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

We give DD £500 a month in Oxford as she gets the minimum loan. It's really not much. She works a part time job to top herself up.

What % of take home pay do you give her? If we gave £500 pcm to our dd at uni (not there yet) it would be 13% of our take home pay! Same as the mortgage. It's untenable.

It may be 'expected', but it isn't always possible. Especially as the loan is lagging way behind inflation. The fact is, students can and do exist perfectly well on less, and it shouldn't be controversial to say so.

We pay ds's halls and he has the min loan to live on. He says it was plenty of money and he seems to have a busy social life.

He is at Surrey which you would imagine to be expensive but his modern ensuite is 6.3K and the shared bathrooms halls are 4k. His 2nd year rent will be 127pw.

Some very generous parents on this thread. I think as someone else pointed out up thread, £500, if you don't expect them to work and you can afford it is about right. I don't however pay my first year uni son that much. I could afford more but I really want him to work and appreciate the value of money. It gives them lifeskills and makes them more employable in the future. I worked throughout my own degree and expect him to do the same. He worked over the summer to go away with savings and transferred his job to his uni city. Sadly he gave it up after 2 months as the hours weren't suiting his socail life (early starts at 6am not conducive to nights out!) He's made no attempt to look for alternative work, he enjoyed the money, burnt through all of his savings and now has just my allowance which is very modest of £220 p.m. in addition his rent is paid, his gym and phone. I also fund all travel home, he's in a city so can walk everywhere no bus or taxi costs. Realistically I know he's going to struggle this term with no job to manage on £220 p.m. for food and socialising (but he's shown no respect for money and it burns a hole in his pocket) I pay the same to him every month whether at uni or not. I am hoping he will get motivated to get another job (he's got plenty of time capacity with his degree and timetable) but of course won't see him starve. He went back from Christmas with £250 in supermarkt vouchers and restaurant vouchers also, along with a big food shop. I'm visiting in a couple of weeks, so will shop again for him and no doubt bung a bit extra, but still holdng out hope that if he wants to drink and socialise all the time he'll work to fund it.

But presumably you wouldn’t need to because she wouldn’t be on minimum maintenance loan.

It wasn't my intention to scare anybody about uni costs. I will just say that transport in London costs my DS £150 per month as he is in a punishing STEM course that has plenty of contact hours. He does cook at home but his kitchen is the size of a postage stamp ( no room for a microwave even). He doesn't have designer clothes, didnt travel last summer and his main luxury is not having a job this year because he wants to be in the top 5% of his class. Summer will be spent doing an internship.

I am sure lots can get by on less.

@SecondUsername4me It's 3% for us but we were used to paying fees so this is a bargain really.

This is exactly what we do.
DD2 loan covers most of her accommodation, we sub about £500 per term.
We give her £60 per week and pay for extras like shopping when we visit and send her back each term with all her toiletries and pay for travel & phone.
If she needs more then she'll have to get a job.
Fortunately for her she's not a drinker and rarely socialises outside the student flats.
Did the same for DD1 who graduated 18 months ago. Her expenditure was higher because she had a very active social life. So she got a job.
Simple.
We reasoned that £60/week would not leave her starving.
It works for us

Slightly startled (though relieved!) at posters regarding £500 as so generous in 2024. I had £500 a month from my parents when I was a student 25 years ago, plus £500 a month rent - it was an expensive city and the university didn’t offer halls. No tuition fees, and no student loan. I would struggle to offer my DC the same now, but had assumed that inflation would mean I’d be expected to provide them with much more than I had…

because we can't afford a flat in Brighton

Can't find the post where some one said part of student life is roughing it.

Fine in yr 2 but if DS1 who comes from honestly a very sheltered part of the world, far more so than the uk, were have to rough it I don't doubt he would be miserable.

That is not to say Jersey is fab, as for some people it isn't, but it is very safe and the kids from here aren't streetwise. < a teacher friend once told me that year 9's here are like yr 7's in the UK, and I can well believe it>

Rough it by all means, but only once you have the lie of the land

She'd be entitled to about 5k pa.

We currently have one child at University. They use the (lowest) maintenance loan for their accommodation although we top up a couple of £100 a term. We then give them £400 per month for living - food, gym, travel, going out, etc. All our friends give the same and £100 per week has been just right for us all.

But 281 x 41 = £11643, not £17K?

I was on minimum student loan which didn’t even cover all of my rent. I had to work at the same time to make ends meet, occasionally my parents would send me £20… they will be absolutely fine.

If they have any strong hobbies or interests, I would pay the joining fees for the societies. Plus top up a supermarket (nearest) gift card and a buss pass or Oyster card. Plus phone bill and any software or books required for the course. Then add a small discretionary amount for socialising and entertainment. If that does equate to £500 a month then by all means provide it but it shouldn’t do (maybe in London if a lot of travel involved). If they want anything else like society trip away they can earn it themselves.

Don’t be too generous or they will get too comfortable and you’ll be supporting them through their first jobs and in this economy possibly indefinitely.

I miss calculated. It’s a minimum of 44 weeks a year

If they have any strong hobbies or interests, I would pay the joining fees for the societies. Plus top up a supermarket (nearest) gift card and a buss pass or Oyster card. Plus phone bill and any software or books required for the course. Then add a small discretionary amount for socialising and entertainment. If that does equate to £500 a month then by all means provide it but it shouldn’t do (maybe in London if a lot of travel involved). If they want anything else like society trip away they can earn it themselves

They are never going to manage their own finances if you are saying 'here's £36 for the bus and here's £13 for the book you need for the module'.

They need to decide for themselves whether to get the online book or a second hand one and if they should get a bike or pay for the bus.

@YellowDots make them budget it all in excel and send an invoice. Or work out expected costs per term and go from there.

My room in a shared house in Liverpool in 1999 was £35 / week!! Crazy how times change. I realise this makes me sound like a 🦕

Not sure I can afford for my children to go away to university. Better encourage them to stay north.

My fresher's room in a hall (roscoe and Gladstone) has long been knocked down and replaced with something considerably more fancy was ? Can anyone remember late 1990s costs? Shared bathroom but room was perfectly adequate, if basic.

'Make them'?

We just talked to dd about how much she needed for her rent/bills and told her not to spend that on nonsense.

We do the same. Accommodation £7.7k which we pay, min maintenance loan £4.5k, which he pays to us and we then divide up and give back to him monthly so he has a monthly amount for the months he’s at uni. We divide the yearly amount by 9 months so he gets the same payment Sep - May inclusive. Which encourages him to work in the holidays.

It covers food, nights out, sports membership, gym, haircuts, toiletries etc. Also laundry which is £££ - he doesn’t bring it home as we live nearly 500 miles away.

If accommodation and tuition are paid for why are you giving him anything late? He can get a job.

🙄

I think she likes him, her son.