Cost of kids at university

[MumofCandR]

I have 2 kids one may be in university in around 4 years and the other in 6 years. I'm trying to estimate how much to save up to help them through and I can't work out what's a reasonable amount. We are high earners so would only qualify for the minimum grants/ loans. I currently spend around 125 each a month on clubs and similar each on food. Clothes probably average 50 month each so probably 300 month spend per child that we won't have when they're at university. Did you contribute more when they went to University and was this significantly more? I'm thinking it's probably going to be 800-1000 month per child on top of maximum loans, does that seem reasonable?

It’s so variable, some Uni’s are far more expensive than others, are they going to be expecting to work in holidays or the summer before they go? I would budget £10,000 a year per child and you won’t be too far away

I topped ours up from the minimum to the maximum loan most of the time they were there, so that's a good starting place.

We did pay hall fees for the first year for our eldest, and then they lived on their loan. Our youngest had much cheaper accommodation available at their uni, so we just topped up to the maximum.

If they can get a part time/summer job then that covers luxuries/holidays.

I think most parents make up the difference between the loan their child gets and the maximum loan. We don't give our son any money but we take him to do a food shop at the beginning and middle of each term and take him out for lunch.

It's a real 'how long is a piece of string?' question, depending on all sorts of things.
Mostly accommodation costs.
But also, how much paid work you expect them to do.
Accommodation choices.
If you are including travel.
If you are including getting there and back at the start / end of term,
What their expectations of living are - from what you say about spending now, they are used to having a lot spent on them / lots of new clothes / activities. So their 'expectations of what is normal' will be different from those who don't have hundreds of ££ spent on them.
Can they cook ?
Do they understand about freezing things / using up leftovers ?
Do they think buying a coffee out is a normal, regular thing or a treat ? (as an example.... meals out / takeaways / nails done / having the latest gadget or phone / buying this season's football shirt / etc/etc)

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/university-living-costs-calculator/#!England

Try this out. I remember looking into it, but my oldest is only 8 😅

We pay/paid rent and they live on the (minimum) loan. It has averaged about £600/month per child. We reduced spending on activities but they are home for about half the year so food/utilities haven't gone down very much. They also still come on holiday with us (which I am delighted about) - but they are much more expensive than when they were under 18. I wish they hadn't had to take the loans to be honest - the interest is punitive. We might have been able to afford to fund them if we had been more economical but we couldn't afford to pay the loans off now even though mine are still at university and/or recently finished.

Mine get minimum loan. We pay the additional rent for my son as the loan doesn’t cover it. In addition we pay for phone and gym plus £90 per week for food and travel. He works in holidays to fund social life.

Lots of parents pay rent and let their DC use the minimum loan for day to day spending. So it depends on the rent in the area they are living in :)

Just making up to the maximum, may leave them struggling (it hasn't kept pace with cost of living), and you can't rely on them being able to get part time job while at uni to supplement (either because not enough jobs or the restrictions of the course). They may find it easier to find jobs over the summer, or to take a gap year to work and save before going.

Also remember you will be losing child benefit once they finish sixth form/Level 3 study. And will have increased transport costs (unless you are never planning to go to your child's uni accommodation).

Some parents can pay nothing (I just about managed to pay for DS' phone) and mange. Some get ridiculous amounts of money. My friend's DS gets £300 from mum, £500 from Dad and £200 from Grandma. On top of a full loan (divorced parents). Her wardrobe is magnificent as it all goes on clothes and weekends abroad!
Neither is right or wrong.

We paid accommodation costs, which was a share of the house rent for each year and a monthly allowance of £500 to cover all daily expenses. We also paid car RFT and insurance. DS worked in our family business during holidays and was paid commercial wage. He did not have the monthly allowance paid for working weeks.
This just left the actual fees on his loan. We are so glad that he did not have to run up massive debts. If you can afford to pay for them this way I think you should. Why save it for their inheritance when it is needed now ?

I give my son £15 pw and pay for his mobile. Possibly bung him £500 twice a term. He lives a frugal life. We can't offord to give him much more. He Drinks. Does clubs etc. I have to pay his rent as he gets his loan after the rent is due and he then he pays me back for the next time.

I guess it's partly down to what they are used to having. Then if they need to maintain that standard.

Dd gets the minimum loan due to our wages. We pay her rent at 1.1k a month….im sure she could be somewhere cheaper if needed. She is meant to live off her loan but found I needed to top her up by £30 a week. I also pay for her contact lenses, and phone contract and Netflix and Spotify.

Difference between min and max loan is around 6-7k

Leaving aside the tuition fees, currently the minimum loan is about £5k and the maximum (outside of London) about £10k. So as a mimimum, the government are “expecting” you to make up at least £5k. However the loan hasn’t increased in years (hopefully this will change by the time yours are there) so living costs are likely to be greater than £10k. It will vary, but for the unis we’ve looked at, halls average about £180 per week, over maybe 40 weeks (some will be longer contracts). So you are looking currently at around £8k average just for accommodation. Probably increase that to £10k by the time your kids go - so the loan plus your £5k top up may just about cover it.

Then you’ve got living costs. Again, they will vary and will increase over the next 4-6 years. They are likely to only be at uni for maybe 35 weeks and you’ll get quite different estimates of what they’ll need. We’re thinking £75 per week for our ds who goes in September. So that’s another £2.5-3k a year, for when they are away from home. Less for the weeks when they are back but will need something. Many students will work and may be able to cover this aspect themselves.

I reckon realistically current average need is for about £12-13k a year, of which the loan will cover £5k. So they’ll need another £8k. The question is how much of that are you able and willing to cover?

What people do for their DC is going to vary significantly depending on their individual income, outgoings, and attitude towards supporting DC.

My DC1 is hopefully heading off to university in 18 months' time.

I'm divorced, which has messed up the original plan for university finances.

Due to a relatively recent pay rise (for me), DS will only get the minimum loan. I'm by no means rolling in it. We live in London, I have a second DC, we're a single-income household. On paper, my new salary is pretty reasonable, but it doesn't go far in reality.

Apparently, XH has told DS not to expect anything from him. XH was earning more when we split than I earn now and lives with his partner, so has someone to share household costs. No maintenance to me as 50/50. So I feel rather 🙄 about this.

Anyway, DS will have some savings, mainly thanks to my parents. According to my research, living costs are going to be £12-14k per year. This will leave a shortfall of at least £7k per year between the basic loan and that figure.

Since getting my promotion/pay rise back in the autumn, I have been putting aside £200/month. I'm hoping to be able to then give that amount directly to DS once he goes to uni, plus top it up from what I will have saved by then. So maybe £300/month. By my calculations, even with that and if DS splits his savings into a monthly amount over the course of his degree, he will still need to get a job to get up to the £1k/month level of income students need to live in.

Based on your monthly spending on your DC, you sound like you have more disposable income than me. Honestly, in your position, I would save whatever you can towards university. But that's where attitude comes in - I would cut back on everything for myself to try and support my DC. I'm hoping to do some more training and progress further in my career by the time DC2 is ready for uni in 4 year's time so that I can help out more.

I didn't pay for my degree and it really saddens me that my DC are going to be saddled with massive debt because their parents can't afford to fund university.

Ours also got minimum loans and we're there at the same time, different uni. We paid their rent/utility costs. One was £600pm, other £800, so they had the same amount from their loans to live off.

One has continued post graduate education, the other is teaching and started paying off her student loan immediately as over the threshold.

I am following the advice and example of most of my friends who’ve had kids at uni in the last 10 years. We’ve all paid accommodation (bills, wifi, utility etc included) and they’ve lived on their maintenance grants (the lower amount as also high earners). My friends include child minders and ex police officer, a nanny and her IT support DJ, so no all loaded but we’ve all stumped up the £10k pa for accommodation and they’ve accrued the fees/maintenance loans so have had around £50-60k debt upon graduating.

My DD is going in September (hopefully) - to a RG uni that is notoriously expensive for outside of London.

We are covering accommodation in Y1 and will continue to pay for her phone contract. Accommodation is around £9k for a 40 week contract + £40 a month on phone so around £800 a month on average (although it’s not paid out monthly - it’s larger chunks). We’re also expecting to have to cover the deposit for Y2 accommodation in late 2027. She can then use her maintenance loan for food, fun and travel until she’s found a job. Y2 onwards, we’ll dial our support back as I’d expect her to be more settled in her new city and expecting it to drop to around £500 pm that she’s away in Y2/3.

We’ve been saving for it this year and we’re not having a big summer holiday - with DD2 we’ve started putting £200 a month away now… she’s 10!

We pay our son's rent and bills which is about £8k a year and give him £200 a month allowance. He lives off that, the maintenance loan and whatever he earns in his job. He also has the fees loan.

We pay accommodation, phones, gym and car insurance. Eldest and middle have bursary's to top up minimum loan and we give the youngest 400 per month to even it out.

I guess just give what you can afford?

Do students not even feel obliged to get jobs these days? Not a chance would I be paying for gym and Netflix.

We live in London so mine just commute

I think it’s easier said than done. DD’s degree will have high contact time and being in a city 40 weeks a year makes finding work there and at home harder.

I'll pay my ds' halls room for the 1st year. He has £5k saved from working as a pool lifeguard, which will cover his living costs for the first year. I expect him to get a job while he is there - pool lifeguard again since he is qualified and has a reference & experience, and then to work the summer holiday as well. I won't be paying Netflix and if he works at a pool, he gets free gym so no expense there..

Thankfully he can cook competently, only drinks water and is happy in sweatshirt and jeans so is unlikely to have high living costs.

We'll review it after the first year but I don't think we'll need a maintenance loan, just to cover the course fees.