Cost of living in Edinburgh as a student once rent is paid.

[ThatMortgageDilemma]

That's the question really, once you have paid your rent, how much money a month would you need to survive as a student?

DS is good at managing his own money, but we have no idea how expensive the city is when living as a student and the rent is already covered, to help budget for the term.

Thank you

How long is a piece of string? Depends what his loan is and what he expects to be able to do.

We paid ds's rent and he lived off the minimum loan. He budgets really well.

Back in the day, my home local authority considered it in the same bracket as London for grant calculations. Obviously food, utilities, gym chain prices here are the same as anywhere else, public transport quite reasonable.
Going out can be expensive and there's lots to do, but loads of outdoorsy stuff and museums that are free.

It's easy to get casual work in bars, shops, offices, entertainment venues if his schedule allows.

All comes down to budgeting, really.

I think it’s possible to live cheaply as a student in Edinburgh. Loads of free/ cheap stuff to do. Especially if they’re outdoorsy with a bike. It’s not for everyone but a part time job in hospitality is often good, they feed you, you often get stuff to take home, you get tips and then paid. The uni advertises jobs for students. Events hospitality is good as there’s massive gaps where you’re paid for doing nothing between setup and service and again before cleanup. Lots of little supermarkets in the centre, I often had a mooch through at yellow sticker time and whatever was 10p was on the menu.

Thank you. I'm expecting that once the rent is paid from the loan he would have about £100 a week to live on, I understand however that he would need to spend more than that on the first few weeks when he is setting up and buying books, so probably about 80 a week after that.

Would that be enough? If not, how much extra would he need? He has been raised with little money so it is not as if he will be getting ready meals from M&S and spending his loan in expensive clothes, but although he knows how to cook I doubt very much he will be cooking/packing a lunch every day.

And yes, he needs to work, I just want to get an idea of expenses to budget in case I need to supplement the loan while he gets the job.

My daughter isn’t getting anything beyond her loan/grant. She doesn’t drink much and has worked all summer plus will get a job.
Last year came home with leftover money due to lock down!

How much did she earned over the summer?

Edinburgh Uni has an excellent gym that is discounted for students. Most things are walking distance. There are so many clubs and societies.

That's fine OP, there will be cheap places the students gravitate to as well.

@ThatMortgageDilemma

How much did she earned over the summer?

No idea. I know her loan/grant covers the rent with money left over though.

Jobs are really easy to find and tips in hospitality are great. DS has just had £700 in tips. He doesn't come home over the summer though, increasing his hours and working throughout. This gives him a 'cushion' for the next year.
Dishoom is a great company to work, they do look after their staff.

Second year is harder as rents are huge. DS pays £500 per month as his share of a quite run down, central flat with four others.

As well as eating at work, my DS used the 'TooGoodToGo' food app - great cheap breakfasts from some of the hotels and restaurants.

Forgot to add, I gave my DS £200 per month initially to support him, lessening this once he was working.

That's plenty. My DS had £50 a week and managed just fine (he had savings that he would use for big expenses like clothes/gig tickets etc) he would spend about £25 a week on food and use the rest for going out. He wasn't much of a party animal though and they'd often just buy drinks and socialise in halls rather than pay pub prices.

My daughter ris also due to start uni in Edinburgh and I purposely tried to half hearted persuade her against because of the high cost of living.
I just hope she can get a part time job

We paid for our daughters rent and let her use the grant for living. She could work.if she needed more, but she didn't.

Once rent, which varies a lot in cost, is covered then living costs are less where located in the UK and more how they choose to spend. Foods a minimal cost when compared to socialising. Students can spend more in one night at the pub than they do a whole week on food!

Who he befriends is likely to have an impact too. When I was there there were students in the New Town with BMWs and Volvos. Kids buying champagne on parents' credit cards. Pre-exam holidays in the Caribbean to "help revise" etc. Others who were eating pot noodles most of the time and if drinking out, only at the student union. Definitely worth - sadly - sticking with those on a similar budget. I found it quite economically segregated...

Dd going into second year, so based only on limited experience of last year. Expensive for accommodation etc, approaching London prices. But the uni gym etc are good value and you soon learn where to shop (Lidl, Aldi, Sainsburys local) and eat relatively cheaper. Buses good and regular with a daily fare cap. Going out expensive ie £8 a cocktail. Lots of free things to do like museums , galleries, botanic gardens, walks and student discounts at zoo, Camera Obscura.

A lot of costs will depend on which uni they are going to and location of accommodation. There are discount cards for students that can get 50% off haircuts and money off meals etc so I would get one of these. If they are based near the city centre then it's possible to walk to most places which will reduce the cost of buses but if they are at Napier or heriot watt then the campuses are further out so they will use transport more. The unis usually have job fayres in the first few weeks. When I was at uni loads of people got jobs at the Royal Mail depot as Christmas temps, pays really really well but it's night shifts.

Sorry for disappearing, it has been a hard week.

That is reassuring but I'm now worried a bit about 2nd year rents! I will pass him all the information.

Thank you (much)

Much the same as on this thread - DC studied in Edinburgh and after rent had about £50 a week, with extra picking up odd hospitality shifts (12 hours a week or so) to cover things like train fares home, books and savings/holidays.

£50 seemed ample tbh - it’s a very walkable city, the bus network is excellent and many also cycle around. It is quite location dependent for some things - e.g. if he’s in an area like morningside he may be limited to the local Waitrose and M&S for shopping whereas DC were right next to a big Lidl - but on the whole it does seem to be rent that sets it aside cost-wise. Like a PP said, the cost of rooms can be astronomical and the rental market moves fast.

On the surface going out/socialising does seem expensive but I’m sure it won’t take long for him to find the student budget friendly joints! One unexpected cost we found though was the cost for us to visit - unless we made a long day of it, a visit up did make for an expensive weekend.

Dd is paying £580 pcm in a flat-share of 5 , very central location though and not much different to some of the hall fees except utility bills on top.

I can see that already... dropping him off is already costing a little fortune so I think it would be "day visits" in our case.

DS will be paying about the same amount in rent in halls. I despair at how depressive and run down the accommodation looks, just praying for a sunny day when we drop him off!

Depends which accommodation, dd's room in Pollock was fine and they have been refurbishing them gradually. Communal spaces were off-limits last year though.

I wouldn’t bother buying books - most text books are available online via University’s library.