How much financial support do you give your DCs at uni?

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Just thinking ahead here, but just wondered how much financial support others give their children at uni? We have a friend who pays for DD's accommodation but not sure we could ever stretch that far. We've saved a bit here and there, but I'm now thinking we seriously need to start saving more as DD will be going in two years time.

Ouch. Ds was in 'catered', but non en suite at RHUL. He doesn't have an en suite at home, neither did he when boarding at sixth form, so sharing a bathroom on a corridor in Founders was fine. The 'catered' bit was a reduction on food costs in hall dining facilities, but it meant he could eat when he wanted. You didn't dip out if you didn't have a meal, as you weren't paying for three meals a day.

Neither of my DSSs had en suites in hall though both of them ended up having exclusive use of a shower room. The two bath cubicles for 18 girls scenario of my hall days doesn't seem to exist any longer.

I expect that DD will have a room with an ensuite when her time comes. She will care about it so much more than her brothers did, and she won't need the same whopping gorilla sized food budget that her brothers needed.

DS is in ensuite, double bed, non catered for 4.5k.

It seems to vary massively by university.

The thing is ScaryTeacher - more and more students no longer have the choice.
My dc would prefer to be in cheaper / less luxurious halls and have the money in their pockets, but that choice is being taken away from them. My niece has started university this year, and knows of several friends who have not been able to get accommodation they preferred, and have had to go into the 'posher' / more expensive ones, or live on a park bench.

Ds was in catered halls in central London 3 years ago. He did have an ensuite even though he didn't ask for one. The cost was an eyewatering £9600 40 week contract. Now he is in year three and shares a flat with no lounge but an small eat in kitchen at the cost of £170 pw plus bills. Last year in a different flat it was £200 pw inclu bills.
Pretty much par for the course in central London. Yes he did get 5 offers from across the country however this really is the best course for his field so that's where he feels he needs to be and we support that, financially, physically and mentally.
So yes even the increased for London maintenance loan doesn't even touch the edges of what he needs to pay. He has a job but to be honest he can't do the required work for a first and earn enough to clear all his debts so there is no option but for us to help him.

back ds applied for accommodation before the A level results were out, and we paid the deposit as soon as the list for halls opened. RHUL seem to have a decent range of prices, and living out for his second and now third year has been fine. We pay the rent direct to the l/l, so he knows it's coming, and it's £365 per month for a room in a house, plus bills, but unlimited broadband is thrown in.

The l/l replaces stuff when it breaks and is very reasonable about things, so it's good. I'm not sure if ds wants to stay ibn that house if he gets accepted on the MA he wants to do, or if he'll go back into Halls. I don't think living out hurts him, and it's training for the big bad world!

Back I agree. dd is in her third year and we are looking round for ds. Universities seem to be demolishing their older halls and building new ones and we know people who applied for cheap halls, paid deposits on time etc, and got allocated much more expensive places (in one case, applied for non-ensuite shared flat with two showers between 11 and got a private flatlet for an extra £2k a year). I don't think it is obvious when you look around - you can look at supply but you have no idea of demand. Students fund their costs in all sorts of different ways and dd says in her (cheaper) accommodation it was mostly people who got minimum loans.

In that case that might help one of mine who is worried the more expensive nicer places will all be booked up. At least that sounds unlikely (poor me though who will be funding it)...

Ah and in my day I didn't get where I wanted because I wasn't prepared to share a room (I think there was more room sharing in those days which ruled out loads of places - no way was I going to share a room at university).

Zero.

2 at university. 1 is in self-catering at 3.8k, the other is in a university house at 3.7k. Shared bathrooms and showers.

Too poor to contribute. 1 gets a student loan and max grant 8.2k, the other started this year so no grant all 8.2k.

Eldest spent 2.6k over 40 weeks last year, that includes absolutely everything, food, phone, transport to/from home, transport around the city, luxuries. £60 a week. His room last year was 4.2k so happy this year it is 3.7k. I've given the younger one the challenge to keep to the same £60 per week and so far he has done, that is about £260 per month.

Eldest finished the year with 1.4k excess. This year should have 1.9k, enough to carry over to 3rd year he can live on the grant and excess and not have more loan, but still pondering if he should take it and stick it in the bank or not.

I count them very lucky they are at universities which have housing for as little as 3.7k per year. I count them very unlucky they have a father who abandoned them and left them destitute, their mum is paying off their dad's debts of 46k he left me and the 34k he stole from the boys' accounts I'd saved for university and ironically they currently are the only ones in the family with any money!!!!

I am stunned people pay 7k for housing a student and it's terrible not all universities like Surrey offer cheaper housing and my child is not even in the cheapest at Surrey, you can pay less than 3k at Surrey.