How much money in total does your student in halls receive?

[WombatChocolate]

I’ve read a number of similar threads. People often talk about ‘paying accommodation’ and then the student living on their minimum maintenance loan, but these don’t give total figures of how much it is costing to live.

Please could people say how much the total to cover everything is. I’m not so interested in whether it comes from parents or loans or grandparents, but the total given and the city/area they study in.

I think this would be really useful info for myself and others with teens setting off in the autumn. We can then work out how much we might need to give them, knowing how much maintenance loan our individual circumstances will mean they get.

I guess I’m interested to know if people are topping up, to the full maintenance loan or significantly beyond this.

The "beans and pasta" era was pre-tuition fees. If frugal living was the difference between making the summer wages last the year or ending up in overdraft, it was worth it.
Nowadays it's the difference between £50k debt and £60k debt and they're never going to pay it off so why would they scrimp?

Nowadays it's the difference between £50k debt and £60k debt and they're never going to pay it off so why would they scrimp?

Because they'll be paying that student loan for 40 years now the rules have changed and that extra £10k at 9% interest will mount up.

But the accrued interest doesn't mean higher payments, it just affects the amount that gets written off in 40 years.

Not as of this coming year. The loan conditions have changed. A lot more will pay it all off ... including the extortionate compound interest.

Bless Xenia for coming on here to tell us how rich she is ... for the 100th time 🙂

But the interest is index linked this year so the amount you pay back is "worth" the amount you borrowed in real terms, as opposed to the older system which was RPI +3% (which is why so many won't pay it back).
Anyway it's a bit of a sidetrack on the OP, I just wanted to add perspective on why current students spend more on lifestyle than students 20 years ago.

We don't pay the accommodation but most universities have something on their website showing what is the average cost for that particular city and we top up their loan to that level. It's then up to them to make decisions on how much they want to spend on accommodation and budget for other expenses (with guidance) and get a job if they want to spend more than this. It's worked very well for all 3 and hopefully has helped with the transition to being financially independent from us 😄

😂

I was just asked and unlike many women my age I do work full time etc and would rather have helped the children than they have student loans (not a choice for those lucky enough to make it that everyone would think is wise of course).

The group that suffers most is those on the very minimuym maintenance loan of about £4300, supposed to cover rent and other costs whose parents cannot or choose not to top it up, rather than those with very little money whose child has the full big maintenance loan and even more in places like Wales.

Most women I know my age including me work full time but we still can’t afford to give your kids £150 per week to live on after rent. Most don’t even get that to feed an entire family.

@Xenia so you paid £25,870 per twin? £52,740 per year? For 3 or more years. And the same for all 5 of your kids?

I know this because DS is about to finish his first year and just reapplied for finance. We are in Wales so he gets the maximum maintenance which next year will be £11720.

Last year he got £10710 and his (self catering) accommodation was about £6k which left just over £100 pw.

Luckily we don't have to top him up as that's more than enough, although I have kept the standing order for his monthly allowance going. Next year accommodation is more expensive so we'll see what that does to his social life.

I thought this! 😁

DS standard uni fee of circa £9k pa
Housing - £7000 for 51 weeks - paid by us.
He works part time for his food, clothes, travel etc and we supplement with £600 per month.

No student loans.

600 top up per month + part time job earnings. Wow, your ds is a big spender.

Should he not then be taking a year out to earn money to fund himself through. If you can’t give him what is needed as the minimum government recommended amount (top up to circa £10k) then he should be working for a year first.

The biggest variable is the cost of the accommodation as the ft tuition fees are standard 9,250 across the board.

London. Accommodation for 52 weeks a year is slightly less than 12,000. The Maintenance Loan with London Weighting is 12,667 but with means testing, dd only gets 6,308. Therefore, we top up the difference of about 6,000 for her London accommodation.

She gets 100 a week spending money = 5,200 a year. This is quite a low amount, I think. Dd lives fairly centrally so saves on public transport and is quite modest in her spending habits.

Total we subsidise her uni is about 11,000 a year.

DD gets minimum maintenace loan, she lives on that and we pay her rent, in halls ( cheapest ones with ensuite) it was £550 a month for 10 months, second and third year in rented its been about £450 a month rent for 10/ 11 months. Shes in her final year atm.
DD2 is about to go and her uni accomodation was shockingly more expensive than DD1. Gorgoeus posh modern halls but about 7.5 k a year, partally soo expensive as they are all 48 week contracts when really students only need 40 weeks.
We have found cheaper halls not owned by uni so 5k a year that are nice and on edge of campus.
We will top her up to maximum loan like her sister. But pp are right that COL rises make it make challenging and maintenance loan hasnt kept up with inflation.
I think they need rent( inclusive of bills) plus about 4k-4.5k to live on during term time if they live at home for free during holidays. We also drive up to collect her and drop off so she has minimum travel costs.
So roughly max mainternce loan but this is based on cheap( ish!) Uni accomodation of about 5.5k a year. Clearly if accomodation is 7k + they will need more than maximum maintence loan

@blueshoes he's a great saver!

Can I ask, what are they spending £100 per week on?
I wonder if any parents know a rough break down of how much if that is on supermarket food and how much on socialising etc etc.

I’m on a good salary and if I spent £30 feeding myself, I wouldn’t spend £70 every week on socialising. It seems a lot to me, for a student who is supposed to be a bit financially constrained.

Can I ask too, how do parents arrive at the figure they give their DC, if it’s not just topping up to the full maintenance loan or paying the rent and letting them live on the minimum maintenance loan. Do people just go for a round figure and hope it’s about right, or do they keep adjusting the amount in light of experience as time passes?

Many parents want to budget for this expense they will face, rather than flexibly making it up as time goes along. They also want their kids to budget, rather than having an open cheque to draw upon. I’m not quite clear if the students have a figure given to them or ask for what they want/need. Thanks.

We adjusted the amount over the years.
Year 1 we did a virtual online shop to work out a food budget but it was mid-Covid so DC actually spent much of that year home anyway.
Year 2 there was more opportunity to socialise but DC had saved a lot not going out all the previous year.
Year 3 DC asked for £50 a month more and broke down a budget to justify why they needed that much. We agreed and increased the bank transfer.
Months when home we pause the bank transfer, then restart in term times.

We give our DC £1100 a month to cover rent and expenses
Also pay for phone
I was skint at Uni and don’t want that for mine
Have gone full time at work to cover it

OP, I have a good idea what dd is spending her 100 a week on because I check her online bank account every week. She has certain additional needs which means she allows me to keep track of her expenses.

I came up with 100 a week (excluding rent/accommodation), finger in the air, as a reasonable amount on the low side and then checked to see she did not overspend seriously every month.

Apart from groceries and public transport (cooking helps to keep expenses down), most of it is going out (drinks are costly) and clothes on Vinted/fast fashion. If she buys concert tickets or wants to travel, that immediately blows the budget. I presume if dcs want to go out and travel more, they would take a pt job to earn extra but the 100 a week should cover day-to-day and some discretionary spends.

When dd comes home for a visit, dh and I load her up with a 'comfort' pack of her fave foods, frozen homecooked meals, provisions and make up. If I see a good offer of something, I might buy an extra for dd to take back. I guess that helps to keep her costs down as well but that is up to you.

Great discussion. Can I ask when people started saving for the costs of uni? I very much doubt we’ll have 30k + just sitting around when the time comes!

@WombatChocolate I don’t think it’s possible to ‘arrive at a set amount per week’ given the diverse range of university accommodation costs, fully catered, meal plans , self catered etc -that’s before we consider the areas the institutions are based.
In ‘your shoes’, I’d start with the X cost of DS’ college accommodation which you’ve said offers 21 meals per week. You won’t know until DS has started whether this will ‘fit his needs’ - from lots of perspectives- until he starts.
Over and above these costs I’d consider the following:
Laundry costs: For DD it’s about £7 for a wash and dry but the machines are huge so she shares with friends to make up ‘dark and light’ washes and saves money that way.
Toiletries- to include laundry stuff as that’s not included in the price.
Printing costs: DD finds it difficult to read on screen and has hefty reading lists to wade through on a weekly basis. Printing double sided still sets her back a fair bit.
Books: These will be ‘subject specific’ as above but also need to factored in particularly when there’s only a few copies in the library and an assignment is due in.
Socialising: I guess that depends on how much you feel is adequate after the above costs taking into consideration whether you intend/ are in the position to pay for his phone, clothing, travel expenses etc over and above the weekly amount he has at university.