Living costs at uni

[ConfusionFusion]

Hello

I wondered whether someone could give me an idea of their child's total living costs at uni (so whatever they spend other than on tuition fees), however they get the money (loan, earnings or parent contribution).

Thank you.

You are going to get a million different answers to this!

If you found someone who got the full loan (which would be the easiest way to measure outgoings) with no parental contribution needed or provided, I doubt you'd find that they didn't have to go into their overdraft / get a job/both.

The outgoings are very dependent on the university location , even stuff like the course, and very much the lifestyle of the individual student.

Dd graduated from Lancaster last year. She got minimum loan, we paid rent (around £410 monthly) and had an annual £1000 university scholarship. We paid for her mobile but she covered everything else herself. She didn't have a job and left with no overdraft.
So total that up and divide by 12.

In Scotland so no tuition fees
1 son at Uni
Minimum student loan almost pays for accommodation (shared student flat) but not quite, and rents going up soon so will need topping up
Then £350 per month for living expenses including food, clothes, transport ( free bus pass up to age 22 I think)
He has a part-time job for anything extra but the course he is on is pretty full time and requires a lot of studying so limited free time for earning
Student friends have similar arrangements - those with well off parents often don't take the student loan, parents pay for rent/accommodation directly.

Yeah DS2 has only just got overdrawn but he is quite frugal.

As @Piggywaspushed says, how long is a piece of string.

My DD in Bath ended her first year in profit 😂 She had the full maintenance loan, and campus accommodation. She worked in the summer and had saved £3000.

Fast forward to this year, and despite working the same job last summer and putting the same money aside, she won't finish the year in overdraft, but she'll certainly be close. I'm doing big online supermarket shops every couple of weeks as well and paying for her flights home (she paid last year)

Everyone is different but this is our situation with DD who is currently at Uni:

Her rent costs £6700pa paid in uneven chunks at the start of each term by us.

We give her £400pm to cover everything else. We give her this amount all year round and it evens out. Obviously when she is at home she can save up as we pay for food etc and she doesn't go out much, it lets her build up a pot to spend more when she is on campus.

She receives the minimum student loan which is something like £4200. It arrives in three uneven chunks at the start of each term and she pays it to us.

So basically she doesn't have to worry about rent and loan timings and she knows she has a budget of £400pm to live on.

We absorb the cashflow ups and downs and it costs us approximately £7300 over the whole year.

It’s kind of pointless asking because everything will be different:

do they need to travel and is it free

what they eat - is eg fresh fruit and veg and protein important to them

do they drink alcohol and socialise

are they involved in sports/going to gym and how much does this cost

Then you have all the stuff like how much laundry they do/what laundry facilities cost, are they paying for a mobile phone or do you cover fees for that etc.

The biggest variance in terms of £ will be the city they are in and how much accommodation is. Ensuite is more expensive and costs can be anything from £5,500 - £10,000 a year.

It is rather how long is a piece of string.

nevertheless….

2 away at Uni for the last few years, one of the overlap years undergrad vs masters.

Taking the past year one c. £8,800, the other c. £8200. On top probably for us another maybe £1500 for visits, hotels, eating out etc.

Both have very well on the accommodation front, as in well-appointed but fairly low cost.

I have three at uni (holds head in hands).

All get minimum loan.

I pay their rent and bills (generally payable all year round).
As rent varies hugely from city to city, this makes it fair so they all have the same amount for living expenses.

They all do paid work in varying degrees, to fund extras, holidays etc.

They live within their means and are not living the high life but don't stint on doing what they want within reason.

DD is currently at uni.

You need to calculate the costs for the room (36 weeks I think for halls) and add £25-35 pw for food. Travel costs and equipment on top which depends on course and location.

DD funding uni through loan (not max amount), bursary and money she earned during a gap year. We usually pay for travel and a few fun things like sports club outside uni.

My daughter got the minimum maintenence loan. We paid her rent.

She managed to save money.

That was 8 years ago so I suspect with increased costs she wouldn't save now.

As said, completely depends on location and DC's lifestyle.
We pay £900 a month for a room in a shared house (includes bills)
Then a further £400 a month for living expenses - food, travel, laundry, socialising, gym and clubs, totalling £1300 a month.

This is for year 2. The house share is a 11 month agreement. The living expenses part is usually for 8 months as they are home for the other 4.