To ask what your provision is for your DC uni?

[Bluffyslummers]

I see it a lot on here in the debates of can I afford another child, especially after 2 children.

No one of course knows if their child will go to university or what university tuition or funding will look like, but if your saving for your children later in life, what does that look like?

for instance for us, we have 2 children. When my eldest was 4 we opened stocks and shares ISAs with a lump sum and we put in £70 a month each. We’ve started claim child benefit too, so now pay in child benefit (minus what we have to pay back- roughly estimated of course).

if you’re comfortable sharing, I’d be interested to know what you’re saving for your DC?

It’s a really good idea as the recruitment process for internships is often the same as the graduate application process. When ds was at his assessment centre some applicants were there for graduate roles, some for internships and some for placement years. When he later applied for graduate roles he knew exactly how the system worked and his strengths and weaknesses.

BUT, it’s about living within our means right, and priorities. I think it’s a bit silly to insinuate that you don’t have a happy childhood without a birthday party. Many people don’t even celebrate birthdays. Holidays, days out, park days, baking, arts and crafts that’s all happiness for a child. They’ve not had any to date, mainly because we have a day out instead but people around to play at the house with a cake and party food is still a party- just a low cost one.

My approach was to keep working throughout he younger years to keep my earning potential healthy. Now we’re at the uni stage we can fund him termly out of our earnings.

We top up the maintenance loan to match the rent, then add £70 pw (term time only). Its a relatively cheap city though - he’d need more if he was in Bristol / London.

personally given the cost in London, I think unless absolutely necessary, I’d be steering my children away from a London degree. I can’t think of many scenarios that you can only get that degree in London

And I think where I fell down was experience of actually working in something related to my field, I’d worked more part time pub work where I think if I’d done something more it would’ve given me that edge

I save all my child benefit until they means tested it then put in £50 each per month. They had enough each by university to support themselves with a minimum loan. Not everyone can afford this but if you can it's the best solution as you save gradually

Read an article in one of the Sunday papers where a couple had spent £800 on child’s birthday party - making memories…I think my dcs had a good time celebrating with their friends when they were younger and we played all the games dh had played as kids - pass the parcel, musical statues etc.

DS is just about to start his 3rd year. He had part time job through college so saved himself some money but otherwise just the loan and his own part time earnings. I provided bits and pieces he needed for flat share and collected foodstuffs like rice pasta tins etc so he hasmd food basics. He also managed to run a car

We also made it clear we couldn't afford London, Bristol meant living at home and commuting an hour as accommodation is a nightmare - both opted for cheaper cities

All those things pass the parcel and musical chairs etc, fairly low cost, easily done at home. No need to rent out a swim pool with floats or a whole soft play for 30 kids or laser tag or bowling etc

We did save for our kids, but not to fund uni. We saved to give them both lump sums at 18.

We didn’t have the foresight to save for uni costs, but we are lucky enough that we could afford the additional expense and that we had only 2 kids. After 7 years of paying out, our youngest has just graduated. It is very expensive to fund those years, so parents should factor it in to future planning.

Im in the same situation. Single parent to 3, no means to save for them, eldest didnt want to go to uni and works. Middle starting a local uni and staying at home, youngest planning the same. We are lucky to have 3 good unis close to home, 1 they both prefer as its the uni i attended. They have the choice to go further and leave home, but i couldnt offer any financial support really, so they decided to stay here.

We had our children young unplanned, eldest is 13, so we didn't have plan until recently tbh. I'm about to finish paying off my student loans which cost me about £350 a month, as I'm used to not having that money, we are just going to put it straight into savings for uni which should give a healthy pot by the time he is 18, and we will basically keep topping it up by the £350 until they're out of uni essentially (we have 2 kids, big enough age gap they won't be there at the same time) so that should cover much of it, though we can top up more if required.

No idea if they will go to uni tbh, it wouldn't be my preference unless it is something that will genuinely help them launch, so hopefully it might help go towards a house deposit if they don't go (obviously won't tell them this, don't want their decision to be swayed by cash),

We're not saving. Ours will take out loans for tuition and will get the minimum loan for living expenses which they can use for day to day spending. We will pay for their accommodation out of our income. I would rather give them a lump sum for a house deposit than paying for uni.

We save £200 a month so equates to £100 per child. We will increase this once nursery fees are done with. I don't plan on the kids using this for university, I'd rather they used whatever we have for them to go travelling, buy a house, a car, whatever they want to do with it really. I will expect they will take loans for university and we will give them a top up monthly (hopefully!).

By the way you don't pay back your child benefit (in the sense as you don't get a bill from them), when you do your tax return they adjust your tax for the following year so you pay it back by paying more tax that year.

We had to pay it back entirely before, it wasn’t adjusted from tax, they asked for us to pay it back so we did and stopped claiming, now the threshold has altered we’re claiming it again, and we’ll pay back the difference

What happens if you don’t live near a uni that’s doing your course?

My son is going to uni this year, the nearest appropriate uni doing his course is about 3 hours away so living at home isn’t an option. He wants the whole living on campus experience too, like his brother had.

To be honest if it wasn’t for the fact he’ll be getting a monthly allowance I’m not sure how he would manage as his course is going to be hard work and may not give him enough time to have a proper job alongside it. He is planning on getting casual work though.

Living at home must affect the social side though, doesn’t it?

I do think now though that parents need to start college funds in the way American families do, otherwise it’s virtually impossible to survive there without help especially if you come from poorer families, and for them to save is also a problem. Uni’s going to be for rich kids the way it’s getting so expensive.

Or many will be inspired to think about future provision for their kids and consider ways now or in the future to do what they can

DS8 has savings of £5k in a JISA which we’re adding small amounts to every now and then, but not saving much directly for him at the moment because we’re prioritising overpaying the mortgage. We’re hoping we should have paid it off in about 8 years, by which time DS will be 16, and we’ll then have the mortgage+overpayment money available to save more for DS for a couple of years and cover uni expenses. I expect him to get a tuition fee loan but if we can I’d like to be able to cover his accommodation and living expenses so the debt he comes out with isn’t so crazy high.

We have an only and it’s likely DH and I will both inherit (of course you can’t rely on this), if we do then we’ll use that to give DS a housing deposit.

We started saving since our daughter was born. Initially it was about 100-ish per month in Cash JISA and as time goes by, we slowly increased it. At the moment, it is about 250/month, split between Cash JISA and S&S JISA. By the time she's 18, hopefully there'll be about 50-60k, which she can use towards living cost while at the uni (if she decides to do it). I am still in two minds about covering her tuition fees or not as things may change by then.

Ds starts this year. We are in Scotland so no tuition fees. He'll take out a maintenance loan which will be the minimum based on our earnings. He'll pay that back when he earns enough - just like I've had to.

We will give him what we can - probably £50ish a week. He has saved some money from a PT job and is lucky it's close enough he can continue it when at Uni.

Same for Dd if / when she goes.

We don’t really have the American set up though do we in terms of community college and ability to transfer credits, or the American model of sports scholarship.

i do think it is best to stay home where possible, ie if it’s a more generic degree like history or even medicine you don’t need to go to UCL if you can stay and do a degree in Manchester (these are just for instances). The campus experience tbh is a bit of a scam in my experience, many other cultures manage perfectly fine

So much could change. Couldn't save a penny when dcs were younger. By time uni for dc2 came up, finances had changed drastically pretty.much overnight and so had health. They got min loan, needed more expensive accommodation and are unable to work due to disability. Thankfully we have been able to get through it. Save what you can but don't scrimp on childhood at possibility of uni....grants may come back, degree apprenticeships could be more available, they could take another career route etc.

I’m in 2 minds about a house deposit too, as realistically most mortgages need 2 people. I think it’s better for the couple to earn and save together, I’ve know a few people bought a house, one family has gifted the deposit and they split and all is gone

By the way you don't pay back your child benefit (in the sense as you don't get a bill from them), when you do your tax return they adjust your tax for the following year so you pay it back by paying more tax that year.

Sorry not related to the thread but I just want to say I hope they give you an option? I set mine aside and just want you to pay it back (first year) is that usually an option? I don't want my tax adjusted (I've got over £2000 to pay back).