Funding your cherubs through Uni how?

[Piffle]

Ok
Do how are your Uni starters being funded?
Specifically if they can only get the £3575 amount of maintenance loan?
We are really struggling to budget everything :(

like goingmad, our "local" university is around 20 miles away & is way down the league tables for the course DS2 wanted to do, unlike the one he has gone to which is in the top 5.

student finance just doesn't allow them to manage without support from home. It's not mollycoddling.

My DS lives at home so no food or accomodation charges, he travels by train which I pay £21.50 for a weekly ticket. He took a loan for fees and maintenance, does some bar work and is saving to possibly have a year living out. His course is 5 years so he wants to keep his debt as low as as possible so is sacrificing having the full uni experience.

Do many of you have kids in London Unis?

I think my kids will stay at home and take a train to Uni, unless there's a very good reason to go and study in a different city.
How do their finances balance out when they stay at home?

Thanks Ponders.

Ponders, didn't mean to offend but just think its better for them to work it out for themselves and support themselves where possible. Otherwise I see more cautionary tales. It is also a life skill they should be learning

happyavocado my sisters two children, both in London, lived in hall for the first year, and at home for the second year. This going back home took some cultural leaps of faith for all generations, and mental readjustments on everyone's part but made sound economic sense and furthermore as she lives in central London, their student houses would actually have been further out. Probably the worst affected was my sis as she had been looking forward to a bit of freedom, and also biologically she found it hard, having said goodbye to the fledglings, to welcome them back and feel a successful mother. Which is strange but true, though she loves them to bits. Her DH, a very pragmatic person, didnt see it like that though.

I think it would be a hard decision not to send them away, I think it will all depend on how many of their mates are going to stay at home.

My DS is doing Maths at Bath which we are told is a 40 hr commitment per week if you cope, 60 hrs of you don't.
Upfront costs mean that finding the costs for accomodation himself are impossible
He is doing a highly academic a level course load trying to get straight A*
We live in a semi rural market town with little employability.
Plus his focus has to be on making the grades just now.

Living at home not an option as Maths is not offered at a Uni commutable from home.

We have managed to find a way to work through this though, thanks to an unexpected but very welcomed payrise

Great timing Piffle - really pleased it's worked out for you.

We'll muddle through to be honest (may re-think that one in 3 years when we will potentially have 3 at university....) BUT it still really makes me angry.

I heard yesterday about someone downshifting to a smaller house to support their child doing medicine. I don't know if I'd go that far.

We are looking at downsizing not specifically to pay for DS1 or in the future DD ( yr 4 now wants to be a teacher) or ds2 who is in reception now.
We would prefer less house and a different layout, the benefits would be lower mortgage but this would mean we could invest more in advance for the younger two perhaps....

Fair enough, to be honest I do value education enough to do that if we needed to. But just think of the pressure on the poor student if they decide after a couple of years that university just isn't for them! My dd is feeling guilty (well, a bit) at the thought of me working a few more hours to pay for things for her.

Yes DS1 too is acutely aware of the cost it will have on us, but he has worked his buns off to gain fab grades in order to access a top Uni...
So I am leading with faith in him :-)