1st year university - how much do your DC have to live on?

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How much do they have from loans & parental contributions?

And how much are their hall fees?

Hall fees are about £7000 (expensive!) and we're giving DS about £100 week to live on during term time. In holidays he will have to get job or work for DH .

Wow, those hall fees are massive! How does he pay them?

We pay ds accommodation costs and he lives off his minimum maintenance loan.

ive given £200pcm plus whatever they earn themselves in a part time job which is about 80 a week.
the rest comes from the loan.

We pay her accommodation fees (£6400) and the plan is for her to live off her minimum maintenance loan. Term time only would give her £111 per week.

But - I have paid her gym membership, continue to pay her extortionate mobile phone bill but take the money out of the savings I have accrued for her, and she has probably had £150 since going last Saturday as her loan only came through yesterday. Oh and I have bought her the only book she has needed so far.

She has a 'job' working for the events people so has been giving out wristbands for a fresher's event which netted her £20, plus she gets free entry and also gets her mates in so they buy her drinks as a thank you.

We've worked it out so they have £75 a week after their accommodation costs. This has to pay bills, food, transport etc. It comes from a combination of loan & parental contribution.

Hall fees about 4.3k. We are paying those from savings we created specifically for this. Then she gets a little over the minimum loan which will be what she needs for living on. She's not allowed to get a job in term time (oxbridge) but has a small part time holiday job which she has saved up some reasonable savings.

Minimum maintenance loan just about covered accommodation, and we gave DD £500 per month to live on. We did have a couple of emergency top ups during her 3 years for extraordinary expenses. Also Oxford, so couldn't work in term time.

That's really helpful thanks

DD's hall fees are just over 4k and she has the minimum loan, which leaves her with about £100 pw after hall fees and other expenses, which sounds about right then.

ds gets £65 a week to live on over 42 weeks. In the holidays he might end up using less if he comes back to home to eat! He went up with about £200 saved in addition to this (mostly presents from doting relatives after his exams, he didn't save it from any job )

If he needs books, but apparently he won't really as there is an extensive library/digital resource, I think we will probably pay for them in addition, hence the medium amount per week.

Accommodation in hall is paid for already. Also nearer the 7,000 mark. Very expensive, so we reduced his allowance accordingly.

Dd is in London South east
Halls are £8,709.54 per year and this isn’t the most expensive room.
She’s ensuite

Loan is max for London so £11,354 she hasn’t about £144 a month to live on after rent goes out. She’ll get a job hopefully and I will send £50 per month

I pay her phone bill £15 per month
She has to top up her oyster and she’s paid for a gym membership outright from her wages for this month

Accommodation: £4000 (paid by us)

Living expenses: £4700 maintenance loan plus whatever he earns from his holiday job.

So does the maintenance loan usually cover hall fees if parents can't afford to pay it?

DS gets minimum maintenance loan. As such we pay for accommodation.
Agreed budget with DS to be approx £800 for this term (he has weekly, monthly and one-off payments in that). As such he has to pay us £500 from maintenance loan towards accommodation.
If there is anything that comes up that is not budgeted for then we will discuss/transfer money.
The budget includes gym (which he's buying now for year, so will be quids in next 2 terms!), tv license but not phone bill which I'll continue to pay until contract finishes in December.
I expect him to get a job to fund social life, and I will cover train trips home (so long as they're infrequent!)

The full maintenance loan should cover it, there is an extra amount for London, but some uni halls exceed even this and the loan is means-tested.

It depends as your not always guaranteed your accommodation. So even if you get maximum loan there’s a chance accommodation could take up the whole loan (more so London)

Accommodation in self catering hall, ensuite is 5.6k.
We give him £500 per month at the moment, but ds is keeping a record of expenditure so this may go up or down. I paid for his food shopping when he started -£80 -but he wants an annual gym membership and that's over £250 which will eat into this month's cash.
He is not entitled to a loan as only just returned to the UK.

Ds1 gets the full maintenance loan(London), he didn't get his first choice cheapest halls so has £35 a week over 52 weeks to live on. We made sure he has a good month worth of store cupboard ingredients and the first weeks food before we left plus cleaning products, washing powder, toiletries etc to get him started.
He will be learning how to live on a very tight budget.

Similar here drummer whereabouts in London is he?
Luckily dd is a fussy eater so it should be doable

Mine are on minimum loan. It didn't cover either of their first years' rent (one was about £6250, the other about £5700). Loan was a bit under £4000, and is now slightly over. We pay the rent, they live off the loan.

We are paying DD's accom (£5.8K), phone bill and major book purchases. Sent her off with decent stash of bog roll, washing powder etc. No maintenance loan; she is living off £75 pw term time plus whatever she can earn in the hols.

Hall fees are £7,149 for a shared room. She will be living on £200 a month from us, but the halls are fully catered so no food bills.

same as some others, we pay ds accommodation costs ( approx £5k) and he lives off his minimum maintenance loan plus his savings from hs summer job.

DS is very tight and spends very little and has managed to save a bit as well.

Well, in a tight wad!

DS's minimal loan was swallowed up by rent (I think his loan was £4100, Halls are £6000 inc a bus pass so he was behind the eight ball from day one!).

I send DS £150 pcm to live off. He has no major expenses as his course is very much online, he has a Railcard with Santander, no gum interest, more a 'real ale at home' guy, no fashion interest. And we pay his phone bill.

I said to DS that I won't see him struggle, but he's not to make a profit from us. He has agreed to share his expenditure with us at Xmas, when I also expect him to work! I won't be giving him that cash (pro rata) while he's home, as instead of him paying his expenses, I am, complete with waitress service 😂