Anyone…what is your first yr students monthly budget

In DS first year his student loan covered his halls fees. We sent him £80 per week and paid his phone.
he didn’t work in his first year.

We "top up" from minimum to maximum loan plus a bit extra to deal with the inflation which the official figures don't; so we pay her £120/week. DD pays rent and all expenses from that, other than the odd train ticket home which we fund, so £100/week on top of rent seems pretty generous to me.

She's in Year 2. Halls last year were around £500 per month for a 42 week contract, private accommodation this year is around £700 per month over the whole year. She has topped up by summer jobs (course too intense for part-time job in term-time.) She's doing fine.

Our son uses his loan to cover rent and we give him£50 PW to live on. He spends£12 PW on sports memberships of various kinds and rest on food. He sold a lot of sports equipment prior to starting which have him a nest egg and also has a job he can do as and when he chooses but head chosen not to so far!!

You are being incredibly generous.

As they have chosen such ridiculously expensive halls, with luxuries like en-suites, then they would presumably be expecting to have much less left in the 'pot' for weekly spends - because it is already being spent on the luxury that is an en-suite.

My children have/has the minimum loan. We pay their rent and they have their loan and if they need extra then they have to work. One works and the other is very tight.

We pay ours £1100 a month to cover rent and spending money
Also still pay for things we were paying like phone and contact lenses

You are supposed to make up the total to the max student loan, around £9.5k outside London.

Being expected to does not equate to supposed to.

Neither of my boys were topped up to maximum loan, we couldn't afford it. They both had holiday jobs but not term time ones. I sent them £100 a week which they both managed on.

DS2 is in London now doing a masters. He worked all summer to top up his funds. I don't send him any money at all because he says he is managing. He has an excel chart for spending and says his average spend is around £125 a week not including rent (1k pm). I will of course send money if he needs it.

I think last year would have been about £9.5k (loan plus what we gave him) but this year is cheaper for our ds

We give ds £80/week but we pay for his phone and have paid for extras like the odd train fare and send him with a decent food shop a couple of times a year. His loan will cover his accommodation this year but we topped it up considerably last year.
My rationale is he has no bus fares while he’s there, text books are all digital and he’s not one for coffees out etc - so this funds a food shop, the odd lunch and his social life.
He earned a bit over summer so has money for bigger extras if he needs them - we would never leave him short but he’s not in an expensive city. I would imagine in some cities it wouldn’t be enough

You are supposed to make up the total to the max student loan, around £9.5k outside London.

I give Ds a weekly DD plus larger sums when needed. He gets his own loan tho.

£800 pcm <gasp> is that catered? Unlikely as you mention food. I guess you might need to go above 9.5k as his hall fees alone are £8k.