Can I ask how you are managing to afford student accommodation?

[coldchipsfortea]

Hi all

Just looking for people's experiences on this as it can be a bit awkward asking friends what they do without sounding like I'm nosing into their finances...

DD will be going to uni in Autumn - Hall fees look to be around £6.5k for the year. If she got a room in a flat it would be around £600 a month. We have money that we saved for her from when she was tiny which would cover some (but not all) of this. I'd prefer to leave that money if possible - but perhaps I'm being naive on that front? I don't casually have 6 grand lying around - nor can we shell out £600 a month for the next few years without really struggling. We do have savings but the hall fees would wipe them out if we paid upfront, and we are also saving for some fairly necessary house maintenance, so they're not really available.

We've also got a younger DD who might be heading to uni too in a couple of years (providing she actually passes some exams...), so I can't even think about paying for two sets of rent!

What do other folk do generally? Do you use the student loan for accommodation plus top up a bit yourself and expect students to get jobs? I'm keen for my DD to get a part time job as even a little bit extra could really help I think.

I know there's no right or wrong way to do this - it just depends on circumstance, but it would be good to hear from folk just to get a sense of what others do. I'm aware that thousands of families do manage this every year so I am probably freaking out over nothing. I used to think I was good at financial planning, but clearly I'm not!

Did got a job in the summer before starting uni and saved her earnings to help with living costs.
They have a long time in between finishing college/6th form and starting uni, so plenty of time to earn a good amount.

Minimum loan here. We pay the rent and DS lives off the maintenance loan. He has a pt job in the holidays for extras. DS2 off to uni this year too. I think we'll be eating beans for a year.

@coldchipsfortea
My DD is going to Glasgow, similar costs, she's had a job for a year and plans to up her hours over the summer, tbf your DD should have been working by now and putting what she can away, a job is essential to cover costs unless parents have plenty spare. It's only on MN I've come across parents who think the wee lambs don't have time for a job 🤣

We pay our children £1100 to cover rent and living expenses
Also in Scotland so no tuition
Our way of thinking is we didn’t have loans at University so don’t want DC having loans
I went back full time to fund it

I feel like such a novice reading this thread.
my dd has been offered a place i
at Nottingham Trent and I’ve no
idea about funding.
we are going to an open day next month so I’m going to ask lots of questions about the accommodation options.
Does every student get some form of funding?
is it a loan?

can anyone link the FB page mentioned up thread please?

This is wiwikau https://www.facebook.com/groups/wiwikau/?ref=sharegroupp_link&exp=8ce3

She can get a part time job. Hotels are desperate for staff.

Ds has an offer for Imperial and the halls there are quoted at over £8K for 9 months (£11K for a year) - uncatered! On their website, they estimate total costs of c. £14K for 9 months and c.£19K for a year.
He will receive the minimum loan (£5K). So, that only leaves a shortfall of £9K minimum. It's a lot of money. He's Scottish, so no London weighting on the loan.

@FriendlyLaundryMonster crumbs! It’s just so expensive!

It really is. He's going to work this summer, but I think he'll have to try and find some work at uni too. He's waiting for an offer from a uni in our home town and it's very tempting to steer him towards that (if it comes)! Is Imperial worth the extra money, I guess that's the question.

This year dd had a higher loan (£6500) than she’ll get for years 2 and 3, as our income has increased (but so has our mortgage 😩).

Shes in a semi-catered hall and the loan covers the rent almost exactly. I give her £50 per week in term time only but she has had a few top ups too as she’s very sociable. She worked at Christmas and will also work Easter and some of summer to cover her travel plans and visiting friends.

Next year she’s got a bargain house (£80 per week) so her loan (£4900) will cover the rent and probably the bills. She thinks she’ll need at least £70 a week in term time. I’m hoping she’ll still work in holidays next year and/or get a part time job in her uni town.

We pay both dses £100 a week and top up rent as required.

Ds1 at Oxford has cheap accommodation but has to vacate and remove all his belongings for the holidays. That’s a pain!
DS2 is in London and his small room in halls is £185 a week over 9 months so rent top up is about £600 a term.

Both dses only get minimum loan and it’s tough! A very expensive couple of years for us with them both at university.

We are paying for DS catered halls for year 1 which is £800 a month. He will fund the extra £300 a month he thinks he will need by a combination of savings from his part time job and finding a new job at uni. I'm really hoping by not paying his gym membership, train fare to school, school lunches, food and tutor fees, I'll be able to claw back £500 a month so will 'only' have to pay an extra £300 in real terms!

Loan pays accommodation and DS works part time . I don't/can't contribute. He is at Royal Holloway so not a cheap area but I taught him to cook and budget from an early age . He manages some and even went skiing this year.

Yes they all get something,depending on your household income. It's a loan. And they get a separate loan for the fees which goes straight to the university.

Nottingham has a real shortage of student,accommodation so I'd start looking into it now so you have a bit of intel before the open day. Some universities allow the students to apply for accommodation as soon as they have firmed and it's allocated in order of when you apply. With others it's just apply before a certain date and then it's a lottery system.

We do a combination. DS pays us the Maintenance Loan each term and we use this towards his accommodation and have to top this up.

We give him some money per month to live off during term time (he will work during the summer) and he budgets with this for food, socialising, sports etc etc. We pay him a little bit less than £400 per month and also pay his phone. He also worked in the summer hols (so he has a buffer) but he is managing ok so much so that he has booked a weeks holiday abroad this summer. He is out a lot socialising and they do a lot of pre drinks in his house before they go out. We sat him down showed him how much we had spent on getting him Uni ready in terms of things for things for his room, laptop etc explained how much he would receive in terms of Maintenance Loan, how much his accommodation was, explained how much we could afford to give him and asked him if he wanted this weekly or monthly and he opted for monthly (which is better for us). If he runs out he can use his savings but he has only dipped into his savings twice (once to pay a deposit on his flat next year and once to pay for his summer holiday).

Learn your child to budget and cook before they go and tell them how much you can afford to give them each month and when its gone its gone. Also having a summer job and realising how hard and how long you have to work to afford say a Dominoes or a pint of beer etc is a good life lesson in appreciating the value of money and being able to cut your cloth accordingly and decides what is important and what you can live without.

Also in Scotland, with DD1 at Scottish uni. We pay for her accommodation (halls this year, private rental next year which will be a lot less) and she's used her loan for living expenses and the money she saved from a summer job for socialising. Most of her friends seem to have part-time jobs but it seems to be hard to find one with consistent shifts that don't clash with classes so she is being frugal and planning on saving all summer again. We'll have an overlap with DD2 for a year too and that's going to be eye-wateringly expensive so we're saving for it. We need to do some house renovations but that's been put on hold till after that crossover year is over with. We can only keep our fingers crossed there won't be any expensive emergencies or disasters in the meantime!

@QuillBill
thank you.

DD1 received around £4k maintenance loan this year, she has this to live on, so around £100 per week as 41 weeks at uni.
We pay her accommodation at £185 per week, along with phone, Netflix, etc. She is doing Law so fairly full on study wise, so no job whilst there, but she does some when back home. Next year is a different matter, we are looking at nearly £1k per month but bills are included.

DD2 also goes this September her accommodation is around £185 per week and we'll be paying for this too, as I'm sure she'll have the same maintenance loan.

Both are doing four year degrees, It is a very expensive time.

Combination of some inheritance she had, child trust fund, student loan, she has a job, and we give her £100 a month for food. She is going to work all summer to supplement next years. Goodness knows about 3rd year, but she’s at a local uni so if needs be she will come home. I think her halls for a small private room and bathroom in a flat of 9 is about 5k a year.

She’s chosen halls again next year because private rental was ludicrous- one house charging upwards of 20k a year for 3 bedrooms and all guarantors had to agree to guarantee the whole amount- absolutely no way.

I worked multiple jobs the summer before uni and saved several thousand. My parents topped up the student loan to maximum. I worked every weekend during term time and extra shifts during holidays. Every summer I worked extra to rebuild the pot. It was tough, and sounds far from ideal. But it taught me a lot about budgeting and how to juggle finances. By contrast my sibling lived at home and parents covered his living costs and he is hopeless with money.

We top up accommodation costs and she gets around £300 a month to live on plus a few big food shops per year, extra one off payments if she's struggling. She doesn't have time for a job during semesters or the short Christmas and Easter holidays but has 3-4 months in the summer to work. She worked the summer of year 13 too. She does a few hours online tutoring, so she tops up from her money for fun money.

The money she gets for food and laundry, transport etc..., is somewhat mitigated by our household expenses being less when she's not home. We only pay her the money for living expenses for 8 months of the year. She's doing a 3rd year placement which is paid so we're hoping not to have to top up her accommodation in Year 4 (Bath - getting expensive). She can cover that.

If you've been paying for family holidays, often your uni student doesn't want to come anymore, can't come because they're working, or you don't have to take them, so that's one less expense.

My son has worked and saved half for two years at weekends and holidays. He’s got a job for some of summer. We said we’d match what he saved, so the first two years are covered.
I don’t know how demanding his course is, but not usually more than Alevels I’d guess? He will probably work a couple of evening shifts while at uni. He will stay in halls to begin with.

Dd is entitled to minimum loan so we will use this to pay for accommodation then pay the rest. We will give her £500 a month to live on but if she wants more she will need a job.
We had a meeting at dd school about finance and they said to try not to think of it as debt more of a graduate tax.

Dd going this Oct - also min loan. I sympathise with your outlook - I will only have the mortgage and no other debt - like you - NO credit cards. We also have some savings (not huge) set aside for dd but like you - I'm hoping not to blow that on university because once it's gone - that's it, we will be retiring in a few years and won't be able to stump that sum again. I've dithered about this and looked at advice and this seems to be a good solution - I want to keep that small fund for later.

So we are option a) - we will pay the accommodation and dd will live off the loan. I think it would be great if she got a job but for various reasons I'm not confident that will happen. She will be in halls first year but definitely wouldn't share a room and I wouldn't expect it.

We also see the loan as a graduate tax - I think it's the only sensible way to view it.