Spending money

[youngones1]

How much spending money do you give your children at uni? I was thinking £500 per month would be reasonable.

I give 40 quid a week. What can you afford?

Do they have a job? Do they get a maintenance loan? Is their rent paid? etc etc

There rent is paid and they have a loan, so this is just spending money.

Thats a lot of spending money, but if you have budgeted for it and are content to give so much, fine.

My DS has £500 a month after rent is paid (we also pay for his contact lenses and his phone). It seems to be about the norm amongst his friends (some of which have it through loans and some through parental contribution or working) and it works out at just under £120 a week.

He isn't in London though. If in London I think he'd need a bit more.

You need to phrase your question differently though or you'll get inaccurate responses.
The question is "how much does your child have to live on per month after their rent is paid?". Otherwise you get people saying I give my child £25 a week and they are fine - ignoring the fact that their child has a maximum maintenance loan of £10k etc.

What are you considering to be "spending money"? You mention rent is paid, so what does "spending money" have to cover - is it bills, food, travel or literally just "going out" money?

Generally it will be bills, food, toiletries, subs for clubs, travel, books, laundry, socialising etc

Assuming they live away from home (not London) and get the minimum loan of £4,767 you should be topping up to at least the equivalent of the maximum loan (£10225) so that's £454.83 pcm all year round or £606.44 pcm Sept to May. Less if you are front loading to cover accomodation costs.

People give their kids 'spending money' at uni these days? 🤯

When I was at uni you got a job, and any earnings had to cover food too!

I'm not sure when that was but I was at uni in the early 90s and parents gave their children money to live on. DH was at uni in the mid 80s and parents gave their children money to live on. I don't think your experience is reflective of the norm.

It's genuinely not always possible to work around degrees nowadays and certainly not in a job that will give you a guaranteed circa £125 a week. Competition for flexible term time only jobs that account for regularly changing timetables is fierce. Zero hours contracts have changed things.

Students have always received money from their parents to go to Uni. That was true for my grandfather in the 1920s (when only well off families could send their children to University), my mother in the 60s (just after means tested grants were introduced for students for low income families and high income families were expected to support their children), myself in the 80s (when student loans were introduced for everyone on top of the grant, I spent my loan on an interrailing trip because my grant and allowance from my parents was enough to live on).

My DS will be hopefully going into fully catered accommodation that provides 3 meals per day.

We are planning to make sure he has £800 per term beyond that. That will be £80 per week for 10 weeks of term but nothing for time at home. This will all be for leisure spending as his food and rent is paid.

He has a job now and will do some work over the summer so have about £3k before he starts as a buffer. We will probably give him the £800 for the term in one go, so he can budget and afford more expensive things at the start. We are also expecting to need to pay a deposit for a 2nd year house in the first term - we will cover that.

We just paid the same every month so they spent it when they needed too . Saves changing bank standing order. Many dc never funded themselves at uni by working. Grants before loans were means tested. It’s been around for decades now and many parents were expected to contribute. Whether they did or not was another matter.

It depends.

Are you paying their rent and then they have the minimum maintenance loan on top of that, @youngones1 ?

You're all living a different life to me!

I top my son's minimum loan up to the amount of the maximum loan. That means that if he divides it over 52 weeks he gets £45 per week but if he divides it over term time only it works out at around £68 per week.

This has to cover food, travel, phone and equipment (he's studying music so there is always something he needs)

Well if you are on a low income your children will get a full loan and you won't need to provide additional support. If you have a high income you will have to support them as per the figures above and should be able to afford it. Parents on high incomes have always had to support their kids at University. If you have a high income and claim you can't afford to support your child to the equivalent of the max loan then you are the one living 'a different life' and spending your money in other ways and refusing to support your child(ren).

DC gets the minimum maintenance loan and that’s what he lives off. We pay for his accommodation.

So he gets c £4700 pa outside of rent, which we pay separately. We divide it up by 9 months as he doesn’t have uni in the summer so any £ he wants then he needs to work. Divided by 9 months it’s about £510 a month.

That covers food, laundry, travel, sport, going out.

The minimum maintenance loan isn't enough to cover rent.

Is that £500pm plus their loan or does the loan go towards their rent? If the former, it's way more than necessary.

I would say even £500pm without a loan is more than necessary but it depends where they are. Are their halls catered or self-catering?

After rent DS has ~£400pm self-catered and seems to live the life of Riley on that. I'm sure he could manage fine on less with a cheaper social life or a job. He is in the midlands though, so not particularly expensive.

We cover the rent and bills. Dd then takes out a maintenance loan to cover her spending money. Minimum amount, whatever it is. It goes to her in instalments and it’s up to her to budget it. We figured that it would be a good way for her to feel in control of her loan - if she underspends then it’ll be money she can put away and invest. She has a part time job that she comes home to during holidays which supplements.

Mine gets £500pcm living in self catered accommodation. Its a campus uni so no commuting costs and trains home aren't too costly. She's coping fine on this. we paid her gym membership up front and I paid for a few expensive text books in the first term when freshers week made in roads into her budget.

Her sister is in London and got £350 pcm when in catered halls. We've left it at that when she moved home as there are commuting costs. SHe also earns about £100 a week so is fine

We pay for accommodation and evening meals in Hall then give DS £1000 per term to cover all other expenses (lunches, socializing, clothes etc).

I never gave her spending money. I paid her rent. She can get a part time job for spending money!