How much per month do you give your young person?

[0hno]

I think the loan should cover the accommodation so I'm wondering how much to give them per month to live on? They don't spend much, don't drink (currently!)

He is part of the night time economy. Working it usually.

£800 after accommodation and bills? 😳

I’m planning £400 a month. Dd doesn’t drink. She is gluten free which is pricey but also means she doesn’t eat much out so we will have to see if it works out

Don't feel bad, you can afford. We pay £250 a month because that's what we can afford.

Our DC gets by just fine.

Also she should get DSA, they gave DC I think £800 toward their lap top, plus pay for printing etc.

DC also applied for and got I think it's an HC1 health certificate, so they get prescriptions paid, NHS mental work.

They top this all up by working part time in Maccies.

It can be done, your. DD will be fine
Good luck to her

£300 during term time plus phone, and he still uses our tv and music apps.

It’s not that much more than we spend to keep him fed and watered at home.

he has a high amount of contact hours and part time working during term time isn’t that obvious a choice for his course.

Is that £300 a month or term?

I think it helps if you have been saving up since DC was about 12. If loan pays full accomodation and bus pass then parents need to pay a minimum of £100 per week to cover insurance for contents of her accommodation, books which are very expensive and several hundred pounds, stationery including photocopying and printing, laundry which is really expensive at Uni often needing a code to use machines, clothing, all food and toiletries, laundry powder/fabric softener, fees for societies, food, phone, and going out socialising. If they are in private accommodation then internet and TV licence too. If the loan doesn't cover accommodation fees and the bus passes, because of parents income, then parents really should cover that too. If your DD has autism could she claim PIP?

That's very generous of you but I don't think most students get this much.

Honestly DS needs nothing like £100pw, nor almost all items listed above.

No bus pass - he walks
Insurance included in hall fees
No books or printing needed for his course(Economics)
laundry is expensive but honestly is not that onerous, I think it happens only a few times a term. The (big pot of) laundry pods I provided at the start of year one have lasted 2 years I believe. And he's not that mucky a kid.
Club fees are generally £5-£10 per year
Socials are mainly 'pres' at accomodation with budget alcohol/ brought from home followed by just a couple of drinks out in the cheapest of bars.

Make sure your DD knows how to cook some cheap meals. Show her a put yellow stickers when food shopping and to look in the discount sections. Also does she have grandparents or aunties/uncles who might gift her a set amount each week. My niece is going in September and I've told her I'll set up a direct debit for £40 per month. It's basically to pay for toiletries for her.

£800 per month (after accommodation and bills) is a fortune @Countrylife2002! Is your DC at a particularly expensive city (London? Bristol?). We pay £150 a week (so £650 a month) and DS is living so well that I think I have been overly generous! Hard to decrease it now though....

Well do you know what, I asked this same question on a Facebook group for parents of new uni students.

The numbers were very different to on here and nearly all were around £200-£300.

Feel so much better now, must remember the MN demographic!

Oh that's lovely of you but I don't think so. Nobody has helped any of the previous kids in the families

Thank you

Sorry my post copied quote incorrectly I have reformatted and asked MNHQ to delete wrong one!

"I think it helps if you have been saving up since DC was about 12. If loan pays full accomodation and bus pass then parents need to pay a minimum of £100 per week to cover insurance for contents of her accommodation, books which are very expensive and several hundred pounds, stationery including photocopying and printing, laundry which is really expensive at Uni often needing a code to use machines, clothing, all food and toiletries, laundry powder/fabric softener, fees for societies, food, phone, and going out socialising. If they are in private accommodation then internet and TV licence too."

Some of this is ridiculous. Apart from recommending a time travel machine to OP, on the overwhelming majority of courses, books are available at the uni or other libraries, or online. If it is a requirement to spend several hundred pounds, there are usually bursaries available for students on low income. I have had DC in different cities and different unis and the max we have paid for contents insurance is £13 a month. If the first year is in Halls, the insurance cover on the parental home may well cover this. For laundry, some of my DCs borrowed the machine in mates' private accommodation and made contribution, cheaper than onsite. Food and toiletries for students (and no one needs fabric conditioner) can be done cheaply, yellow stickers/markets etc, there are also apps like too good to go. A lot of students, including my own, worked part time in supermarkets and got a discount. Private accommodation bills like TV licence and internet are split between tenants, so not hefty and I imagine lots of us pay DCs phone contracts before they go to uni so that's not really a change or additional expense. Same with food, , as they are no longer on our "weekly shop" we spend that equivalent on box of toiletries, basics, household and long life stuff.

The amount we would spend on birthdays/Christmas is now "treat" money for uni, including socialising. If they want an expensive social life, they can get a part time job, it's a want not a need. The same with clothes, we pay for basics like we always have, they want expensive branded stuff they pay themselves. The majority of students friendship groups seem to have a communal wardrobe so they have a range of clothes! There are student discounts on sites like unidays for lots of things too.

Uni is expensive. The scandal is that as PP said upthread is that parental income thresholds needs updating, and the cost of accommodation is exploitative, as are zero hour contracts. But my DC have all found part time jobs, and the ones doing courses where you can't really get a part time job, have had a gap year or live at home.

A lot of "mentions" on this thread that parents are paying for are wants,not needs.

It wasn’t me paying £800. Not a chance! I was commenting on pp. I wouldn’t be able to go above £400.

My DD will be going into catered accommodation in September and even the max maintenance will not cover it. So I will pay the difference for that. She will get a £500/per term bursary. That's almost £40/week and she'll probably do ok on that, with me paying for her phone and train fare home. She's not a drinker or anything, and I realise she may need a bit more for freshers week, but she has savings. If self catered I think £70/week (if no bursary) is good.

I would also comment that they are not there 52 weeks, in fact I have my DC comes home quite a lot - reading weeks, early because lectures have finished. Each time they go back it's with loads of food. Look at the term dates and calculate actual weeks.

Full maintenance loan here.
Didn't give her anything in the first year.
This year in private accommodation the full maintenance is taken up almost in its entirety by rent and bills.

I do a big food shop once a month and am paying for stuff like monthly contact lenses, transport etc.

My parents gave me £100 a week on top of accomodation etc in the 2010s so I don't think £600 a month is excessive.

(that was just term time though not uni hols.) If you can't afford more than 200 though your DC will get by with a part time job. I appreciate I was lucky that I didn't need to work.

You certainly haven't. We gave our daughter £60pw for the first two years and £80 for the last year. Admittedly that was when she started in 2020
Apparently, statistically students who do paid work up to 10 hours pw do better in their degree than either students who don't have a term time job or students who work more than 10 hours pw

DS’ first choice is imperial college London, we have just applied his accommodation tonight. £11600 a year for accommodation alone. He will get £10890 from student finance and £4400 bursary from the University. So my DH and I are thinking to give him roughly about £300 per month. I hope £7000 a year living costs in London is enough.😫

DS gets min loan. We top this up to cover accommodation ( cheaper halls, shared bathroom bills inclusive ) approx 1500/year. He then has £110/week while there. We pay for phone directly still and trains at beginning and end of semester. Also paid directly for a winter coat as he is somewhere really chilly. He works in a pub in holidays to fund himself/fun times. It's hard for us, but doable for him.