Or is £21 a day not enough to cover 3 meals for a student?

[SunshineLollipopsAndRainbows]

This is a language school advertising for people to accommodate students in their homes. I don’t think £21 would be enough to cover breakfast, packed lunch & dinner plus things like extra hot water etc. It’s out of my area anyway but I do wonder if they will get anyone to do it.

Is that cost only to cover food, or is it all that the host is getting? As others have said it is more than enough to cover the cost of food. It might be that it covers board as well, in which case it sounds inexpensive for the renter!

It’s plenty. Most students will be surviving on less. How much does breakfast cost? Not much at all, my dd has a slice of toast, for lunch she has a sandwich and a packet of crisps and then a cooked meal in the evening. With £21 she could probably afford to eat out for all 3 meals (Starbucks, subway and McDonald’s) 🤣.

Depends on what the meals are, and if it’s food at home or out. Also, where you are located.

I think it would easily be enough. My student DD in Cardiff needs twice as much money for food than her sister in Liverpool.

@SunshineLollipopsAndRainbows

This is a language school advertising for people to accommodate students in their homes. I don’t think £21 would be enough to cover breakfast, packed lunch & dinner plus things like extra hot water etc. It’s out of my area anyway but I do wonder if they will get anyone to do it.

It's £7 per meal. And maybe a couple of showers.

My adult DD allowed herself £35 a week for food shopping each week when she bought her first house.

Unless anyone intends to serve up asparagus and lobster all day, it's quite enough.

Why do you care anyway if it's not in your area?

There’s 6 adults in our household.
We don’t spend £126 a day on food and hot water!

That’s about the going rate for a language student, we used to host but no longer as no spare room anymore, I’d be more concerned about keeping them warm, some come from much warmer countries than ours and having to have heating on will certainly eat into any profit.

It’s board & lodging.

£150 a week or £600 a month seems like plenty to me. Presumably the host families aren’t having to fund with pocket money or anything extra like that, just a basic room with access to a shower and family meals and maybe a couple of snacks? I’m a single adult and I don’t spend anywhere near £150 a week on food for myself, I’d expect to be able to feed at least 3 people on that budget.

Can you link to the advert, I'd be interested it that kind of money. Have you phrased your question wrongly? How could anyone not cover the costs at £21 per day?

Isn't that more than SSP and about the same as the basic SMP?

I guess that’s the price they’re offering - if nobody takes them up on it they’ll know it’s too low.

I think taking in a student isn’t quite the same as a lodger. Like you’re not out to make a huge profit, it’s more of a cultural thing I think. But I would think it poor money management if someone said they couldn’t afford to feed an extra person on £21 a day.

As long as they’re not having 3 showers a day, insisting the hearing is set to 21 degrees 24/7 and that their bed sheets and towels are washed daily like your typical mumsnetter, then £21 per day should be plenty.

I give DD £100 pm to feed herself. That’s roughly £25 pw and it’s plenty she tells me.

I know someone who does this but they don’t provide an evening meal.
It is cereal and toast, croissants for breakfast and a selection of rolls they grab wrapped in clingfilm for lunch.
If they were to provide dinner then I imagine it would be sausage chips and beans or spaghetti bolognaise or stirfry type stuff.
They usually have 4 -6 students living there

At uni I should say.

The HMRC meal allowance rate is currently £25. That is for a business traveler who is going to be eating all their meals for the day out of the home. These rates are meant to make sure employees don’t suffer loss when asked to work away, while also not accidentally getting paid extra.

£21 for mostly home cooked meals and packed lunches is plenty.

My DD is a student and spends £20 a week on food.

£21 a day, so £147 a week? I spend £110 a week for my family of 5.

You live expensive op. So if you’re a family of four you spend more than 588 just on food and hot water each fair enough. The rest is already Paid for right Ie the boarding and no additional cost.

I think when you’re supremely privileged like this, it is sometimes good to take a step back and understand not everyone has the same money as you and that 21 a day is very generous for most.

It’s plenty

Mmmm I'm going to go against the grain here, I would think twice at £150 to host a student with all heating and food included. It sounds a lot but how does it work? Do they cook and feed themselves or eat with you? What if they don't like what you cook? What if they have food allergies etc. What if they stay in their room and whack the heating up? I suppose you say no......

It's all very well everyone saying well I buy one chicken and it feeds a family of 4 for 4 days however the reality is that if you've got a teenage lad they'd probably eat half the chicken in one sitting!

I think this is maybe something people used to do as they could make a bit of money but with the cost of living the way it is I think this could end up costing you to host.

My relative does it as she has the space and the time to make a meal and doesn’t like doing paid conventional work so it works well.

It's enough to cover meals, but not meals and rent. At least not in a city. I would get a lot more than that just renting a room out, no meals.

If you host a language student there is usually an expectation that you will interact with them and entertain them, usually evenings and weekends when they don't have classes. £21 a day isn't allowing much for your time and the disruption to your day to day life.

£150 a week is plenty to cover food.

It’s not a lot to share your home and give up privacy imo.

£150 a week? It’s plenty.
I spend £200/week on 2 adults 2 children, all meals except childrens school lunches as we don’t eat out at the moment and that’s buying what we want and not economising - Waitrose deliveries, organic meat, a supermarket ‘takeaway’ sometimes, chocolate or other treats, etc.

That said I don’t think there’s much compensation for giving up the space in your house so I don’t think it’s a great deal.