University - 1st Year - Planning - Living Expenses

[lookoveryourshouldernow]

Hi

We are trying to put together a "budget" plan for our son's University education this September - fingers crossed for his results...

Excluding accommodation / books does anyone has a "feel" for the amount of the money that a student would need to survive on a weekly basis ???

I guess costs would include bus fares /food / entertainment / clothes / small extras etc etc etc..

Any insight on a weekly amount would be greatly appreciated ??

Thank You

[mumblechum1]

Although she can get a loan I was rather hoping to pay the accommodation out of this

That depends on whether she can get any extra funding, eg if you are on a low income. DS will only get £3,300 a year and the accommodation alone is £4,800, in a Northern city, so we have no choice but to pay for the accommodation (you can pay it in 3 instalments if necessary), and the loan will hopefully cover food, books, etc. Beer money will be funded by his PT job.

[alreadytaken]

It isn't necessarily the right decision for everyone to go to university. Article here about the rates of unemployment and earning potential of graduates and school leavers. I would expect the gap to narrow if more bright young people stopped going to university. www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/feb/22/graduates-unemployment-levels-school-leavers

I have tried suggesting to mine that they have a platonic marriage with another medical student (married students grants are based on their partner's income) but they don't seem to like the idea for some reason....

Manchester accommodation in halls varies from 86 - 131 pounds a week, their guide can be downloaded and prices are p26 www.accommodation.manchester.ac.uk/our-accommodation

[QuiteOldGal]

We pay DS accommodation, about £3500 a year. When he was in halls that covered it, now he is sharing a house he has to put some to his bills out of his student loan of about £3500. He also works part time in a supermarket so he can afford to get extra's. He volunteered at a couple of festivals and got free tickets so that was like a free(ish) holiday.

We did not have the loan assessed as we earned too much for a grant, but he could have got a bit more as we certainly aren't on the top earnings level for the minimum amount of loan, but felt it would all add up to be a great deal to pay back, when he could earn some money in his part time job to supplement an unassessed loan.

He seems to manage OK and does a lot of home cooking and eats "No frills" food a lot.

[YetAnotherMum]

Everyone seems to be very generous here! My DS gets the minimum maintenance loan which doesn't quite cover his accommodation costs, so we give him £200 per month except the summer months when he can either live at home rent free or get a job. So we pay him about £1600 per year. He manages to live frugally on that. This summer (after his 2nd year) he has got a job so will be quite well off next year. I think he will get a slightly larger loan next year as my DD will hopefully be at university too. So I will probably pay them less than £200 a month each. I think part of the university experience is not having much money to encourage them to get a summer job!

[mumeeee]

We will be paying for DD3's Halls, the same as we did for her sisters. She will have to pay for everything else from her loan. She has been asking us how much a weeks food would cost. So yesterday I sat down with her and we wrote a list. I then sent her out with £30. She spent £25.05 and had got everything on the list. She did take about 4 hours though and I thought she had got lost

[NewFairy]

Mummee we did similar, and then made DS and his brother live on what they had bought for a full week. DS says it was a valuable experience :)

[mumblechum1]

DH and I are away for 3 weeks in August and I'm planning on leaving DS with £35 per week and a recipe book of cheapo meals so he can practice budgeting, shopping and cooking before he does it for real.

I only hope he doesn't blow it all on an Indian takeaway on the first night

[mumeeee]

Well we went through the stuff DD3 had bought and she did have just about enough to live on for a week. She probably need to adjust it a bit as she won't need 80 tea bags every week . She did manage to buy some fruit and fruit juice. We are going to get her to do it again in a couple of weeks and have told her to try and ve quicker next time. She said she was trying to find items and working out which was cheapest. I expect she was probably day dreaming as she does that lot. She did do quite well for a first attempt

[dementedma]

Dds loan will only just cover her accomodation. If I had the money it would be cheaper to get a mortgage on a flat than pay that every week for just one lousy room!
Anyways, we will have to pay for her food etc and was hoping to get away with £50 a week, but looks like that's an underestimate. That's all we can afford though.
We will pay it weekly so she doesn't blow it all at the start of the month.

[mumeeee]

Student loans usually only just cover the cost of accommodation we found that with our other 2 DDs in fact DD2's didn't quite cover it. So we paid for their halls and will do the same for DD3. She'll have to pay for everything else herself.

[melodyangel]

mumeeee - Some great tips on food shopping on this blog agirlcalledjack.com/

[LadyLapsang]

We pay rent, most travel (airmiles or train), phone, most books. Student loan pays day-to-day food, hobbies, fun & quite a lot of travel around the country. DS works every summer and in the last academic year abroad. TBH I think he could do without the loan for the next year but I think he will still apply for it.

To the lady that asked about food - why would I order food for an adult living 600 miles away? Unless it was a treat box from Hotel Chocolat. DS seems to strike up a good relationship with the local butcher; always telling me about bargain steak!

OP I think it would be very difficult to live in London on £50 pw, but there is a lot of work here if you want it.