Bristol university Parents- living costs?

[ItsTheKissing]

Hello. Just looking for some advice regarding living costs after accommodation. Hopefully DSS will get self catered accommodation and then we will need to send him money to live on. I've looked at WHICH and the university recommendations for this but just wanted a reality check about what the average costs are to survive . He will be doing medicine at Bristol.

MrKlaw, I agree about not getting a job. DS took a quantitative degree and the different approach at University took a bit of getting used to. Each lecture can cover a lot of material and to keep up it may be worth looking at the material beforehand, and then going through it after. DS used part of each vacation to revise material before the next term. Others might have managed doing less, but better to keep on top than to find yourself floundering.

A lot of drinking happens in Wetherspoons so the price of a beer is easy to calculate. Get the app and if he texts you his location and table number you can send him some onion rings, or even a salad.

Bristol SU is a bit out of the way, though not just inhabited by politicos. (Bubbles DD seems to mix with a very different crowd to my DD and be having quite a different experience.) The drama types, for example, spend a lot of time there. I think there is also a bar at the sports ground. No idea of cost, seemingly not so much that sports celebrations are curtailed.

Im not following this 51 week thing. DDs hall accommodation went far enough into the summer that she was able to move her stuff straight from there to her second year flat. So no need to bring her stuff home, and really convenient given she still had placements.

One of my twins moved his stuff from his halls into his year 2 house at the end of year 1 and the other chose to bring his stuff back here for the summer. In both cases their year 2 house letting started just as the end of halls of year 1 ended so that worked out fine.

I don't think my twins use the students union but probably others do. It is just so hard to generalise about anything - money (as the Bristol website link above says it depends on what standard of living you want to live, where you might socialise, how many hours a day you have of your course as it is so variable.

We have written a budget for dd. I'm giving her £30 a week for food shopping and paying for her phone, everything else from her loan or bursary. We will either collect her or send train money though each term

@MrKlaw it was a very cheap holiday

Stucknoue, one thing to watch for are sports costs if your DC is sporty. They are a lot and come in the first term. Drama types keep costs down by charging admission for their plays then strongarming friends to go.

Being able to cook, and shop well, saves masses of money. Really worth doing this over the summer either at home or DD went on a specific cookery course for students.

Phones need not cost much as they maknly use wifi. Whilst train costs can be kept down with apps like Trainsplit, though many take the coach which can be a lot cheaper.