How much allowance do you give your student dc to live on per week

[FlamingHot]

Or per month? Dd’s halls of residence and course fees will be covered by us and student loads.

We’re not sure how much she’ll need for food/nights out etc. Her halls will be self catered only.

Thanks!

*How

It depends a bit what she's like with money.

I missed my offer and ended up going to my insurance, which started a month earlier than my firm. My parents paid the first block of halls because my first student finance payment wouldn't have been in on time, but in the end, the arrangement was that they paid my rent, and I used my loan for everything else. The original arrangement was to give them whatever was left of my loan at the end of the year, but when it came to it they told me to put it into savings.

This worked well for me, because I didn't tend to spend a lot, but I did know people who went through money a lot quicker than I did. I was in halls, but we had to do our own lunches, so I did need some money for food.

September/October is always the heaviest if you're buying textbooks, membership to societies, gym membership, travel cards etc (obviously depending on where you are).

@Budapestdreams

Hope easy is it for students to find party time jobs when they are at uni?

Depends on the city and the course. We were told to think carefully about flexibility etc of jobs before we took one, because we had lots of face-to-face teaching, and things to hand in every week, so most people on my degree programme worked in the summer instead.

If people worked part time, it was generally for the university in student union bars and cafes, although I know one girl who worked at an after-school club and another who did lifeguarding and coaching at a swimming pool.

Ds didn’t get an allowance.. he got what was left after paying for accommodation out of his maintenance loan plus our contribution. He learnt how to budget . Our contribution made it up to the the full amount so in total he got the same per year as someone whose parents earned less than (£25k). Managed fine.

Dd wants to go to Durham in catered halls which seem pretty expensive ( even with food!) and won’t leave much change out of the full amount. I’m just hoping that they really do take advantage of ‘catered’ and not end up buying lots of food ontop .

£75 a week, which seems mean as its the same amount we gave to his sister 5 years ago and costs have definitely risen since then.
However she had a (minimum) loan and he will graduate debt free as we also pay his accommodation and he gets his course fees paid by the Welsh government.

@Budapestdreams depends on where they are, and how willing they are to have a go at stuff that isn't necessarily fun, or that involves long hours or odd hours.

My dd has just started a bar job as things re-open. 9 - 5

9pm - 5 am that is

Huge numbers of companies are flexible now - I know some people hate the concept of zero hour contracts, but they can be really, really useful when you are a student. (and in lots of other situations).
Of course places are open much longer hours now than they were when I was a student, so I know students that work all sorts of different shift patterns in supermarkets - from internet pickers starting at 5 or 6 in the morning, to staff that work until 1pm and others that do overnight shelf stacking etc. Same with leisure centres / gyms etc - open longer hours, need people for shifts that often others don't want.
Another good one is to track down the local wedding venues or function rooms - as they need staff when there is a function on but not as regular 5 day a week things. Or local football stadia (or other sports) need all sorts of staff on match days. Or there are companies that do catering for big events and bus people in (say Cheltenham Racing Festival).
A lot of my friends dc are doing on-line tutoring this year.

I am paying accommodation and will top up the minimum loan by about £150 a month. He will have ample. I’ll still pay his phone and car expenses.

Following with interest as we have DS starting Uni next year.

Our plan is to pay for his accommodation, with the plan that his maintenance loan (which he'll get minimal - so we believe £110pw) will be enough to cover food etc. His grandparents are going to give him a small allowance once a month too, and I expect he'll probably try and get a job during the hols / term time if hours work.

I just don't know if this is adequate..

@FlamingHot

Ah, ok, I think I need to find out more about loans first so I can find out what she will get. I think she's unlikely to get a job while she's there. She has ASD and ADHD, just getting through day to day will be draining so I don't think she'll have the energy for a job too. She's terrible at managing her money - not a bean of common sense - so finances are a bit of a worry!

Check out grants and support she can get due to ADHD and ASD issues. DS2 got a cheaper rate room and also a grant towards a computer, as well as weekly online support for organizing his work.

I'm a student with autism and ADHD and working whilst studying would definitely not be possible - keeping on top of my studies alone is really difficult and exhausting. Can confirm that minimum student loan is definitely not enough to live off - it is designed to be topped up as the presumption is that high-earning parents are willing and able to do this (obviously the system is very flawed)
Haven't RTFT so apologies but another warning I'd give is that as a student you're only entitled to disability benefits if you qualify for PIP - nasty bit of small print but there it is. Disabled student's allowance is a bit rubbish as it only provides small amounts of funding for specific things eg a basic laptop, rather than helping with living costs in recognition of the fact that students with disabilities are far more unlikely to be able to work a part time job whilst studying. Wishing your daughter the best for uni

@WhyYesIndeed rather than helping with living costs in recognition of the fact that students with disabilities are far more unlikely to be able to work a part time job whilst studying. DSA pays for things like the difference between en-suite for students and regular accommodation thus freeing up money for living expenses.

@schofieldsunderpants £110pw week will more more than twice as much as they need.
The issue is - depending on your young person - if they live off the loan, it comes into their bank account just 3x a year, and that is a lot of money to suddenly have in one lump sum and then be able to apportion to all the weekly expenses (plus saving some for when they have to pay the deposits for 2nd yea accommodation etc).
My dd1 was telling me, in first year of one of her flat mates who decided she wanted a TV, so just went out and spent about £400 on it thinking that was fine as she had £1500 in her account . No concept that this meant come December she would have nothing there to buy food.
Hence why people suggest using the loan for the accommodation and using the parent top up for weeklky / monthly spends, so you can make sure they get money each week / month and won't be hungry at the end of term.

DC has no part time job and gets €100 a week for food, entertainment, transport and to feed the cat.
Everything else we pay for but University in Italy is cheap.

We pay DS' accommodation costs, of about £9000.
We pay for his food, which comes to about £50-60 a week. I have no idea how people claim that their DC spend £20 or £25 a week.

He then spends about £100 a week on top, which comes from his granny and his savings from various sources.

We pay the accomodations & the DCs live off the (minimum) loan.
For DC1 that was enough (they sometimes had jobs in the holidays but not at uni) & they had enough for a cheap holiday in the summer.
DC2 had a sporadic job but had an overdraft by the end (paid off over the summer quite easily so not huge)
DC3 has a fairly regular job now pubs are open again and I don't think they have an overdraft but of course there hasn't been much to spend on for the last year.

[quote BackforGood]@schofieldsunderpants £110pw week will more more than twice as much as they need.
The issue is - depending on your young person - if they live off the loan, it comes into their bank account just 3x a year, and that is a lot of money to suddenly have in one lump sum and then be able to apportion to all the weekly expenses (plus saving some for when they have to pay the deposits for 2nd yea accommodation etc).
My dd1 was telling me, in first year of one of her flat mates who decided she wanted a TV, so just went out and spent about £400 on it thinking that was fine as she had £1500 in her account . No concept that this meant come December she would have nothing there to buy food.
Hence why people suggest using the loan for the accommodation and using the parent top up for weeklky / monthly spends, so you can make sure they get money each week / month and won't be hungry at the end of term.[/quote]
Ooh hadn't thought of that ! He's currently very money savvy, always has been, but who knows what he'd be like with large lumps of money ! Back to the drawing board I think, We just thought it was easier to cover off one large thing, but hadn't factored in he'd have to do a lot of money control that way..

@Iggii

I got £400 a month back in 1993 and it was barely enough then (self catering)

Wtf? My parents only paid for my halls accommodation back in 2005 and that was just £55 a week!

"I agree withTitchyabout using the loan to pay the rent makes most sense for most students. Yes, if they are on min loan you may need to top up, but the loan comes in and the rent goes out within a day or so, and then the money that you give as part of the top up can go to them either monthly or weekly - whichever you think the student will be able to manage.

After all, as adults, none of us are expected to make one payment last for 4 months and budget accordingly"

@titchy and @BackforGood have crystallised a useful approach for those having to top up.

The Monthly/Allowance top up can then be agreed based on parental capacity, savings or work available and adjusted accordingly as individual circumstances will dictate.

Really useful thread to read and consider the different approaches.

It depends on the DC, my dd has a very generous monthly allowance £750 a month after accommodation costs(both Df and I contribute separate amounts on top of maintenance loan ). Dd has been been very frugal during the first year and budgets incredibly well (she keeps within her own weekly spend limit in order to save as much money as possible). She also chose to stay home for most of the second term so didn't pay for accommodation.. She's probably amount 6 to 7k of savings in the first year without working... We are older parents it makes financial sense to support our dd especially if she's saving the money!

We pay DS' accommodation costs, of about £9000
We pay for his food, which comes to about £50-60 a week. I have no idea how people claim that their DC spend £20 or £25 a week

We "claim" it, because that's what our dc spend.

Well, not usually that much in the 'weekly shop'. That's all 3 of mine, in different places around the country. dc2 played a LOT of sport (would either have training or a match 6 x a week). dc1 is 6' and pretty solid framed. dc3 loves her fruit (saying, as that tends to be a more expensive item), but all of them spent less than £20 a week on food. It really isn't difficult.

I don't spend £50 - 60 each week on our shop at home for 3 adults.

We paid all accommodation costs - so hall fees or rent and utilities when they move into house share. They got to keep their loan for all their other costs. I also used to take them to the supermarket and bulk buy lots of food, laundry stuff etc at the start of each term when we drove them there, or on the times when we visited during term time - probably £150ish a go.

They were pretty well off to be honest! I also paid for the phone contract so they never had an excuse not to keep in touch!

@BackforGood

We pay DS' accommodation costs, of about £9000 We pay for his food, which comes to about £50-60 a week. I have no idea how people claim that their DC spend £20 or £25 a week

We "claim" it, because that's what our dc spend.

Well, not usually that much in the 'weekly shop'. That's all 3 of mine, in different places around the country. dc2 played a LOT of sport (would either have training or a match 6 x a week). dc1 is 6' and pretty solid framed. dc3 loves her fruit (saying, as that tends to be a more expensive item), but all of them spent less than £20 a week on food. It really isn't difficult.

I don't spend £50 - 60 each week on our shop at home for 3 adults.

I am genuinely intrigued how you could live off £20 a week for food. Certainly when you are cooking for more than one, it is more feasible to save money.

But £20? Are they vegetarian? Is the food nutritious? Is the food decent quality? Sorry but I can't fathom that.

Where my ds is studying, there is no nearby aldi or lidl, so I suppose that makes it harder to save money.

Just to add - both of my dc left uni with a healthy amount left over that they kept in a savings account. Bu that will depend on how expensive it is to live in their uni city/ town. I also paid for a bus pass for dd as her halls were a long way from her lectures. Ds could virtually roll out of bed to get to his!

Both my dc had a savings and current account and 'paid' themselves a weekly allowance transferring a set amount from savings to current account each week. This helped them to budget.

@servicemaam... I can live off under 20.00 a week on food.

I don't think I'm frugal either. I will buy a nice loaf but freeze it and use it throughout the week. A bag of museli lasts 2 weeks, nice cheese lasts 7 to 10 days... Chicken brought in bulk lasts a month and costs me 2.00 a week same for other meats. Food really doesn't need to cost a lot of you have a few basics in the cupboard...eg 6 eggs costing a 1.00 provide 3 meals.

My DD has £80 a week after paying her rent and all bills. So that’s for food, petrol, clothes and her social life.

I pay for her phone and the running costs of her car ( insurance, tax and repairs ) .

She gets that £80 for 52 weeks a year so is able to save some when she’s home for the holidays ( she gets fewer holidays than most students ).

She is very poor at budgeting so chooses to have her money weekly rather than monthly or termly.