How much do you give your uni offspring a month?

[fedup21]

Looks like we will only be entitled to the minimum rate of maintenance loan so will have to top it up quite a bit.

His top choice is Birmingham and it’s looking to be between £3/4K for the first year in halls (without meal plan) or £5/7k (with Meal plan) which is the maintenance loan, but how much would they need on top of that?!

£200 a month? £400 a month?

Shocked at how expensive university is for the parents.

And don’t forget that until they are 22 parents are expected to pay their dental, optician and prescription charges too! Higher education dies t count when seeking free prescriptions etc.....

Or rather in England the parents are not expected or legally obliged to pay but the student/young person has the liability to pay.

When I was at uni only one of my friendship group had an allowance. She was definitely the odd one out and it was nothing to do with parents not being able to afford it. We had summer jobs mostly. You can soon work up some savings working full time in the holidays. Yes there are subjects where there is a lot of placement working, but many are not. Anything essay based basically.

Monkey2001
She wasn't in a massively expensive city but she had worked since 16 so had some savings which she kept up by working in the holidays. She's had a much less expensive lifestyle than a lot of students but has had a great time and is very proud (rightly so!) that she has supported herself

Watching

I hope that no one reads this and panics about not having enough money to send their DC to University! When I was in halls I received the minimum maintenance loan. Paid my rent with it as soon as I got it (rent was topped up by my parents as my loan didn't cover it). My parents sent me £100/ month and I got on just fine. It doesn't cost a lot to feed one person - I had money left over to go out/get the occasional takeaway etc!

My parents paid for my rent and then gave me £50 a month. I got the minimum loan and a part time job and was fine. Think rent was £5k a year

DSis also advises not to do the meal plan- there are only specific hours you can go and eat, and he'll have to learn to cook at some point. Much easier and cheaper to just make your own food