Students and finances / parents helping out??

[Monica53]

Hi there
Just wondering how everyone’s student kids manage with finances and surviving. Our Dd is stressing as has by sounds overspent and gets max maintenance loan(this year her second yr anyway). Looking for rental for next year again and stressing as in her OD ! I’ve explained she isn’t alone. Just interested as how everyone else manages or not as case maybe . Thank you 😊

Hi there
Thank you for all your replies and suggestions. Our Dd is in Bristol and rents seem high £600+a per month. When she is home for Christmas break we will all as suggested be sitting down to see where spending can be reduced - I’m a believer in tracking spending. Unfortunately as she was growing up we had a very limited budget so very little left to save though she does have a small!! amount of savings to fall back on if major urgent!. She does get a small bursary which has reduced as my salary increased slightly. Hopefully next year with climate allowing she will get pt work in holidays - however currently that is not happening. Also which students if on medical course have either worked whilst on course or went on bank for HCA work?. Looking at options to help her through for the next few years along with help from OD. Also what is Monzo that was mentioned. Thank you again 😊

Mine are fully supported by us
We don't want them having loans or working during term
And it's not for ever

My DD who is a vet student at Bristol has been emailed offering work as a tester for asymptotic COVID tests. £10 an hour. I'm sure medical students have been offered it too.

@Monica53 my DD has worked as an HCA for the summer after 1st and 2nd year (was supposed to be travelling 😔). She earned a lot of money each time. And learned so much.

@mumsneedwine Thankyou _ sadly she can’t take the Covid work due to her dad being in shielding class,also she doe so plan to look at applying f or HCA bank for when time allows. Till then sent link to excel , which has personal budget template for her to download onto her phone.

@Monica53 I wouldn't recommend HCA work if you are worried about her catching COVID. DD spent the summer on COVID wards and got a mask and some gloves. Was helping wash and clean patients. Full PPE only in ICU. I am much greyer as a result.

Medical students are apparently some of those who will be used to give the cv19 vaccinations I assume only though if you want to do it.

My son is in Bristol (although now is post grad). It is just hard to generalise. no parents should pay what they cannot afford and some students will be rich, most in the middle and some very badly off. It does not really matter. Most of them are sensitive to the differences with others and it is good for all of them either to realise how much money some parents have and how little other families have - good life lesson. My son's half of the bristol rent is £600 a month or so plus bills but he is only sharing with one person so it is more expensive this year as they only split things into half.

@Xenia they are being asked if they want to volunteer to give jab. As you can imagine they've nearly all said yes.

Monzo is a card that you load money onto, it's connected to a phone app so you know how much you're spending and on what. You can put your funds into different pots in the app, like food/socialising/clothes etc.

Instead of giving ours an allowance monthly, we paid it on to their Monzo weekly so it was easy to budget (it has an account number and sort code like normal bank accounts so they can transfer money from their current account.

She is at a disadvantage over some students in that she lives in an expensive City and it isn't really practical for most students studying medicine to fit in part time jobs.
AGainst that, there are far fewer opportunities to spend money at the moments, with societies and sports not able to operate, clubs and bars shutting early even before the current lockdown.
However you have mentioned in all of your posts how she is "off shopping every day" and "buying clothes all the time" so it does sound like she is not being very sensible with her money.

Yes, you can sit down with her and help her work out a budget, but my dc all really like Monzo too as it helps them see what their budget is and where their money is going.

I think many younger people do know Monzo. It’s targeted at a younger market.

I would say £138 a week for rent is high. This is where she should look for savings next year. This, of course, is difficult if all her friends can afford this. It’s way above minimum loan so the other students are being subsidised. She hasn’t cut her coat according to her cloth! She’s got £200 a month for 10 months. Or £168 if you include the holidays - £38.50 a week. This just isn’t enough if you have bills to pay, books to buy, food and any form of normal limited entertainment and travel. Is she travelling to a hospital next year?

So for Y3, there needs to be serious discussion about rent. No, she probably cannot work in term time and I expect summer jobs are limited now so living expenses is the only option or borrowing vis an overdraft.

Most retired people from a company get a lump sum. Could you offer some of this up? She could pay it back eventually.

We pay their rent/utilities and an agreed monthly allowance for food/toiletries/books. They are all self-catering. Anything extra we do on case by case basis- I.e laundry card, society memberships, etc. Usually they also get phone contract put in their own name and we add that monthly amount to their allowance.

By the time she's paid her rent, bills and travel expenses (unless she lives within walking/cycling distance of uni) it doesn't leave much does it. Her rent is over £7k a year so unless that includes bills it must be tough. Work opportunities for students are going to be rare this year but I don't think medical students have the chance to do much work do they? I've had medical students work for me in the holidays but they seem to get shorter holidays than most students so I don't think it helps much.

I would perhaps give the the difference in the amount of the bursary she is losing

Definitely. If her bursary has reduced as a result of your salary increase op you should be making up the difference.

Hi
Thank you for advice - sadly my oh worked for a very small company and did not receive lump sum on retirement so receives state pension only and my ft salary as income. We will sit down and discuss finances etc with Dd on returning for Christmas

We paid accommodation and an allowance towards living costs plus phone, insurance, travel. We didn't pay off tuition loan until after successful completion of degree at 2:1 or above.

Well the op clearly doesn’t have your money Cherry! What’s the point of your post?! You’ve basically paid everything. The DD in question is on max loan. Surely that tells you something?!

The question was how our children survived. The daughter had 'maxed out' on loans. That tells me nothing whatsoever about the OPs situation, does it? Many poorer youngsters get significant support and are better off than some wealthy students whose parents don't support them much.

If a DC is on the max loan circa £9200 it tells you the parent isn’t a high earner. The DD is spending her student maintenance loan. The OP isn’t able to give her more money. So anyone saying that, as a parent, they gave £ thousands isn’t reading the thread. It’s how DD can manage - the big problem is the rent is too much.

As a medical student she would have achieved stonking grades in her A levels. I’d advise her to look at offering online tutoring for GCSE and A level students. My daughter (second year med student in London) tutors a couple of young people, both for A level chemistry. They’re learning the subject at school but both have poor exam technique and are not very disciplined, she’s got them into doing one past paper a week, which she goes through with them over zoom, improving their technique and helping fill in some of the gaps in their knowledge due to the interrupted teaching they’re having this year. She’s enjoying seeing them improve, the work is paying off in their other subjects too - and she’s getting paid. They have a set ‘time’ each week but this can be varied if needed by mutual agreement. It also has the benefit that she can do it from anywhere. My daughter picked up her students quite randomly but there are agencies that match up tutors and tutees - and medical students are quite sought after.

It is hard though, especially at the moment. When students are assessed as getting the lower levels of maintenance there’s an expectation that parents will make up the rest but it’s never said explicitly. When I was a student (many moons ago) my ‘grant award letter’ stated that I would get x pound and the expected parental contribution was y pounds, so everyone knew where they stood. It seems so much more expensive now, it sometimes feels like students are a cash cow when it comes to rent etc - and even cheap onsite canteens for students have been replaced by costa and starbucks these days.

Me and my ex h paid for the accommodation for our two girls all the way through,
They also both went to northern unis where things are more reasonable.

What Presenting Percy said.

If posters read the thread, this isn't a general enquiry about what high earning posters might do, it is a specific enquiry about a family where the student has the full loan. ie, the parents are on a low income.

Yet more rather daft posts about parents paying everything. The DD is on the full maintenance loan - not the minimum!

I think the idea of tutoring could help. DD did a bit of it. There are agencies that you sign up to. DD was in London too but I’m sure these must exist elsewhere.

Many DCs at Bristol look for accommodation before or after Christmas. So getting costs down for next year is paramount. So discussions with friends should also be starting about what’s realistic on a limited budget.

I paid the rent for halls upfront for their first year, they had to save to pay for the other years themselves. They got the maximum maintenance loan.

A further thought: have you worked out what it cost to keep her at home op? In the 6th form. DC always cost food, travel, clothes, phone, nights out, clubs and school costs. Work out what you are saving by her being away. Give her that maybe?