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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

Weekly budget at uni

221 replies

1Wanda1 · 13/11/2022 08:30

How much does your child have to spend per week AFTER rent and bills?

DS and DD both have a weekly spending budget of around £65. Both in unis outside London. DD is sticking to this no problem. DS keeps overspending, has maxed out the overdraft, now doesn't have enough money to pay December rent, and the only way he'll be able to do so is if we bail him out (again).

He doesn't seem to think anything is wrong, as says he hasn't been living extravagantly and only goes out once a week and it's just "cost of living". I think that £65 a week is plenty to buy food and a few drinks.

He's looking for a job but that's not really the point. He thinks I'm really unreasonable and mean and I don't know how to get him to budget. Is £65 enough or am I deluded?

OP posts:
Original poster
1Wanda1 · 15/11/2022 10:01

He says he's applied for about 40 jobs since he's been back. Mostly doesn't even get a response. Has had 2 interviews so far as I know. He's waiting to hear on the most recent one.

OP posts:
Comefromaway · 15/11/2022 10:06

I worked it out like this

Ds gets the minimum £4,500 loan

His rent is £7,037 so we have to pay a top up.

We then top up to maximum loan amount which amounts to the sum of £2,463 which divided over the teaching weeks gives ds approx £68.50 per week to live off.

He pays for EVERYTHING out of this. We did provide all his start up items (bedding, kitchen stuff, etc) and we did one Aldi shop on the day he arrived in halls.

AltheaVestr1t · 15/11/2022 10:27

@Comefromaway that seems a lot easier for them to manage and less risk of them blowing it in week 1 on beer and computer games!

MsPinkMarshmallow · 15/11/2022 10:37

We give our dd £120 a week and we pay all of the rent, which is £11k a year and includes all bills. We also pay for her mobile phone and do the odd food shop for her.

Comefromaway · 15/11/2022 10:37

So far I have had to lend ds £200 but only for a few days and it was because he got a job during reading week that involved paying out in advance for travel and accommodation. I subbed him until he got paid.

Bramshott · 15/11/2022 10:49

1Wanda1 · 15/11/2022 09:19

@User73. The max loan this year is about £9,500. DS and DD get £4,500 loan, so a £5k difference. They each then get £100 per teaching week from their parents: for DS this means £3,500 and for DD 3,800.

In year 1 the loan covered DS's rent so he had £100 a week to spend (on top of which he spent £4K savings and £1k overdraft). In year 2 his rent and bills combined are £5,580 so he needs to keep back some of his £100 a week to cover the difference between the loan and the rent.

DD is in year 1 and her halls are more expensive than DS's rent. Her rent is £7k. We top her up £1,200 (in addition to the £100 a week) so that she ends up with £65 a week spending money, the same as her brother has. He would probably say that he should also get the £1200 top-up, but my aim was to ensure they can both cover their rent and end up with the same spending money.

It's easy to say that he should be able to manage if his sister manages, but in general I thought parents were expected to top their kids up to the level of the maximum loan, which your DS is £1500 short of? That said, of course the 4000 he earned in his gap year should almost have bridged that £1500 gap for 3 years rather than being spent all in one...

ArcticSkewer · 15/11/2022 10:57

Kids on full student loan usually also get about £2k bursary, so £12k total. If you are giving him the equivalent of this then he should be able to manage. If you aren't, then he needs to be aware that he is effectively poorer than the 'poorest' students and moderate his lifestyle accordingly. He may be trying to match what other, less well off, students are spending.
We were told £85-100 per week was an average spend. Job seekers allowance for young people is less though, and they are expected to survive on that

Africa2go · 15/11/2022 10:59

MsPinkMarshmallow · 15/11/2022 10:37

We give our dd £120 a week and we pay all of the rent, which is £11k a year and includes all bills. We also pay for her mobile phone and do the odd food shop for her.

Geniune question (not trying to be argumentative) - what does your DD spend £120 a week on? Planning for next year ...

user73 · 15/11/2022 11:03

£120 is only £17 a day. That’s not that much for food travel and socialising

user73 · 15/11/2022 11:06

Ops son is getting £9.20 a day and I think that is too low and I’m not surprised he’s struggling.

MsPinkMarshmallow · 15/11/2022 11:15

@Africa2go food and socialising mainly I think.
We pay for any course materials or anything extra. I just sent some new pillowcases as she said she didn't have enough.

MsPinkMarshmallow · 15/11/2022 11:16

To add, we also paid for a railcard and we pay all travel to come home, which is generally about £100 a time or more. She does have to pay for local trains out of the £120 a week.

Blip · 15/11/2022 11:21

Instead of being a guarantor is there an option to pay the year's rent up front?

I can't see why a landlord would have an issue with that.

I do unfortunately think that DS will continue to need bailing out financially until you stop doing it.

Is there any reason why he can't work in term time or at least holidays? I would make my continued financial support contingent on him working. I do t think looking at his bank statements is appropriate for an adult but I do think it would be good for him to get one of those bank accounts where he can allocate and monitor his money into different categories - food, travel etc

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 15/11/2022 11:21

We give our dd £120 a week and we pay all of the rent, which is £11k a year and includes all bills. We also pay for her mobile phone and do the odd food shop for her.

OMG. Have things changed this much? I went to Uni in London with a backpack and about £200 saved up from a Saturday job. Moved into Uni halls, got a job in the NUS bar and was self sufficient. (I had a single Mum after my Dad died and I had Saturday jobs from the age of 14). No wonder they call this young generation 'snowflakes'.

Africa2go · 15/11/2022 11:24

@MsPinkMarshmallow thank you. As I've posted above, in prep for next year, DC has had a budget of £30 for food this week and although it means all his meals have been planned (which I know won't always ever happen at uni, and they'll be shop-bought sandwiches / take aways probably along the way) it was enough - inc meat/chicken, fruit, veg etc. An extra £90 on top of that seems alot. Interesting to see a range of views though, thank you.

Phphion · 15/11/2022 11:27

Save the Student's National Student Money Survey 2022 estimates that average student spending per week, excluding rent, bills and mobile phone, is £94.

This is based in what students said they spent. It includes quite a lot of what some people would consider discretionary spending

Comefromaway · 15/11/2022 11:29

user73 · 15/11/2022 11:03

£120 is only £17 a day. That’s not that much for food travel and socialising

That is LOADS!. They are meant to be working you know.

Ds's weekly food bill is £20-£25. He doesn't drink so a night out at the weekend only costs about £20 but most of his friends do pre-drinks in halls anyway so don't spend much when actually out.

People need to learn to cut their cloth according to their means.

Comefromaway · 15/11/2022 11:31

Ds tells me that most weeks he saves around half £68.50 allowance and uses that every few weeks for one off costs such as train fayre to meet his mates in another city or buying himself a new item of tech.

DontMakeMeShushYou · 15/11/2022 11:33

DS is in catered halls which means that most, but not all, his food is provided. I pay for the accommodation costs that aren't covered by his loan (about an additional £1K a year), and then he gets £100 a month. He does come home ever few weeks to do washing and take some bits back - he's only 40 miles away. He pays for his train fare out of his monthly allowance.

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy it's only changed that much if you have parents with money to burn.

user73 · 15/11/2022 11:33

It probably depends on where they are studying too and what they are used to.

£20-£25 a week isn’t loads for food IMO. It doable of course but needs careful planning with the way food prices have increased.

my DC has only just applied so I’m not there yet but I know friends who are giving their dc £20 a day which seems a lot but it depends on travel needs etc. I think we will probably land on about £100 a week initially and see how he gets on but I don’t want him not doing things in his first year because he’s too worried about the cost (or just eating cheap crap)

user73 · 15/11/2022 11:36

That is LOADS!. They are meant to be working you know

well yes but not 24/7

MsPinkMarshmallow · 15/11/2022 12:00

We aren't expecting our dd to work while she's at uni. She can in the summer if she wants to but we don't expect it. Most of her friends seem to get around the same per week (£120).

user73 · 15/11/2022 12:06

MsPinkMarshmallow · 15/11/2022 12:00

We aren't expecting our dd to work while she's at uni. She can in the summer if she wants to but we don't expect it. Most of her friends seem to get around the same per week (£120).

Agreed

user73 · 15/11/2022 12:06

Although I think the pp meant school work

Comefromaway · 15/11/2022 12:10

Yes, I meant uni work/study.