What’s the stupidest thing your dc have spent their student loan on?

[rheak]

DD takes a student loan to supplement her spending, in order
to have a decent quality of life and not be tied constantly to a job.
We pay all her rent/food.

She agreed to save the money from the loan and try and keep a strict budget otherwise.

I’ve just found out she’s used £1,000 of it on flights abroad for next summer !

What’s the daftest thing your dc have spent it on?

[merlotmummy14]

In my first year of uni one month I spent £400 on clothing and concert tickets - I ate plain spaghetti and free fruit from my work for the rest of the month and became anemic but I learned my lesson the hard way. In my second year I put £3000 away for a 2 month backpacking trip across the whole of Europe while paying rent and living VERY cheaply (bulk making meals, only getting special drink promos and free clubs entry and buying textbooks/clothes second-hand). It's all a learning experience in the end.

[ChangoMutney]

I haven't given my dd the pressure of managing such a large amount of money on top of everts else. Her maintenance loan will pay her rent, we will top up the shortfall and give her a weekly amount to live off.

[QuaterMiss]

But Chango surely the point of university is to cut the apron strings and offer teens the first taste of making independent decisions? Including mistakes.

[ChangoMutney]

QuarterMiss yes you are right, but I think there's so much change in the first year that it doesn't hurt to relieve a bit of stress. Next year will probably be different

[Pinklady301]

I spent all my loan years ago on a bloody PlayStation 2!

I'd waited almost the whole of the first year struggling and skint waiting for the loan to come through and it came through right near the end of the first year. So instead of being sensible I blew it on a PlayStation, clothes, haircut and drinks!

In my naive immature mind I figured I'd suffered without it so I could blow it. I'd been so poor and had many a card declined or a McDonald's meal paid by cheque. So when I finally got it I wasted it.

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

We provide our kids with enough to get by. The idea is that they work for extras.

I have one fairly sensible one

One with a serious primark and gig ticket habit

And one with dodgy mental health who happily splashed out on a big pile of drugs and six weeks in Thailand.

I'm happy to give support but they sort their budget out themselves.

[Roomba]

I admit I spent my entire student loan on flights to the US to visit my American bf (met during his JYA at my uni). But that was in 1996 so the max loan was something like £1,300 for the full year. No fees to pay And I did get a p/t job during that year to cover my living costs apart from rent. So in my mind I just used it to book in advance, but paid with my job, iyswim. Still, jot the most sensible use of funds, especially given we split up not long afterwards. Can't say I regret it but I wouldn't do it now!

[FaFoutis]

I spent mine on an operation for my dog. They rebuilt her leg, but I was completely skint. I lived on smash and 'scones' made from flour and water.

[crimsonlake]

Same here, 2 at Uni and I have no idea what they spend their student loan on, why should I?

[Oakmaiden]

My son has just gone to uni. I hope he will be fairly sensible with money - but frankly, he is going to have more disposable income than I have (well over £100 a week after paying his rent)...

[SauvignonBlanche]

We pay all her rent/food.
That’s probably why she has such a limited understanding of money.

[Xenia]

I only fund them on the basis the 5 of them took/take on no debt of any kind so we haven't got a student loan issue like that. One chap the papers said spent his on his costs to join to fight with ISIS - he just checked into the university long enough to get the cash. (That is where my hard earned taxes are going! - as most people won't pay the full loans back we full time working tax payers are the ones funding these things rather than the students - contrary to what the papers say about the burden of student loans; the burden is mostly on the tax payers not the students as so few repay the whole loan).

[Hissy]

I think the loans have to stop. she has no need for them and clearly it's not teaching her about life.

I agree with Xenia, and I know my OH has this agreement with his kids. It's a bonkers idea to fund a kids Uni for them to add debt to it all!

[RubiksQueen]

I knew loads of people who just spent their loan on clothes and fun and gadgets and then lived on beans! Or got jobs where they'd get fed. Rich and poor background alike.

[MarchingFrogs]

OP, you do realise that although the amount she may borrow is influenced by your earnings in the relevant tax year, your DD's student loan is taken out by her, in her name, will be her responsibility to repay and is her money? So if you are covering her rent and sufficient food for her to live on, there must be limited other necessary expenses for her to use that money for.

She doesn't even need your cooperation to claim the minimum maintenance loan, currently just over £4000 pa. So although you may be disappointed in her not conforming to your idea that she should put any 'spare' money away as savings, presumably for something less frivolous than foreign travel, as things stand, she probably has quite a lot 'spare and legally, it is hers to do with as she will.

I'm not sure that I would see foreign travel as a 'stupid' use of money, either.

[LuckyDiamond]

Back in 1997 one of my flat mates blew his loan on a electric guitar and amp in his first week there

I was hoping you were going to finish your post by saying he grew up to be one of The Script or something

[papayasareyum]

clearly I’m in a minority of people who isn’t paying my daughter’s accommodation. Her maintenance loan will be paying for her accommodation and we’ll be giving her food money each week. (as well as paying towards accommodation as the loan doesn’t cover the total cost of her accommodation) I thought the maintenance loan was intended to pay for their living costs, not for luxuries?!!

[Xenia]

Papay, loads of parents are like you and plenty could not afford anything else. The maintenance loan covers the rent in many cases and a job which the student has covers the rest and the parents don't need to pay anything. ( I pay student fees, rent and an allowance but that is the exception not the rule)

[BumDisease]

Many moons ago when I had my first student loan I treated myself to straighteners and a cpot of Soul Calibur 2 for the Gamecube. I was with my friend who blew hers on a Xbox and a pair of New Rocks. We had both just turned 18. Of course teenagers with their first taste of independence AND money are going to piss it against a wall!

[MarchingFrogs]

The OP's DD is, by the sound of things, having the necessities of life covered by parental contributions and has exercised her legal right to take whatever level of maintenance loan she is entitled to. The only part of the equation over which the OP has control is their contribution. Not the student loan (although if household income allows for some or all of the means tested third to be paid, they can of course refuse to complete the relevant section of the application). That part of their DD's income is definitely her own. If her parents want her not to spend money on 'frivolities' - possibly they have already lost the battle over saving the greater portion - then all they can do is reduce their input to the point where the DD needs must spend her loan on keeping body and soul together.

Some of us don't actually begrudge our DC the odd luxury. Shower gel onepce a week instead of carbolic soap, egg on toast instead of today's seventh of a packet of Rich Tea for supper, perhaps.

[puppymouse]

Spent mine on clothes and shoes. Most of it anyway. No excuses- I just didn't have a clue about money or willpower. I still live beyond my means as an adult to be honest. Hope I can teach DD better habits.

[Gammeldragz]

I got my latest student loan installment last week and spent half of it on a 10kg washing machine. It has made me very happy
However, I am a 33yo nursing student with a family of my own!

[Mrsfrumble]

LuckyDiamond you just inspired me to facebook-stalk him just in case he had become a famous musician without me noticing. In which case I could claim some credit for his success by saving him from starvation.

But no, he's a web developer!