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

If you’re contributing £3000, then DD will have closer to £85/90 per week, as the £3000 isn't for 52 weeks, it’s more like 30-35. Even based on 40 weeks, it still gives her £75 per week 😊

Quite agree @redskydelight. Absolutely not cheap, but cheaper. It's simply that the September-June contract makes it an option in the city where my daughter is.

Well of course there is competition.

The trick is to make yourself the best person to hire.

And yes, occasionally students miss lectures. Today with so many resources online, it's probably not as big a deal as it used to be. Learning to cope with things like this is a good life skill.

The alternative for students who dont want a job or can't find one, is to live on very little. Or organise their uni on such a way to minimise their costs (cheap locations / staying at home).

I think your daughter will be fine OP.
Mine is still in uni and gets the maximum loan/grant and I can’t afford to give her regular monies, but she had a couple of thousand of Child Trust Fund behind her, and she has not needed to dip into it.

I pay all her travel to and from uni every term and half term. I still pay for her mobile phone, which is cheap as it is long paid off. I bought her everything she needed to set up in halls, eg linens, mesh laundry bags, a rack that sits over her radiator for clothes that don’t go in the dryer, and I spent about £150 on her first food shop which mainly included dried goods like pasta, spices & herbs, sauces etc and which she used to cook from scratch all that first term. I also left her a couple of bottles of wine. Her uni is quite far away and I only get to visit annually but I still leave a “shop” behind. Her halls were about 2 miles from uni snd she always walked in and out. I buy her clothes and trainers for Christmas and birthdays or give her money and a small token gift or two. She also had to pay a halls deposit of about £500 before A level results even came out, and I lent her that - but I waived the loan as the main part of her next birthday present. So that saved her lots that first year.

DD was very surprised how few of her peers knew how to cook. She teamed up with a friend and they did dinner together every night. They made curries, pasta bakes, and similar, mainly vegetarian as cheaper. A meal lasts them about 3 days. DD is queen of yellow sticker shopping and enjoys the challenge of eating well for less. She sends me photos of her successful hauls!

They almost never go out clubbing or to pubs but they drink wine with friends, initially in halls and now in their student flats/parties. Their student halls flat had regular games nights. She uses my Netflix subscription and her flatmate uses her parents’ Amazon account. They don’t watch live TV or iplayer so they don’t need a TV licence.

She gets almost all her uni books from the library.

I bought DD a small coffee machine and milk frother for her birthday once she moved into her first private flat and the girls buy fancy pods rather than costly coffees en route to uni.

DD only worked during the holidays for her first year in order to settle in. Then she got a job in a shop to get the employee clothing discount- and she is still there. She loves that job and really likes her Co-workers. Unfortunately her shop job doesn’t have a branch near where I live but somewhere like Tesco or M&S is a handy one for shifting between term time and holidays. DD’s term time is 22 weeks + exams so plenty of time for her to work outside of this.

I think DD still feels poor, as her uni seems to have a lot of wealthy privately schooled kids, but she has everything she needs, independence, does some volunteer work, and is healthy and happy. Having access to discounted trendy clothes from her job helps her feel like she’s keeping up with those well-dressed, confident-seeming rich kids at university. I hope & expect your DD thrives. Giving your children a secure loving foundation is the best preparation for life and I’m sure you’ve done a great job.

Really we need to normalise more non uni options - apprenticeships etc. University is an astonishingly expensive way to learn and often people study things employers don't value anyway. If fewer people went to uni the government could fund those that do go at a better rate.

It also needs to be a standard that you take a year or two after school to earn money and save for it. Or people need to plan on saving from much earlier in a childs life

She needs to own her decision to move away and not stay at home.

She needs to pay her own pay.

My DS lived away year one as that's all we could afford to support and this year is commuting but train alone is £200 a month for a monthly ticket. But at least he's eating at home and can take a sandwich.

Sit her down and explain how much this all going to cost and that she needs to fund it. If you can help great but she should based her decision on you giving her her weekly spends. What is circumstances change and you can't help?.

She ought to be able to get her food for £5 a day. She doesn't need to eat fancy food and drink soft drinks all the time. Then she has £25 for everything else. I would say it is just doable, I mean there are people on here feeding families of 4 for £100 a week. I think you should probably pay for train fairs home and buy her household cleaning products at the start of term until she finds a job.

I don't know which area you are referring to but wanted to highlight that whilst I agree that private student halls might be cheaper than year round private accommodation, the operative word is "cheaper". They are still not cheap!

My foster son has found it costs him about £45 for food. That's cooking in halls. He only eats out once a week now which is either a Spoons breakfast or lunch, so cheap. He's joined a few societies. Th cricket one cost £100 for the year, volleyball £50. He wants to join Taikwando but is working out if he can afford it first. On his Sports course he had to buy uniform tops, hoodies and trousers costing £180. Just going out to the local pub or Union bar even for a soft drink like he has all adds up. Clothes would be extra. I think £80 is minimum to cover the things you mention. Before foster son went I bought him 10 new socks and pants, 2 pairs jeans, 4 t shirts, 2 hoodies and a new jacket. He bought himself 2 shirts and a pair of chinos. I also let him take from home kitchen foil, greaseproof liners for air fryer, herbs, spices, seasoning, olive oil, cleaning sprays, cloths and a duster and a bag full of tins and dried food.DH took him shopping for frozen and fresh food and spent £85 on him.

But if you are in a student town, everyone wants these jobs! And there are generally more students than there are jobs.

DD knows an increasing number of other students that are taking jobs that mean they have to miss lectures/workshops/labs etc because they need the job to be able to support themselves. I do not think this is a good thing.

Re accommodation for years 2 & 3. Check private halls. My daughter has moved into one with a friend for the specific reason that they are "academic year" contracts - i.e. no paying for the summer months. That makes an enormous difference & and made the private hall actually cheaper overall than a student house.

jobs that work round lectures are increasingly hard to find. bar work and restaurants are a good one but also there's huge demand for evening care shifts helping get people ready for bed.

I think she's considering loan+their contribution - accommodation cost (which they cannot possibly know yet as it will be higher next year and they have no control where they live if going for uni accommodation)

But you are correct that, unless the student is doing a longer than usual course (and of course some exists) and is able to live for free at home during the summer they only need to factor in around 40 weeks at university and that the DC gets a job over the summer to cover any holidays/socialising/miscellaneous items over that time. That bring their uni weekly fund to about £75 which is a lot more doable as long as they are not a huge socialiser.

How much has she saved from a job over the summer?

A-levels finished months ago, she hasn't just lounged around all summer has she? It was completely standard when i went to university to work the summers/holidays. you needed to save as much as possible to top the money up. I did a weeks holiday with friends but apart from that worked almost full time, most of my friends did.

Sometimes.

20 years ago?

I think it’s not enough in 2025

I think it’s very tight. In the late 90s I was given £150 a month which was a nice amount at the time to cover food, books, socialising etc without getting a job. I’d work through the holidays to top that up. I think £100 a week would be more realistic but that’s likely only going to cover essentials.

Some courses are a lot more than that and jobs that work round lectures are increasingly hard to find.

I wonder if students need to look into affordable housing availability and term time work opportunities before applying to uni.

Yes. I would say £400 / month will be needed.

she needs to get a part time job. Uni will only be about 20hours a week so there’s plenty to of time for studying and working. Most students work part time now and it’s good for their cv too.

Not in our experience of 2 big cities at all.

If she’s so dead set on moving away she’ll need to find a job and help fund it. In my experience if she’s moving to a big city there will be loads of jobs available for students.

I work in a supermarket in a University city .
When the new intake of students come to the city we are inundated with flapping mums with their student children coming in buying essentials to set them up, then I see the Uni kids in with shopping lists trying to budget between them . We sell an awful lot of Pot noodles in this store 😂 , lastly we have a number of students working here in the store , in the bars and restaurants, they fit it around their studies . She won’t be the first and certainly not the last student to be in this position .
I actually work for a promo company called CPM, they have a lot of students on the books doing everything from leaflet dropping to instore supermarket promos (which I do) Might be worth her signing up with them and maybe similar companies . Stuck for staff is a good website for this . Hope it helps 😊

We gave DD £50 a week in year 1.
She had the option to live at home year 2 and 3; but chose not to because she wanted to be near friends, which is fine. She got a job April of year 1. We gave her £20 a week in year 2 and she is now in year 3 with £20 a week.
It must be enough; she can afford to go out! 😂