Living Expenses

[KittyMcKitty]

I know this has been discussed in the past and people have vastly differing viewpoints but how much per week (term time) is a reasonable amount after hall fees?

Dc is going to Manchester and has their hall allocation as already has grades (Oak House - oh the glamour 😂) so we are figuring out living expenses and considering around £150pw for everything else?

Woukd really appreciate hearing what others have done.

Thank you

It’s not a generous amount and quite tight for her but good for her to budget imo. She has a monthly peer subscription to fund her otherwise expensive coffee habit!

Pret subscription not peer

They didn't ask me for more - they were just discussing the different costs of a night out. They feel £100 per week is a good amount - it's enough for them to live on and enjoy a student lifestyle and be motivated to get a job over the summer to have a bit extra in the bank.

Agree that £15 is low for going out but £65pm for food and coffee? Maybe that food & coffee allowance included the white wine and vodka!
We pay them weekly, for 40 weeks over Christmas and Easter - on a Monday, they get their food in first and then they think about partying and there is a lot of partying in the first few weeks.
I know for my kids building good friendships and going out was what helped them to settle and they had enough money to do that - from their own savings and from us. They settled down on the partying as the year progressed.

@Howcoldloveis
I think the £65 a week was including going out as well as food to cook. That’s ok for students to do this as part of socialising. . More wholesome than booze.

I had to laugh at £3 a week for societies and clubs! Obviously never joined a proper sports club! Also £7 a week for clothes. Clearly not a girl! I’m assuming this student never needs a coat or sportswear or a pair of decent shoes. Just wait until interviews come around. What about buying the laptop and phone costs? As I said earlier, actually work up the amount from a realistic and sensible spend.

I can also honestly say, my DDs didn’t know anyone who worked. £100 a week would be a fairly big commitment and many courses such as Engineering and sciences are time consuming in themselves. So earning this isn’t possible for some students.

Hi there I posted a list of expenses. My young person is going into her final year. By far the biggest outgoing is food/ eating out and coffee, all are ways of socialising Nightclubs are very cheap in her uni town but I realise that Manchester would be more expensive. I was just trying to help the OP with the figures we have experienced for 2 years. . Daughter hates the out of control feeling of getting drunk especially since the problems with predatory behaviour towards women (injecting them in the back etc ) and so hardly drinks any alcohol. There is a free gym membership with the accommodation including yoga spin kickboxing and many more so cost for societies is very low. Her phone and laptop were paid for outright by us She cuts her own hair and already has loads of clothes including great shoes and coats etc She enjoys charity shopping for clothes and can look great in anything She runs a car and pays for all that with 2 shifts at a restaurant

Who bought the car? Who pays for servicing and repairs? Insurance? What are the true figures? Accommodation costs must be top end to include a gym. Far above what most students can afford I think.

It still comes down to what I said: everyone needs to start from £0. Who is paying for what? Other parents don’t pay for phones and cannot afford lap tops. Some students cannot work and study. Oxbridge says not a good idea. So it all needs to be balanced and individual needs and circumstances taken into account. Both parental and those of the student.

Wow

The £65 I pay my dd includes travel too and she lives in zone 1 and travels to zone 2 for work so I would say bulk of the money goes to Sadiq khan and tfl. Not £65 just food!

Hmmm I might need to rethink. I'm going to be paying for accommodation (6k) phone and car insurance (2k). DD is getting basic loan and works 15pw gets between £ 560 and 700 pm. So will have about £1000 pm to live off. Maybe I'm being mugged!

DD is going, she has bar work experience and club experience and retail.

She’s going to work 8 hours a week £240 a month.

We pay accommodation and will give her too ups and £30 a week food. She can cook so should be ok once we’ve got the first week out of the way.

Not sure why everyone seems to get £100 a week it’s more than enough.

I think £15 per week for going out is generous!

dd has expensive tastes and is in central London. She goes out for a drink once a week usually.

@Comefromaway
£15 per cocktail in London!

@Therunecaster
Is she definitely able to earn £700 a month at university? That’s a lot for 2 days work (assuming you mean 15 hours a week) during term time. My DD was expected to study for 40 hours per week.

There’s plenty of jobs in London for students and they will pay at least minimum wage if not more plus they don’t pay tax so take home more than non students. My dd does about 13 hours a week and could easily get more shifts if she wanted ( she doesn’t) and brings home probably about £120 ish per week so about £ 500 pcm. She finished year 1 with a credit balance which is good going and seemed to have a good social life. Her rent is £8k though and year 2 I’m expecting rent to be the same if not more.

Students can go to student bars, buy cheap alcohol and have parties. They can go to cheaper puds. Most students quickly find out where they are A £15 cocktail bar isn’t meant for students.

Really helpful thread - thank you. I logged on to ask this question. The 'student living costs' website is a great find - although looks a couple of years out of date; still a great starting point...

@Threetulips you are well aware you are acting really poorly as a parent your dd has £6700 a year not £9000+ . I hope you are just trolling tbh.

She drinks Japanese whisky, usually only has one or two. Think it works out cheaper to get a double rather than two singles.

We’ll be paying £11.5k for accommodation, dd will contribute £4k which is all she gets as a loan because of our earnings. Bills are all included. We will give her £100 a week plus we pay for for her phone, we’ll also send the odd food shop and pay for clothes and transport to come and see us. We’ll pay for haircuts and the odd meal out as well.

@Threetulips
Richer students will go to better places for the odd birthday celebration. Yet to see a student bar in London. Are they in the Students Union buildings?

Thanks everyone for your comments. Having looked at all of ds’s expenses (or to be more precise having got him to look at his expenses) we are probably going with the following:

Accomodation (self catered) £4500
living expenses £150 x 44 = £6600

so just over £11k in total.

He has a car which he isn’t taking to Uni but that will be his responsibility to pay for (as it has always been) although he has recently insured it for the next year.

I currently pay his phone and will carry on doing so for the duration of his course and I think I will also pay his bus pass. He doesn’t have expensive hobbies (he skateboards).

I feel this will give him a decent amount to live off and obviously he can earn more on top. From speaking to friends with children at UoM there will be many who have a considerably larger disposable income but also many with less so hopefully he will be middling.

Dc2 will be going to Uni in 2023 and have looked at the accommodation costs for her first choice (York) which are significantly more expensive (£7k+ for self catered, shared bathroom) so whilst his hall is grotty at least it’s cheap 😀

15 hours per week - 4.5 weeks in a month - living wage £11.05 an hour.
154.5£11.05 = £745 - not too hard to believe.

Sorry my maths created bold!

£11.05 (times) 4.5 weeks (times)15 hours = £745

The difference in accommodation costs is huge isn’t it. £4500 to £11,500. Exactly persknsl circumstances matters as does university city and students lifestyle. One size certainly doesn’t fit all.

Working 15 hours a week as a student is quite a lot and would be difficult for some full on courses. Some university towns might not have jobs at significantly above minimum wage for 18-20 year olds either.