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?

My foster son has found it costs him about £45 for food. That's cooking in halls. He only eats out once a week now which is either a Spoons breakfast or lunch, so cheap. He's joined a few societies. Th cricket one cost £100 for the year, volleyball £50. He wants to join Taikwando but is working out if he can afford it first. On his Sports course he had to buy uniform tops, hoodies and trousers costing £180. Just going out to the local pub or Union bar even for a soft drink like he has all adds up. Clothes would be extra. I think £80 is minimum to cover the things you mention. Before foster son went I bought him 10 new socks and pants, 2 pairs jeans, 4 t shirts, 2 hoodies and a new jacket. He bought himself 2 shirts and a pair of chinos. I also let him take from home kitchen foil, greaseproof liners for air fryer, herbs, spices, seasoning, olive oil, cleaning sprays, cloths and a duster and a bag full of tins and dried food.DH took him shopping for frozen and fresh food and spent £85 on him.

I don't know which area you are referring to but wanted to highlight that whilst I agree that private student halls might be cheaper than year round private accommodation, the operative word is "cheaper". They are still not cheap!

She ought to be able to get her food for £5 a day. She doesn't need to eat fancy food and drink soft drinks all the time. Then she has £25 for everything else. I would say it is just doable, I mean there are people on here feeding families of 4 for £100 a week. I think you should probably pay for train fairs home and buy her household cleaning products at the start of term until she finds a job.

She needs to own her decision to move away and not stay at home.

She needs to pay her own pay.

My DS lived away year one as that's all we could afford to support and this year is commuting but train alone is £200 a month for a monthly ticket. But at least he's eating at home and can take a sandwich.

Sit her down and explain how much this all going to cost and that she needs to fund it. If you can help great but she should based her decision on you giving her her weekly spends. What is circumstances change and you can't help?.

Really we need to normalise more non uni options - apprenticeships etc. University is an astonishingly expensive way to learn and often people study things employers don't value anyway. If fewer people went to uni the government could fund those that do go at a better rate.

It also needs to be a standard that you take a year or two after school to earn money and save for it. Or people need to plan on saving from much earlier in a childs life

I think your daughter will be fine OP.
Mine is still in uni and gets the maximum loan/grant and I can’t afford to give her regular monies, but she had a couple of thousand of Child Trust Fund behind her, and she has not needed to dip into it.

I pay all her travel to and from uni every term and half term. I still pay for her mobile phone, which is cheap as it is long paid off. I bought her everything she needed to set up in halls, eg linens, mesh laundry bags, a rack that sits over her radiator for clothes that don’t go in the dryer, and I spent about £150 on her first food shop which mainly included dried goods like pasta, spices & herbs, sauces etc and which she used to cook from scratch all that first term. I also left her a couple of bottles of wine. Her uni is quite far away and I only get to visit annually but I still leave a “shop” behind. Her halls were about 2 miles from uni snd she always walked in and out. I buy her clothes and trainers for Christmas and birthdays or give her money and a small token gift or two. She also had to pay a halls deposit of about £500 before A level results even came out, and I lent her that - but I waived the loan as the main part of her next birthday present. So that saved her lots that first year.

DD was very surprised how few of her peers knew how to cook. She teamed up with a friend and they did dinner together every night. They made curries, pasta bakes, and similar, mainly vegetarian as cheaper. A meal lasts them about 3 days. DD is queen of yellow sticker shopping and enjoys the challenge of eating well for less. She sends me photos of her successful hauls!

They almost never go out clubbing or to pubs but they drink wine with friends, initially in halls and now in their student flats/parties. Their student halls flat had regular games nights. She uses my Netflix subscription and her flatmate uses her parents’ Amazon account. They don’t watch live TV or iplayer so they don’t need a TV licence.

She gets almost all her uni books from the library.

I bought DD a small coffee machine and milk frother for her birthday once she moved into her first private flat and the girls buy fancy pods rather than costly coffees en route to uni.

DD only worked during the holidays for her first year in order to settle in. Then she got a job in a shop to get the employee clothing discount- and she is still there. She loves that job and really likes her Co-workers. Unfortunately her shop job doesn’t have a branch near where I live but somewhere like Tesco or M&S is a handy one for shifting between term time and holidays. DD’s term time is 22 weeks + exams so plenty of time for her to work outside of this.

I think DD still feels poor, as her uni seems to have a lot of wealthy privately schooled kids, but she has everything she needs, independence, does some volunteer work, and is healthy and happy. Having access to discounted trendy clothes from her job helps her feel like she’s keeping up with those well-dressed, confident-seeming rich kids at university. I hope & expect your DD thrives. Giving your children a secure loving foundation is the best preparation for life and I’m sure you’ve done a great job.

Well of course there is competition.

The trick is to make yourself the best person to hire.

And yes, occasionally students miss lectures. Today with so many resources online, it's probably not as big a deal as it used to be. Learning to cope with things like this is a good life skill.

The alternative for students who dont want a job or can't find one, is to live on very little. Or organise their uni on such a way to minimise their costs (cheap locations / staying at home).

Quite agree @redskydelight. Absolutely not cheap, but cheaper. It's simply that the September-June contract makes it an option in the city where my daughter is.

If you’re contributing £3000, then DD will have closer to £85/90 per week, as the £3000 isn't for 52 weeks, it’s more like 30-35. Even based on 40 weeks, it still gives her £75 per week 😊

Dd has just started. It would probably be ok if they don't do sport, go clubbing, eat in cafes. If they want to do these things, i'd estimate £100 pw. You can save quite a bit in a gap year if you can get work.

No way she’d cover course materials, food, clothes, travel, socialising etc. with 60

would personally estimate that as 100 min!

Missing lectures is absolutely a big deal. They are paying £££££ for these lectures and it will impact the final result. For thiose with SEN and/ or NDs missing lectures is not an option. These students are already coping with plenty.

The students on the full loans or with rich parents are going to have a very unfair advantage if those in the middle on minimum loans with parents unable to top up are expected to miss lectures just to stay there.

I worked on campus throughout my university degree. I managed to get 3 shifts a week at the student bar, picked up other random bar work at various balls and then did shifts at the half term playscheme during reading week. Plus if I was short, I could always pick up extra shifts at the bar. I used to get bought quite a few drinks at the student bar, which I used to take as bottles of alcopops at the end of the night. Plus I could take leftover food, if I was in the bar kitchen rather than the bar. It was win, win, I was getting paid rather than spending money and I saw my mates and I made new ones behind the bar too!

My sister worked in the kitchens of one of the catered halls and used to get given food during shifts and often could take stuff home. I think she spent most of her time washing up but it gave her money and free food.

I would investigate campus working and how/when to apply when you visit. I did this before I went and so did my sister as the window to apply was often tiny, but it meant you got shifts around your timetable and it was understanding employers.

Tinned pilchards. That's what I survived on at Uni - very nutritious and cheap.

My son has just started university. His accommodation in halls is £8500 a year ( this is catered but doesn’t cover food/ drinks for the whole day or weekends) We are paying the extra £3k and also giving him £30 a week for extra food, laundry etc.
He has worked the past year and saved up his socialising money.

If your DD has a job now, it's worth considering if she could defer uni a year and work full-time in her current job to save more. I did this and it was really helpful as I built up a tidy sum. I was also able to transfer my job to my uni town too, which was great.

I had boring household gifts for Christmas and my birthday...

• big box of laundry powder from my uncle (my housemates were so jealous of this particular gift!!)
• annual bus pass from my grandparents
• TV licence for my birthday
• Textbooks as gifts or contributions towards buying 2nd hand copies.

Honestly, I didn't socialise much as none of us could really afford it.

Watch out for trip costs. My degree had a compulsory overseas trip in the 3rd year as part of the assessment. Worth finding this out early especially if you also need to purchase a passport!

Just food for thought here but she will not be at uni for 52 weeks! My son is now in his third year of uni and was just home for almost 4 months of summer. If you look at the student accommodation most do 41/42ish week tenancies and that doesn’t include Christmas break where she will likely be home.

What uni degrees require course materials these days apart from art degrees?

DD did a STEM degree. All she needed was a decent laptop and access to the Internet. For her post grad degree she splashed out on a tablet.

What uni degrees require course materials these days apart from art degrees?

DD did a STEM degree. All she needed was a decent laptop and access to the Internet. For her post grad degree she splashed out on a tablet.

And how many years ago was that?

She will need to get a job.

English :) DD's course is pretty good at telling them about materials available online or through the library, but they can't get away without buying anything.

This was what I got from my parents to cover non rent living expenses when I was at uni. It was 1997. It wasn’t enough even back then.

UCAS has information on this. https://www.ucas.com/money-and-student-life/money/managing-money/how-much-does-uni-or-college-cost

I work at a university so I know full well that students still work. On the course I teach on right now I tutor 30 students 1 to 1. All except the richest few work. Most in bars and restaurants, many also do things like tutoring and shop work. There are jobs, and to pretend it is impossible for uni students to get part time work is a nonsense. I have taught for the last 20 years at unis across the country and there has never been a place or time where part time work was impossible to come by. As I say, if you need to work, you work.