If you "top up" to the maximum student loan and your DC is in catered halls....

[Africa2go]

is that enough?

Catered halls seem to be about £8,500 - If we did top up to the max loan (and not much more, so about £10k) they'd have £1500 left (after £8,500 hall bill) - over 39 weeks thats about £40 a week. Think catered halls are breakfast, lunch and dinner during the week but nothing at weekends.

Still considering options - uni says it tries to accommodate choices, but can't guarantee it. DC undecided about catered and self catered - just because perception is catered would be more social (and for lots of reasons, what would suit DC).

Would £40 (or maybe push it to £50) a week be enough?

I know DC can get job / use some savings if it isn't enough but just interested in views from parents with children in catered halls.

Also remember second year accommodation is usually a year. So dd will be paying just over 9k in accommodation costs alone.

Its just under £10k and average term time is 32 weeks. Some are now very short, particularly Oxbridge (3 x 8 week terms) and those on two semesters. Liverpool is now two twelve week semesters (plus two exam period of 3 weeks each)!

There aren't many now where term is 40 weeks. Rental periods might be 40 weeks but that includes storing stuff in rooms over the holidays.

So are you not giving any money to cover holidays? This wouldn't really work in years 2 and 3.

We'll obviously cover rent but not subsistence when he's at home. He can get a bar job if he wants spending money during holidays and I'm expecting that he'll want access to the fridge at home!

Yes that's fine for year 1.

I know we've established that my DD is on the low-spending end of the scale, but we top up to max loan, divide by 52, and pay that every week (holidays included). If she's at home and we're feeding her (which we'll do happily) then that food-money helps build up a buffer for the next term. (She has to put aside some of that weekly income for her rent payments in addition to the minimum loan, but that's easy enough to budget.)

But that must mean that on a weekly basis during term time she doesn't have a lot at all..

Each to their own anyway.

We will do what DBro does for DN. Pay the rent in full and then give approx £20 a day during term time (which we will give as a lump sum each month)

@Newtssuitcase Well, this year (first year) it's worked out so far. She's currently got more money in her account than when she started in September. Next year might be different (accommodation more expensive per week, and for a longer contract) so we'll keep the situation under review. Entirely happy to admit that it's not a great system if she ends up in difficulties! She's also sometimes earning a little money here and there.

Partly with this thread in mind, I asked DD about her budgeting, and she spends around £35/week on food. As discussed upthread, she has cheap pastimes/treats which are not entirely typical of uni students but are shared by her friend-group who are all on similar budgets. Horses for courses!

Especially as the OP was asking about catered accommodation.

Well heaven forbid a post might not directly address the specific question. A bit like when someone steers every single thread around to their dd at Bristol or the fact that she’s a junior barrister

Every single thread? Really? Claws out tonight @Newtssuitcase . Try reading some other posters’ contributions if you think I am a one trick pony!

This sounds like one of the catered plans at ds uni in the south. He's on the top level with 3 swipes and no extras. It works for him and that's next years plan as well.

It's 7 days a week and 3 swipes a day so no extra funding/food/drink required.

I was at Nottingham (9 years ago now) and had a budget of £25 per week for my eating in food. I'd say given price increases £35/40 per week for food is very doable. We did have freezers etc though so I bought a lot of stuff on reduced or bigger bags of frozen chicken etc. we have bigger kitchens and lounges too, so very social.
where I was less good at budgeting would definitely be the play money...I budgeted £25 a week for 'extras' but if you go out anywhere but SU once a week I'd say that would dwindle fast, especially if they want to buy clothes, haircuts etc! Only way to know is to try though tbh, what do they spend on that stuff now and add bits because living a good uni social life is so important

The social life aspect is crucial IMO. This is what university is all about. Unless you have at least £60 after rent and food for other essentials and social life then you're really going to be struggling to make it stretch. I suspect taking a year out to work before going will become the norm since the middle income group is so stretched. The cost of living is really high and that's unlikely to get better.

It will also start to cause a bigger divide. Independent school parents are used to paying school fees. I think it comes as a shock to state school parents who haven't thought it through in time. If you look on wiwikau for example there are lots of parents who seem surprised that everyone doesn't get the full maintenance loan and that they are expected to top up.

If you look on wiwikau for example there are lots of parents who seem surprised that everyone doesn't get the full maintenance loan and that they are expected to top up.

This is something I usually point out on the "shall I have another baby" threads.

You need to sit down and talk it thorugh with the kid.
Go through the week with them, where will they go, what will they do, what might they need money for.
Do they know how to budget? If not teach them.

If they do not know how to manage money, no matter how much you give them will go down the drain.

I speak from bitter experience, I had no money skills when I went to uni, or even after. It really impacted on my life.

I started their 150 a week at start of summer holidays so they could build up a fund for term 1 very expensive initial costs, clubs etc etc and then I paid it weekly 52 weeks a year even though they were home in holidays and I kept the same amount in year 1 and 2 even though I had also paid catered halls in year 1 (and in year 2 paid their rent) as it was pretty generous anyway so ended up working out okay. that was more than some had even on the full loan. I certainly agree that parents should be told the full maintenance loan amount and that the expectation is to make up minimum loan ot maximum just as it was in 1979 that my parents would make a very very tiny minimum maintenance grant (in those days) up to the much larger full grant (which my parents kindly did for all 3 of us however long the course - one of us did medicine).