How much do you give your Uni student child for food each week?

[papayasareyum]

Daughter is first year of Uni. Her maintenance loan doesn’t cover her accommodation, we have to pay £2,100 towards this. We pay the difference. Our daughter feels that we’re being stingy, so I’m just wondering, for those of you who do something similar to us, how much do you give them for food each week?

Dd’s accommodation includes breakfast and evening meal so we give her £30 per week for lunches and anything else she needs.

She earns £15 on a Saturday morning helping at a kids drama class.

Romany - lots of conservatoire students do private teaching or steward at concert halls. I used to steward at SH. They had a monthly rota and you could put down which shifts you were available for.

If shes only getting the minimum maintenance loan then what's the difference between that and the maximum loan that kids with low-income parents would get?
That difference is the minimum you should be giving her.
Anything above that is up to you.

We pay the difference between dds loan and the maximum loan. It neatly covers her accommodation. She doesn't spend very much, so she will probably have a reasonable amount left over this year.
That will probably be useful for future years and I don't want to punish frugality by cutting how much we give her.

DD has just finished 4 years away

The first 3 years she managed pretty well on £25 for food - she also had £10 a week from her nana for other living & I paid her phone. The rest of her expenses were paid for my the previous summers job and that varied from about £10 a week up to nearly £20 the third year

The last summer she couldn't work because of additional classes so she cashed in some Christmas & Birthday money & we upped her food money to £30 as it had got more expensive over the years

She would have struggled to work evenings/weekends as college was 8-8 twice a week & 8-6 the rest of the week plus Sat/Sun rehearsals

She is now back at home paying rent/phone on her sporadic self employed earnings

If there is not much money, do ask about University bursaries. DDs flatmates gets one. Her parents can’t afford to contribute and she is on a demanding course so can’t work. She manages fine, is involved in a University society, and joins others at ‘Spoons etc.

DD does not spend much either, though wwe we can afford to give her more. She is surprised at how much some, who would not consider themselves well off, spend.

Things that seem to eat into budgets are take aways, lunches out (DD normally prepares packed lunches and batch cooks dinners), taxis, not booking trains in advance, and too many big nights out. (Better to book tickets for one in advance and look forward to it.)

Shitlandpony yes I did, my son sorted it though. I just told him what I get and provided bank statements and benefit letters.

"If shes only getting the minimum maintenance loan then what's the difference between that and the maximum loan that kids with low-income parents would get?
That difference is the minimum you should be giving her."

I totally agree with what @Trills said in theory, but for us that would be about £100 per week.

DS would never spend anywhere near £100 per week, and £400 per month out of the family budget would mean the other 2 DC would get no holiday or days out, which is why I find it so hard to know how much to give DS.

I think £20 for food should be enough.

My parents paid for my accommodation in full and gave me £30 a week for food or whatever i wanted 6 years ago. I worked part time at uni and nearly full time over summers. I managed to run a car, go out out once or twice a week, go to the gym and pay for own mobile, broadband, electricity etc. Also holidayed abroad every year. I didn't have a student loan. Scotland.

OP, are you saying you top up your DDs maintenance loan to cover accommodation (which is about £150pw?) but haven't been giving her any extra for food?

You need to give her money for food and essentials.

DDs loan doesn’t quite cover her rent. In 1st year her rent was much higher (she was in self catering halls) so we paid the difference between rent and loan and gave her £200 pm for everything else.

Shared house now so rent is lower and paid monthly instead of in two lumps so we give her £300 per month to cover the difference i between loan and rent and everything else.

We pay accommodation £5300. Son has minimum maintenance loan ( about 4K) that he lives off, plus he works in the summer. I pay for phone, clothes , train tickets home plus I buy toiletries and we do batch cook for him. He’s not a huge drinker and he manages his money very well. He’s an lonely child and we can afford it, some of his friends have much less as they have siblings etc. It must be a struggle if you’ve a couple of kids or more.

Only not lonely 🙄

I pay my two £150 each a week 52 weeks of the year (plus I pay their rent, bills, car and university fees and their food in university holidays all on the basis they must not take any loans, student or otherwise). They are very lucky I work full time and can afford all that.

DS's minimum loan covers his accommodation and we give him £450 per calendar month for everything else which works out as well over £100 per week he's at university. He only spends £15 on food a week apparently so gawd knows what the rest is going on beer! I think perhaps we're being too generous.

Dd In first year is spending between £22 - £26 a week on food. I asked her to track it. We sent her off with a £85 shop of basics at Lidl initially. She also takes food in for lunch at Uni as do most of her friends. Dd eats really healthily and well and is food obsessed. The other day she was eating baked Camembert with French bread for lunch at the weekend.
I think she spends a fair bit going out though and has joined several clubs. Plus does Yoga & dance classes. She worked over her Gap year and will work as much as possible over the holidays.

Ds had no loans, and we gave him £500 per month in term time for an allowance to cover everything bar phone and rent (as we paid for those).

We give DS £50 a week for food (we also have to top up his rent as he only gets the basic student loan) but he gets £100 a month from his grandmother. His course is very intense so he doesn't have a paid job in term time, but worked full time through the summer. This means he has a healthy savings pot which he dips into for extra spending money.