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.

[Needmoresleep]

Borojo,

Not spending much money does not mean that kids don't have active lives. There are lots of student things (gigs, films, FIFA16 championships, Uni sponsored sport etc) which are cheap. DS has surprised me by doing a lot of cooking together with friends. He is also active in a couple of student societies, and narrowly missed a sponsored trip to the states to present some of the research he and his friends undertook. He, and other DC mentioned on the thread are not the Billy-no-mates you seem to suggest. But no balls, and no glitzy 21st parties.

Clothes. Well Uniqlo rules. Some T shirts for Christmas plus I managed to get him into TKMaxx a few months back to buy some jeans. Again you seem to suggest that those who don't spend lots of money don't care about their appearance.

Computer. DS build his own. Not least because he is a gamer. It is upgraded as he sees fit and at his expense.

Phone. An old family hand me down with a cheap contract. He pays for the latter, not least because we saw it as a good way for him to build up a credit score for when he needs one after University.

To some extent it may depend on the child and some may have spending built into their DNA, but no parent should feel guilty by giving their child enough to live on but not enough to buy coffee out etc. Especially if what they give is causing them to cut back.

Actually, and based on DC meeting some of the super-rich whilst at London private day schools, is that it really does no harm for a child to have to be frugal and earn extra money if they want extras. I hope Atia's DD really enjoys her ball.

[Buttercupsandaisies]

Honestly im not sure uni is worth it for 50k debt-unless you are training for medicine or a similar guaranteed career surely the vast majority of courses dont warrant getting into that much debt? There are tons of graduates who can't get jobs even years after graduating and due to the fact uni is almost the norm now, competition is stiff allowing for low wages. How can a 22/22 year old leave with that much debt! I do wander whether more kids should try work their way up in a career instead? I'm a teacher and no way could afford to pay that, support family mortgage etc

[titchy]

I'm no loan-apologist buttercup but it's not exactly a debt. As a teacher you'd be making very very small repayments, and probably would never actually pay back the whole loan.

If you earn mega bucks you WILL pay the lot back. If you're a struggling artist you may well pay nothing back.

I do wish folk would actually get their facts straight before lamenting on the woes of graduating with so much 'debt'.

[Buttercupsandaisies]

I'd be curious to know what the payments on average are - for my 5k student loan I'm expected to pay £125 per month? The newer loans are a % of income but surely the payments must be enough to make it worth the government lending?

[Buttercupsandaisies]

It is a debt in that it's in your name for life, there's no escape from it and the slc will pursue and pursue you- there's tons of threads on here about problems people have with student loans

[Buttercupsandaisies]

By life I mean the full loan duration which is most people's working life and family years

[goinggetstough]

I just had a look on a salary calculator and if you earn £23000 per year you would pay £42 approx each month. It relates to how much you earn over a particular figure and is not based on how much you owe in total

[titchy]

Current government modelling is that less than 60% of the total loan book will be paid back.

They didn't do it for commercial reasons, at least not in the same way a bank or individual would make a decision based on return on investment. It was largely done as a way of technically (ie an accounting fiddle) reducing expenditure, for obvious political reasons.

[Amummyatlast]

I don't get the angst buttercup. My total loan was approx 12k (I appreciate it's more now). I earn an above average salary, but not much above average, and when I graduated was only earning 16k. It took approx 11 years to pay off, and didn't cause me any problems.

[AndNowItsSeven]

It's more of a graduate tax than a debt Buttercup

[BeauGlacons]

The basic maintenance loan is £1300(ish) per term. We give DS that in one lump so he learns to budget. We pay his fees and his rent so he will have no debt. I pay for his phone, gym, the odd coach fare, possibly the odd air fare .

He's at Oxbridge, aiming for a first. And no, a term time job is a non starter. He does have a job he likes in the holidays and works very diligently at it.

I am deeply saddened that society has become so divided again.. DH went to the same university, was totally skint, but finished with very little debt (about £750). His parents made up his just above minimum grant to the then maximum. He could live on it. He would be far more disadvantaged today.

[boys3]

going I think you've looked at the wrong calculator, or not chosen the post 2011 option. A £23,000 salary would incur a monthly repayment of £15 / mnth. Thats (23,000 - 21,000) *9% / 12. So if you only ever earned £23,000 per annum, and there was no change in the £21,000 threshold over 30 yrs you'd repay £5400.

there's tons of threads on here about problems people have with student loans

then you could post tons of links butter . Alternatively you could educate yourself on the realities of how the current student loan system actually works. This is a fairly straightforward www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-tuition-fees-changes

[BackforGood]

It always costs more if you have a sociable young person at university!

My ds is very sociable, but he has to cut his cloth to suit the fact he's not been able to get a job in his University town. When at University, IME, most students are mixing with other students, so most (not all, I know), but most students are on limited means, so they plan their living around that. Yes, most dc will turn 21 whilst at University, but most students will not have a grand party for it, because neither they, nor any of their friends can finance it. A lot of my ds's social life takes place in their shared house, or friends shared houses..... BBQs, they have a weekly 'pub quiz', parties, cooking meals together (for for one another), daft games, etc. - costs a bottle of booze from the supermarket at the most, but, after the first year, they tend to realise they don't actually need to drink that much. ds takes part in 3 or 4 things weekly which cost him very little, (2 of them) or nothing at all (the other 2).
He has always paid for his phone. His laptop was an 18th birthday present from us.

These threads are similar to the pocket money threads. We all look at our own experiences and around at our social circle (who usually are in similar financial circumstances to ourselves). Some people are stunned that others actually cope on a budget. Others can't get their heads round just how must some people spend on totally unnecessary consumables on a weekly or even daily basis.

[musicalmama]

I worked 20hrs a week all through my student life and full time in the summer. My parents paid my rent and gave me £20 a week for food plus paid any books etc I couldn't get from the library. I then had to use my own money to run a second hand car, gym membership, nights out, trains home to visit family and any holidays which I see as luxuries. IMHO the students who didn't work were the ones who were out ALL the time spending parents money and graduating with second and third class honours. Unless she's doing nursing or something there's no reason she shouldn't have a part time job. Life only gets harder to fit stuff in so it would stand her in good stead!

[BackforGood]

Buttercup When I graduated nearly 30 yrs ago, everyone lost around 1/3 of their gross income in tax + NI.
This has come down MASSIVELY. No-one now pays tax on the first £10K (+? might be £11 now?), and then you only pay 22% on the rest of your income until you get in the higher rate bracket. So everyone is paying FAR less tax than we did back in the day of no fees for University.
If you have a degree, and are earning what is considered a 'graduate salary', then - quite rightly - you will have to pay a little more each month in what I think of as a graduate tax, but you are calling loan repayments. Still, far less than EVERYONE was expected to pay previously. Seems fair to me. don't forget, that if you fall on hard times, or just choose not to work for a while or choose to work PT, etc., then your repayments stop. No commercial loan works like that.

[boys3]

back agreed, although I think basic rate was 33% and then there was NI as well - it is such a long time ago (ponders wistfully) :). Butter may have a point also in terms of the numbers now heading to Uni. I'd imagine we both went at roughly the same time, and given less than 15% did, were very much the exception than the norm.

However with not far off 45% going currently the graduate premium is being eroded. Institution and course count for a lot, something I'm not sure everyone fully appreciates.

The IFS released an interesting report recently on graduate earnings. Clear advantage at the elite end, and clear lack of financial benefit at the..........less elite end. www.ifs.org.uk/publications/8235

[BeauGlacons]

Tax was more but I seem to recall NI was less.

We works out that is DS earnt about £100k pa for most of his working life he would repay about £120-£130k. It was therefore a no brainer for us to decide to pay his fees.

[JeanGenie23]

Just to mention working whilst at uni again, I actually think now with the shortage of jobs and the high amount of people with degrees, students don't do themselves favours if they get to 21 never having worked. Even the smallest of jobs at the weekend can offer important transferable skills. It was definitely to my benefit to have had a job right from the age of 15. So whilst I understand the whole dedicated to your studies mentality, you do need to think about life after uni, it's detrimental to some graduates to have nothing to put on their cv work wise.

[goodbyestranger]

How many balls can there be at one uni? Mine do balls and don't need/ask for a sub but it's not like a ball a week. One or two tickets a year isn't going to break any budget and if it is, then they can cut back on something else - their budget, their choice.

[GetAHaircutCarl]

Just this morning I've received two requests for references for internships.

Both sound like amazing opportunities for the young people. But obviously these will impact on possible summer jobs and parents may need to financially support ( assuming they don't pay or pay minimally ).

[LittlehumHams]

I will also have four children at university in very close succession. Make sure you save as much as possible ahead of time. Buying the things they need gradually helps to spread the cost too.

If you have an introvert then there won't be too many extra pressures. Two of mine are extroverts. As long as they are sensible it is fine and most students are on a budget.

[DailyMailThicko]

One or two tickets a year isn't going to break any budget and if it is, then they can cut back on something else - their budget, their choice .

My DC are well supported (both emotionally AND financially ) but some of their friends are incredibly skint despite working and being ridiculously frugal. If you are are not eligible for the full loan and your parents don't help you out then you can be seriously skint. Its hard coming up with things like deposits for accommodation.

If you have no one to lend you money then cash flow can be very tricky.

[goodbyestranger]

Yes I completely get that DMT but the balls are approx £150 - £180 so really just a few quid a week, not a major outlay in the scheme of things. Parents don't need to take a mortgage holiday to fund it, nor do students need to go without anything major - the sums are easy to compute.

[DailyMailThicko]

Yes I completely get that DMT but the balls are approx £150 - £180 so really just a few quid a week, not a major outlay in the scheme of things. Parents don't need to take a mortgage holiday to fund it, nor do students need to go without anything major - the sums are easy to compute.

Lol, I hope guess you are teasing me.

[goodbyestranger]

No I'm not DMT. The tickets for the flashier more expensive balls are always sold out within an incredibly short space of time so I think the students may be wringing their hands less than the parents. It's a pint of beer or a glass of wine less a week (or any similar £3.50 vice), not a choice between eating or not. Most DC don't require a 'ball allowance' of the sort for which bojo forks out.