Uni money to live on

[Kattya]

Just after a few options/advice. DD off to Uni. She's in halls and her maintenance loan doesn't cover all of her rent so we will have to top that up. I'm just wondering how much she will need to live on. She will get a job she's not work shy but I dont want her to be working all the time as she needs to study so was thinking of giving her so much a week for food etc ??

For example a friend of DS is paying around 7.5k for first year accommodation in Durham.

There was almost no choice to do it cheaply in his college.

they do indeed Carl but with long vacations there are significant earning and cv enhancing opportunities.

I'd add Durham to your list, and having recently looked round Nottingham that seemed quite pricey too. However lowly ranked Uni's such as Anglia Ruskin have some truly eye watering accommodation options

x-post carl on Durham :)

Durham was the other example in my earlier post. I think the debate around tuition fees is a bit of a red herring . Living costs are arguably a much bigger issue and potential blocker in terms of widening access.

I am paying for DD's accommodation, so she will live off her load, so about £100 a week. I doubt she will spend that much.

My DC's experience was that the students they shared flats with came from a huge range of backgrounds. Wealthy overseas students with unlimited spending and some from very modest backgrounds on maximum loans.
What they found was that those who were on the max loans seemed to feel well off and were often the ones with more budgeting sense.
On the other hand there were several from fairly well off families who got the minimum loan and very little top up from parents. One I know who has worked all the way through uni and has maxed out overdraft yet his parents are very well off.

Most unis have a policy of employing students on campus and some have recruitment agencies for this. There is regular work or casual which can fit in with exams.

We took the approach of topping up to the maximum loan. So £8000ish in total to live on including rent and everything else. They both managed comfortably with money left over.

Is no one including in their budget clothes? With the best will in the world, they'll take a wardrobe with them but what happens when their jeans wear through from daily wear? Or they realise it's actually bloody cold where they've moved to (for example) and they could do with a decent coat. Or they join a fell walking club and need walking boots. Or even, outside chance, they get evening work behind a bar and need black trousers and a white shirt?

Also, even if you take your own snacks, one cinema trip costs in the region of £12-15 nowadays. And even if your DC don't socialise, they will probably end up doing project work which will involve sitting in a bar/coffee shop where it's generally accepted that you need to buy a (£3) drink.

For what it's worth, 15 years ago my DM paid for my accommodation and I had £100/wk spends (including food and bills). I also worked behind a bar while I was at uni and temped when I was at home during the (extremely long) holidays. I also lived with people who were supporting themselves entirely with no familial input. There's a massive range, with no 'right' amount to contribute - although as the PP upthread said the government contribution is a good starting idea.

boys is right about different hall costs. The maximum loan is ample where accommodation is cheap but completely taken up with rent at some places so it's hard to generalise (and some students live at home). My older son commuted to Reading and lived at home in his second and third year (not recommended but I suppose cheaper).

Oxbridge is indeed cheaper with short terms. It would be a big shame if the other universities ended up with segregated students at the same student based on parental income.

I only mentioned the £150 a week as people were asking. It was not some kind of massive show off exercise (it is £7800 a year). I think it's very generous and they are very lucky but nor is it a king's ransom also people spend differently. One twin has saved most of it up so far he was telling me. His brother who is doing more - Reading Festival, had trip to Belgium, got one to Amsterdam coming up has less left (but is the one also with a part time job). They are both liking not having to as me if I will pay for stuff like a trip to the cinema however so a fixed allowance seems to be nicer for all of us. It will be even easier for me when it all finishes of course.......

Also I may be the fool. I know it's a gamble -fund them at university without loans and then they never earn much at all and I've wasted all that funding.

LB I recommend a website called Unidays.

Joining offers discounts on many clothes brands, tickets and food.

Well worth a look.

LB packing a decent coat is one for the "what to take uni" thread, easily forgotten when moving in September .
Mine have never spent much on clothes not since I gave them a clothing allowance and they preferred to save it.
Actually I did help out with new sports equipment which was expensive but optional.

Wow user9512736123 - I can't believe you can accuse Lucy of being insensitive (despite the fact she has pointed out many times that there will be students without anywhere near that amount) and then post such a rude, personal and hurtful thing about her, which is just a leap of you (your ds?)'s imagination
Are you and your ds always that rude?

LBOCS2

My dc have started off University with decent coats, walking boots etc, as well as black trousers (which you could easily pick up in a charity shop, along with white shirt if it were ever needed, or, if preferred, the cost of which could be offset against the first wages if they didn't).
They tend to ask for hoodies, jeans etc for birthdays and Christmas. But the lower amounts do include an element of the ability to budget, and decide which is more important - another pair of jeans or the price of getting into a particular nightclub. Isn't that what we all have to do as adult? Make choices about our spending I mean, not choose to go to a nightclub, obviously

One great thing about the internet is that people such as Lucy can state their position openly, so thread members can get a range of views into different people's circumstances, and we can have a wide range of opinions. This is not often the case face-to-face, where people are more circumspect.

Re clothes, I'll be amazed if DS spends anything on clothes, as he's made do with the minimum over his teenage years, to avoid shopping.

It's fine. Life is very unfair (not just on money but health and all kinds of other areas) and not surprisingly most of us resent it at times. University can help people get opportunities and make choices.

Mine don't spend much on clothes either.

My parents paid my accommodation and then it was up to me to use my loan and work for the rest - if I needed more then I worked more.

kath6144 Gosh - you must have gone back and searched my posts. We get a contribution from dh;s employer that does not by any means come close to covering what we pay out.

Please note that with HM Forces, any educational contribution from the Forces stops at the end of A levels, and that that contribution is only made in very specific circumstances,

DS1 has decided to sell his car, he's not allowed to take it to uni and train tkt home is only about £9 with railcard and station virtually on campus. He's booked apt with we buy any car so I've told him to expect a lower offer when they see it, as it has a lovely dent in front (says he found it like that in college carpark and he didn't hit anything)?! However much he gets will go towards his books as reading list huge and he's got an Amazon basket going which is over £400 so far!

he gets will go towards his books as reading list huge and he's got an Amazon basket going which is over £400 so far!

Have you looked at Amazon Marketplace or ebay for good quality second hand copies? Also would question whether the University library(ies) might be an option :)

That's the other thing Oxbridge has going for it - great libraries, so you don't have to spend a fortune on books.

Boys3, all second hand in his basket so far and still expensive, he's printed the list off and is taking it to our clinic tomorrow to see if any of them have their study books or can recommend which to buy and which ones he'll find in library.

Am wondering if DD should take a printer? Will it end up being oh can you just print this for me from others? Which wouldn't usually be a issue if printer ink didn't cost almost same as actual printer, she not the type to tell them to hop it

Ds did all his printing in college, so didn't have his own printer for his BA, and won't for his MA either.

Reading with interest, we are only entitled to minimum loan £3900? Which we are giving DS as living costs doled out weekly . Over 44 weeks it's about £80 ish a week. He's saved about 1k from his summer job and he'll have about 1.5 in savings which I works rather he didn't touch. We are planning to pay for accommodation which is about £1400 a term I think ( not got confirmation yet) . It's a lot of money , we can afford it but obviously cutbacks will need to be made. I don't know how people manage with multiple children though ( we only have DS).

I've told him not to be getting into debt because we can't afford to mail him out. He says he will get a job once he settled in.

Just read my typos on the above , no glasses! 'Would rather' and 'bail him out '

My son is in a house second year that's £100 a week with bills. I pay the weekly rent using his DLA and he works for Waterstones and earns a fair bit. He manages to save a bit and look after all the bits he needs. We top up at Christmas and make sure re returns with food parcels and new clothes. He won't have to pay for education as he has a statement (echp)

I probably am generous as my mum and dad sent myself and my brother with a fiver and a tin of beans until the grant came through. They has no idea and not a pot to piss in. I was with a toddler too. It wasn't something I wanted to replicate for my kids so I saved up to help my boys.