Looking like both kids are going to Bristol at the same time - how screwed am I?

[CottonOn]

Posting here for traffic.
Two kids, 13 months apart, both want to do aeronautical engineering, one girl starting this autumn, the second the next.

They’ll get the minimum maintenance loan. I’ve got roughly 20k set aside which I naively thought would give them a fairly pleasant 3 years. I’ve only just clocked that actually this isn’t nearly enough.

This is what the calculator is telling me

You could get a £4,767 Maintenance Loan to contribute towards your living costs.
How your Maintenance Loan is calculated:
£10,227 (the maximum Maintenance Loan available)

• £5,460 (the amount you might not be eligible for, based on your answers)

= £4,767 (the amount you could be eligible for, based on your answers)

I’m going to have to stump up £10,920 in the years where they are both there simultaneously just to get to the basic £10,227 and it ooks like accommodation is going to eat up 8k, so even that won’t be enough.

Can anyone tell me how much it’s realistically going to cost to top them up enough to live in Bristol? I’ve been so blithely naive all these years thinking I’d squirrelled enough away. Could kick myself.

They can get part time jobs too?!

I realise that, and they will I’m sure, I just thought I’d got a nest egg sorted and it turns out I’m barely able to meet the basics expected of me. 😳

Lots of parents don’t have anything to help their children out at uni but they manage. 🙄

Yes but then the student can get full maintenance loan.

Summer jobs and part time jobs will help out. Make sure they are aware and knkw ahead of time this will be expected. Both could take gap years and work too (if Bristol will allow for that degree course) so that they build their own buffers too.

That's a tough one. Yes they can get jobs but I can see why you're worried. I would look at typical student accommodation available & see how much it costs to get a general idea (sorry I don't live in Bristol but I get the impression it's sort of pricey). Also I take it commuting isn't a possibility?

My sister and I are two years apart so would have been at uni at the same time. My mum made me take a gap year so that when I started my sister had left. Apperciate the age gap is smaller but is that a possibility?

This is it - to even meet my basic obligations it will be 11k per year and I’m only just learning that accommodation eats almost all of it. Even if I manage to get to the max loan amount they’ll be living on thin air. I hadn’t clocked how expensive Bristol would be to live in. I can’t ask them to study elsewhere when it was my fault I’d not clocked how the parental contributions worked - I genuinely thought I had enough and then some. All my own fault and I’ll have to suck it up.

Native here. Bristol is very expensive to live in and has an extremely competitive rental market. It's difficult to come up with a figure as places are often rented for more than they're advertised at as people get into a bidding war over them. Bristol is running out of areas that are affordable-ish to live in. But if they can live frugally (no car, not eat out much, large flat share, live further out of town) they may be ok. Or, I know quite a lot of late 20/30-somethings in Bristol who have got on to the house ladder but rent out a room in their house for a bit of extra income. If your girls would be interested in lodging rather than a student house share that might be one of the most cost effective options as all bills tend to be included and at least you know the house is well looked after as the landlord lives there too. The downside being they won't get the typical student experience (over-rated IMO).
At least they are both going to study for a qualification leading to a potentially lucrative career so it sort of feels worth stretching for as it won't be an obvious waste like some courses.

No that’s literally the point.

The cut off is so ridiculously low (I think it’s 40k household income? That’s 2 x min wage jobs).

We have a fairly healthy household income but we didn’t have for years so no uni savings and with the COL now we certainly can’t afford the £600pm suggested parental contribution. DS is in his third year and has had a total of about £500 from us in total. He’s worked all the way through.

It’s 25k!

firstly congratulations on your amazing DCs!

I think you’ll be ok for two years. I’ve got one in Bristol- he lives off the minimum maintenance loan which is fine, I pay his rent (£600 a month) and occasionally top up bills etc.
he now has a part time job which he mainly saves for festivals etc and spends on nights out. But he could contribute £100 a month from his loan towards rent I guess.

my mum is great for sending emergency tesco deliveries/trainers/alcohol money!

can you save another £10 to £12 k over the next two years?

Also, all big purchases for the next three years on 0% credit card, finance etc.
you can pay them off properly once they leave Uni and you’re £600 a month better off!

How can accommodation be 8k per year? Our 3 bedroom house is less than that. There must be cheaper options. House share instead of halls? I suggest they each take a gap year and save up themselves

That is in a house share.

I really do feel for parents and young people planning for uni these days. If my parents had to make a £600pm contribution there is now way I would have been able to go to uni. I would not be allowed to be in the job I'm in now without my degree. I was lucky that fees back then were approx £1k. My parents earnings were low enough that I didn't even pay that, but I could have stretched to it if I'd needed to. And the student loan more than covered my super cheap rent and food. I worked full time in the holidays to earn my 'having fun' money. I can't even being to imagine the financial burden of uni now. So, I feel your pain OP, it's not a nice position to be in.

Or look into cheaper cities where they can study the same subject. Why have they chosen Bristol? Things are much cheaper in the north

If you look at the Bristol uni accommodation fees, some are cheaper than others. If your accommodation is £5k or £6k a year that makes quite a difference to £8k or £9k a year. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/accommodation/about/costs/cost-by-residence/

Do you know how many contact hours a week there are on the course? That can affect how easy it is to get a part time job during the year. Ideally you try to find something where you can work full time during the holidays and part time during term time.

Isn’t there a discount in the calculation for a second child in uni? Mine had a nice gap so wasn’t an issue.

Unhelpful

With that degree subject they may be able to get sponsorship. It's worth looking at some of the big players - BAe etc as they will sponsor people through uni and guarantee summer jobs etc.

They may also be able to do a relevant gsp year which earns much more than retail.

Thanks! I’m stunned by them myself - they get none of it from me, my dad is an engineer and their shared passion for planes and formula one is totally alien to me. It’s a vocation it would seem.

We will find the money over the 4 years, it’s just about doable, but we’re not high earners, just have been quite comfortable on A household income of 67k - looks like we’ll be living on student rations ourselves, but that’s ok. I stupidly thought the living loan was enough to live on and I was topping up to make life comfortable - I wish someone had sent me a letter around year 7 telling me how it worked! So stupid of me.

I’ll look into that, thanks!

Yes, I think the first year will be ok in 5-6k places but as I understand it once they leave halls, 8k isn’t even top end. I might be wrong.

Are they both girls ? If so, would they be able to save money by sharing a room ?