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

Where is she going to uni? It would stretch a lot further in e.g. Leeds than London.

It is a very tight budget - a weekly bus pass in my city is £25. It would probably cover food if meal planning, shopping in aldi etc but she will struggle to fund anything beyond that.

Its easy to live in £60 a week. But depends where you are located, because travel and food is more expensive at other places. I stop struggling to live on £45 a week.

@Lex345 just seen that your dc hasn’t actually applied yet so you have a few options depending on what your DC is like :

1. apply and defer - get a job which will be great experience and save up a large lump sum - this will mean lots of experience and will help with future job prospects + they can enjoy uni life to the fullest (I can remmeber going through quite a bit of my budget in freshers week alone)

2. stay at home to make things markedly cheaper which they have already said they don’t want to do

3. don’t defer, go outside of home but accept it will likely be right. If your dc thinks they can manage this, then it will be 3 years on a shoe string budget - if outside of London probably manageable but not the most fun and Ofc hoping they can get a job whilst in their new city. If your dc isn’t super sociable or doesn’t drink then this might be ok for them

Lots of people are saying it is more than doable - I went to uni in the north of England nearly 20 years ago, my maintenance loan just about covered accomodation and I worked full time hours in the summer for 2 years and then part time for first 2 years as a carer. I’m sure I had more than £65 / week in the first couple of years and distinctly remember one occasion the day before my loan came in eating jam out of a jar for dinner! This was entirely my fault as I had spent food money on socialising / drinking. It was a valuable life lesson and I was better with budgeting thereafter.

Whatever your dc chooses to do - they will be fine. I did a 6 year degree and wasn’t able to work for the last 3.5 because of placements etc - Ofc there were times when I felt like I wasn’t having much fun and was desperate to get out of there, but there was also a lot of highs.you cook meals together, have cheap house parties, learn to live in a little uni bubble and it’s not real life but it’s your reality for that time. Essentially feeling poor won’t kill them but if they would rather have more money, they have agency to make choices to enable that to happen.

i dont think any of the options should include you getting a second job. They have agency to make decisions but with that comes consequences. And not a good precedent if you have another dc who will be going to university soon.

He manages fine. In fact he managed to save money from it last year. If he needed more money we would give him more. He can’t get a job his course is far too intensive. There are no costs associated with his course. It’s all online so no books or stationery. We buy him toiletries for the term when he’s home and get him a big food shop when he goes back. He is very low maintenance. Walks everywhere but gets the occasional uber home when he’s out. My mum does give him £50 a month for treats .

I haven't read all the replies, so sorry if this has been said already, but the 60 seems to be based on 52 weeks of the year. Will she be living away from home all the time, or just term time? If term time only, won't her weekly spend be more like 75-85 (depending on the number of weeks of the course).

Well I used to withdraw £7 a week to live on, but it's the equivalent of £90 now. And I didn't have any travel as I didn't go anywhere. I certainly didn't feel I was well off.

Lots of societies where mine is are free or minimal amounts so if she has a bit extra for joining these she will be fine

I think I used to spend £60 a week on snakebite and blackcurrant at Uni, and that was 20 years ago. It seems a tad tight.

There is a useful Facebook group- what I wished I knew about university- which has lots of info on a huge range of things. One frequently asked question is how much students have to live on. Overwhelmingly students have in the region of £50 a week after accommodation is paid. Some parents can’t afford to help their children and they have less and others give their child crazy amounts. A fair few pay their child’s accommodation and the minimum loan- about £4.9k- is for them to live on. This equates to about £150 a week in term time which is a huge amount for a student. It depends where they are at uni- some
you don’t need public transport to get into the town/supermarket etc so no travel costs. For £25/30 you can eat well with quality food and some treats. A wash is around £3.50 which leaves £25 for fun money if they had £60. They are students after all! I would encourage a summer job- they could easily save around £1.5k if they did 4 shifts a week which would be extra fun money for them. Don’t feel guilty- £60 is a good amount and if you send her with lots of store
cupboard items. This years Nationwide account gave them £100 cash and £120 just eat vouchers so they can have a takeaway every month. Don’t over think it- I know it’s hard not to!

I think it’s ok personally (could be worse) and normal for a student to be on a tight budget.

As long as she’s not burying expletive coffees and food out routinely. she’ll be fine.

I don’t think she should take a term time job, especially based on what you’ve said, holiday times would be helpful if she can.

Well of course a job at Superdry is going to be highly sought after. Less attractive jobs will be easier to get.

This. And having a part time job at this point in life also helps graduate employment prospects.

I've been involved in grad employment in the businesses I've worked in and I can't imagine offering a role to someone who'd never held down a job.

My child has real life experience in the last couple of years where it was actually impossible. Most employers did not want students and when we checked the indeed stats, there were eg 700 people going for job as a retail assistant in superdry. They wanted people who could commit for more hours and for a longer period than students. It was very disheartening.

£60 a week is plenty, especially if all her bills are paid.

My son is in his second year and survives on £200 a month.

Food is about £15 per week, he walks as much as he can, he's joined loads of clubs and societies for fun, they gets discounts and lots of free sessions.

Lots of independent places offer student discount in a uni area. Make sure she joins things like student beans for discount in major retailers.

SU and refectory on site are cheap and he'll have a occassional take away.

We do him a big shop once a term for his items he can buy in bulk and store, toilet rolls, juice, tins, pasta, wash powder etc, then he just needs the renewable bits.

Teach her to batch cook and shop in the reduced section and she'll be fine.

Not really relevant as it is a responsibility for parents to ensure their DC can attend university if they wish to do so.

I should add I do them one shop at the beginning of term each.

Same.

I can’t believe people think it’s too little.
It’s a fairly normal amount going by the posts on university parents groups on Facebook.
I know that my offspring have so far managed 6 cumulative years on £50 a week and number three recently started and also has that budget.
They don’t really drink so that probably helps but number two regularly travels across country to visit his gf. They all manage to socialise.

For 1st year students Halls are a good introduction to living away from home and becoming acquainted with the academic requirements and how to study at degree level. If you're a bit 'canny' then you find a Uni with a self-contained campus with the Halls, Lecture Buildings, Student Services, etc, etc all on the same Campus. No travel costs.

For the poorer students on full loans it means living on £60 pw during term time. This is a completely doable amount to live on for a few weeks at a time. Eating cheap is key - ds can make a meal for less than a £1 (bearing in mind in Halls there are no cooking costs) - pasta, passata, toast, marmite, etc with an inbuilt instruction to take a multivitamin a day.

A bonus is that my own food and bills have substantially reduced over the last two weeks and in simpatico I am reducing my current food bills even further by clearing my cupboards and freezer of all the just in case food that's been there awhile. Because it's only me that needs feeding. And gives me a further chance to help ds out if he needs it.

Poorer people should never feel excluded from accessing Higher Education as they already have a wealth of knowledge and experience that more financially well off students can only emptily theorise on.

Living off £60pw is easy-peasy for the 'poorer' students...and is actually an advantage for those that go to Uni to actually study their chosen subject, rather than those that go because Mumsy and Daddo expect it and you go for the party.

She won’t be able to afford to join any societies or participate in any sports. This could kill her chance at a summer work placement or graduate internship.

Good luck finding some scholarships. Even if it is just free membership to a professional society, it will be worth it when she is graduated and looking to start her career.

Well it’s £240 a month so I’m sure she’ll be fine.
Freshers week will be more expensive so she might need a little boost of cash for those first few weeks and once she’s settled in she’ll find student nights out and food etc will all be doable

If the student halls fee covers all the bills, she'll mainly need to feed herself and any transport to and from lectures.

I agree it is tight, but as long as she gets a part-time job to top up, it's doable.

Food is really cheap now compared to the 80s and 90s, and budget options are boring but fine. Oats for porridge, lentils/chickpeas for protein. My daughter does this anyway, so she can put her earnings towards some cheap student travel experiences with her friends.

I'm not sure you working another job is fair, really. Unless she is a massive nerd and bookworm, she'll probably benefit from having a job as it gives you a bit more diversity of activity. Being a student 100% of the time is a bit gruelling.

My daughter has just started at a London uni so this might skew things slightly but there is no way that she can survive on £60. She’s got the maximum loan and I am giving her £400 on top of that per month. Again, London, so travel and accommodation might be more expensive than where you are but books, going out, clothes, decorating her room, it all adds up. I would really encourage you to make a budget with her. TV Licence was one thing we forgot to factor in. Luckily you have a year in hand to try and get on top of this. But I strongly urge you to take action now.

My son gets the minimum amount, which means that we have to top his money up. His student loan doesn’t quite cover his rent in Swansea, so we pay him £400 a month towards bills and food and he has a part time job to cover going out and other non essentials. I know many parents like to top
up to avoid their children having to work, but in my experience of having two older children being through university, graduates who have never worked are massively disadvantaged when it comes to applying for jobs when they graduate.

It is tight, but doable.

It’s plenty for food and essentials.

She will need ‘fun’ money though, and she could work a Saturday for that. She wouldn’t need to do many hours really. Minimum wage is £10 an hour for 18-20 year olds. If she can work 2 evenings a week, or one day a weekend, she’ll have plenty of pocket money. And if she needs to quit that job at exam time, she’ll still be able to feed herself.