Weekly spending money at uni after bills/food covered?

[WombatChocolate]

DC is looking at going to a Uni where the halls are fully catered and priced 3 meals a day, 7 days a week. The rents for their halls are high, as they include 21 meals a week.

My question is, how much extra money do you think they need per week in term time?

I know they will still buy snacks and the odd extra meal, but spending in food should be pretty limited. DC isn’t a big drinker but will want to socialise and go out. Realise there will be some bigger costs at start of year for Freshers week etc. But what do you think it would be worth budgeting for them to have weekly?

I’m not so interested in where the money comes from - loans, parental contribution, them working etc. Really interested in what a student who has been fed and watered needs beyond that. Wondering about £60 per week in term time and perhaps £30 a week during hols.

Any thoughts very welcome.

Not if they are doing a STEM degree. They have very full timetables with STEM and a huge requirement to do work outside of timetable.

We pay DC's rent and bills and they have £160/week to cover food, clothes any exceptional costs etc. They don't spend excessively, shop cost-consciously and generally have money left to cover spending when home for holidays and can also contribute towards their own holidays with friends. DC is studying Medicine so can't work term time or most holidays. If they had been less responsible with money, we would have reined it all in and only given the bare minimum and covered clothes, any extras, holiday costs etc. on an ad-hoc basis but I feel this way is preparing them more for real life budgeting.

@WombatChocolate It really depends on what he will need to spend money on. Snd what he wants to spend money on!

For my DDs (one was catered) we factored in the cost also helped her make friends and settle in without worrying about food. Plenty of time for that for the rest of her life!

So: how much extra? I strongly suggest you work up from £0. We included cheaper clothes, toiletries, coffees, food out with friends occasionally, cinema, theatre and occasional clubs. Also phone, transport and visiting friends elsewhere. We had very gregarious DDs who enjoyed uni and you can add in extra for freshers and sports clubs. The main thing is to be realistic and budget for your DC. Not mine or anyone else’s.

We paid for big ticket items such as laptop and coats and a holiday or two. Neither worked in term time but we didn’t expect them too.

My degree involves about 45 hours a week study, a significant proportion of which is 9-5 in a lab. Which makes it difficult to get a job because there aren’t many weekend only ones, they all expect you to be flexible.

Thanks. This is a helpful starting point for considering what might be considered ‘normal’ total expenditure, with more realistic inflationary increase. £11720 isn’t too far from the £12k I kind of thinking of it needing to be in the region of.

That £1975 allows for approx £65 per week term time, but nothing then for the hols. It suggests to me that even the Welsh full maintenance loan of £11720 isn’t quite enough for Durham or universities with more expensive catered accommodation.

Thank you - and so helpful to hear from someone with a child already there and in this specific situation.

I think you’re right - given all food and accommodation are already covered, most of the other spends are discretionary and that’s why it’s hard to come up with a figure. The bug party goers will want to spend more and those with quieter lifestyles might spend less. Some might need to spend on travel home, whilst others will have their parents take and fetch them.

The fact you’re giving £1k per term, gives £100 per week for 10 weeks of term, or could be £70per week in term time for 10 weeks and then leave £300for about 6 other weeks or £50 per week, if we think of a term covering a third of the year and about 16 weeks.

A student spending the £9.7k on catered halls, plus another £3k on discretionary spends, is somewhere betweeen £12.5k and £13k per year. It’s a lot and significantly more than the full UK maintenance loan. Food for thought.

I like the idea of a termly amount rather than weekly. Then they can spend more or less as the weeks require and have to budget a bit. If we factored in £60 for term time (x10) and £30 for hols (x7) to cover a third of the year, just over £800 per term would do it. That takes me back to a figure of between £12k and £12.5k for the year.

Really helpful.

Out of interest, do others with students (esp in catered accommodation) think that their DC are basically spending in the region if £12-12.5k per year? I know it’s hard to think about what they spend as parents think if it more in terms of what they give, and don’t necessarily add up the various sources of income such as loans, parental contribution and student earnings. Thanks again.

Yes, I have DC twins at different unis (not Durham) both in catered halls, one is £9.6k, the other is about £8.6k, (39 week contracts). Neither is full catering, DC1 catered Mon-Fri (so 15 meals), DC2 catered Mon-Fri with weekend evening meals (so 17 meals).

We worked on the basis of £50 for "spends" then a small sum for food - so DC1 gets £60 a week and DC2 gets £55 a week but at the moment, we're only paying that for term time (31 weeks - they work in the hols and both had quite a good amount of savings before they went). We gave them each £300 at the start of Term 1 for Freshers etc, and then we pay contact lenses, part of phone contracts, some travel and contribute towards some of the bigger items - ball tickets, sports stuff. Shop at the start of each term etc and when we visit. They also had new tech to start with.

One DC has been fine with that, not really spent much of their savings, one DC has burnt through some savings (on top of what we give) at lightning speed but is conscious that they'll need to budget better / pull it back this term.

I think £12/12.5k is on the low side. I don't think the maximum loan amount has kept up with the price of halls - yes, to a certain extent, you can try to opt for less expensive halls (SC) but thats not always straightforward - one uni (Nottingham) is all catered on campus so whilst there are some halls that are slightly less expensive, if you want to be on campus, you have little choice. For the other (insurance choice) it was a question of what you were allocated.

My DD18 is in halls and out of the 36 in her block nobody has catered and those she knows who do, rarely use it, not many students will get up and go for breakfast. She budgets £50pw for her food, has a pt job all year.

My DD is not in catered. Her accommodation was more than the student loan. She got a job in the 1st week there and does 2 x 4 hour shifts at a restaurant a week. And gets great food from there after each shift.

I give her £100 a month. My husband gives her about £30 a week.

She's good at managing money. She spends about £15 a week on food at Lidl.

My son was at Durham in a catered college. He had the full maintenance loan to pay for the accommodation, plus £200 per month given to him, if that's any help. No one he knew of had a job!

My son is there now he works in the holidays not term time but a couple of his friends work term time. But him and about 80% of his friends all work during the holidays (but thats in a self catered College and most of his friends are similar backgrounds to him receiving min maintenance loan and having at least one sibling at Uni at the same time as them).

£60 per week is a lot IMO.
I would (and have) simply agree to top up to the amount of the maximum maintenance loan.
My DC has 15 meals per week (M-F) for about £8,800py. The amount between that and the max loan is spread over 9 months and works out at £170pm. It is plenty. If top ups are needed, they can work in the summer. Or choose cheaper (non ensuite) accommodation.
(Congrats on Durham btw, lovely University).

@WombatChocolate we give our dd £70 a week term time only for almost the circumstances you describe. Hall fee’s exactly the same but it’s not 100% of meals but near enough for a fair comparison. We refuse to give a penny in the holidays tho. That feels like a generous amount and she can stretch it out for the hols if she doesn’t want to earn it. Hope helpful.

Apostrophe in fees not added by me in post above!

@WombatChocolate inagree with @Africa2go in that £12-12.5 k is on the low side if in catered halls. Ours comes to £13-13.5k per year. Which is a lot more than the max loan.

Thanks guys. As I knew, there are a variety of opinions from £60 is more than enough, to its not enough.

You have to start somewhere don’t you. This thread and all your comments have definitely helped. I’m thinking that the target income will be £12.25k That will give £2500 for spends. Split equally across the terms it will be about £800.
This will be for discretionary spending. We currently pay about £5 a month for a sim only mobile contract and will continue that. We will take and pick up at start and end of terms. They will have 3 meals a day and because all in the college will be catered, they will mostly eat there. They can choose to average £80 per week in term time and have nothing further in the hols or soend a bit less and have some left for hols. There needs to be some decision making from them about how and when to spend.

No doubt grandparents and others will bung them some chunks of cash which will be extras and there might be odd extras that arise that we buy too. We will fund family holidays and of course no food or lodging costs in hols.

As mentioned, DS has some savings and will work this summer for a few weeks. He will already have several £k in the bank. He can choose to draw in that if he wishes, but I’d expect the £12.25k will be enough for standard life. We will review after the first term and going into the 2nd year when costs will be different, but I feel I’ve got a starting point and that’s useful for us and will be for discussions with him.

Do most parents sit down with their kids and look at the figures and what they will be getting from loans/parental contribution and any student earnings and say ‘look you’ve got X per week or per term to spend.’ and talk through with them what that spending might need to cover? Or are people not doing this and making it up week to week as they go along and just giving them money as they ask for it?

Thanks again.

I went through a proper budget with mine before they went. We had a open discussion of what I was contributing, plus loan and their savings so they knew their budget. Then I got them to list their current outgoings and what they thought they would be at Uni. I added in outgoings that they hadn't considered. I think at 18 they appreciated the help plus I think they need a clear idea of money so they can make informed decisions on spending/ need to get a job

We have set out all that dd will get for this academic year and now she has a house into next year. I have summarised it in a table and put it in a special WhatsApp group. So she knows what she has. We basically don’t pay a penny towards anything else so she knows she has to budget. She has savings from her A level weekend job which she can use for holidays or travelling or whatever.

@WombatChocolate Yes. We did sit down with our DDs. We all needed to be clear what we were contributing to and what was down to them. Girls tend to spend more than boys on clothes. Yes, my DDs did want a few meals out. Neither were they quiet hermits. So we discussed what we all thought was reasonable. We paid more than that for phones years ago. We also gave the catered DD £100 a week but, we could afford it. DD who was self catered had more.

Each family is different and you don’t have to stick to a formula. My DDs were never bunged a 1p by anyone! They had one grandparent who didn’t. So we funded what we thought was ok for them and us. I didn’t really bother about what others thought or what they gave their DC. They are not us. Other parents run cars and grandparents give thousands. So do your zero based budget and work it up by talking to your child and be realistic. My DDs never asked for more money. They didn’t use overdrafts. So between you, work out a realistic budget. The budgets of others don’t help.

With catered do take into account opening times. DD had rehearsals for a play every night for about two weeks between 4pm and 7pm, by the time she got back food service was over so she missed all the options for evening meals that week.

DD has friends in various cities and they all got together over Christmas and did a ‘shot’ index. Sheffield was the cheapest at 90p, the most expensive was £3.50 so it varies hugely.

I agree with@TizerorFizz about it being about your family / your family finances but disagree that an idea of what other people are doing isnt relevant - other people's budget does have some influence only that you don't want your DC to be the only one who can't afford to chip in for the pizza or the one staying in at the weekend when their friends are all going out. OP I think there's definitely a conversation to be had and we did a trial week in Yr 13 when they each had £30 I think and had to plan, shop, cook etc for a week (we thought they'd be in SC at that point) which really focused their minds about what they'd spend their money on.

If they had £60 per week in term time for 30 weeks - that’s £1800. If they also had £30 per week in 22 weeks of holidays, that’s £660. In total, that’s £2460. So my question is basically if £2.5k beyond the hall fees is enough?

Well it's more than enough for some, and not enough for others.
Depends what they feel "entitled" to.

I have to agree with those saying that - as you are already paying a huge amount for all their rent / bills / food, then it ought to be up to them to work out if going to that gig is worth X hours working in a noodle bar, or buying those trainers is worth X hours stacking shelves at Tesco.

I don't think this is even to do with your spare income as parents. I think this is to do with them understanding the value of money. I'm sure most students could spend £60 or £80 or £100 or £200 a week just on 'fun' for themselves if you give it to them, but you don't need to give them anything. IMO you aren't really helping them to grow by letting them think they are entitled to spend ££££ every week, over and above their 'needs' without either working for it each week, or having worked for it over the Summer after A levels and then budgeted it (or both).

Agreed, also keeping up with the 'friend group' will just lead to tears if you're on a course/join clubs/stay in halls mainly populated by rich international students. Not sure about Durham but at LSE for example certain courses had more than 50% international student intake with people constantly going out for drinks/food/shopping/expensive gigs. Same with certain halls (not the most expensive but deemed to be in a erm picturesque location for people from abroad wanting the London of the movies).

We didn’t sit down with them and work out detailed budgets in advance, but did more what you did Wombat - asked around what friends were giving their kids and used that as a starting point. So we started off giving DDs £300 a month and said we’ll see how it goes. Worked fine for us. It’s much easier for them to see how much they actually need on a day-to-day basis once they’re actually there!