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?

How many weeks is she actually at uni? £3000 over 52 weeks is £57 but they're only actually away for about 40 weeks which would be about £75 a week. Sorry if I've missed something but I just thought you might be doing your calculations over a full year?

I do a weekly Asda order, my exact same order in 2022 compared to 2025 is ridiculous
£57-£88
I mean olive oil went from £3.45 to about £8 something
Madness

My DD currently has £35 a week for food and laundry. She seems to be managing fine (although is veggie so cheaper). Also doesn't drink much. Re socialising, students don't seem to buy drinks when out, just drink before going out. Also she has some savings from working before uni so if she needs to she has that to dip into for extras.

Uni loans are a joke. It barely covers the basics. When my daughter got her student finance statement for year 3 it was so low it didnt cover her rent (which was £1615) a quarter (Liverpool) including bills. Her grandma used to send her £100 a month which she used for food. She didnt socialise much is the 3rd year, she lived in the library and didnt go to the pub. We ended up paying the rent. It is generally assumed that parents will bridge the cap between what the loan amount is and what they need to survive. She got a 2:1.

@Mackerelfillets Did you not know about the parental contribution? That’s also a fairly low rent! Minimum loan means maximum contribution from parents. For most students, the loan doesn’t cover halls or student house rent! I would always advise parents to go to open days at universities and any school talks on uni application. Plus read MSE on student loans many years in advance. Parents are expected to contribute and always have been expected to contribute!

Yes we knew and we had been financially supporting her in the other years too. She actually did 4 years as she swapped courses after the first year. She did work when she was home and through the summer. It was just the last year that cost us £6,000. We thought that was a bit steep and a squeeze for us. We have 2 other kids. Luckily neither of them decided to go.

I think you quite right that it will vary by Uni, there’s likely lower level data covering that though I confess I have not looked.

i gues the timing is around that inflation spike. And particularly food, housing and utilities - the bulk of costs for most students. Food inflation - and particularly staples like pasta - was much higher than overall inflation, plus we all know about utility costs.

I suspect that many parents pre Covid and Ukraine might have thought with a DC due to go to Uni in the 2020s that finances might be stretched. What they probably didn’t consider was that interest rates would rise as rapidly as they did, maybe adding several hundred pounds a month to mortgage when coming to a new deal , or to rent, that gas and electric prices would more than double - maybe another £100/ month or more to that previously paid ; that food prices would shoot up - monthly food bill up by maybe a couple of hundred pounds. This perfect storm has I think caught many out. Maybe five to six hundred pounds, maybe more, added to basic monthly outgoings plus money on top to support a DC / DCs at Uni. Suddenly what seemed to not too unreasonable has become a much bigger financial challenge.

How long ago though?

I'm in Ireland so things are a bit different here. There isn't a student loan system in place. There are also "no fees" but instead an administration expense of €3000 or so each year. There are grants available for those on lower incomes.

I'm just looking into this now as my eldest will hopefully be off to uni in 2027, so a while to go yet. Based on our earnings, he is not expected to qualify for a grant (just missing out) . We will have to pay the admin fee and for everything else. If we get a loan, it's a normal loan from a bank, repayable over the usual terms (3, 4 years or whatever) regardless of when the student finishes, what their earnings are etc etc.

For a 4 year degree course, living away from home, we are looking at a minimum of €50,000 before food etc. Times that by 3 kids and, well, it's just not doable.

So our eldest already knows his options are to go to either of the 3 (4 at a push) unis that he can commute to. Or take a few years off, get a job and apply later /as a mature student. He has decided the local unis have all the options he could want.

My DD just started uni earlier this month and we give her £50 a week and it's working out fine. She is in halls so all her bills are paid for and we pay her phone separately. The £50 is mainly for food, the launderette and bits and bobs. She pays for her own socialising and new clothes after working 3 jobs all summer. I pay for her train ticket on top of that when she wants to come home. She is coming home every 3rd weekend and working to top up her going out fund!

Why would £60 not be enough for food? My weekly spend on me and another adult is £80 maximum.

Dd is away at uni on a budget of £60 for weekly essentials (food, snacks out, toiletries). Shes got extra money for things like clothes, shoes, extras she needs for her course.

Get your DD to join sites like "feed yourself for £1/day" may get ideas how to live cheaply plus can pass tips onto other students to help them out, the site is on Facebook.

No, the £60 would be for all expenses - not just food.

@SleepyHollowed84Our nearest university is in the bottom 10% in league tables and didn’t do DDs subject. No bus route. Next nearest is Oxford! What should be do? No transport there either! Oxford Brookes doesn’t do her subject either.

How long ago?

It can’t possibly have been given the cost of food these days!

£60 is still plenty imho. I think my dd is currently spending about £30-35 atm on her weekly groceries. Thats leaving plenty for extras.

We agreed on £60 per week because that was the amount suggested by most other parents of kiddos at uni.......... on a MN thread about a month ago!

It wont be enough Im sure if wanting to buy expensive hair/beauty/make up products. Fancy clothes, Brand name stuff. - but as someone said to me when I was a student in the 90s............"dont be buying Heinz ketchup as a student unless you really really want it. The cheapo stuff will do fine"

The 2k in savings divided into the weeks away should give another 40 or 50 per week.
Then she needs to work in the summer holidays to save for next year .

Well yes, student life is frugal and you have to tighten your belt, especially if you're not willing to get a job.

£60 is enough to cover food and a modest social life. She might need help with buying books at the start of term.

It's unlikely she actually needs clothes, the chances are she has plenty already. Students are supposed to be scruffy anyway.

This has been very helpful for me so thanks for all the suggestions.

We will need to top up DD’s accommodation costs so guessing about £1k per term for 3 years which we have saved.

We’re also planning on giving her £200 a month from our normal monthly budget, probably all year rather than just in term time. (She currently gets £50 a month pocket money so the £200 is that plus her quarter of our normal grocery budget.)

I’m planning on sending her with a big shop of staples each term/ visit, and I will buy her a prescription prepayment certificate, pay for glasses if she needs them, and continue to pay for her phone. I will probably also pay for travel home and she will get random amounts from various relatives so I think she’ll be ok. She is already very frugal, doesn’t drink and is tiny so doesn’t eat nearly as much as giant DS will when it’s his turn.

DD has been trying to get a job for ages and hopefully starts waitressing in a few weeks. She is hoping to work in term time, but if she can’t manage it due to various health issues then she will just work in the holidays.

I am hoping this all works out as we also need to save for when DS goes to uni 3 years later.

I meant to say, if £60 a week is what you can spare then that’s what they can have!

It would be lovely if we were all rich enough to pay for everything and for the DCs to not have to go into debt but that’s not real life.

All you can do is make it clear what you can pay and then your DC can decide what to do. I don’t feel any need to provide DD with “fun” money, if she wants fun that costs money then she’ll have to earn it!

In Scotland students receive their loans monthly (the first is a double payment) and can also choose to receive their loans over the full 12 months rather than just the academic year. This really helps with budgeting. I can imagine a lot of students in England could go a bit mad the first couple of weeks and leave themselves not a lot to live on for the rest of term.
I think it's also important to recognise that there are upfront costs like flat deposits if not in halls or halls asking for rent in advance before loan payments are received. My ds moved into a new flat in the summer. He had to pay roughly £2000 (fees, deposit plus 1st months rent) before he got the keys. This can wipe out the majority of a students savings unless the parents can afford to pay it (luckily we could). Also in my experience students rarely get their full deposit back so we accept that money is gone - just another parental contribution.
They will also need a guarantor for their rent which is something for parents to think about when deciding how much allowance you can afford. I have heard of parents being forced to pay their children's rent in halls when their children defaulted or even dropped out. This will probably be over £800 a month.
When our children all left home to go to uni I continued to buy the same amount of their favourite cupboard food and batch cooked the same amount of curry etc for the first year or so, so that when they came home for a visit they could raid the cupboards / freezer.
On a positive note, your electricity bill will really fall.

She will just have to do what many students do, get a part-time job.

This is absolutely fair.
welcome to adult hood , it’s tough out there will all be worth it in the end tho.
That and value tinned Toms on toast - we all survived.

They just have to work really. DD worked since 15, she supplements her student budget with tutoring and working in a cafe. When she’s home she works in the pub. She was lucky enough to get a paid internship over the summer but those are difficult to come by. All her work experience was really valued by her intern placement and she’s been offered a grad job. It’s amazing how many young people graduate without any work experience.