to work in term time, but if she can’t manage it due to various health issues then she will just work in the holidays.

I am hoping this all works out as we also need to save for when DS goes to uni 3 years later.

Well yes, student life is frugal and you have to tighten your belt, especially if you're not willing to get a job.

£60 is enough to cover food and a modest social life. She might need help with buying books at the start of term.

It's unlikely she actually needs clothes, the chances are she has plenty already. Students are supposed to be scruffy anyway.

The 2k in savings divided into the weeks away should give another 40 or 50 per week.
Then she needs to work in the summer holidays to save for next year .

£60 is still plenty imho. I think my dd is currently spending about £30-35 atm on her weekly groceries. Thats leaving plenty for extras.

We agreed on £60 per week because that was the amount suggested by most other parents of kiddos at uni.......... on a MN thread about a month ago!

It wont be enough Im sure if wanting to buy expensive hair/beauty/make up products. Fancy clothes, Brand name stuff. - but as someone said to me when I was a student in the 90s............"dont be buying Heinz ketchup as a student unless you really really want it. The cheapo stuff will do fine"

It can’t possibly have been given the cost of food these days!

How long ago?

@SleepyHollowed84Our nearest university is in the bottom 10% in league tables and didn’t do DDs subject. No bus route. Next nearest is Oxford! What should be do? No transport there either! Oxford Brookes doesn’t do her subject either.

No, the £60 would be for all expenses - not just food.

Get your DD to join sites like "feed yourself for £1/day" may get ideas how to live cheaply plus can pass tips onto other students to help them out, the site is on Facebook.

Why would £60 not be enough for food? My weekly spend on me and another adult is £80 maximum.

Dd is away at uni on a budget of £60 for weekly essentials (food, snacks out, toiletries). Shes got extra money for things like clothes, shoes, extras she needs for her course.

My DD just started uni earlier this month and we give her £50 a week and it's working out fine. She is in halls so all her bills are paid for and we pay her phone separately. The £50 is mainly for food, the launderette and bits and bobs. She pays for her own socialising and new clothes after working 3 jobs all summer. I pay for her train ticket on top of that when she wants to come home. She is coming home every 3rd weekend and working to top up her going out fund!