How much money do students need?

[bevelino]

Eldest dd will be going to uni this year and has chosen catered accommodation. Tuition fees and accommodation costs aside, how much extra cash will she need to live on?

A friend gives her Dd £250 per month, another gives £500, and another gives nothing and says they expect dc to get a job. Dd is unable to work as uni frown upon students working during term time. I have to budget for 4 dd's (triplets) at uni at the same time and this is a serious issue/question.

[Katymac]

DD can't have a loan or a grant

Fortunately she got a scholarship & a full bursary but if not we would have had to pay or she could not have gone

I would have moved heaven & earth for her to study what she wanted but no way could I have afforded it - when she moved out we lost child benefit & tax credits - it's all we can do to support ourselves now

(I made a mistake on my first post last year we gave her £25 a week for food this year she has the bursary)

She is at college 52 hours a week plus extras - she couldn't manage a job she starts college at 8 & is in bed by about 8:30 most nights (except Wed when college doean't finish until 8)

[titchy]

Parents have ALWAYS been expected to contribute towards their kids' university living costs if their income was over a certain threshold. I don't know why people think it's only a recent phenomenon.

Remember your parents signing a deed of covenant so they got the tax back on their contribution?

[poisonedbypen]

DD's rent (1st year) is £6000 and she gets £3700 maintenance grant, so it doesn't cover that. We pay the accommodation (luckily we can afford it) and she lives off her loan, which we have realised is more than enough. She should have about £500 left at the end of the year.

[Buttercupsandaisies]

Yes that was when we were offered means tested grants. The grants were about £1800 max but parents paid the top up if they earned more.

The loans were not means tested at all and everyone I knew just borrowed the max - which was £1650 approx per year. So we were much better off - no fees, up to £1800 grant plus £1650 loan per year. As it was I got full grant and loan every year as parents didn't earn enough. Even top earners still had no fees and s full loan though

[JeanGenie23]

I think if they have a day off in the week, and of course the weekends, then they should find a part time job. I did. My parents couldn't afford to give me £250 per month so I had to work. That or they will have to stay in.

[greenfolder]

Eldest daughter is just finishing uni in London. Her loan covered her rent during the first two years and left her with around £30 pw. We topped that up to £75 plus she worked as well ( Xmas jobs plus a stint at a bowling alley). Last year, loan didn't cover rent so we paid the balance on that plus £75 per week. She finishes in a few weeks with an overdraft of a few hundred quid. First year I gave her her Money weekly by bank transfer on a Monday. When I applied for her finance there were questions about other dc at uni, does it make some allowance?

[AtiaoftheJulii]

I didn't get a grant, and loans came in whilst I was at university - I didn't get one, just ended up with a massive overdraft. So yes, my parents gave me money (I remember in my second year that I was renting a house with friends - it cost me £160 com and my parents gave me £200) and I worked in the holidays. It doesn't seem like much of a change to me, tbh.

We had a good household income already (with me working very part time), don't really think we could call ourselves the squeezed middle, but we don't have a high mortgage and we don't go on multiple foreign holidays. This year we will have two at uni: if it weren't for the fact that I'm retraining and will be starting a full time job this autumn, we certainly would not be able to afford to pay both sets of accommodation. Knocking off £1300 as a pp said for another child at university is a risibly small amount.

[Buttercupsandaisies]

But students are now also borrowing loans to cover the fees too (plus higher living costs). The max loan debt you could graduate with in 2000 was 5k for 3 year course as they simply didn't lend you more than that. Now students leave with upto £30k for same course and relatively same starting wage. That's a massive debt. I was terrified with the 5k loan!

[MooPointCowsOpinion]

I didn't mean to imply it's bad parenting or whatever to support your adult child at university, I'm shocked that it's necessary.

I didn't have any help, and I remember it being a bit tight most of the time but I went out a lot, I left with £12k of debt and an overdraft to pay back, and j felt like I got a good deal.

I don't see how it's a good deal now if students are leaving with £30k of debt, and still their parents have to fund most of their living expenses.

[Needmoresleep]

Hocus, agree with the half price Itsu, though DS also became a bit of a Sainsbury's noodle connisseur in his first year. Second year and a lot of socialising happens in each other's flats, and they do quite a lot of cooking. DS even sometimes gets up early to bulk buy at Smithfield market.

I can't see how things have changed a lot. Even in my day there was a lot of hanging out and going to cheap student gigs and discos. I assume there was always a Sloaney group who had a more glamorous lifestyle, but we did not know them and weren't really aware of them.

[ThreeBarrels]

I pay rent, phone, car, books and £450 per month for other expenses.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

The question was how much money do they need ...

[ThreeBarrels]

Yes I appreciate that and I am paying what I consider they need, sorry if that wasn't clear in my reply.

[DelphiniumBlue]

Mine got their loan plus 100 per month from grandma and the money for travel card 90 pounds pet month) plus phone paid plus very occasional top ups from us. They could have got jobs but chose not to. They are both pretty frugal though, and one doesn't drink at all.

[MikeHat]

Now students leave with upto £30k
DS1 will have a student debt of around £60k for his four year course. I say around because they start adding interest from day one. That's four years of £9K fees plus maintenance loan of around £5/6k a year.
He is very frugal. His rent is high but his living expenses were much lower than I planned for but he very rarely goes out. A bit of social life is healthy I think. He works in holidays when he can get it.

In the old days parents were actually told how much they should contribute when grants were means tested.. I don't suppose it was enforced but at least they were left in no doubt that the "adult" DC was still their dependent.

[JeanGenie23]

Many years ago uni was for the rich now it's more accessible but you just leave with a tonne of debt. Im glad I went when fees were 2k p/yr, I am not sure I would have bothered at 9k a year. The average debt is around 50k now that's horrendous! How will they ever pay it off?

[DailyMailDick]

I've been amazed at how little my DC spend at Uni. Mine all have a reasonable allowance but many of their friends are seriously skint. One of my DCs partners barely manages and that's with working summers. he wouldn't be able to afford balls, gym memberships and 'coffees out'.
Lots of DC don't drink, go out clubbing or out to the cinema.
If DC are in catered accommodation I think they could manage on £20 a week. Depends if laundry was included. £30 or £40 would be much nicer though.
Transport is a big cost. If you get a Uni on a Megabus route you can save ££££'s

[MyLocal]

I gave my son food money only (£30 PW) his student loan just covered his accommodation with a few pounds to spare each term. I expected him to work to fund his social life. He did.

DD's loan doesn't cover her accommodation so we make up the shortfall and give her £30 PW for food. We also give her £50 PW for her social life/toiletries/gym. This is purely because she is healthcare student and due to being on placement 50% of the time, the shift structure and not getting any long summer holiday she cannot hold down a part time job.

Both, ultimately, had about the same to live on each week and managed just fine.

[bojorojo]

I am certainly not saying that all students want to socialise by going to balls, but some do and parents tend to fund that. I think a lot of people do not actually own up to what they are paying for. Phones tend to be left out of expenses as do laptops and macbooks for example. Unless you really do not know anyone who has a 21st party, then this will not be an expense. However, some sudents get invited to quite a few when they are at university. It is pleasant to be able to go.

My DH's parents had to pay maintenance and he did not qualify for a full grant. My sisters did and they managed. One worked whilst at university and the other did not.

IF your child is happy to cook every day, take a packed lunch and a thermos full of coffee and not go out, and has no interest in clothes then the money obviously goes further. Some young people are perfectly happy with this lifestyle but others are not. Everyone is different and being frugal is not in the dna of some people. At my DDs universities, very, very few were taking in packed lunches so I am not sure if what is said here about living frugally is a true reflection of every modern student. Some even have cars!!! (In fact loads do at state schools around here!).

In London, the cost of my DDs hall (self catering) was £8300 pa two years ago. There were plenty of halls that were more (£10,000 up thread I believe) and some were a bit less, but transport costs were more. Her basic loan (even allowing for extra in London) was over £3000 short just for accommodation. A student would have to work fairly long hours to make up this shortfall and we believed it was our duty to pay. We would not have qualified for the student grant years ago, so we would have paid then too.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

I think it might be more the other way round, that people who have parents who are happy to fund multiple balls, will be more likely to go to multiple balls. Most parents don't think they're a necessity. My eldest is going to her college ball in a couple of weeks. She bought the ticket herself with the last remains of her wages from last summer. I ended up going halves on a new dress with her because we were shopping together, and the one we both liked best was the most expensive and she wouldn't have splashed out on it! It wasn't particularly pricey as such dresses go, and it will fit dd2 and me if we ever want to wear it, lol!

And she pays for her own phone - well, we bought the actual phone as an 18th birthday present (£140 I think, not an iPhone!) and she pays the £10 a month contract.

Sure, if you've got loads of money, give your kids as much as you want. But I don't really understand why you would then come on threads like this which are about what will actually be needed.

[MikeHat]

I think the truth lies somewhere in between.
DS1 is a packed luncher who cooks every day. He has an old phone with cheap GiffGaff PAYG Sim. He wouldn't go to a ball if Cinderella herself invited him .

Yet according to some he is spoilt because I give him £300 a month to live on in term time and he doesn't work in term time. Come to think of it maybe I'm lucky that he doesn't have expensive tastes.

I want them to be able to focus on working at their degree rather than worrying about making ends meet and I'm fortunate in being able to help, even though we are clearly not as well off as many (because they do qualify for a fair bit more than the minimum loan).


What I don't understand is why people with a much larger income than me don't choose to help their DC out when they could. Those DC get less of a loan because of their parents income and yet are worse off than those from poorer homes who get more in loans.

[bojorojo]

I do not understand that either Mike. I too wish my DC to focus on their degrees and get as much as they can out of university life. For us it is not sport (£400 plus for a sports club memberfship at DD1's old university) but we have paid for ball tickets. What is the difference? Does no-one's DC have a laptop? I bet not everyone has an old phone either. Loads of students have iphones and parents pay the bills!

As a regular at being shot down here because I do not, apparently, understand "need" as opposed to "want" and now my views and experiences are not worthy of being on a "need"" discussion, I think £300 a month is reasonably generous, Mike. However, it depends on the cost of the accommodation regarding how generous lots of parents can be. DD2 has not been to any balls - she is not at that sort of university! However, there are other massive costs associated with her arts type degree and that far outweighs the cost of ball tickets! Lots of young people on this thread appear to do way less than my DH at university 40 years ago! Even he looked good and cared about his appearance - must have been playing in a band that did it!

Just hope, everyone, that you do not have to pay for accommodation in the USA when DC do a year abroad at a multinational business consultancy - as a friend of mine had to. We did it for a term and that was expensive enough! I am pleased to be able to help my DC and I really do not understand the virtue of boasting how little one's DC cost! Just sounds like penny pinching and inverse snobbery to me.

[Monkeysrfunky]

My parents didn't give me anything, I didn't graduate that long ago. I had to pay rent and everything out of my student loan. Occasionally I would ring my mum up crying that I had no money and she would give me £50 or do a big food shop. If you can't afford it, don't feel like you have to! Uni doesn't know if they're working, obviously not so many hours it affects their work but few evenings/weekends won't hurt. And will stop them going out getting drunk every night of the week! Can't believe the amount some parents pay!

[JeanGenie23]

My parents never considered sending me money per month and I wouldn't have asked, I worked that was it. I still left with a First!

[bojorojo]

Why do you think money from parents = drunk students Monkey? Lots of my DDs friends get drunk on an overdraft or their wages! If you get the full student loan then you may be OK financially but you were not or you would not be ringing home for money and crying. I prefer my DDs not to have to do that. I do not like to think of them crying. If your parents couldhave given you money regularly, they should have. Surely getting in a state over money detracts from your university life and your ability to study?

If you get the minumum loan these days, it barely pays for accommodation and in many cases does not get close. How would you manage in that case Monkey? Just a few evenings work at £7 an hour will not plug that gap. Parents have to pay - there is no other realistic option.