How much do your dc spend on food per week?

[mumofanoxonian]

DS is at Oxford. He eats in hall/ or ready meals and rarely has food from a takeout stand. Including about a bottle of wine a week, he's spent £43 a week on food. Does this sound like a reasonable figure? He says that the supermarkets in Oxford are really expensive, which for a tesco I'm inclined to agree.

What do you think? How much do your kids spend on food per week at uni?

£43 a week is a lot for one person, I'm guessing it includes other things. Dd gets £100 a month

My DC are aware of a family member who earned huge sums in the City and thought it would last forever. Instead the gravy train came to an abrupt halt, with the Inland Revenue then adding to the misery with some late, large and unexpected tax bills.

His DC always wore lovely designer clothes,had smart boarding school friends, and were used to half term Swiss ski holidays or nice hotels in exotic places. It is really hard to turn off the spending tap quickly but neither now are in a position to expect their parents to help with first car, flat deposit or whatever.

We are reasonably well off and DC have not needed to take out loans, but we still need to be careful. I think that there is a real freedom in being happy on a low budget. Who knows. Both are likely to work in the public sector, not least because neither is particularly money motivated. It actually looks like they will be pretty employable, but who knows. Being able to look in the fridge and cook up a tasty meal with whatever is there is a real life skill.

There are some pretty monied kids at DDs University. DD talks about one having a new BMW and another with a convertible Audi. She in contrast hangs out with relatively few Londoners/SE'ners. Not many of her friends went to private schools, with several being the first in their families to go to University. They sound great, bright and interesting. With the bonus that if your friends don't have money to spend, you don't spend either.

150 a week seems eye wateringly high

I've budgeted £50 for dd!!

@mumofanoxonian I think you need to clarify for us if ds has a kitchen ? I (and I suspect most of us) don't know the 'halls' arrangement.

Does he have a kitchen, but choose to buy a meal at the college each day?
Some students are in 'catered halls' where all meals are included as part of the rent.
Some are in 'self catered' where no food in included.
Some have a 'cater' which is like a pre-loaded card they can use at any food outlet on campus.
I understand that at both Oxford and Cambridge there are 'formals' which are part of the whole experience, but I am not sure how this works.

I think you are saying he is self catered and buys meals out a lot ? (where 'out' means in hall, but is still buying a meal from his allowance?). In which case it is going to be a LOT more expensive than cooking for himself.
Also, is this 3 meals a day, or one 'main' meal a day? Again, makes a big difference.

What you (as a family) need to decide, is what you can afford, or even what you want him to learn about budgeting and looking out for himself. Doesn't really matter what others are paying as there are always people better off and always people worse off than yourself.

I love reading Xenia's posts - MN is all about understanding people who are very different from yourself - but remember her financial situation puts her in a very tiny minority of the population as a whole (larger than average % on MN), so don't be too daunted by that

Backfor, thanks. There are people at univesrity getting £150 a week and more but most don't so no parent should feel pressured. Even just this week when they are on the university ski trip will be quite expensive because of going out etc although I know one is buying a big French baguette, pate and cucumber every day for his breakfast/lunch and I don't think they are particular extravagent. One took a container of Huel (or what I call gruel) in his suitcase for the ski trip for some meals uk.huel.com/.

As I keep telling them scottish students 100 years ago would take a big sack of oats to be eaten with water during term time as their principal foodstuff. I told one them and their friend who stayed before the trip that they were dining like kings in the holiday (Waitrose sushi). In fact may be that's why we are popular in holidays - free food.

I pay rent for DS which is pretty high (red brick, south of England). He then has to live out of his student loan, which is £3694 a year, or £87 a week. His course is recognised as pretty full on so he can't work except during the summer. He pays his bills out of the maintenance loan (£45 a month) and phone and travel home. Plus anything else he might need. He says it's enough, and he seems to be able to go out on it when he feels like it.