Probably a dumb question - but where do you find the money from to support your student DC?

[Wowzers71]

Hi

Eldest DD is 17 and will likely be heading to uni in Autumn 2023 (assuming she doesn't stuff up her exams). I'm only now starting to get my head round how the finances of this might work. DH and I earn over £65k a year so DD would only get the minimum loan, and having had a wee look on several threads about money on here it sounds like many of you are paying around £600 a month on accommodation for your DC. That seems like a lot of money!
So how do you afford it? Are we just rubbish with money? I just can't think that we will be able to drop £600 a month without really tightening our belts. And we've got a younger DD too, so there's no way I'd be able to support them both. Am I missing something? Or should I brace myself for "the porridge years...."?

Dh and I earn 50k dd gets course loan plus maintenance loan which covers accommodation plus about £50 a month left toward living costs. We give her £100 a month for food and she has a part time job for socialising/travel etc.

We manage because Good income, plenty savings & mortgage free for ~ 18 years. I dunno what other parents do, but I know people in council houses with kids at Uni, so a way is found.

Our household income is currently about £65k. We have been giving DD (2nd yr Uni) about £3k/year total extra , not £600/month. DD studies in London & terrible with money not frugal, btw. I am stunned at how much less expensive DC2's Uni will be, though (Ooop North). One thing DD is amazing at is finding cheap rail fares, she's taught me a lot about that.

I upped my hours and most of my income goes on supporting them
we pay £1100 each which pays rent and gives them about £125 /week
Also pay contact lenses,phones,big shop once a term,essential clothing
they were keen to go away and we were happy to support that

Mine had their loans and I gave them a small amount each month for food. They both worked all though Uni. They had to.

@mast0650
you are right.. a quick tally and it does add up to much more than I had realised. No driving lessons here but a spenny extra curricular and travel pass on top of lunches, clothes pocket money, trips etc and It’s probably near £3k that I’m no longer paying out . Something to bear in mind OP

Paying for accommodation in London at £10k a year. Have been saving for 7 years to be able to afford this.

Well, everyone's circumstances are different, but you shouldn't need to be paying out £600pm, as your dd will be entitled to the minimum loan, so even if you top up to the full loan, it is less than that (about £5k over the year).
However, you factor it in to choices of where they study, and what accommodation they have. Let them know there will be £X from you, and their choices are

• apply somewhere more affordable


• work during term time


• work during holiday time


• both b and c


• work for a gap year and save up


• use their CTF / savings


• live very frugally

or - as probably the vast majority of students do - some combination of the above

My DC’s father has been working overseas for 3yrs and that will pay for Uni for both. Otherwise it would have been a struggle but they do have savings and I’d have subsidised. Your DC can work in the summer to help too, there’s options. I think parents need to know really that student loans are means tested as it’s not until they are going that you find that out

Kite's list is good. On frugality make sure they can cook before they go. Sit down with them when they take on their first flat and make sure they have checked the inventory properly, with warnings about the importance of leaving the place in the same condition, and going to arbitration if their deposit is not returned. As well as selecting utility providers carefully and watching the thermostat. DD has been surprised at how much money others have wasted on this sort of thing.

Socially there are plenty of nice and interesting people who are watching their budget and who have an active social life without having to spend lots of money. Trying to keep up with the rich crowd is the way to impecunity.

One more, which will only apply to some, but generous aging grandparents can be useful. If their estate is likely to attract IHT it is tax efficient to pay for grandchildren's education, as this money is not included within the annual gift limits.

You just cannot generalise as families differ. i was paying about £17k per twin in their private day school so paying £9250 university fees, about £7500 halls fees and a weekly £150 allowance per twin was not too different from the school fee cost paid out of income taxed at high rates. I work for myself and on my most days ie just about every weekend do at least some work and have always worked full time even when they were two WEEKS old so that is who I afford and decided on law aged 14 as I wanted a career which would be reasonably well paid. I never took maternity leaves for example. Am in my last year of paying university costs this year for the twins but they will not be fully off my hands until 2024.

However lots of people even on £60k have no spare money to help so the child can work in the holidays, not spend much at university etc etc.

If you have saved then you have to look at priorities. Do you value Uni education over house deposit? Perhaps you can do both...use current saving for uni costs and then continue to save. Maybe by the time they are ready to buy, could be 10 years time you will have saved more.

We pay DD monthly from our income. It works out at about £4k / year which is a big chunk out of our take home pay (9%) but we manage. It takes her up to the level of the full maintenance loan.

Encourage your DD to pick a university city where rents and travel are cheap so their money goes further, get them to consider working either in term time or when at home in the holidays - and remember you will save some cash with smaller bills at home (buying less food, less hot water, less petrol for lifts etc).

If you can get your dc to work and save for a year before starting Uni that can really help fund them.

Can you look at your outgoings? On your salary you are on an above average income and there must be something you can cut down on. What are your outgoings that you are spending 4kish a month on?

Sometimes it helps to do a thread with these and people can help you see where the money is going.

Can't the kids just get a job to pay there rent? I worked part time going to uni, instead of partying on the weekends I worked. Look at options like part time study. Or have them living at home.

Exh and I out a small monthly amount in a trust fund since our DC were born. We are not high earners but having two dc a year apart we knew we would not be able to stump up the cash. DC are 17 & 18 now and off to Uni this year and next and I am so glad we saved it will give them both a monthly lump sum to live on.

I don't think parents necessarily are aware that the SFE loan is income-dependent. Why would you, unless you have lots of family or friends with older children who have recently gone through the process?

I would second encouraging your DC not to go to university in a city/town that is renowned for its expensive cost of living and accommodation costs. It can make a big difference to how much you need to give them to 'top up' a fairly measly and basic SFE loan.

It somehow seems counter-intuitive that those who are on the highest loans are also eligible for bursaries. What about the cash-strapped parents in the middle who may be on decent salaries but still have hefty mortgages and younger DC at home? Take-home pay doesn't necessarily equate to disposable income, does it?

I agree with Kite22. It was their decision to go to University so they had to work out the finances themselves (with parental help).
We bunged them some money every now and then but didn't give them a regular allowance.

Ds is going to London (grade depending) and we honestly can’t afford to give him more than about £50 a week. He is a saver and has a good amount stashed away from his pt job (about £5-6k) and he deliberately got a job with a big national chain that facilitates students working in both their home and university towns. With his loan (he’ll get about £8k - the min London loan is about £6k) and £2.6k from us and £4K he gets from his pt job he’s close to £15k before he even picks up extra hours at Christmas and summer. I’m anticipating rent to be about 10-12k in years 2/3 which will leave him £50 a week for everything else. Without that extra bit of loan it would be £0 and he’d have to basically work an extra shift a week.

Salaries that could accommodate it comfortably during the time the older ones were there

Then mortgage free for the youngest so room in the budget that way.

Plus the kids all worked to add to their own pots too.

As @Xenia says though, we were already used to paying independent school fees for ours so saw it as just a (cheaper!) continuation of that.

We top up the loan from the minimum to the maximum amount, so about 5k per year.
We did put some money into child trust fund accounts for this, but DH inherited some money a couple of years before they went, so we're using that, and they are keeping the trust funds in case they want to do a masters or pgce or for a house deposit.

2 DC, 3 years with both at Uni (one was doing a 5 yr degree), minimum loan. They paid accommodation out of their loan and we gave them £400 each per month. Both also worked. We financed this out of our salaries and were lucky to have had promotions etc

Still supporting one DC while they try and establish their career which is self employed in the theatre sector (they do part time work as well but rent/bills are extortionate) but that DC is moving home in August.

Other DC has a graduate job in their profession and has started to pay back 5 years of loans!

We're looking at unis with DD2 now, and there is a big difference in accomodation costs, its worth considering this.
DD1 picked one of the cheapest halls at Warwick, and lives very cheaply ( cooks for herself and is vegan, usually freezes a couple of extra portions of what she cooks, predrinks in halls with friends before clubbing, etc) and probably wont use all the money we gave her.