Realistic cost of living at university

[leftitabitlate22]

I just wondered how much realistically a student needs per week/term to live comfortably (not in luxury!) at university.

DD not likely to be able to have a term time job alongside the degree but will be able to work in holidays.

She won't be eligible for full loans so we'll be topping up.

I have one who recently graduated and two still studying *
We are fortunate that we can pay their rent for them. They use the basic maintenance loan for everything else and have never asked us for any additional money. The youngest recently worked out a budget of max £100 per week in term time, half that in the holidays when he is back at home.

They do part time work in the university holidays to earn money to go on holiday with friends, go to festivals etc.

• None of them are studying in London.

I only know one person who didn’t have a job and she lived on fresh air and the cheapest Aldi noodles. Her friends used to buy her food sometimes, and she was miserable.
Everyone else I know worked at the same time.

Depends where in the country, rent differs a lot! Dd spent only £7k last year

My DD managed ok on £50 a week. It helped that shes vegetarian and not a big drinker. We sent the occasional food delivery or deliveroo voucher.

My daughter's budget is £100 a week and what is left for holidays. She does work in the summer break and can dip into that for clothes, car insurance etc.

If a student has a car and insures it, they are indeed rich!! Most cannot afford to buy one, let alone run one without significant parental help!

Back to rent and food. Rent of halls varies. There are cheaper halls and all singing, all dancing ones. Liverpool has fairly expensive halls. Other cities offer lots of cheaper ones. So check them out.House rents vary too. If it’s an expensive city, rents are more. It’s basic economics. Start looking at rents: plenty will be advertised now.

What does he cost at home? The usual easy calculation is to look at what the maximum loan is, look at what he gets, and you make up the shortfall. Decide what his earnings will be used for. A laptop? Phone costs? Clothes? Holiday? Some students save on food but love their booze!

Is he ok about cooking? what does he like to eat? Is he frugal or not? Does he intend to go out? If so, a few beers or cocktails? What about travel and membership of sports clubs? What about meals out?

I always suggest doing zero based budgeting. Work up from £0 but be realistic. If your DS is sociable, admit it snd allow for it. Agree what he contributes. If he’s sporty, how will you pay the sports fees? They can be £ hundreds. Look at every single item of expenditure and be honest.

Some great advice here op. Location is what really makes a difference though and will help others advise you. Rent and travel will have a big impact.

Ok vegetarian and (so far) not really a drinker.

Going for creative courses so will likely be straight into private rent although halls may be possible somewhere. Realistically they will go whoever they get an offer (if they even get one)

Has had a pt job since 15, but contact hours are going to be around 40 so not sure how realistic working would be.

It's all a series of ifs at the moment, but just trying to think ahead whilst also helping look at plan B!

Likely to be London based

My DS used to work almost full
time hours in the holidays when he was back with us and he didn't work at all when he was away at Uni. We paid his rent and he lived on minimum maintenance loan + his McD's money and he managed fine

make sure to fully research the course costs as well. If it’s a creative course will they need materials, are they expected to attend any shows or displays regularly etc

@leftitabitlate22
My DD went to LCF which is part of The University of the Arts London. They do have halls for students. Varying prices and nothing very cheap, as you would expect. House rentals can be anywhere! Further out is cheaper. Loans are bigger in London.

There’s been a very long thread going about applying for creative courses and there’s plenty of choice outside London.

£20 a day after rent and bills is the norm amongst the students I know. That’s what we will also top DS1 up to.

My DS in Liverpool is paying about £6k rent (inc bills) and has a living budget of £75 per week, all year. So total costs around £10k p/a. He only gets the basic maintenance loan, the rest is topped up by us.

I guess it depends on area and course.
For rent, bills, petrol and food i spend around £220 a week but I’m a final year vet student so I’m doing at least an hour of driving every day for rotations so petrol is a big chunk

It depends on the rent costs really. My DC’s rent is about £6500 a year. They only get £4300 ish loan, so we have to top-up over £2000 each year just for accommodation, let alone food/travel etc

In London, it’s probably going to be a lot more

Forgot to add I’m veggie, don’t drink, eat only dinner sometimes very occasionally a slice of toast for breakfast but never lunch and rent a 4 bed house with my partner as the whole house is cheaper than some students are paying for a single room.

We also have 4 rats, 5 guinea pigs and a dog

DD1 is living off her loan and we're paying the rent. It works out at about £120 a week (40 week year). She has ASD and is very particular about food She works during the holidays to cover luxuries.

£20 a day after rent and bills is the norm amongst the students I know.

You must have a very limited circle, of very rich students.

A more "normal" (or typical) amount on most of these threads seems to be around £50pw, after accommodation (which includes bills). Remember that is for about 40 weeks a year, not 52.

There is ALWAYS a real variety on all these threads (and similar ones on WIWIKAU), but £140 a week after bills is a LOT of spending power for anyone.

OP - the biggest spend is accommodation, and that is usually the one you can do least about, particularly if they have to go to London. At least, in London, there are London weightings, which you don't get in other expensive (for accommodation) areas like Bristol. Whereas most Universities have quite a range of different priced accommodation (so you can choose to have shared bathrooms, and to have older accommodation or 'not on campus' accommodation and to self cater to keep costs down) you have to look at each individual University website to see how they allocate that accommodation. Some places are great, but at others, people don't always get allocated what they would prefer.

IF he is organised and willing, then people can also pick up a couple of shifts whilst having those contact hours - particularly, as you say he has been used to working whilst at school. My younger 2 did 8.30 - 4.30 at their 6th form, and had PT jobs as well.

@TizerorFizz My daughter paid for her car (child trust fund and working at McDonalds from age 16) herself and continues to pay insurance, petrol etc from working at a supermarket all summer. Definitely not rich!

Ours don’t have loans
We pay their rent and £500 a month
They don’t whim term time

A lot of the calculations here are for 40 week halls. In second year they may well be for 52 week a year houses. Neither does the rent include bills in many university cities. So costs can be very different from year to year. £50 a week to pay for food and bills and socialising is low really. It is topping up by £2,000 only and students who want to socialise on this will probably borrow money. We topped up by £400 a month for DD 12 years ago. Her rent was covered by the loan. That would not be the case now as university rents have gone up. She also had catered accommodation.

Costs vary a lot depending on city. DD1 is at Warwick uni, which has halls for a range of prices, and she picked the second cheapest, about £5000. We topped up the loan from the minimum to the maximum, so contributed about £5000. She managed to live on the rest without a job, and with careful budgeting. She is vegan, so doesnt spend much on food. Batch cooks and freezes meals. Works a bit in the summer but not full time.
DD2 is looking at arts universites ( Brighton, Bournemouth, Falmouth) and the halls there look more expensive. Cost of living likely to be more expensive in the south as well. She is avoiding London. Probably wont be able to work termtime. Luckily she is vegetarian and not a big drinker. Will need to buy art materials though. We might get more than the minimum loan with 2 of them studying at the same time.

My 18 year old ( non drinking) son is at a north west uni and living in student accommodation. Think a tiny room and ensuite for £96 a week with a kitchen between 5 rooms and a ground floor communal launderette and common room. He pays for everything out of his student loans and has even managed to save up £300 this term Alone. I was like 😳🤷🏼‍♀️. We haven't supplemented him at all apart from purchasing all of the things he needed to go with. He gets the max loans.

Ds pays £30-£35 a week for supermarket shopping, but he is a meat eater, mainly chicken, but also salmon. Laundry is £3.80 per load and £1.90 for tumble drying. He is in private halls so the laundry is Circuit (common for student halls of res)

He doesn't have any course materials to buy and the uni campus is walkable from where he lives so no commuting costs. The way we work it is he pays all his minimum maintenance loan towards his accommodation costs, we top that up as it is nowhere near enough and then we pay him £100 a week term time only. This money pays for food, socialising, travel home once a term plus the money lasts him over holidays too. This is plenty, he isn't a drinker, is very savvy when it comes to spending money. We still buy all his basics ie clothing, coats, shoes. We send him back each term with some food stuff but he has a supermarket delivery every fortnight and tops up milk and bread and fresh fruit in between. Due to the number of contact hours he too is unable to get paid employment.

We went into this with a let's review it attitude to make sure Ds felt like he had some control and that we felt like he wasn't spending money on stupid items. He did have an extra bit of money for Freshers as loads of activities/parties/clubs etc.