I have no idea how much money to give my DD every week.

[TitaniasAss]

Hopefully going to UEA in September. She will get the minimum maintenance loan which will be used for half the accommodation and we will pay the other half and her living costs. It's the living costs I am unsure of. I expect her to get a job and help herself, but when I have looked online at info on what parents are contributing towards their DCs, the range is huge. I saw someone give their child £150 a week for food/going out etc and we just can't afford that.

This is all new to me, can anyone give me any pointers?

Sorry, but are you mad? Elderly relatives who brought us up and looked after us as as children should not be a priority when they can't look after themselves any more? 😳

My dc gets the minimum loan. We pay the remainder of their accommodation, and give £30 per week (in catered), we also pay phone, travel and for formal dinners.
They don’t work at uni, but do at home in the holidays to top up when needed. We’ll have to increase the weekly allowance next year as they’ll have to buy food too.

Yes of course your dependent children get priority over your parents

Not a financial priority above your child no, and I don't think any grandparents would want to be. I would be horrified if my children spent money caring for me when I am elderly at the expense of their own children.

That's similar to what we did, paid full accommodation cost and books which are actually very expensive but they have to have them. Then DD worked in Sainsbury's during Easter, Xmas and Summer holidays. She saved over half of her money every week towards living costs during term time. She spent some on clothes for herself. My DD doesn't drink so she was often the designated driver which meant she got free soft drinks when they went out. We also paid for her to do a huge shop on first day of each term including things like tampons, toiletries and cleaning products. Then she managed the rest on her student loan. She got about £120 per week but had to pay for her phone and music subscription out of that.

It's our tradition that grandparents take the high priority, financially or others.

is that for the Zigs @titchy Has the RAIC problem been sorted - certainly good news if that is the case for this autumn. I think this https://a.storyblok.com/f/185167/x/677a58f3b1/residence-type-room-comparison-2024.pdf probably relates to the current Zig Free academic year

We asked about Zigs yesterday. They're not entirely sure what's going to be happening with it yet - the 'decision is still being made'.

Full disclosure: there are only 112 of them at that price!
The next price bracket is around £160/week (c.950 rooms) and the one after that is c.£180/week (c.1650 rooms).
So even if you need and request a cheap room, you'll be more likely to get allocated one at the higher price bracket.

I made sure mine had £75/week to live on once the accom was paid. I paid the top up year round so she could get used to budgeting (she'd save a bit in the holidays when she was eating our food at home) but might spend more on term time). Prices have gone up in the last three years though.

If it helps, a friend has 2 kids at uni and gives then £50 per wee, which she says they are fine on. Parents obviously cover books etc. The kids both have holiday jobs.
Mine will have a meal plan card which is £40 a month, which the uni say pays for a least a hot meal per day. They'll also get £40 from me, so it works out at £80. We have to top up their accommodation by £3.5k. We also brought them a car, pay car costs and fuel. We'll see how we go. They have a holiday job. We can afford more initially as we have saved for this, but have to remember that next year we will have 2 at uni, which is where it gets eye watering. Altogether I reckon it'll cost us £42k to send both of them, just on spends and accommodation.

Both my DC's have been to Uni. My DS is in year 3.

Both received the minimum maintenance loan.

Rather than pay them a monthly/weekly amount, we pay the full cost of their accommodation.

They then have their maintenance loan for living costs. I feel that this helps them budget better.

When I visit I do pay for the odd food shop. I pay for their phone and annual travel insurance.

My DC have always worked throughout their studies.

DD worked at McDonald's, KFC and Starbucks. DS is a pizza chef.

Lots of middle class MN parents operate the "we pay the rent, you keep the minimum maintenance loan to live off" system. This has the advantage of being simple, and generally leaves them very comfortably off if they're in halls, but can leave them a bit stretched once they're in a shared house and paying bills.

My eldest is doing a retake year due to health issues, so no lectures. I'm paying the rent and they're living on one eight hour minimum wage shift each week plus a forty quid top up from me. It's tight because it has to include bills, but doable: it's roughly equivalent to the minimum loan.

Most mumsnet parents seem to carry on paying the mobile bill as well.

I have one DD at uni and another going in September.

DD1 is given £100 a month by me and H gives her another £30 a week.

She also works 2 4 hour shifts a week.

She also has the ISA thing that we paid a bit into each month and she could access at 18 so she can dip into that if needs be.

Average parent contribution is £150 PER MONTH. Google it.

Don't get sucked into paying them so much, you definitely don't need to. Students aren't meant to be rich. Mumsnet is not normal in terms of income, no way could we afford £600 a month!!

@TOPHAT
Thsts because so many students get very high loans. Near the max. Also how on earth does anyone know what parents give? It totally depends who is surveyed! It’s impossible to live on £150 a month on min loan. Mostly min loan doesn’t cover accommodation. Many students don’t work in term time but do in the summer.

Culture obviously keeps students poor. I guess that’s why some stay at home for uni. Culture and money forces them to. They may not get the best out of their education.

We give £100 a week to each DC at University as living expenses. Food is £40-50 a week, gym £5, societies £5, travel £10, £20 socialising, slush fund for extras is £10. The year is 33 weeks so £3300 a year each.

My DD is at UEA (and loves it). We pay accommodation and she lives off her min maintenance loan. She worked a good chunk last summer, and has holiday jobs lined up for the next two holidays. She is also an ambassador at uni so gets occasional paid work, and open days etc.
We still pay phone, Netflix, contact lenses for her.
Her second year house is going to be cheaper than halls.

What loan would your children get on your income? The 150 quid a month average presumably includes people whose children get higher than the minimum loan, which isn't relevant to the OP's situation.

The government is cutting 5,460 a year off her DC's maintenance loan (outside London) in the expectation that she'll top it up, so that's the default starting point.

We give DD £250 a month on top of paying her rent. This is for 9 months of the year, she has worked over the summers. She does live in quite a cheap uni town but think UEA is prob similar. Plus we usually buy a supermarket shop if we drop her off, or pay for her train fare home.

We gave our DD £300 a month to live on after accomodation has been paid. We've paid for membership to a sports society and will pay if she needs clothes for this and we pay for her phone. She worked last summer and has used some of the earnings she saved when she has run short or wants something expensive like festival tickets. I'd encourage your child to get a summer job and build up some savings to add to what you can send.

My 1st year twins get £70 per week each from us. They get minimum maintenance loan so we top up accommodation fees too. We also pay for gym membership and phones/laptops and help them with other course-related costs. They are in different cities and both found it hard to find a job, though one has just started to be employed as a student ambassador. They work all summer.