Do your uni student children travel/go on holiday?

[sadidas]

DS lives a fairly frugal life at university, only ever buys second hand (good quality) clothing, often reduced food, walks everywhere etc. He works when he can during the holidays.

However, he seems to spend all his money on traveling. He’ll jet off whenever he can. This summer he spent a month in Europe.

At Christmas he’s going to Vietnam for 2 weeks, at Easter he’s going to Costa Rica.

When on hols he isn’t extravagant and stays in mediocre/cheap places most of the time. However, he’s known to get sick of bad standards and blow a few hundred on a 5* hotel. He doesn’t really
fly economy class either (he is 6ft 5 to be fair)

Just wondering if this much traveling is normal?

Does anybody have average sized children on Mumsnet?

Or kids that have to live without financial support coming in from all angles?

Business class several times a year on long haul is not cheap. Not so much more than Economy to European destinations. The 5* hotel costs would vary too. A great deal so it may be uses the cheaper end of this category? Even so, the long haul business flights ARE costly and would use thousands of £ for each holiday. It still does not add up to me.

He tells us that he stays in cheap 5* hotels, so something like £70 each (he shares with a rich friend) a night. Then the next night he'll be back to £7 a night dorm beds.

When he flies he takes advantage of air miles collected throughout the year, sales etc etc. Sorry I may have misled. He doesn't fly business often. Maybe one way per year through upgrades etc.

Back to your original question. Most students I have known took an extended long haul summer break and maybe a cheap european break at easter. I think your son does more than most.

Why is he getting a loan if you are paying for all his bills? So he is basically getting loans to pay for his holidays? That is not right.

My dc use their loans for rent, food etc and I help out with books, phones the smaller bits...

Oh and my dc do go on holiday but they also work to pay for their holidays and won't go if they haven't managed to earn enough.

We went to Asia a year ago. Hotels can be amazingly cheap. Indeed we worked out that three of us sharing a room at the Hilton was probably cheaper than staying in a back packer hostel. (Roughly £15 each per night.) Ditto Premium Business in Norwegian is very nice and not necessarily (you can bid for last minute upgrades) very expensive, expecially if you factor in food in executive lounge and on the flight.

Its like criticism of a poster who went first class on a train to an open day, but actually saved when the cost of breakfast was thrown in.

@sadidas, why have you returned but not responded to all the people questioning why you are paying his living expenses when he has a full loan?

That’s crazy! My DS got the full loan, a bursary of around £2000 and earned around £1500 in the summer. Out of that he paid for all his food and accommodation, lived frugally, saved some money and went to Amsterdam and Portugal once each. If you are paying for his accommodation and his food is he just using all that money for entertainment? It’s significantly more disposable income than I have.

If you can afford to pay for your sons accom and food he really shouldnt be getting a full loan should he?.
He can afford it because we are all paying for him.

So he uses the student loan to pay for the expensive trips? Seems a bit I don't know anyone whose parents pay all their accommodation and food at uni

You are asking what is normal, but it’s not normal to have the full loan, top up from gran and parents covering costs. Normal to go travelling is yes, normal to have over 10 grand to spend on travelling is no, that is not the norm.

Why would he saddle himself with a loan, if you are paying all his bills and his Grandparents giving him £50 a week spending money on top of that ??

What a stupid thing to do.

£9500 is more than the full loan for living away from home outside London and over £2000 less than the full loan living away from home if at university in London (assuming a loan via SFE, different amounts if one of the other home country systems, perhaps the OP would pop back again to clarify place of domicile and of their D's university?).

Sounds like he's using the loan to travel, that's fine but he will be paying off his holidays for some time to come get!

I don't think £9.5k would even cover the cost of 3+ long haul business class flights per year, let alone the 5* hotels?

It sounds like the student loan of around 9500 is more likely to be the student loan for tuition fees. That is the only way the figures make sense. In which case he is funding his travel by frugality during term time and some work.

that's fine but he will be paying off his holidays for some time to come get!

Or never, depending on future income...

are you on a low income, OP, but with a lot of savings, and paying your DS out of those? Just don’t understand how he would qualify for a full loan if you can afford to pay him that much?

My daughter did 6 weeks around central America (not business class and including w24 hour bus journeys where locals would plonk very cute babies on the knees of her and her girl friends). The other worked abroad - Antigua and Greece at holiday clubs. This summer my student twins between them have been to Amsterdam and a family holiday to Italy and then a trip to the Seychelles with me but not a vast amount of exciting trips on their own this summer.