What advice/guidance do you give your fledgling DC on budgeting?

[funnyperson]

DD just got news of her Oxford opportunity bursary and is thrilled. What with one thing and another it looks as though she will have enough to live on. I realise I am slow but I have just realised that I have never been though principles of a good household budget with her, for example pay for accommodation first and save 10% for a contingency fund. DS is wrestling with the ins and outs of running a student house on a joint budget shared between 7.
What top tips and guidance have you given your student DC on best ways to manage their new financial independence? What tools do you recommend they use ( notebook? spreadsheet?keep receipts or not? filing statements etc?) I know they can look on TSR- I am more thinking of wise parental words.
(which as you can see, I am scrabbling for on this subject)

As in simple but effective advice geared towards 18-19 year olds?

I found the virgin guide to being at university is a very useful little book. Both my DC found it contained helpful advice about sharing a house, budgeting, food, cleaning etc

Thankyou mouldyironingboard (incidentally I asked my DD to get me a cath kidston ironing board cover for last Christmas and it gives me a lot of very real pleasure)
However the book is too long. I need pithy and short - 4 tips max, type of thing. The sort of thing which could be craftily and nonchalantly introduced into a short telephone conversation.

Though perhaps it (the book) will promote self directed learning.

Best tool - the delights of online banking, prefaced with a lengthy discussion re fraud and online security.
It's made managing a budget much more straightfoward for both, and has made finances seems much more immediate to THEM, not an outreach of the bank of Mum&Dad.

I helped DD with her budget.
Firstly we did an annual budget to make sure that, overall, expenditure was less than income. Hall fees are a lot of money to find in one go, so we had an arrangement that I would pay those at the due time and she could pay me back when the student loan came through. That helped ease the stress.
We then looked at day-to-day expenses and worked out an average weekly amount. She gets out this money in cash every week. If she spent it too quickly then she knew that she had to live on baked beans and fresh air until next 'payday'. If she had some left over then she saved it in a piggy bank so that, every now and then, she could have a splurge.

It might be an idea to warn your DD: mine says that she was the only person budgetting. No-one else seemed to be worrying about money because they are being subbed by the Bank of Mum&Dad. Warn her about the perils of trying to keep up with the Joneses.

And what about your budgetting, too.
I was all set for DD to make a mess of her first term's attempt at budgetting so I had some of my money set aside for emergency assistance. Never needed it, though.

Thank you. I like the idea of drawing out a weekly amount- did your DD draw it out on Monday or Friday? Did that weekly amount include clothes and books or was there a separate pot for those? How did your/DD budget for summer travel?

Agree -we have got contingency fund for the start of term- I never thought of asking for it back when the loan came through!

I don't know which day she draws the money out but they live back-to-front anyway. She doesn't go out on the weekend: buddies often aren't there because they have popped home and it's too expensive. Their big night out is Monday.
The weekly amount covers food, toiletries, socialising and clothes (she shops at Primani/H&M). She doesn't seem to have had a huge booklist: I got some books on e-bay/Amazon before she went and the rest she gets from the Library.
Summer travel is a difficult one. If they are travelling then they are not earning. She came on the family holiday and someone organised a super-cheap girls' week away but, apart from a few days visiting here and there, she was earning.

Join mse

www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/

So much wise info in a good understandable format. Follow it and you won't go far wrong.