How much living allowance?

[Jessesbitch]

No student loan. Paying for Halls, fees etc. Halls include all bills.

How much should I give DS per week for food, social, train etc.

Well the full student loan is £8200 for a student from the lowest income family, so if you use that as a guide then give £8200 a year minus halls bills.

FWIW I think around £70 a week is about what DS spends after all bills paid. He doesn't do much social stuff but has a sports membership which costs £300 a year and a bus pass another £350 (second year off campus).
In his first two years he didn't manage much part time work as his course is very intensive but he worked in the holidays at home.

Backforgood at boys eating more. DS eats about 3 times more than the girls in his house share.
In his first year in halls the flat mates all enjoyed cooking and shared it. It's much cheaper to cook once a week for 7 people than to cook every day for one as DS discovered in his second year.

We give our 4 £350 a month. They all work outside of term time except the one doing medicine . They all live frugally and do things like bulk cooking, using megabus instead of the train and other cost cutting stuff. Even though we pay their rent they all choose cheap accommodation. One of my DS's lives in a house that only costs us him £60 plus bills. They seem to like saving their money.

We give the money with no conditions at all and if they choose to waste it then that would be their choice. Although, obviously, I'm glad they don't.

They have all said at one time or another that having money gives them a sense of security and makes them happy. They all seem to love their courses and all seem to work extremely hard. I think removing any financial worry is a huge thing for them. I know they are incredibly grateful and I know they appreciate how fortunate they are.

Ds lived on his student loan (we paid his accommodation fees) which worked out at roughly £1000 per term. I started him off each term with toiletries and a trip to the supermarket to stock cupboards and fridge. The only other time we really had to help him out financially was when he was in a rented house rather than uni halls and his rent was due before his student loan hit his bank account.

We pay fees, and rent, and ds gets £500 per month (term time only) for food, clothes, bills (lives in a shared house), and socialising. As we are abroad I prefer him to be able to build up a reserve if he needs it. We also pay for his mobile.

We take him back at the beginning of term and pick him up at the end, as it is more practical to do so (and I can get to a Sainsbury!).

I don't like the loans and as we can do this for him, and there are no tax implications, it is sensible to do so. The starts of a house deposit is already there from an inheritance. There seems little point in paying compound interest on a loan where the interest rate and terms of repayment can (and have been) varied by HMG.

Very generous parents here! I got the grand total of £0 a week from my parents! After rent I think £70 is excessive

It depends where you are I expect. London is more expensive. Electricity is on a meter for ds, and he is the one who pays to top it up and then tries to get it back from his housemates. I prefer that he has enough to pay for bills.

About £125 per week seems standard amongst the parents I know on top of rent. I only pay it in term time though as my bread, butter, milk and peanut butter bill increases exponentially when ds is home, as does paying for extra internet capacity as he manages to exceed the limit on the package we have with monotonous regularity, and it isn't as cheap as it is in the UK.

I'm surprised my dds survived! Dd2 lives on her student loan of £4500 which covers rent, bills, food and socialising. We're always trying to give her money but she says she's fine. No job, no overdraft.... maybe she should write a book on how she does it!

Trying to find a hall to rent at £4500 may be very challenging in some universities, never mind food, transport, socialising, sports memberships, phone, clothes, etc. It would be totally impossible at lots of university accommodation in London! I look forward to the book, Bo! I think the answer is finding the university with the cheapest halls and cheapest rental sector. This is not possible for everyone.

I did say SOME girls earlier. Just because some girls do not wear make up or like nice toiletteries, they may not be totally typical. Not from what I have seen anyway. It will always depend on what your child is like. Some students live in the same clothes for weeks and just a few T shirts at £5 (?) from Primark will do. Others do not want to live like that, so we all try and carry on with the lifestyle we are used to. My DDs like a bit of make up and new underwear from time to time. Frugal or liking a bit of luxury, I do not really see what the problem is! There is no badge to be gained from being frugal and I do not see why students are vilified for wanting something a bit more than basic living. I do not agree with some definitions of "luxury" on these threads either as lots of students have newish cars and take them to university. Some students even have Trust Funds don't they? Others live on a shoestring and enjoy that. I think students differ and it is up to parents to provide what they can but I do not accept anyone providing more has somehow not done the right thing, or has attained the implied "bad parent" label.

It's not just about providing luxury either bojo there are always posters who seem to take pride in giving their DC as little as possible. I get the fact that they have to learn to budget and learn the value of money but I also want the best for my DC. I want them to spend their time at uni working hard and gaining a good degree and enjoying the experience as well, rather than waiting tables in order to eat.
What surprises me is that it's often the better off parents who's DC get minimum loan who give them the least financial help . We are not well off by MN standards, DC get around £6000 loan but I contribute a fair bit for both DC on top of that.

Some people on really good salaries have very high levels of financial commitment though Seacrets ; they could have massive mortgages or a lot of debt. Someone else may have a lower salary and much more disposable income. Obviously some other people are just plain mean.

I don't know Boro, I think "safe" slumming it can be very character building. I was a poor student. I still have a massive appreciation of very simple things like a long hot shower in a clean bathroom and a warm house and being able to buy stuff without checking the pennies. It definitely helped me learn to budget too.

What cracks me up is that when I used to buy reduced meat (especially chicken as it's expensive in Belgium), ds used to look at me and ask if we were poor. Dh was an RN Officer, so we weren't badly off, I just liked a full freezer. Ds will now ring me up and let me know about his 'bargains', like a rump steak for £1.50...he is learning!

We pay his allowance monthly so he is used to budgeting for a month at a time, as he will have to when he starts working.

Don't pay the eldest anything, he gets a full grant and university bursary and took full loan last year. He ended up spending £50 a week on food, internet, social, plus going to see Arsenal play! That was about £2000 in total over the 40 weeks of his loan/grant/bursary spent on non housing.

I take £50 a week as low end and £100 a week as pretty luxurious. It will be up to you if you're paying. I'd be reluctant to cough up £100 a week, it hardly encourages someone to budget if you are giving them such a huge amount of money. I bring up 4 kids on a food budget, either 2 or 4 kids depending on the week, of £100 per week.

I'm not in a situation to contribute anything at all, I have 2 other kids and one parent paying for them. If I were in a position to pay, I'd give no more than £50 a week and tell them to budget / get part time job.

This year will be different, 2 sons, both now have a qualification to get them a part time job which should cover all their living expenses. Their university housing is costs 3.8k at both universities, self catered all utilities. That will be paid for from their grants/loans/bursaries.

I had £250 a month spending money from my parents in 1994 and that was after all rent was paid and they also paid for a car. We're some way away from this time but I'm of the view, which was the same one my parents had, that we would prefer to minimise their debt. Current plan is that we won't pay their fees but will pay all rent and living expenses, I'm guessing around 100 a week term time and they can work in the summer holidays.

DD is doing engineering, 35 hours contact a week, so no term time job expected. However, she does OTC so gets "paid" whenever she is there.

Works holidays to get ££. She was in self catered halls, took out loan - could only get minimum amount. So we pay her £250 per month, plus her phone.

This pays for:

vodka
Top up for accomodation
Food
Socialising
Books

We also stock up her minuscule fridge and freezer on the first day of term, and pay her train fare home 3x a year.

However, she is the first to acknowledge that this is very generous. Her BFF gets £100 a month, which I think is far too low.

Dd2 gets 250 a month term time and I'll be paying her rent again this year - she says that's plenty. She's doing some work this summer. She either car shares to come home or we pay for her flight. We pay phones for all children.

I'm going to need to help with dd1's MSc this year too.

Don't know if you're still looking for answers but thought I'd put my two cents in. £20 a week is enough for food (do a massive shop for staples at the start of the term). Socialising I would give £100 - £150 a month. Too much sets them up unrealistically for when they graduate and don't have as much disposable income. Too little and they struggle.

I couldn't feed me for £20 per week Spice, not for 3 meals a day living out. Even HM Forces is about £3.00 per day for 3 meals, and they have economies of scale that students won't.

If they are living out and don't have loans, then you cover the rent, but they also have to pay utilities, which cost, travel perhaps, and I prefer to make sure that ds has a buffer there if there is a massive gas bill in the winter.

I agree with scaryteacher (further up the thread) that £125 a week is about right, after rent, if you want your DC to eat properly and to be able to have a social life. The DSSs pay for their own mobiles but not for books or travel home or their gym/sports membership and we buy them clothes during the holidays though they also buy things for themselves.

DD managed on £80 a week after rent (which included bills) and she loves going out! I did do a few shops for her though at the start of term etc.

Dd's school have advised that between £75-£150 pw, depending on family finances should be enough. Dd has asked me to monitor her finances in the first term to see how much she actually needs to live on.

My son eats properly and goes out too on around 50 pounds a week. 125 per week, I find that quite shocking to suggest 1 person needs that just for proper food and going out, honestly that is a hell of a lot of going out or eating fresh non farmed salmon for every meal!

Life the money we give ds is food, books (he is as bad as I am for books), utilities (gas, electricity which is metered, so pricey, and water rates), an activity in another town, toiletries, spotify, netflix etc. What we give him is a lot less than some others get!

I admit my DSSs eat very high quality food - lots of meat, vegetables and fruit. We are happy to fund this as it is what they were brought up to eat. Neither of them smoke or drink alcohol.