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

OP, for example, a simple spaghetti and meatballs can be done for under £5 and will stretch to four meals (prices from Aldi):

Everyday essentials spaghetti (500g) - £0.28
Chopped tomatoes - £0.45
Tomato puree - £0.59
British meatballs - £2.99
3 x onions - £0.69 (£0.23 each)
Garlic - £0.37

If you stock her up with the cupboard essentials (salt, pepper, herbs, spices, oil, etc.), she'll be in a better place.

A baking potato at Aldi is £0.24. A tin of beans is £0.27. That's a meal for £0.51. 400g of cheddar is £2.79, so that's £0.22 per portion. You can get a pack of bacon (which freezes well!) for £1.45. So say she uses 1/10 rashers, she can make loaded baked potato skins for just over £1, and she then has the cheese and bacon for other things.

It really is doable, if you put in some legwork now to get her a good foundation.

Tesco in my area are advertising "winter work" with shifts that will suit "everyone".

Aldi also advertising generally.

Everything is easier if you save in advance. Also, have a look at an app called You Need a Budget (YNAB). Get her into good habits early.

And remember, you are supposed to be skint at uni.

Lots of folk speak from their privileged bubbles on MN, sadly. I believe you. Prices have gone up a lot since 2020 though.

She needs to get used to working alongside studying - it's what every other student who isn't bankrolled by wealthy parents has to do. Lots of DS friends are working a year out and will also have side jobs at Uni. It's normal. Even 5 or 10 hours a week would help.

Costs have risen so much now that £25 a week to live on is really not doable. Food, laundry costs, travel costs - all essential before costs for socialising.

Course materials are pretty much irrelevant now as so much material is available online or in the library.

she probably needs double that amount

£120? Nonsense!

OP - if she doesn't already know, teach her to cook simple, tasty, nutritious dishes and how to meal plan for them. Are her halls in walking distance from classes? That'll save on transport - I've never known DD to walk as much as she has since she started uni!

DD and her friends tend to "pre" together in their rooms then they don't spend much on drinks when they go out for the evening.

Remember she'll be home for several weeks at Christmas and Easter and term ends pretty earlier at many universities. And the £2000 will help a lot if you teach her how to budget.

Okay, so don't believe me.

I was at uni from 2017-2020. I got the minimum student loan because my parents refused to provide their financial details because they didn't see why they had to. I worked through all winter breaks (I had two jobs in the summer breaks!) to save up for the year. After my rent (I was in Bath, which was the most expensive place outside of London at the time), I was left with £25 per week, all from my savings. I made it work.

I'm interested in actually helping the OP. Clearly you're not.

My DD finished uni recently.

most course materials are online. You can “check out” books online from the library.

my only concern would be do they have/do they need a computer?

second hand textbooks are usually available for the stuff that is not online.

neither my DD nor my DS drank and clubbing and drinking culture is not what it used to be. Both got on fine and found lots of friends.

Of course it wasn't.

It is a typical rude MN post where someone posts as they get a kick out of making people feel bad.

£8.57 a day to cover everything.

It will be isolating as she won't be able to afford to do anything - even a night out drinking water will be a stretch -they night bus from DD campus is £3.

It is wrong and it will soon be only the wealthy attending.

She does however have a whole long summer- she needs to work as much as possible - ideally looking for a national company with the option to transfer at Uni

She needs to get a PT job now, and work the summer, to save up.
DD worked at Next and transferred her job to the Uni city.

She’ll need a job. If she gets one now at McDonalds or Miller & Carter, she may be able to transfer her job to wherever she is at Uni.

I increased the grocery money to £60pw towards the end of last term, for my eldest. From £50pw. He sends a photo of the grocery receipt, the food is very basic, light on actual meat, no branded stuff, lots of pasta, rice, eggs etc but just not enough of it (6’2” male). I also pay a small amount on a Monday to cover any transport or non grocery items for the rest of the week (not a first year student).

I don't believe this. 20 years ago I had a £10 a week food budget as a student and always ended up going over by about two pounds. I didn't eat any cheese (faaaar too expensive) had about one piece of chicken a week, ate 28p a loaf sliced white bread etc. That would leave less than £15 a week to cover any socialising (which students need to do to have any sort of a life, even if it's buying a soda and lime at a pub), books, clothes (everyone needs new shoes now and again) and crucially train travel home. Even if you do things like buy a Railcard, that would wipe out your extra £15 for two weeks and that's before you buy the ticket.

Would she be planning to get a job while at Uni? When I went (which admittedly a while ago) pretty much everyone had a job,I used to work 6pm till 10pm every evening in a call centre so 20hrs a week on about £10 an hour which gave me the better part of £200 a week.

I was at uni 2017-2020.

I used to do a food shop in Aldi or Lidl. My parents would send me back each half term with a big cupboard essentials food shop - tinned goods and pasta, freezer food, etc.

Teach her to meal prep on a budget now. You can make a good bolognese for about £6 and it’ll do a week of meals. Even better if she’ll go veggie, it’ll be cheaper. If she has family that want to give her gifts, ask them to do a gift card to a supermarket. Pick a meal each week and see how cheap you can do it, while still having nutritional value. Make sure she’s happy to make her own lunches and take them up to campus with her, make sure she can do cheap breakfasts, and will take coffee etc. in a cup with her. It’s all of those things that add up.

If you’re willing to gift her, get her a supermarket delivery pass. She can do a big food shop and have it delivered, and get all of her tinned goods to her (make sure she has a suitcase to take it back up to her room!). If you have the funds available (or if she works), suggest to her that she does a trial run for a period of time - she does her own food shopping, pays for transport as it would be at uni, etc.

My parents would gift me my bus pass each year for my birthday, so that took off some of the pressure as well. You’re in a good position wherein you have a year to help her prep, and to see if this is a realistic option.

It's tight. If she's a decent cook, and plans meals, she will cover food for that amount, but travel, societies, etc are a lot. Also, it's pretty important that she does the whole socialising thing, especially at the beginning. A lot of that is built around booze, and even if she doesn't drink, going to clubs and being out is £££.

Uni costs are tough.
£60 a week, after all bills paid, is doable but there will be very little to work with.

To be honest though - lots of students don’t even have £60 a week without money from parents and/or a job,

the minimum maintenance loan (outside London) is about £4,500 at the moment. Rent needs to come out of that - my daughter’s is £648 a month this year.

have you looked at the figures/halls costs where your daughter is aiming for?

How long ago was that?

My dd has £38 pw to live off after rent and the full loan. Halls are madly expensive and pricing out students from poorer backgrounds by making it unaffordable

£60 a week might cover going out, if she's anything like I was age 18!

It's tricky..if that's what she's got to live on then that's what she's got. Good not to come of of uni in huge debt as far as possible. I echo what PP have said about working in the hols if there's work to be had near you? Not guaranteed these days. It's hard. I think it will become harder for many children to go to university as part time jobs won't be available as much as they used to be.

For food that will be plenty but it would be a real stretch to cover other things as well. Even things like using the laundrette, course materials, phone contract/sim etc all add up even if you're living frugally.

Unless you're doing fine art or something course materials are negligible these days. Most resources are online and in the library.

Is that £60pw all year or term time only? Some courses are only 25-30 weeks of the year.

Travel is trickier, but with certain student bank accounts you get a discounted or even free railcard, bringing down the cost of train travel. The mega bus and coach is also an often overlooked mode of transport thats cheaper!

Clothes, send her off with a decent wardrobe. And she will get student discount. I know in liverpool that the shopping centre there does special student discount days where lots of the clothes shops do additional student discount.

And on terms of food, if you send her off with a decent store cupboard, it really helps. You can start buying some stuff now to spread the cost, especially things like loo rolls, scourers, first aid stuff etc. Closer to the time, oats, cans of tomatoes and passata, pasta and noodles can be added to a box to take with her.

Finally, remember Christmas is hot on the heels of term 1 starting. She can have some clothes for Christmas and things like Greg's vouchers, or even supermarket vouchers from granny or whoever help!

Knowing now is really helpful because you have the best part of a year to plan!

i have agreed a similar budget with my DS who started this time, as his loan only just covered his rent. He has had to use some of his savings to cover extras during freshers like societies and gym membership but it otherwise seems to be enough for food, laundry and the odd cheap night out. He worked throughout a levels and has a good buffer put to one side for emergencies and I have saved for him too for if he needs more but as long as they are careful and cook rather than buy prepared food it should be fine.

I don’t think that’s enough to live off when thinking about the cost of a social life at university, snacks, materials, toiletries, clothes etc however she could get seasonal shop work during holidays and earn quite a bit. Also student loans will help - she probably needs double that amount.