How much do you give university students for food?

[VashtaNerada]

For those of you with DC living in university halls, how much money do you give them for food each week? Our eldest starts in September and is hoping to get a part-time job to supplement what we’re able to give her but I don’t really know how much is reasonable.

DS has just finished first year at uni. He gets minimum maintenance loan and we pay him a monthly allowance which tops him up to the equivalent of maximum maintenance loan. He uses this combined amount to pay his rent and any other expenses (including food). He has some savings from his year out where he was able to work and has dipped into this a bit. His existence is fairly frugal I think, but he's got a good group of friends and socialises.

He is doing a science degree and has higher amount of contact time than some degrees. He worked a bit this summer too

My parents paid the full rent and then I sustained my lifestyle myself (minimum loan + part time job). It worked well because my housing was secure but if I wanted to sacrifice a night out for a takeaway that was down to me.

We paid a monthly allowance which was to cover all of their living expenses including halls. It was up to them to budget, so if it all got spent on partying they had to budget hard to feed themselves. It worked well and has carried on into adulthood. At this age they are too old for “pocket money”.
They also worked a few hours a week in a restaurant.

I quizzed DD (just done year 1, but has jobs to pay for rather a lot of holidays and clothing). She reckoned you can easily feed yourself for £30 with a bit of planning (she swam, so ate a lot of chicken thighs and eggs) and batch cooking mince bulked up with pulses or beans. She mainly drinks water (so add extra for drinks out etc if necessary)

£5 for washing approx (but befriend other people with washing machines in their flats if broke).

Toiletries (that will vary a lot)

Books and paper - hardly anything compared to A levels.

Phone - bought a refurb so Sim is sub £10/month

Transport (coach is significantly cheaper); book well ahead if possible.

She lived very comfortably off the min grant, with us paying the rent, but she isn’t a big drinker of booze or coffee.

Her halls gave her free gym/pool access and she could walk to campus from halls (you might need to add extra for that). Clubs varied in price, with sports ones usually on the more expensive side. With luck you can “try before you buy” during Freshers.

Nightclubbing seems to vary a lot between Unis. i think she took a fair few Ubers, but would have lift-shared. She also had friends in other years with cars (useful for sports stuff).

It is probably worth asking on Studentroom and whatever social media the students are on.

I would try to build this from the bottom up. Get her to think about what a week might look like. She can do a dummy shop on the Tesco app to see what it might cost. Then look at it together (with other costs if you mean all living not just food) and think about what's fair for you to fund and what you'd expect her to fund with a job.

Do bear in mind that it might take her a little bit of time to settle in and find a job so you might want to give her a bit extra for the first month.

My DD was catered in halls but shared house last year and I believe averaged £35/week but that was due everything including train fare home for the holidays. I only paid for her phone. I did a £100 starter shop of things like pasta and canned/tinned goods that would last a while and she bought fresh stuff as and when.

DD is going into her third year and we send her £30 a week.

Freshers week is always expensive with activities and drinking, joining societies and doing a big shop for staples and toiletries.

We pay for her phone, car tax and insurance. She does budget well, but student loan payments don't always match up when her rent is due, so we often pay and she pays us back when her loan arrives.

Interesting thread - I’ve been wondering this myself.

Those saying ‘none’ is this because you can’t afford to, or is it because they’re away from home and therefore don’t need support? Dd is going into part catered halls that are very near to her city campus. The city is London, however. We can afford to top up her loan.

My parents gave me £20 a week in the late 90s. I wasn’t eligible for a grant (I’m very old…) and they wouldn’t let me get a loan. They did at least pay accommodation. I lost a huge amount of weight!

Word of warning, DD found it really had to get a job in the first year, so no guarantees. She'd worked in a cafe and had worked a few weeks for an age ID indentication company before.

After that she did secure a covid job and they kept her on until she left 3.5 years later. She was a shop supervisor and did a couple of photo shoots for uni in final year, so wasn't lazy.

We pay for DS’s rent and pay for his phone which is £10 p/m. He pays for other living costs himself. Receives minimum maintenance loan.
He’s not a drinker though, so no money wasted on alcohol thankfully.

Whatever you give will be less than some of her peers, and more than others. Food only if careful and they actually cook is about £35 a week but I would expect a student to have worked to save up or to get a job to cover going out etc. There will some other essentials like washing, toiletries. Some students will have several hundred pounds a week to play with, others will be eating beans on toast every day. You honestly need to look at your household budget and what type of values you want to promote.

That is exactly what we did.

Loads of students who get the minimum loan though, have parents who pay their accommodation separately directly and then give them the whole minimum loan to live off. We couldn’t afford to do that (had two there at once).

Those parents who say ‘I didn’t need to give them a penny’ often had kids who actually got the maximum loan so didn’t need extra anyway! There’s a huge difference between getting £4300 and double that!

We gave ours £100/week each to cover food, socialising and incidentals. We also paid for phone, medical/dental/optical, gym membership and sports subs/equipment/team strip, and car insurance etc back home.

Watching with interest as DD will only receive the minimum loan. We will pay her accommodation and phone bill but she will need to budget for her food and bus fares out of her loan.

The first term will probably be the most expensive as hopefully there's lots going on, which is exciting for them. But I would play it by ear after that

I agree with a pp who suggested your dc does a dummy run of expenses before they go