So, how the hell do you afford uni for your kids?

[F0XCUB88]

Just been looking at prices for accommodation, £200 per week!

So looked at Money Saving Expert to see how much we need to contribute on top of loans. It says we need to save £358 per month.

We earn £50,000 between us, mortgage payment just went up by £££ and now can't actually get to the end of the month so how do we save £358?

Do we just say no she can't go? What do other people do?

I know it's a first world problem but she's really bright. Neither of us went to uni and finding it all a bit confusing. I just can't see that everyone else can afford it?

It’s really straight forward. Study locally and live at home. Work part time, rent a room in a HMO rather than halls, do the degree online…. lots of options !I’ve done one degree online and one with an hours commute. I continued living in my own house both occasions as I have been living independently since I was sixteen.
All the youngsters on my course were working.

Martin Lewis has been banging on about this for at least 5 years!

Yes, but things have suddenly changed. Inflation and interest rates have been low for some time until recently, and with banks and energy companies fucking people over it may suddenly be a lot more difficult to support offspring at university, when previously you thought you'd manage. Also the loan hasn't risen with inflation so is suddenly worth a lot less.

Amazingly not everyone follows Martin Lewis.

Agreed!

21hrs , 4 half days

Well they really should if they're looking for financial advice.

Well, they don't. I mean, he did get the prepayment meter advice spectacularly wrong last year.

The government and maybe schools should be giving kids and parents this info

Nope- he gets paid by big business for giving advice.

He's not a complete fraud, more a human being that knows where the next paycheck comes from.

If I would have followed his advice on fixing energy traifs a few years back, I would have lost a substantial amount of money. As it came to it, I had a very good fixed deal when prices were raising last year when he said not to fix, again I would have lost a substantial amount of money.

But comon sense prevails.

The government and maybe schools should be giving kids and parents this info
There are entire teams at universities whose job it is to give this information to schools and colleges for free....schools just need to book them to come in!
Also, there is usually a student finance talk at open days although appreciate that is often too late.

It is worth factoring that student accommodation is in short supply in lots of areas and that choice of the more affordable accommodation is not always a given. Some students have to just take what they can get, which might be more expensive, or travel further or go on waiting lists.

I wish people rooks stop posting crap like this. That is not enough. As evidenced by the fact that the government themselves say that kids need parents to top them up so that they have a minimum of £10k a year.

why on earth would you send off your dc to struggle and not be able to participate when they could simply work for a year first and then have the funds to enjoy the experience properly.

plus you cannot guarantee what type of accommodation you get allocated. There are stories all over wiwikau of kids applying for the cheapest halls and being allocated expensive ones. And rents for student houses continue to rise and will keep on doing so due to landlords having to cover higher mortgage rates and deal with the eco measures. Neither is it true that you simply have to pick a northern university. Ds is going to a northern university regarded as cheap to live at but most of the rooms on campus are still £178 a week from September.

If she's keen on computing/cyber there are various schemes, particularly to get girls into tech, that she could look into.

Like this one:

https://www.gchq-careers.co.uk/cyberfirst/university-bursary.html

Agreed, I was so glad I worked for a year before university. It gave me a good cushion to enjoy university (although I did still work in holidays) and meant I was much more mature and knew why I wanted a degree.

Yes he has, and I have been well aware of it. However, not everyone will have come across this because not everyone uses the forums/media where Martin Lewis promotes his message.

The OP certainly isn't alone in not having realised so I don't think she should beat herself up about it.

I agree with PP that closer to £10k is what is realistic. Average accommodation is around £170 so that is £6,800 for 40 weeks minimum but some private accommodation is for a longer period, (DDs is 45 weeks) plus living costs conservative estimate @ £50 pw for 40 weeks minimum possibly = £2,000 Total = £8,800. They will probably need to pay a deposit and arrange 2nd year accommodation before Christmas (usually private rentals) and then there's the initial expense of kitting them out and paying for travel to get there.

The maintenance loan is paid in 3 amounts - from memory October, January and April so you do need to have the fund available to tide you over and manage the monthly payments. I'm not saying it's not possible but if you are not familiar with the process it can be a shock.

I took mine out of school. No more expenses. Just trips out and a few educational apps. That was 5 yrs ago. Barely spent anything. We are waiting in the car at the moment for her college interview.

School doesn't cost anything in the UK.

I am just coming out of the other side of the University financial nightmare. My son had all the student loans etc but we had to top up at least half as the loans don’t cover accommodation, food etc. It’s a national disgrace. My son has just got a “First” and it’s been so worth it …although, it was very hard! I cashed in some of my pension and also took on an extra job. If your daughter is bright, you have to allow her her chosen career. If it is deemed, she must have a degree to do it. My son will end up earning a very good salary and paying a great deal of tax so it’s a win-win for the government. It makes me very cross, especially when it’s a career that society needs.

Apart from me replying to the op by accident and my reply having nothing to do with the topic. School cost a lot in the UK. No, you don't have to pay to go, but there are many other expenses that go along with it.

Our combined income is much less than that and we will be loosing around £300 a month in tax credits and child benefit so there is no way we can afford to pay anything, even after not having to pay so much for food etc at home. After accommodation She will have around £1000a term to live on so she will have to use that for essentials and She is planning on getting a part time job to cover the cost of food and anything else she wants to do. We were told even working 5 hours a week would usually cover this. We will probably keep paying her mobile phone bill.

The student just needs to work. The hospitality industry is crying out for people and those hours can often work around lectures. Previous generations were told you go to uni study hard and get a job in your desired field, these days students need to be more realistic, if you want to further your education by choice you have to fund it. It's a broken system for sure but still better than America!

Hi
our son has just finished his 3rd Year , has next year as research, doing chemistry
He could claim on average around £5000-£6000 each year maintenance loan, we have to give him money each month on top of that, First and second year, we gave him £400 a month,we also paid the remaining part on his rent/food bill which the maintenance loan didn’t cover
his 3rd year, he didn’t eat in the halls so we gave him an extra £200 per month for food(£600 in total)
he does have a small amount of money left to him from my parents, (£4000) he bought a new laptop using that
he couldn’t get a job as the study was/is intense, had a huge amount of papers to complete in the holidays , he’s studying at Oxford Uni ( he went to state schools, applied for place under the Oxford Opportunity scheme)
there are bursary’s you can claim for, depending on your household income, we come just above the limit to claim for any of these, even the £200 travel bursary !
I work in a pre school and my husband is an engineer so not massive earners
We paid off the mortgage and use the money we were using for that, we are both in our 50s, DH is late 50s, me, very early 50s (54🤣)
DH had a classic car, he sold that to pay off the mortgage, he bought it before we had kids,
we also have a 23 DS , who did an apprenticeship and then got a full time job, also have DD who’s 13, don’t know how we’ll afford her Uni fees but will manage, she has to have the same opportunity
Think we’ll be working for the next 15/20 years!
Good Luck 🤞

i was a single parent earning about £35000. I managed to give her £50 a week to cover food. She got a job in McDonalds and she used that to top up rent. She also applied for a bursary from the university’s hardship fund awarded to low income families. I think most Russell Group unis have this and maybe others.

No there aren't. Certainly not enough to pay for university. I think mine had lunch money and the odd trip.