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?

There is a useful Facebook group- what I wished I knew about university- which has lots of info on a huge range of things. One frequently asked question is how much students have to live on. Overwhelmingly students have in the region of £50 a week after accommodation is paid. Some parents can’t afford to help their children and they have less and others give their child crazy amounts. A fair few pay their child’s accommodation and the minimum loan- about £4.9k- is for them to live on. This equates to about £150 a week in term time which is a huge amount for a student. It depends where they are at uni- some
you don’t need public transport to get into the town/supermarket etc so no travel costs. For £25/30 you can eat well with quality food and some treats. A wash is around £3.50 which leaves £25 for fun money if they had £60. They are students after all! I would encourage a summer job- they could easily save around £1.5k if they did 4 shifts a week which would be extra fun money for them. Don’t feel guilty- £60 is a good amount and if you send her with lots of store
cupboard items. This years Nationwide account gave them £100 cash and £120 just eat vouchers so they can have a takeaway every month. Don’t over think it- I know it’s hard not to!

I think I used to spend £60 a week on snakebite and blackcurrant at Uni, and that was 20 years ago. It seems a tad tight.

Lots of societies where mine is are free or minimal amounts so if she has a bit extra for joining these she will be fine

Well I used to withdraw £7 a week to live on, but it's the equivalent of £90 now. And I didn't have any travel as I didn't go anywhere. I certainly didn't feel I was well off.

I haven't read all the replies, so sorry if this has been said already, but the 60 seems to be based on 52 weeks of the year. Will she be living away from home all the time, or just term time? If term time only, won't her weekly spend be more like 75-85 (depending on the number of weeks of the course).

He manages fine. In fact he managed to save money from it last year. If he needed more money we would give him more. He can’t get a job his course is far too intensive. There are no costs associated with his course. It’s all online so no books or stationery. We buy him toiletries for the term when he’s home and get him a big food shop when he goes back. He is very low maintenance. Walks everywhere but gets the occasional uber home when he’s out. My mum does give him £50 a month for treats .

@Lex345 just seen that your dc hasn’t actually applied yet so you have a few options depending on what your DC is like :

1. apply and defer - get a job which will be great experience and save up a large lump sum - this will mean lots of experience and will help with future job prospects + they can enjoy uni life to the fullest (I can remmeber going through quite a bit of my budget in freshers week alone)

2. stay at home to make things markedly cheaper which they have already said they don’t want to do

3. don’t defer, go outside of home but accept it will likely be right. If your dc thinks they can manage this, then it will be 3 years on a shoe string budget - if outside of London probably manageable but not the most fun and Ofc hoping they can get a job whilst in their new city. If your dc isn’t super sociable or doesn’t drink then this might be ok for them

Lots of people are saying it is more than doable - I went to uni in the north of England nearly 20 years ago, my maintenance loan just about covered accomodation and I worked full time hours in the summer for 2 years and then part time for first 2 years as a carer. I’m sure I had more than £65 / week in the first couple of years and distinctly remember one occasion the day before my loan came in eating jam out of a jar for dinner! This was entirely my fault as I had spent food money on socialising / drinking. It was a valuable life lesson and I was better with budgeting thereafter.

Whatever your dc chooses to do - they will be fine. I did a 6 year degree and wasn’t able to work for the last 3.5 because of placements etc - Ofc there were times when I felt like I wasn’t having much fun and was desperate to get out of there, but there was also a lot of highs.you cook meals together, have cheap house parties, learn to live in a little uni bubble and it’s not real life but it’s your reality for that time. Essentially feeling poor won’t kill them but if they would rather have more money, they have agency to make choices to enable that to happen.

i dont think any of the options should include you getting a second job. They have agency to make decisions but with that comes consequences. And not a good precedent if you have another dc who will be going to university soon.

Its easy to live in £60 a week. But depends where you are located, because travel and food is more expensive at other places. I stop struggling to live on £45 a week.

Where is she going to uni? It would stretch a lot further in e.g. Leeds than London.

It is a very tight budget - a weekly bus pass in my city is £25. It would probably cover food if meal planning, shopping in aldi etc but she will struggle to fund anything beyond that.

She walked into every local cafe and shop too. Her friends tried as well. V few got lucky. The idea that students can walk into jobs easily is not the case in every city. And she had retail experience since she was 16 and was desperate to find a job.

Yeah, but when was that? Most things have increased in price recently

What no-one ever tells you when you're looking at Uni, is that, as parents you will have to provide financial support alongside the student loan, as it's never enough! (unless they're lucky enough to get a decent job, and thats dependent on their course!) Oh, and the loan gets less each year, so by year 3 when their rent is at it's highest, their loan amount is at it's smallest! Crazy! good luck!

I suppose it depends how frugal they are. My daughter is in first year currently, she has £75 a week. First week she spent it all on fresher's, this week she has £25 left. She meal plans (she loves to cook) l, hand washes what she can, she loves vinted and charity shops for clothes (whilst somehow looking far too stylish!) she is looking for a weekend job but it's dog eat dog at the moment. But last year she got a seasonal job beforehand and saved enough for her £75 a week she has now. She doesn't drink very often and even when she does it's not much. She joined societies within her interest that were on the cheaper scale and didn't require buying tons of kit. To start her off I bought uni essentials over the 18 months before and did the first food shop for essentials and some of the more expensive stuff that will last such as oil, butter etc.

It can't compare because that was before Brexit and COVID exploded the prices of everything! Things in Iceland frozen food shop were often a £1 a box back then, now is £4.50 a box or three for a tenner.

OP - I think one thing to bear in mind when you are reading this thread is what I will call "the small print". Lots of people saying their DC manage on £x amount a week, but then slipping in that they buy them a big food shop every term/few weeks, pay for their bus pass, phone or gym membership, cover travel home, have bought them a bike or a laptop or course materials.

I think you need to be clear whether the money that DD has is literally covering everything (in which case she will absolutely struggle on £60 a week if she wants to do more than survive) or whether you are providing lots of items in kind, so her money doesn't have to cover so much.

Lol in the last 3 years food prices went up, used to doesnt mean anything

I think it's definitely worth having a conversation about budgets and expectations whilst looking at options.

The travel costs are a good example. I didn't need to ever get a bus anywhere at uni, socialising, shopping, getting to lectures etc. could all be done on foot. So if you're on a tight budget, choosing somewhere where you're not going to need to get buses/trams/trains regularly is valuable.

My DS is currently at Nottingham. Dropped him off with a big supermarket shopping (including toiletries, detergent, etc) and he is now on £60 a week from us. He does fine. He goes to Lidl and eats ok, has learned to cook. He still manages to go out with his chums. Your DD will be fine. Don't fret.

I used to just work as much as possible during Easter/christmas/summer (lucky enough to find a pub that liked me as a Christmas temp and would have me back whenever I came home from uni) and save up to tide me over the next term. This worked really well for me as it didn’t interfere with my uni work

This. 😂

I used to feed our family of four on £65 a week pre 2020! Our shopping now is poorer quality and double the price

I havnt been to Uni but when my friend's daughter went we stocked her up on essentials and a few treats. Toilet rolls, toothpaste, soap, deodorant,shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, washing liquid, fabric conditioner, first aid kit, moisturiser, hand cream, washing up liquid, tea towels. Slow cooker, toaster, small frying pan, saucepan etc., vouchers for local supermarket. Plus tins of food, quick food like pot noodles, oats so simple, soup, tea bags, coffee, creamer, drinking chocolate, instant noodles etc etc car was rammed. Students cookery book. Plus money in an account she could get if really needed, which her mom topped up a bit each month. A plastic box with lid she could keep under her bed to keep food in as cupboard space was very limited. Oh and a warm fleecy blanket for cold nights.
She should be ok with planning, and can cook a basic meal with not a lot of money. Practice at home before she goes is good. Also check what's provided like crockery and cutlery.

@redskydelight@Lex345
We did a zero based budget exercise. We thought of every single thing dc needed and decided what we would cover and what was down to dc. As you say, some parents pay for a lot and others don’t so work out what you expect £60 to cover. Our DDs liked clothes so who is buying the winter coat? The cost of going out is now quite a lot of money. If dc intend to go out, then look at realistic costs. Don’t expect a gregarious child to suddenly become a room hermit. It won’t happen. My DDs also went to see mates at nearish universities on the train. It all adds up.

Most of all carefully review hall costs. I bet this is the biggest saving.

Totally agree @OhDear111 We were extremely clear with DD about what we would pay for and what extra help we would give her (e.g. big food shop at start of term, paying for a railcard) and what was down to her. It means she can budget effectively, realise that money doesn't grow on trees, and was keen to get a summer job (she'd like a term time job as well, but not been successful in finding one so far).

Sites like this were useful in helping us to confirm that the financial help we would offer made DD similar to many other students in terms of what she could afford to do (whilst highlighting that some students are really quite seriously well off!).

We do, of course, occasionally buy her the odd extra thing, and sometimes stumble across items we hadn't considered (e.g. she's just had her eyes tested and her prescription has changed a lot so she needed new glasses ) so you just manage those decisions as you go along (we paid for DD's glasses as we considered them an essential and didn't want her to skimp).

I apologise if these things have already been mentioned, I haven’t read through all the messages. Up until recently I worked in the student advice sector and I think this is a very tight budget.
Has she decided on a particular university? If so, it’s worth seeing exactly what they offer regarding Halls accommodation (in room facilities/shared accommodation etc..). Have you looked if there are any private halls on the area? These can be cheaper than university run halls but vary wildly in what they offer. Also, depending on the course she has chosen are there additional expenses? Art courses, for example, will require a lot more out of pocket expense.
She shouldI look to see if the university offer any bursary’s or financial support themselves that she would qualify for. Quite often you can get pockets of funding for £500-1000 which could make all the difference.
Lastly, I would strongly suggest when she gets a summer/weekend job she consider a supermarket or other national chain (Costa/Starbucks/maccies etc …) because often they will suppport students to transfer to a branch near uni which means she would have an instant job to go to.

She won’t be able to live off £60 a week if it’s cover all food, toiletries, socialising, travel etc so she will need to find ways to increase it.
accomodation has gotten insane compared to when I went.