The cost of uni

[Seriously79]

I'm not even sure if my kids want to go to uni, but if they do how do we afford it?

I understand that it's based on the family home income. We are quite fortunate that DH (not DS's dad) has a relatively good wage, I work part time to be around for DD4.

Between us we have just over £60,000 a year coming in. But due to car loan, credit card debts, mortgage and life being so damn expensive, we don't have much spare at all.

DS's dad would help out, but I don't think it would stretch far.

I know DS would also have to get a job too.

How do people do it?

But life is unfair @Motheranddaughter .

Many dc don't get the support to get them as far as applying for university.

I think the point is, we are all where we are, as parents / families. You have to have conversations with your dc to be clear, where budget dictates that to be the case, that the money they will have coming in from loan and parent top up (where they don't get full loan) is fixed.

The students then have all sorts of choices, and combination of choices as to what they then want to do.
It might include staying home
It might just include avoiding London and Bristol
It might mean self catering over catered.
It might mean shared bathroom over en-suite, or even shared bedroom in some places
It might meaning choosing one course over another because of the cost of accommodation in that city / university town
It might mean working during all holidays
It might mean working term time
It might mean taking a year out to work and save up a lot
It might mean living really frugally.

None of us would say any of those choices are going to be right for every single student, or every family, but they are all things you can think about and decide if they make sense for your individual circumstances.

Bristol really isn’t the most expensive city! It’s just that many students choose to live in an expensive area. It’s not a requirement to do this. How do UWE students manage?

So they'll likely get the minimum loan (£4000 odd pa, but it depends on where they are studying). For us, for the 2 still at Uni, this has been enough for expenses APART from accommodation, so my DH and I pay that. One is at Bath and the other at Edinburgh, so we pay £550 odd for Bath and £720 odd for Edinburgh. It's a bit of a nightmare but we've coped just about so far. Both of our children are aware though that they will need to get a job and help if we can't afford it in the future. We're lucky as neither are spenders and neither drink much, so they tend to have money left over from the loan.

Ok ,I do appreciate life is unfair etc,am from a very poor background
Am not blaming the parents ,more the system
I do think as the system is what we have ,parents should ,ideally ,and as a minimum,make payments up to the maximum loan level
O was skint as a student and didn’t want that for my lot
I went full time to earn enough to support them

I never was a student. Too poor to stay poor for another three years. Needed the money more.

@Motheranddaughter i agree with you. I’ve planned to take a weekend job in addition to being ft if I really need to. Any further study after uni though she will be fully funding !

Yes i said that 😀

But life is unfair

Well, yes, bit society doesn't have to be as unequal as hers is.

I think some people enjoy that though. Being able to pay their DC's rent whilst other students are scrimping.

Not me
I just do what I can for my DC

I think about this a lot. DC will get the loan - maybe not minimum but not maximum. She'll have to work - she already earns about £250 a month doing admin for a local company. She'll probably have to work in a bar as well.
I'd like to pay her accommodation but that's not really likely.

@MrsWimpy im planning to live a very frugal life while dd is at uni!! She already seems to cost me a bomb so im hoping it will even out. It’s bad that they stop child benefit though. Seems so unfair that it’s given to high earners, it would be better to have a lower cap but make it last through ft education. And my child maintenance will stop - although that’s only £20 a week!