To think £60 a week to live on will be a struggle for DD at uni?

[Lex345]

Just that, essentially. DD is looking at moving into halls next September and when we looked at the cost of halls, based on her budget, this is how much she will have left to cover course materials, food, clothes, travel, socialising etc.

All bills would be covered, but I think this will be a very, very tight budget even just on food. She is planning on moving away from our home area and will be looking for a job as well, but I know that isn't a guarantee, especially not immediately in a new city.

AIBU to think this will be really hard to live on, or am I being completely ridiculous and DD will be absolutely fine, £60/week is plenty?

If she is adamant she wants to move away then I’d leave her with it. Staying at home and living out for the first year is a perfectly reasonable suggestion. She’ll be an adult soon. Let her do the leg work of organising a budget.

I used to use my grant back in the day, then get a job in all holidays to pay off sny debts but that was a long time ago. Jobs are harder to get now and there are no grants any more. But I did manage to just sbout end up with no.long term debt. Working where you can definitely helps..so long as it doesn't interfere with study.

Up to age 24
Job seekers allowance is £72 in UK per week
Therefore a person would need to pay food, bills, transport, laundry, social

I think £60 per week is fine for a student

If they want more, they need to work

They should look at the food waste reduction apps like

Olio
Too Good To Go

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When I was a student, I lived very frugally.
I ate the same things (no meat)
Easy to cook
Walked everywhere

Thing is, if she decides she's not going to get a job, then she'll just have to cut her cloth.

I had a friend in uni who, for various reasons, was living on very little. He ate mostly porridge oats and eggs and whatever fruit/veg he could get cheap. He didn't get to socialise much unfortunately. Toiletries were the cheapest he could get (easier for a male I guess).

He got through a year of that fine and the next year he was in a better financial position. I'm not saying it was fun, but he did survive.

I managed to get through University without buying a single book. She needs to get very savvy about making the most of the library resources and borrowing relevant books as soon as the homework is issued.

Not being negative here OP but Year 1 is a doddle compared to the next years.

She will find landlords can be very demanding and rentals can be very high. You will need to be her guarantor .
Depending on the lease, she may have to contribute to all the utility bills and not default on those or the rent.

Can you say which town or city she's considering?

As I've said, some students have to cross some off their lists simply because of the cost of accommodation or lack of p/t work.

@OhDear111 Sorry yes, having thought about it, the halls were more expensive than I thought but not like the fees you've mentioned.

DS1 was £125 per week (en suite)
DS2 is £175 per week (en suite)

We really didn't need to to add much to the rent for DS1 (it was a different matter in his 2nd and 3rd year flats though...) but we are having to top up more for DS2 although we're not looking at hall fees of anywhere near £10,000 thankfully 😯

Job seekers aren’t going into uni everyday tho so have more time to batch cook and don’t have the social life of uni student to fund

Hey OP,

It's natural to worry & good to plan.

I personally think she'll do fine IF she saves a bit of a buffer next Summer before she goes. If she can get decent hours after exams until September she'll save a good bit.

After that she should concentrate on a p/time job. DS works 10 hours a week- bar/ cafe- & has lived on £100 a week all through uni (final year now). He saves tips & this pays for weekends away (with societies or cheap camping with flatmates). It can be done. He was away all Summer so had to give up previous job. 2 weeks before term started he printed 30 CVs & did the old fashioned walk in/ handshake/ big smile/ here's my CV. He got 2 calls & secured a job within those 2 weeks. It's not easy but there's work out there.

Good luck

You also need to consider quality of life. There is surviving and then there is actually enjoying the experience. You don’t want her sat in every night with a pot noodle while all her friends are out socialising

I had a very good social life at uni

I've asked this and OP won't explain only that the £60 includes what her parents (presumably two, as she's says 'we' ) give her.

That makes little sense to me, so either OP hasn't understood the loans' system or she is deciding not to fulfil the parental contribution.

@Lex345 How much are you and her dad going to contribute weekly to get this to £60?

I think the bigger issue here is that she can't manage her A-levels whilst working, uni is considerably harder and will require a much stronger work ethic and she will need a job too. £60 isn't going to be enough. My fear would be that she isn't really aware of the reality of uni life, especially living away from home. I would recommend she gets a job asap so she starts to learn the balancing act

It's going to be very tight but doable. Hopefully she will be able to supplement it with some part time work, either during the terms or in her holidays - or both.

I used to send DD an occasional Tesco delivery, made up of cheap basics plus a couple of treats.

Surely a job is an option. I worked all the way through uni. I worked on saturdays in a lettings agency and also at a bar a few evenings a week. I know some courses are more in person hours than others but a job is a great idea. Employers like people who have some experience in work, you get people and business skills even working in a bar. If you are working you arent spending and you meet intetesting people. Even a saturday job would top her up quite a bit.

Get a job now weekend and holidays. All mine had to. Youngest earned 3k in the summer and 1k at Christmas when he came home. He was able to find work at university but just did shifts around his lectures.

He's doing his masters now his employer is happy for him to do two days a week.

Occasionally he'll message for some money for food, rent. But he and girlfriend manage to live frugally. Nine months to go and he's free.

In 2022-23, DS at Midlands Uni managed on < £30/week for food, self-catering. He chose not to have a social life. £60 sounds to me tight but not impossible.

Saturday jobs don’t really exist as such. If you look at job adverts they mostly all say 8/16/20 hours per week flexible over several days.

If she wants her independence, she needs to get a job!

She will have to work! I’m 36 at uni with a mortgage and children and don’t have the option not to work! It can be done. I’m on an intensive course with months of placements M-F but I work Friday and Saturday nights in a pub until 2AM (that was very easy to come by as no one wants to work those antisocial hours) and a retail shift either on a Saturday or Sunday during the day. It’s knackering and I have no social life as I also have children to care for but there are plenty of work options out there if you look hard enough.

I think Aldi beans have gone up. I used to be able to get 4 for £1. Think that was around 2020/covid

think they are more like 40p + a tin now

but yes I get your point jacket beans cheese

or mince for £3 and spaghetti

can make cheap meals for 2/3 days

After my contribution, DD had about £30 pw in first years (catered halls) and about £45 pw in other accommodation (now in final year). She had a hospitality job before she left, so saved up about £2k to take with her, and now works there every summer, Christmas and Easter when she comes home for a bit. That gives her enough to survive on and means she doesn't have to work during the term time. I do a big shop for her every time I take her back that keeps her going for a couple of weeks, plus helps her stock up on store cupboard stuff. She also uses an online bank account that lets her put money in different pots so she can budget.

So it's tight, but doable. And she's observed where others struggle, and learns from it. Plus she says things like, 'I wish I'd saved everything from before I went to uni, I had no idea everything was so expensive!' and I nod sagely and restrain myself from yelling, 'I told you so!!'. So we've both learnt a bit of valuable restraint :) I think it's been absolutely worth it for the experience for her.

What uni is it? And are there any transport costs that are unavoidable? YP in Scotland get a free bus pass, I think DC had a friend at Southampton that did too, but Bath for example, the cost of the bus to and from campus was iirc over £2 per journey so there and back 5 days a week is a big chunk of your weekly budget. Walking down the hill home in the summer is ok, but up the hill is not for the faint hearted! Not an issue in yr 1 if you’re not on campus, but from yr 2 onwards you need to take that into account.

If you can say what the uni is there’ll probably be lots of posters here that will have lots of inside knowledge / advice

This, they could club together and save on food costs? They just need one big slow cooker that could be prepped in the morning and put on, and then it'll be ready when they come back after lectures.

We paid rent, then the DC’s lived off their basic student loan and any money they had saved from summer jobs etc. One is still at uni in the final year. If they have a student bank account they get a free overdraft. We paid for their trains home.

Out of £60 in halls they need food, socialising money, maybe travel. Possibly textbooks, but that’s mostly online now unless maybe doing English.

Most students shop in Aldi or Lidl so cheaper, but I’d say that’d be at least £30pw so it’ll be tight.