Class of '18 Best foot forward through the autumn leaves.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

old thread was getting big....

Ursula learning to budget is one of the skills that they acquire when they are away. I remember some of my friends quite literally having to live on beans on toast for months at the end of the first term and weeks at the end of the second. I am with your husband on this one, you have to be careful in case the lesson they learn is that they can spend willy nilly and someone will bail them out.

My views are somewhat coloured by the example of a friend's brother who is still useless with money in his forties. He runs up piles of debt, his dad lectures him and writes a large cheque and then it repeats at five year intervals. He has no incentive to live within his income because he knows that dad will sort it when the debt becomes a problem. I'm guessing that his dad could have bought my house with the bail outs over the last twenty years.

I am hoping that our collective silence means that things are going well in a nice boring routine sort of way.

How much was her budget to start with Ursula? I guess it depends in part if it was realistic.

Just for term time, she had £110 per week ... Is that realistic? I don't budget so I have no idea. I was discussing DD with the ladies in the greengrocers the other day and we decided the apple certainly hasn't fallen far from the tree.

When I say discussing, they asked how she was getting on and I said that she was certainly enjoying herself.

If that's not including accommodation then it's a really decent amount to live on. I think she's going to have to learn to budget I'm afraid.

Hi all, sorry I haven’t been about lately. Somehow missed that this was the continuation of the previous thread😞.

How is everyone? Haven’tnhad A chance to read all twelve pages yet, but have read the last couple.

For the dc who,is,doing the jailbreak adventure, maybe this network,of mn can help? Post where he is, and we can provide accomadation, food and transport!

Marmite - how are you doing?

Saw my dc a couple of weeks,ago. He was taller than I remember! And looked very grown up.

Will catch up with all the news soon, unless someone can give me a potted summary.

That doesn’t include accommodation. It’s for food, books, fashion and fun. Her phone is paid out a savings account and I paid her gym membership.

I’ve just tried to buy a Tesco gift card for her to use for food but the website wouldn’t accept my card details.

Ursula - if DS read this he would want you as his mum

well at least she HAD a job in the summer, ds certainly didn't

we give ds his money in monthly allocations, cos he didn't take out a maintenance loan. Is there an option for her to transfer the money at the beginning of each term to you and then you transfer it to her in monthly instalments. That certainly helped ds, because he never had a larger sum than 260 per month. Admittedly he took some savings with him in Sept and that was another 200. So this month will be the real test. He nearly ran out last month by 22 days in. then he scraped through on 25 pounds for the last week. He has become very mean now as a result and talks a lot about what he can and cannot afford.

speaking of which we haven't heard from him since his reports of the Halloween party, which was that it was "good"

ursula could she come home and earn some money one weekend from you for doing something particular...helping sort or scrub or carry stuff --arrange bookcases, peel apples? I think that was how I used to earn money from my mum, there were various things she was too tired out to do, and I was fit and young then.

I was such a spendthrift at uni. I spent all my money on clothes, it felt like the first time I had enough money to actually purchase any nice ones. My mum now admits she was the same at that age, although by the time I knew her she was into Aran jumpers and cords and bargains at Woolworths. It is a difficult learning curve to be free.

She could start by selling some of the clothes she has never worn or only worn once.

She has at least conceded that she needs an airer for drying her clothes. To save the cost of the dryer.

Her new bezzie is in the same boat. But without an overdraft. Let’s hope DD doesn’t start funding her.

Haudin fingers crossed for the PIP interview, I know they can be very unhelpful in the way they phrase things almost as if to trick you into saying you can manage x y z.

Ursula I think there is a fine line between training and correction. I would go for training rather than cold turkey. Although we all know the story of the impoverished Edinburgh student who lived off a slice of cold porridge with sugar and milk from a drawer every morning, and contracted scurvy. Apparently a pint of beer and a tin of mandarin oranges would have meant it was a perfectly nutritious diet.

I took some fruit in jelly when we popped over on Sunday.

This is the Money Advice Service's budget planner

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/tools/budget-planner

(I'm looking at you Ursula)

I had to use it this year, I was good on most things except that I had no idea of what I spent a week on food. It's good because it lists the things that you wouldn't perhaps think of - birthday presents, eating out, haircuts, holidays. We used it before DS went away to see whether he would have enough to live on although again, I had no idea what he would spend on food. It will be more than I do because pop is more expensive than tea and I can cook.

I don’t need to budget. I no longer have a horse.

Good point, you could live large on the saving on the vet bill alone.

DS and his flatmates sometimes have their supermarket shop delivered to halls. The drivers do ring and they have to go and pick it up at the barrier outside but it only takes them a few minutes to run down for it.

I can't use excel well but managed to cobble together a spreadsheet for DS so he was aware what his budget per week was. Luckily he has stuck to it - but I guilt shop a lot and end up buying trainers/t-shirts/random shite for him so he doesn't spend on clothes. He doesn't drink so a night out isn't hugely expensive.

My sister was a spendthrift whilst at university. She used to spend all of her grant on expensive clothes/shoes/clubbing (London early 90's). She more often than not ate tinned tomatoes on boiled rice as she had little money left to buy food - my parents refused to bail her out all the time and told her she'd have to get a weekend job.

Small saving grace that DD is not in London.

There is that! My sister went to university and ended up living there for over 20 years. She did manage to rein in her overspending habits enough to buy a flat

I think your dd will be fine Ursula. I'm sure she will naturally acclimatize to the spending and earning habits of those around her.

Ursula I think your DD will just need to learn to budget. It's good to learn that lesson at uni where a lot of people are learning to budget at the same time.

My DD has a similar budget of around £100 per week, but since I'm providing most of that I pay my portion in weekly installments so she can't run out completely. DD orders her shopping online every week, gets it delivered at the cheapest delivery time (I think she said Wednesday 9-10pm). They often have a whole van just to deliver to campus, with crowds of students collecting deliveries at the same time apparently. DD says it's much cheaper to get it delivered than it is to get the bus to a supermarket.

DD started her new job on Monday, and said everything about it was much nicer than the last one. She had to leave her last job because they wouldn't let her have two jobs, so she had to choose which company to work for. Unfortunately I am going to have to provide a taxi service every Saturday as Northern Rail are continuing with their weekly train strikes every Saturday until after Christmas.

She had a week visiting her boyfriend last week, and thoroughly enjoyed it. They were talking on Skype when I came home from work, and he looks really rough. I think the excessive alcohol and late nights are taking their toll.

DH has just phoned me to say he has just realised it is 35 years since he and I were first years and he feels very very old.

Congratulations Hardwick
Next month it will be 40 years since OH and I first met.

Lonerica I'm glad the new job is going well for her.

This week is the first time DS1 has asked us to buy something for him. He was going to request these as Christmas gifts, but he needed them "urgently" so politely asked if we could order them on Amazon Prime to be sent to his halls (they have an Amazon locker).

The much-needed items were a heavy duty stapler and hole punch.

Last week I took delivery of an Amazon parcel for DS, yes, he'd chosen the wrong delivery address.