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?

Yep we have another one to fund too. So 2 lots of rent to top up 😖and 2x £300 a month living expenses and 2x £400 bus season tickets.

My DD is a current 2nd year uni student and has £100 a week which she finds plenty, but I think she would struggle with £60. She worked (and saved) through sixth form and both summers so far. This money she uses for "one offs" such as holidays and weekends away to see friends in their uni towns.

She is a frugal and good cook and spends about £25-£30 a week in Lidl (they also seem to give her a load of money off vouchers). She has a washing machine in her house this year, but laundry in the first year was £3.50 a load - she did 3 loads a fortnight and also had to pay for the drier to dry bedding as there was no where else to realistically dry it.

She is doing a course (English) that requires a lot of books and although she has bought most second hand it constitutes a fair chunk of money. Others on different courses seem to have much lower or no course costs.

Bus fairs are £1.50 (student tickets). We bought her a second hand bike and she does cycle where she can.

Travel home is £25 (once or twice a term).

She is not a huge partier but will, for example, join others on her course for a coffee after lectures once a week. She's joined cheap societies. A lot of socialising is everyone bringing their own drinks to someone's flat. She goes clubbing 2 or 3 times a term. She has joined a cheap value gym (not the univ gym which is way more expensive).

We load her up with a big food shop and toiletries at the start of the year.

She has learnt to cut her own hair :) Clothes are supermarket or Primark.

I'd suggest your DD should look at getting a Christmas job, unless she has mocks straight after Christmas. My older child made a ton of money working every shift offered over the school Christmas holidays (but he had mocks in November). She should also definitely plan to get a summer job. As others have said, she should not rely on being able to find a job in her uni town - jobs tend to be fewer than the number of students (DD has been unsuccessful).

It's good you are thinking about it now. Be clear about what the money must cover and what you are also able to give her on top of the weekly/monthly maintenance money as useful things in kind (e.g. food, toiletries, kitchen items, bedding)

As a single young person, she can probably manage on £30/£40 on food (no take aways though). Transport might round it up to £50. She won't have much to socialise "out" . Clothes might have to be charity shops finds. Getting a part time job sounds like a very sensible idea.

Pps have also made a good point about the higher cost of accommodation in subsequent years, when they move out of halls.

And the need for the OP to be guarantor for rent, not to mention that house/flat shares are often further away from the university, necessitating travel costs.

Some cities are much more expensive to be a student in - Bristol, Exeter, Bath and London come to mind immediately.

This list might be helpful.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/news/cheapest-student-cities-uk

I think he's pretty chilled about that. They all seem to get on really well (flat of 6).

We did travel, gym/sports memberships/societies/some other big ticket things such as summer ball/party tickets as a separate pot too.

That’s really good to hear, my DC both had some nightmares with food thieves, a cooked chicken in the fridge after a night out would stand no chance.

That doesn't make much sense. If they are contributing £3K pa, that's the same as 52 weeks x £60. But a) they are not usually in halls for 52 weeks because term ends by June and b) she said the £60 a week included their contribution (not that it was solely made up of their contribution.)

He's been to boarding school...he's pretty relaxed about almost everything as a result! Although TBF he has only been at uni a couple of weeks so that relaxed attitude may change...

We gave DD £50 a week in year 1.
She had the option to live at home year 2 and 3; but chose not to because she wanted to be near friends, which is fine. She got a job April of year 1. We gave her £20 a week in year 2 and she is now in year 3 with £20 a week.
It must be enough; she can afford to go out! 😂

I work in a supermarket in a University city .
When the new intake of students come to the city we are inundated with flapping mums with their student children coming in buying essentials to set them up, then I see the Uni kids in with shopping lists trying to budget between them . We sell an awful lot of Pot noodles in this store 😂 , lastly we have a number of students working here in the store , in the bars and restaurants, they fit it around their studies . She won’t be the first and certainly not the last student to be in this position .
I actually work for a promo company called CPM, they have a lot of students on the books doing everything from leaflet dropping to instore supermarket promos (which I do) Might be worth her signing up with them and maybe similar companies . Stuck for staff is a good website for this . Hope it helps 😊

If she’s so dead set on moving away she’ll need to find a job and help fund it. In my experience if she’s moving to a big city there will be loads of jobs available for students.

Not in our experience of 2 big cities at all.

she needs to get a part time job. Uni will only be about 20hours a week so there’s plenty to of time for studying and working. Most students work part time now and it’s good for their cv too.

Yes. I would say £400 / month will be needed.

Some courses are a lot more than that and jobs that work round lectures are increasingly hard to find.

I wonder if students need to look into affordable housing availability and term time work opportunities before applying to uni.

I think it’s very tight. In the late 90s I was given £150 a month which was a nice amount at the time to cover food, books, socialising etc without getting a job. I’d work through the holidays to top that up. I think £100 a week would be more realistic but that’s likely only going to cover essentials.

I think it’s not enough in 2025

20 years ago?

Sometimes.

How much has she saved from a job over the summer?

A-levels finished months ago, she hasn't just lounged around all summer has she? It was completely standard when i went to university to work the summers/holidays. you needed to save as much as possible to top the money up. I did a weeks holiday with friends but apart from that worked almost full time, most of my friends did.

I think she's considering loan+their contribution - accommodation cost (which they cannot possibly know yet as it will be higher next year and they have no control where they live if going for uni accommodation)

But you are correct that, unless the student is doing a longer than usual course (and of course some exists) and is able to live for free at home during the summer they only need to factor in around 40 weeks at university and that the DC gets a job over the summer to cover any holidays/socialising/miscellaneous items over that time. That bring their uni weekly fund to about £75 which is a lot more doable as long as they are not a huge socialiser.

jobs that work round lectures are increasingly hard to find. bar work and restaurants are a good one but also there's huge demand for evening care shifts helping get people ready for bed.

Re accommodation for years 2 & 3. Check private halls. My daughter has moved into one with a friend for the specific reason that they are "academic year" contracts - i.e. no paying for the summer months. That makes an enormous difference & and made the private hall actually cheaper overall than a student house.

But if you are in a student town, everyone wants these jobs! And there are generally more students than there are jobs.

DD knows an increasing number of other students that are taking jobs that mean they have to miss lectures/workshops/labs etc because they need the job to be able to support themselves. I do not think this is a good thing.