to think that £500 a month is enough for a child at uni

[FunnysInLaJardin]

we will pay his accommodation and his tuition fees will be paid, so this will just be for food and travel etc

When did "your generation " go to university. I went in the 80s and my parents in the 60s and we were much better off than many students today. Definitely not scraping mold off things.

That’s because it’s not a meal planning thread, nor a shopping thread 😅But if you want one, go start one! I am sure people will be happy to oblige.

I conclude that you also didn’t see any posts where people were suggesting to restrict students food budgets to £20 per week, or any evidence of sadism.

I'm not the one who mentioned sadism. I only commented that 20 pounds a week for food is not enough as a couple of people seemed to think it was. Batch cooking is not practical either when you have very little fridge or freezer space. Young active adults generally need a lot more food than children or older less active adults.

Honestly? Not if you have take-aways and McDonald's etc- but it is perfectly possible to eat for £20 a week with a bit of clever buying and cooking, and using mince, eggs, beans and other pulses, and veg. But we are talking here about 125 per week, without no accommodation or fees cost. If anyone can't live on that, they shouldn't be at Uni!

Undernourished, wow!

So rather than studying students should spend all their time thinking about shopping and presumably batch cooking even though they will have very little freezer or fridge space? I'm a vegetarian and I think I spend at least 35 pounds even if being relatively frugal.
Yes, OP is being quite generous and no-one is suggesting 500 a month is not enough but as it is not just for food I don't think it's too much either. It's a realistic amount and will be similar to students on a minimum loan if their parents pay for accommodation which many do.

just use your common sense! Possible to make a huge bolognese with 1 lb of mince, a tin of toms and a tin of lentils that will last for days in the fridge. Most students do have a fridge, even if shared.

Max student loan is for people to pay for accommodation from too though! £500 per month on top of paying for accommodation, so all as spending money, is a hell of a lot, lots of people working full time don't have that after paying for housing and bills.

I went to uni 10 years ago, and didn't know anyone who got £500 a month from parents. I worked part time whilst doing a pretty full on course, and probably lived on about £500 most months, including to pay for my accommodation and bills!
A few had parents pay for accommodation and they had their student loan (usually not much beyond the minimum of £3.6k a year, so £1.2k a term, £300-400 a month), to live on.
Otherwise people got nothing and got part time jobs (some thought our uni, some working ad-hoc in our SU or in student support and student services, and some in the local town), or got £200 a month or less (which is still about £50 a week - which was pretty adequate for food, a cheap night out and some extra curriculars).

If you've got £500 a month spare, then by all means send it to him, but I'd suggest;
a) He needs to find much cheaper accommodation (you're on to spend about £100,000 over 4 years if you're paying £17k for accommodation and giving £500 a month. If you've got another child to do this for too, that's the neck end of £200,000 for both of them!) I'd say you need to be fair amongst you two kids too, so if you allow £17k accommodation for the first, you'll need to allow a similar for the second!
This is more than most people spend on a mortgage, and you can definitely get decent and even nice accommodation for much cheaper - even just by dropping down to an en-suite room in a similar block. He'll also find that the people who live in the most expensive accommodation have a much higher level of disposable income, and that's where he's actually most likely to be priced out of things, whereas living in mid-range accommodation will mean he's more likely to be living with people in similar financial situations, who'll be doing things within his budget and be on similar footing. There's also more likelihood that he'll be living with foreign students who don't like a typical student lifestyle if he's in a new purpose built block, in a studio, which may be less social that you're all imagining.

b) You'd be better off doing a big food shop for him, giving him some starting money (for books, society membership, annual travel pass, and to put aside to pay for trips), and then giving him a lower amount monthly and putting the rest of the money aside as savings for when he leaves uni (I'd say £300 a month would be adequate if you're paying for accommodation separately, leaving £200 a month to put into other savings). - You can then evaluate his budget with him over the Xmas break, and he can explain why he thinks he needs more money if he feels that way, and then you can make a decision on whether to increase his budget.

As i said, i am vegetarian so don't know much about bolognese. However eating it for several days in a row doesn't sound healthy or appetising to me.

Please understand that you went TEN years ago.

What has changed in 10 years?

Not the student loan - much.

The cost of living however has skyrocketed. Laundry at £7-10 a pop, rents, food, travel you name it.

the student loan has not kept pace with the rise in the cost of living over the last ten years

@456pickupsticks read OP's post. She needs to use private halls and that is the cost in Brighton. Things are very different now than 10 years ago unfortunately.

We give DD £75 a week for food. We also pay for a travel card - London university and we pay her rent. She has a job to top up what we give her. She pays bills etc on shared house.

Honestly. Who wants to eat a meal that has been in the fridge for days?

I get that, I really do. I left uni 6 years ago, and am well aware of the increase in living costs since then, but I do stand by the fact that £500 a month is a hell of a lot of money to be getting as totally disposable income, It's over £100 a week, for one person and doesn't have to be spent on rent or bills, the majority of families won't have this much disposable income per person.

I think a lesser monthly amount at first, and a budget review at Xmas allows for this, and for an adjustment if needed. Most students won't be receiving this much, and although OPs son isn't getting student loan, max student loan is £9,250, which leaves most students with far less an £100 a week after rent and bills.

I actually think the main problem is the cost of the accommodation - I know some very well off students who's parents gave them an overall budget and they picked accommodate and got the rest as cash; the majority picked mid-range or cheap halls and took the extra spending money. Perhaps this is something OP could consider?
Looking at the accommodation OP has said they son wants to be in, the cheaper room is about £12,500 for the year, which is a huge difference from £17,000, and basically makes the different the total of the spending money.

Agree the cost of accommodation does appear to be eye watering - but having said that, I don't think the uni has its own halls and I know Brighton is vvv expensive. Not an expert on Brighton private uni accom for first years. I’d want accommodation that was mainly populated by first years from the same uni as the priority, and wasn’t in a skanky area, ideally really close to the uni.

Not sure how other private student halls in Brighton stack up against this.

A friend's son will be going to Uni next year. She and her DH have spent last year teaching him to cook on a budget- simple meals that pack in flavour and good nutrition in 15-30 mins. Making your own pizza is so so simple, with any topping. Pulses combined with little meat, egg dishes, and so on. Cheap, quick, and very cheap.

I think it was the cheaper one but they needed it for 52 weeks rather than 41. Unfortunately not all universities have their own accommodation and private halls are the only option. It seems very expensive in Brighton.
Regarding what most students receive, 500 pounds a month for nine months would be roughly the minimum loan which is what many students on if parents are paying for accommodation. I give my DC a bit less but not massively less.

My daughter was at uni from 2018 to 2022 . She got the minimum amount as we (parents) both work but we don’t earn a huge amount between us. She was at Plymouth - not hugely expensive but not cheap . We paid towards her accommodation - first year halls then shared houses after and she also contributed . I got her a 3 weekly to monthly Tesco’s shop of things she listed and adapted adding some extras as I thought - that was between £50 and £60 pounds . She did a little extra work but it didn’t pay much and with Covid there wasn’t much around . During Covid the uni sent round some packages and the local church also gave them pizzas and other things . She learned how to budget and used an all night student cafe with cheap food and drink where she could also study.

But you need more than just food. What about toilet paper, washing up liquid etc
Some juice/squash etc
snacks, yoghurts, milk, chocolate

you could probably do £20 one week but not consistently and it would be miserable if you did.

But clever buying and cooking is difficult in a shared kitchen and needing to walk to the shop.
and you need a lot more than just food to live off.

Nothing is very cheap nowadays.

Some of the posts on this thread are like a race to the bottom. Just absolutely the pits.

We are talking here about £125 per week, without lodgings or fees.

Some posters are saying 20 pounds a week for food would be fine.

Who is?

I will repeat what I said upthread incase you missed it.

“One poster pointed out that her DD happily only spent £20 on food. No implication at all that she had to. Cue others saying that she would be malnourished, countered by others (myself included) saying that it is perfectly possible to eat healthily for £20 a week.”

Others have now pointed it that they would also need non-food items. Well yes, of course they would. But somehow people are fixated on an idea that some parents are making their kids survive on £20 a week.

If you think they only need 20 pounds for food then you are probably going to think they need very little for everything else. It's all part of the miserly attitude of some posters. I don't get why some people seem to think living on very little is a good thing for students.