My DD will take a fees loan at £9,250 for the 3 years.
We can't decide what to advise her in regard to a living costs loan.
DH and I are willing to pay for her accommodation and 3 meals a day at her college. This will be only for around 24 weeks a year. (Oxbridge)
We are not willing/ can't quite stretch to pay for her extras such as going out etc.
She is working the summer so should be able to save around £3000 and will be given around £1000 by her grandmother. Which would equate to around £77 a week for 52 weeks. Not a huge sum if she wanted a holiday or something but not pittance. She will also have long holidays that she would be able to work a bit during, but of course dependent on work load. This could pay for anything she needed extra. But would tie her summers down to working when she may need to do other things.
She hopes to become a city lawyer, or perhaps go on for further study. So possibly extra courses to fund herself after undergrad. We would not be able to pay anything towards these.
I'm not sure if I'm being too conservative/optimistic in regard to living costs etc.
Should I advise her to save on future repayments and do a year on tight money?
Or should she take a full £8000 a year living costs loan for 2-3 years and save it to fund the uncertain years after graduation. Such as if she had to pay for the GDL/LPC/Masters. She currently doesn't have a car either, although I think it'd be daft to pay such high interest on a loan to use it for that.
Any advice?