How much per month, excluding rent

[OuiOuiMonAmi]

What do your DCs spend per month, WITHOUT rent costs? DD's maintenance loan will cover about 2/3 of her rent so we will need to top that up. But I'm trying to work out how much to give her for food, socialising etc.

I'm also wondering how to do it - I wondered about her sending me the maintenance loan and I then use that to pay all her rent. Then everything left in her account is what she can use to budget for food/socialising etc. Or is that mad?! 😁 I'm just working out how to avoid 'oh, I spent all my maintenance loan on food and now I can't afford the rent payment'

Hi Seeline,

Thanks for responding! No, they won't be living at home, will be living in catered halls and I think they get only get their bills for the food, accommodation etc at the end of each term. So we don't have that information yet - things should become clearer in December! I suppose what I am keen to find out is what weekly budget seems a reasonable expectation for a rather quiet shy 18 year old who probably won't drink much and will probably do less socialising than many of that age.... (this could change, possibly!)

Yes Kite22 it does sound a lot - but of course the priority is that the rent and essential bills come out of that first and get covered. I'm sadly not in a good position to help him much myself at the moment. I know that most parents do have to help out over and above the maintenance loan and it is key to educate the DC to be sensible and frugal while also getting the most out of uni life as much as possible.

@goldengrove I think if there is spare at the end of term you might want to be keeping it to pay deposit for 2nd year housing (often around Christmas of first year), and the rent for July/August as private contracts are usually 12 months, not just term time.

My DCs also get the full maintenance loan with no top ups from us as we can't afford to subsidise them, though we cover their mobile contracts, netflix, spotify. It's doable on the full loan but hard (particularly when they're faced with additional expenses such as travel, new shoes) so they've always worked. I reckon they could manage on around £80 after rent and bills though this is tight. The £9.7k loan usually isn't enough to cover this though if your DC is frugal he may be fine.

Things get more difficult after the first year as as private rentals often demand the full twelve months. Eg, one DC is paying £110 rent per week rental (£5,720 per year) and allowing £30 per week (£1,560 per year) for water, energy and internet. This totals £7,280 per year and may not be enough to cover energy bills. She will work throughout the year to pay for this. Some students leave their uni city over the summer and sublet their rooms rather than pay twelve months rent.

goldengrove if your DC is concerned about money they may want to look for paid work within the uni. Universities make an effort to employ students and there may be something suitable. Many universities also offer grants to help pay for laptops and specialist equipment. If your DC doesn't have to sign a twelve month rental from second year and is home during the holidays that would be cheaper for them but you may find at some point they want to maker a life in their new city. Re whether to ask them for a holiday contribution, I'd wait and see how you're both managing but if you can afford not to charge them the first year I wouldn't.

Oh yes.. as Seeline says, a deposit is also required for second year renting.

@goldengrove It really depends on how high the rents are in their student town/ uni .Last year, Dc was in catered halls (outside London) and managed fairly easily on the full student loan amount. This year they have a 51 week tenancy though ( 31 weeks in catered halls last year) but luckily have bills included at £140 per week. They had a bit of money from summer job last year to pay deposit for new place.

@goldengrove All of my dc (at different Universities around the UK) have all, quite separately noted that the students on the full grants are the ones who always have money.
In most places, it is enough to live on, if the student understands about budgeting and value for money and how to cook, and when to book their train home, and that there is no need to get a bus if it is just a 20min walk and that takeaway coffees are a nice treat not an expected daily necessity etc etc etc. You know, the way many of us normal adults live even though we have paying jobs.

There are pockets of places where it costs more to live (Bristol being a good example) and then there are usually a variety of halls at different costs within most Universities. Going back several years it costs about £45 a week more to have an en-suite room rather than a shared bathroom room, and about £45 more to have catered than self catered - so even at the same university that could make a MASSIVE difference to the amount of cash they had each week or each month.
Some universities have better reputations for fair allocation of rooms than others. So Nottingham has a 'first come first served' policy opening in March I think when many students haven't even got all their offers back which is a really poor system in my view, but others don't allocate until after results day. Some seem much more random in their allocations than others. So there are some Universities that you could end up with a really expensive room when you wanted a cheap one, but many aren't like that - those are just the ones you see mentioned because people are cross about it.

This is similar to my DC: £140 pw incl bills for 51 weeks, leaving @ £2,500 - which is a bit of a shock after paying term time only for halls. Second and third years can be hard and having a job is the only way to manage. Fortunately, uni cities have a lot of jobs.

In my DCs' experience the students who manage most comfortably are those who's parents top them up - often private school students whose parents are used to paying for their education. Often parents pay for students' rent and bills, leaving them the min student loan to live on - £4,500 out of London.

Uni city of course makes a huge difference to price of rentals and the differences between student experience. Bristol and Exeter are particularly hard.

Thanks so much for your comments kite and impossible - really helpful to have some hard facts and figures here, esp from families in similar situations to us, getting the max maintenance grant. It is reassuring to realise that my DC will therefore probably able to manage OK without me having to top up their funds.

Actually it seems to me that the worst pressure will be on the squeezed middle classes who get the standard grant but parents will still have to help out with excess rent/ spending money and the kids will often have no option but to work in the holidays. - This is no bad thing in itself, IMO, in fact I'm rather sad that - owing to my DC's disability - they won't be likely to want/be able to work to earn in the holiday like most of their peers, which obviously brings invisible benefits in terms of life skills etc.

When I was in uni my parents paid my rent and I worked each weekend (20-24 hours over Fri to Sunday) @€7 per hour so on average about €150 per week plus the same in tips (it was a fancy restaurant!) so I lived off and saved that money.

That was 17-18 years ago though!!

We paid rent and ds lived of minimum maintenance loan. It was more than enough.

DS has £100 a week to cover everything but rent. He lives with far less than that.

(Those £100 a week is what is leftover from student loans and scholarship after the monthly rent)

DS is given £1000 a month by us. That covers rent and food, (his uni does a accommodation plus dining plan) which is £900 a month, leaving him with £25 a week for clubs. He works to pay for everything else.

Dd3 isn't the best at budgeting - our fault entirely I'm sure - but I've been working on/with her. The plan is she will live off her maintenance loan (minimum) and we'll pay her (uncatered) accommodation and bus pass. DH has just told her she'll have an Amex for emergencies... The older girls stuck to emergencies and trains home as agreed but ds wasn't so great - drinks for 4, the other 3 give him cash and dad pays the bill!! To be fair, he's much more sensible now at 25 and even bought a house and car.

My dd is going into year 3 and we've not had to give her anything.
She gets about £6500 maintenance loan each year and worked each summer. The loan covers her rent with a bit left over and she uses the money she has earned over the summer for living costs, food etc.
I've offered each year to help her out but she hasn't needed it.