Living allowence/ Budget for 1st year university in catered halls

[PaperBlinds]

Hi,
Would anyone be willing to share any budget planning they have done with their kids going off in the next couple of weeks? DD worried about cost of living and we struggling to work our reasonable weekly/monthly/termly living costs for Manchester.

Halls are catered, but no lunch and no food at weekends, but then food tricky to work out, travel local/home, going out, stationery/books, etc. Any top tips or planners you are using?

Apologies if there is a thread on this already. TIA

Our DDs get £70 a week for food and living we top up Accomodation as well as on minimum loan.

anything above that they self fund.

both have cars at uni and we pay any sports fees books etc in addition to their living money.

one has a term time job 6 hours a week which brings her in £90 which she mostly saves.

other DD just changed uni so looking for a job.

DD’s budget is £50 a week, she doesn’t drink or go clubbing so won’t spend on much more than food (she’s self catering). If she needs more I will top it up when I can but I’m a single parent and carer for dd2 so money is tight. Her loan covers her accommodation and enough for £50+ a week but she will need to save some for a deposit on 2nd year accommodation. She does get PIP due to disabilities but would like to use this for driving lessons and taxi’s if needed.

Lovemusic33 if you mean taxis from DD’s accommodation to university she can apply for DSA if she hasn’t already, which will cover the difference between public transport and the taxi cost.

She does get DSA but hasn’t been offered anything towards taxi because she’s living on campus, she’s on a campus that’s not in the city so she does need to go into the city if she wants to do a shop as the uni shop doesn’t sell most things she likes.

How have your dc found their budgets this last year?
Assuming my dc gets their preference for catered halls, I'm looking at what weekly amount might be appropriate.
Also, do you give them anything at all in holidays (mine will be expected to work in summer at least).

"How have your dc found their budgets this last year?"
DD has the full loan amount & is self-catering (first year, in halls). We talked about finances when she was back visiting recently, & she's doing fine with that. She tops it up with some work shifts for her party fund (she does bank shifts as a care worker which works well for her as is very flexible around her uni commitments)

That's reassuring!

Ds is in 2nd year. He has been self catered and his supermarket costs him around £37 a week, he is a meat eater and tends to cook from scratch rather than ready meals. We give him £100 a week to live on term time only which is absolutely plenty for him. Laundry is a killer cost wise, usually around £3.60 for a load in a Circuit machine, tumble drying varies, last year it was free this year he pays £1.90 but sometimes tops that up a bit if drying jeans in there. Bedding and towels take up one machine, clothing another. But he does do laundry every week.

But his course needs no materials, so no books, no stationery etc. For Freshers week we gave him an extra £100. He comes home once a term which is around £30. Walks to lectures as there is no where to park either at lectures or where he lives.

Consider things like mobile phone contract, Netflix, Amazon etc Ds has a generous Grandparent who gives him £50 pm which pays for the above plus a few drinks.

Is anyone able to give the name of the uni/area their DC is at, type of accommodation and the total amount of money they will have for the year, to cover accommodation and other living costs please?

It doesn’t matter so much whether it’s come from the loan or parental top-up, but a total figure would be really useful. Then those of us planning ahead, can see what our DC might need on top of whatever loan they will receive.

I find that in many of the examples above, because people either don’t say how much they are giving, or how much the loan is, or how much the accommodation costs, it’s really not clear how much parents are contributing.

Thanks.

DD is in Manchester, and has £10,710 (Wales student finance standard maintenance amount, which is made up of a mix of grant / loan depending on parental income). She's a first year in self catering accommodation.

As mentioned above, she's doing fine financially. She does supplement with some paid work, but not a great deal I don't think. She'll work over the summer holidays too I'm sure.