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!

We're going to pay for accommodation, dd will live off minimum loan and her savings.will continue to pay for her phone and £100 a month allowance.

Dd spends approx £30 on food. She’s a dancer, eats a lot of chicken, grains & frozen veg. Takes packed lunches in.

We couldn’t have paid a terms accommodation upfront. We are paid monthly so send dd money monthly.

£50 pw, plus phone. I usually transfer some more for treats on payday too- about £100. He also works, so is saving.

We paid DS's Hall costs and food when he was catered. We now pay accommodation and £50 per week for food. He gets the minimum loan for everything else but doesn't spend it all. The excess was meant for travel but Covid scuppered all that.

We pay accommodation costs he lives on loan supplemented by part time job

£260/mo for food and toiletries, self catered.

I used to get £100 per month when living in catered halls in 1995. It was to pay for books, ,clothing, nights out, taxis etc. Accommodation and food was all paid for. It was about the right amount. I also worked in a pub and all the holidays to save up for holidays, clothes etc.

I plan to give about four times that amount when my children go in a couple of years time.

I appreciate I was very lucky because I had no debt when I graduated.

£40 pw + phone + text books for my DD. She gets a middling loan, not full amount and has a room in a shared house with all utilities covered.

Dd is in London, gets minimum maint loan, doesn’t work in term time as she’s studying medicine which is quite full on. We send her £600pcm, after rent and bills (shes in a shared flat) she says she has £88/week for food and all other expenses - including travel to boyf at weekends who’s at uni about an hour outside if London. She said she might need a little more next year as she has 30 weeks of placement so her travel costs will be higher.

Remember it’s not a loan but a graduate tax which is only repayable when their earnings reach a certain level. The majority don’t repay their loans.

I understand that argument but I don’t want mine having loans ,if I can avoid it which I currently can

I pay DS's rent, which is £394 a month.

Oh and I pay for DS's phone. He has 2 part time jobs and the minimum maintenance loan.

@user1487194234

I understand that argument but I don’t want mine having loans ,if I can avoid it which I currently can

I hope you’ve also paid the tuition fees upfront then, otherwise they will be paying the 9% graduate tax but will not have had the benefits of the livings cost loans.

@Hyperion100

Depends how much they are earning from their part time job

This. Unless they're doing medicine, nursing, allied health etc or possibly law, most undergraduate courses leave plenty of time for an evening and/or weekend job.

Lemon, yes I paid the tuition fees too for my 5 children so they have no student loans.

Why don’t you suggest she draft a budget? You could discuss it with her and that way come to a reasonable arrangement. Plus it’s a good life lesson!

Our DT’s had the minimum maintenance loan (which we topped up to the amount they needed) but when they graduated and got jobs paying over the threshold we paid everything off so they didn’t have to start their working lives with a debt. Also made it easier as they both got their first jobs outside the U.K. and you have to make repayment arrangements with the student loan company direct as they can’t make payroll deductions if you aren’t in the U.K..
If they had got jobs paying under the threshold we probably wouldn’t have paid it off as they wouldn’t have needed to repay it.

I am in Scotland

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.

No, none of mine are vegetarian (though don't necessarily eat meat every day). Yes, they get all their nutrients - well, like most of us, I'm not sure it would get a gold star from a nutritionist, but equally none of them have contracted scurvy either. "Decent quality" ? You'd need to define. I'm sure they aren't buying organic, or 'hand reared', or 'premium' or whatever other labels get put on food to double the price, but quite frankly, nor do most of the population of the country outside of Mumsnet.
They understand that if they fancy something that costs a bit more one day, then it gets balanced out by something cheaper another day. Plenty of meals like jacket potato, home made soups and stews, things like eggs or baked beans cost pence, so they balance out with the more expensive ones. Two of mine made good use of a slow cooker the eldest was given (and then passed on to the youngest). One of mine honed the art of knowing when the local supermarkets marked down their 'close to BBE dates (and the more expensive the supermarket the bigger the savings). It's called budgeting.

We top up to the maximum loan amount. So if for example the maximum loan is roughly £9500, and they get £5500 based on parental income, then parents give £4000 spread out over the term time weeks. Accommodation costs come out of that (so when choosing halls they can take that into consideration) and the rest is for living off.

I always read these agog (and a tiny bit jealous).

When I went it was just assumed I’d take the maximum loan and get a job. I didn’t get anything else financially.

I worked 25 hours a week in Blockbuster while I got my Russell Group 2:1, which tells you how long ago it was.

(My baby has a long way to go until he’s at uni but I’m sure he’ll want for nothing)

@LividBlabber

I always read these agog (and a tiny bit jealous).

When I went it was just assumed I’d take the maximum loan and get a job. I didn’t get anything else financially.

I worked 25 hours a week in Blockbuster while I got my Russell Group 2:1, which tells you how long ago it was.

(My baby has a long way to go until he’s at uni but I’m sure he’ll want for nothing)

It depends when you went though as years ago the loan (or grant when I went) was enough to live off. If it was under the more recent system then the amount of loan you got depended upon your parents income. It would hardly be fair to send your children off to university to cope on just the loan, if the amount they got had been reduced due to you being a higher earner.