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.

I fed myself on about £21 a week when I was a student in 2006-2010!

Sounds plenty to me - will easily cover food, hot water, any extra electric and a payment for your time

It's spot on to say it's ok for the love of meeting new people, but there wouldn't be much of an incentive to do it, if you were doing it as a business venture, and if you factor in the time and effort of the host. With energy bills rising, it could cost a lot during a cold spell, if the guests asked for the heating to be kept on and turned up. This did happen to somebody I know. An adult guest attached to a study group of youngsters asked for the heating to be on all the time and it did seem, to my colleague, to be making things expensive.

It's not just the food though is it. It's someone else in your home, taking up a room and bed, who you have to accommodate logistically bathroom wise, meal wise, heat and lighting wise etc. Yeah you probably could provide three meals for that money, but the mental adjustment, mental load of having a house guest you don't know... is £21 a day fair recompense? That's the bigger question.

I feed my whole family for less so yes, I think it would be fine for one student! You must know it would leave profit. Nobody spend £21 post day per person on groceries. That's £105 a day for a family of 5. You don't have to turn the heating up because there is an extra person in the house in the evenings.

Eh? It's loads of money.
It's 21 quid a DAY!
Breakfast - would need to buy a bit extra bread, milk, cereal, orange juice, whatever but wouldn't cost that much.
Lunch - make sandwiches/salad to take to the school. Doesn't have to cost that much.
Evening meal: cook a bit more of whatever the family is having. Eg. Spaghetti bolognese - cook a bit of extra pasta, add more of the infamous Mumsnet vegetables and lentils and fuck knows what which can pad out 20 g of mince into a MASSIVE meal for 100 people.
And a few extra snacks/pieces of fruit/whatever so that the student does go hungry.

I had to organize accommodation for a British Council language assistant several years ago. She stayed with a lovely family who were glad to host her for a few months as she spoke French to the two boys. So getting 21 pounds a day for the food and input from someone from a different country into the family is a good deal.

I used to host foreign students and on £21 per day you can easily look after them. 3 meals a day plus pick ups from station or coach drop offs should be factored in. Plus, from the beginning you simply say please don’t be long in the shower e.g 5-6 minutes. I also expected them to rinse their dishes. And keep room tidy. Never had any complaints,and kept in touch with many for years, so they must have enjoyed their stay!

It's more than enough. My dm did this for years to make some extra income during the recession in the 90s. The students often complimented her on her cooking. She was very good at budgeting and sourcing cheap ingredients to make tasty meals.

I just seen about not checking in at work.

Of course not he's at work.

Everyone I know is so busy at work that they barely have time to wee, only eat lunch if they take it with them. Work is just flat out busy for the full day

£21 a day, so £147 a week?! That's LOADs, I fed myself for less than £20 a week as a student, I'm not sure what you'd be eating to spend more than that a day. Cereal/toast for breakfast, packed lunch for lunch and a standard weekday meal cooked in the evening, that really wouldn't cost a lot. Unless you are doing this to make a profit in which case its a lot of faff for not much in return after the utility price hikes etc.

My ds's food budget at uni is 25 per week for 6 days and he eats out once a week. He eats really well .21 a day he'd think he'd won the lottery!!

I have done this in the past- you couldn't pay me £210 a day to do it again!

Of course it is.

Adult and teen. Food £50, energy £25, water £10 a week, so £85/2 each, about £6 a day.

I was noting that the gent staying with my colleague actually requested for the heating to be on more, because he wasn't used to cooler temperatures. If we have a cold snap, well, yeah, you would feel you have to leave the heating on all day, if guests are uncomfortable.

Makes one think of other examples of how fuel price hikes will affect life. I can imagine lots of people will spend the day in the local library. Tough if you live in a village, and tiny library only opens two days per week.

Well the government thinks a single person under 25 can pay for everything they need, not just food, with around £60 universal credit per week, so presumably some unfortunate young people make it stretch.

That's perfectly ok

@NumberTheory

For food alone it’s generous. For food, heating, loss of a room, another person added to the bathroom rota, etc. It’s not great but probably reasonable for most people who aren’t that profligate and want to make a little extra from a spare room.

Agreed. I assume the daily rate is to ensure the student isn’t a financial burden on the host family. It’s not the same as getting in a lodger to help with your bills.

OP I am not really sure why you have posted about this. You don’t seem to be familiar with the concept and you don’t live in the area it has been advertised so you aren’t going to do it.

I think that’s loads of money tbh. We feed 2 adults for £40-45 per week, including cleaning products and do most of our shopping at Tescos. Sure we could do it for even less at Lidls/ Aldi.

It's enough for food wtf are you cooking that it isn't?

£600 a month would more than cover what having 1 extra person would cost.

I was going to say you are obviously being unreasonable but actually costing it out when you are trying to buy for a single person, which I imagine you may be when catering for someone who's visiting and not part of the family. This is just a quick example I've put together based on stuff I typically buy, and when trying to provide for one person it is still weirdly expensive. However it's still well in budget and is quite a nice varied shop.

Breakfast - 3 days = oats so simple porridge and a banana. 3 days = Scrambled eggs on toast/ hard boiled eggs and toast. 1 day = blueberry pancakes. Accompanied by glass of fruit juice and tea/coffee.

Lunch each day - various sandwiches, veg crudites with either hummus of Philadelphia, fruit pot, savoury snack, crisps.

Dinners - Mushroom and cheese omelette, spaghetti bolognese, nicer ready/oven meal, beans on toast, stir fry, soup and crusty rolls, takeaway.

Small punnet of blueberries £2
Bunch of bananas - 75p
6 medium eggs - 89p
Butter - £1.50
Pancake mix - £1
4 pints milk x 3 for tea, coffee, cereal etc - £3
2 x bottles of fresh juice for 1 glass with breakfast - £2.70
Oats So Simple Big Bowl - £2.20
PG Tea Bags x 40 - £1.40
Small jar of coffee - £2
Small bag of caster sugar for tea and coffee - 60p
7 x little lunch side e.g. fridge raiders, olive pot - £8

7 x various fruit pots - Tesco do a variety all for £1.15 each = £8.05
Loaf of nice bread - £1.50
Block of cheese - £2
Pack of naice ham - £3
Romaine Lettuce - £1
Tomatoes - £1
Peppers - £1
Carrots - 50p
Hummus - £1
Garlic and herb Philadelphia small - £1
Large cucumber - 60p
Bacon - £1.55
Branston Pickle - £1.55
Helman's Mayo - £2
Multipack Walker's Crisps - £2.50

Jamie Oliver tray bake meal - £8
Spaghetti - 55p
Nicest pasta sauce - £2
Pack of bolognese seasoning - £1
Mince beef 250g - £1.80
Heinz Beans - £1
Mushrooms - £1
Hard cheese - £2
Takeaway - £20
Fancy soup carton - £2
Crusty rolls - £1
Stir fry deal with fresh noodles, veg pack, sauce and protein - £5

~ £100

FYI the lunch stuff works out actually cheaper to buy a meal deal but there's more food and you'd have leftovers plus some of the veg is used in the meals.

But yeah that clocks in at around £100 and it's way on the higher end of what you'd need to buy. You could provide someone a decent menu for half that or as a PP said, even every meal out would be less than £21 per day.

@Dishwashersaurous

Sounds like a great deal.

Cereal and toast for breakfast. Less than a pound.

Packed lunch. £2 max

Evening meal £2.

Extra heating and electricity £2 a day.

Therefore costs £49 per week. Income £147.

Almost a hundred profit a week for minimal effort really

There you go, the maths done for you.

How can you possibly think that isn't enough ?

We spend only a little over 1/3 of that to feed 4 adults each week.

My student dc reckons £20-£25 is more than enough for her food and other groceries (toothpaste, w-up liquid, shampoo etc) and of course it is more expensive to shop for an individual than to buy bigger packs of things when shopping for a family.

My DD is a student and spends £60 a week on food and toiletries. She lives in a city centre and can't drive, so admittedly her options for budget supermarkets are few (it's Tesco express or M &S) It must be bloody difficult to live healthily on £20 a week though esp given recent price rises.
DS (also a student) lives close to 3 supermarkets Lidl, Morrisons and Asda, he gets by on approx £35- £40 a week and thats buying reduced items.

Your title says 3 meals a day but the. Your subsequent post says it's board and lodging so that's two different things. It's definitely enough to cover food and I wouldn't have thought your bills would go up that much.