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?

Cafes, bars and shops all have roles which are not customer facing. Kitchen porter /washing up, shelf stacking etc. I would try and get her into a jobs before Uni to help her get used to it so it's not all one massive shock at once. I worked throughout my gcse's an a levels, Sat job and summer holidays.

Would she consider taking a year out? Working for a year would surely be enough to cover her accommodation for most of her time at University and she could work in the holidays to supplement this?

Work for a year or two before uni, work during uni, possibly live at home or with a relative.

Or

Look out for degree apprenticeships. I have my first solicitor apprentice at the moment, she will qualify as a solicitor with £0 student debt and having earnt a good salary throughout

Yes the CTF is now an ISA and I put £20 a month in from when she was a baby. So that is where the £3000 is. Just looked and it's actually £4500, hadn't checked for a long time

I went 20 years ago but my family had a very low income, student loans didn't cover everything, although much better than today. I took a gap year I worked a full time job plus an evening job in a bar and saved as hard as I could. Then got a part time job term time plus full time work in the holidays.
It wouldn't cover everything but it would go some way if your DC does the same.
It was hard when I was surrounded by middle class kids with an allowance, but with it in the end.

My same age DD has had a part time job since the start of sixth form and is planning to work as many hours as she can across both summers. She is disabled, so also limited in her job options but there are lots of options about. DD is tutoring, but maybe get your DC to talk to their friends about different jobs that they might have to see if any would suit?

Even if you qualify for a maintenance loan it's not enough on its own. Loans haven't gone up in years, and obviously prices have.

Some of DD's friends are also taking gap years to save.

Remember it will cost less without her there, so you can at least (probably) spare that to give to her. Though, (sorry for more bad news) to point out you'll lose child benefit.

@Gahhfeelsostupid yes thank you I’ve just looked and it seems that we’d get 2k a year which takes me almost up to full grant. Most other unis cut off is £35k and I earn £38k.

These jobs also make you so much more employable after university

Yes we are looking into degree apprenticeships

Unfortunately she won't get the full loan so the money will have to be made up from somewhere.

The options are -

She gets a part time job at uni (and probably a full time one the preceding summer). Depending on what sort of degree she does, it can be doable. I had one dc with 15 hours contact time at uni who managed to work two days a week in retail and one on a stem degree who was in labs all day/studying in evenings so just worked in holidays.

She applies to more local unis she can commute to.

You get an extra job to top her up.

She defers/has a gap year to work full time and save.

Don't feel bad, you are thinking about things & trying to plan.
With Autism she may be better looking at other types of job.
Lots of courses/uni's will have small funds they can apply for.
Does she have EHCP or get PIP
Check out different Uni's - Sheffield uni & Hallam several options under £100.
In fact of my daughter's school (just finished yr 1) year the only Uni in the price range (you could choose more expensive ones) you quote was Durham & this included food

I also picked up some proof reading/editing for students from overseas in the business school that was quite lucrative actually

My sibling and I went to university in the 90s. My parents weren’t on a particularly low income but they must have qualified for enough so that we got a full grant between the two of us for the years we were both there at once.

Now, if you have two at university at once, it makes no difference to the calculations and you are expected to top one child up to the full loan amount (approx 4500) and then be able to do the same for the second!

I think a lot of people don’t understand until it’s time for their own child to go that they can’t just borrow as much maintenance loan as they need to pay the accommodation. Choose the university carefully!

We did this when our DDs went to uni. Anything tinned, dried we bought a stock of bit by bit. Also things like ketchup, kitchen roll and toilet paper.

I also gave each DD what I called a 'rainy day' box. A shoebox size packed full of things to do when you are bored and have no money: puzzle books, balloons, jelly sachets, cookie mixes which only need water adding, colouring pencils, hot chocolate.

@F0XCUB88
When I went many decades ago a piece of advice from DF was to look at where my money would go furthest.

Look also at transport costs/ease of transport. Following on from this look also at student bank accounts - do any still offer student railcards?

We used the maintenance loan to pay the bulk of the accommodation cost and then sent DDs money each week: timed to arrive on a Monday (less tempted to blow it all on Friday night).

A piece of advice I gave DD1 was not to create a Costa habit. It is very easy to blow a week's money on a few coffees and paninis. When DD2 was getting ready to go DD1 gave her the same piece of advice!

Money was tight for all of us without a doubt.

We couldn’t afford to give our DCs much and they definitely didn’t resent that because they knew we would do as much as we could.
I would do a big shop for them at the beginning of term and when we could during the year, send them money when I could afford to and do all I could to help them.
DD had a job, DS was a frugal person so managed what he had.
There are many more parents in your situation than you imagine.

No, I’m afraid they don’t make you more employable after university. I did everything while at uni: shop worker, data entry monkey, waitress, lab rat, you name it. NOBODY was interested in ANY of it when it came to my applying for jobs. All they wanted was for me to do unpaid internships basically ad infinitum and transferable/soft skills were basically worth f*k all.

She gets a job to cover the shortfall. Or she takes a year out and works and saves up.
Hospitality or shop work can be good as you can work around classes - evenings and weekends. Or get a job in the uni library or similar.
That's the reality.

@MollysBrolly Some courses do not lend themselves to getting a job. Ds's last lecture finished at 6pm as standard. Not everyone has 10 hours of contact time, not if you are doing a STEM subject. Ds for uni work probably does at least 40 hours a week of contact time plus independent work. Some work was set on a Friday which was an 8 hour day of lectures/tutorials/practicals and the work had to be in by 2pm on the Saturday.

@F0XCUB88 All unis have their accommodation costs listed so start by narrowing them down. You are going to need a spreadsheet and as she loves Computer Science she will no doubt relish this aspect. Ds is doing CS at uni and had a whole spreadsheet of uni entry grades, accommodation costs, travel time both by car and train. Also contact the universities about your DD's autism to see what support they offer both financially and practically. Both of you may want to consider how easy you can get to her if she needs some support.

Not everyone can afford to top up to the full loan amount. You will save some money by your DD not being at home. Ds spends around £38 a week on food, no course materials because it is computer science. Laundry is around £3.60 and tumble drying was free in first year halls.

I have children of the same age, im a single parent on around £34k, Ive told mine they need to look at the 3 unis they could attend whilst staying at home, which, tbf they are happy to. My son wants to do computer science and 2 of 3 offer very good courses in that area, my daughter wants to do nursing at the same uni i attended. Them being ok with local options definitely eases my guilt at not being able to support them if they went further. They will both still need to get part time jobs alongside though.

My daughter works P/T and tries to do as near to F/T hours in the holidays. She finished her second year around mid May so nearly 4 months of saving before she back in September.

She paid her accommodation with her loan in the first year. She had her child trust fund which was around £800 and had saved while working once finished Alevels. We paid for a big shop for each term and offered help as needed.

The only thing that she needed help for and we had luckily put some money away was a deposit for her second year house she needed that quite early in the year!

If your DD has autism I'm sure they'll be bursaries available to help, obviously course is paid by student loan and maintenance covers most living costs, sounds like she's sensible financially anyway.

I found myself a job and paid for all of mine. I worked from age 17 and saved up and all alongside university. I paid for a 5 year degree and all living costs.

it can be done.

'These jobs also make you so much more employable after university'

Totally agree, I recruit for our dept and would take a kid with a 2:1 and work experience from any Uni over a Oxbridge type with none. All day long.

Regardless though - your DD in't going to have much choice. She will work.

Hopefully there would only be resentment if it came as a complete shock to the DC. If they know in advance and can make decisions about gap years etc in advance then I suspect most just accept it for what it is. I’d expect most would far rather work for a year and be to enjoy the uni life than go with insufficient funds and have to watch their friends doing things they can’t do.

I often read people saying “my child doesn’t drink”, or “my child doesn’t go out” and add a silent “yet”. Of course they will want to go out with their friends.

DS starts Uni in September. He's taken out a student loan of £27,000 to cover tuition fees for 3 years.
His catered halls are a further £9300 a year. We are covering that by paying the uni directly £3100 a term. We've saved a bit beforehand to help.
He's budgeted a further £3000 or £300 x 10 months for books, travel, sport, socialising, food for weekends. He is paying this by working this summer and supplementing it with a bar job at Uni.
It is expensive - if you were to pay it all as a parent it would be cost £20,000 a year per child.