How much money to live on?

[lifeuniverseeverything]

DD is going to Liverpool. She'll be living in self catering halls for the first year so no bills. Her phone contract is in my name, we're paying for halls upfront and we've bought her annual bus pass.

She's got loans for tuition but DH and I will fully fund her living expenses (basically food, clothes, entertainment, books etc) We were wondering what's reasonable?

I suggested £150 a week. DH thinks this is too much. He thinks £100 (£50 food plus £50 going out, with extra for freshers week)
Dd says £200 a week as a "night out is easily £50". (For context we live in west London and she's privately educated so her friends seem to have a lot of cash. I'm hoping Liverpool is cheaper!)
All the budgeting stuff I find on the internet assumes she'll have more bills than she'll actually have....

What's a reasonable amount?

Do you mean she won’t be getting even the minimum maintenance loan?

We gave ours £350 a month to live on. The loan mostly paid for the accommodation though not over the summer!

£100 and if that's not enough I'd be encouraging her to get a job

Many parents who pay accommodation let their DC live off the minimum maintenance loan, so you could use that as a guide?

The cheek of saying £200, £100 is fine and Liverpool is much cheaper than London.

She does have a job- she does 2 afternoons/ evenings restocking shelves at a supermarket but the problem is finding a term time only job.
Her current employer said they might be able to transfer her to a branch local to her university- but terms are only 12 weeks. They're absolute lovely to her and have said they'll try to switch her between branches but it depends on vacancies....

Would suggest the equivalent of the minimum maintenance loan, as you are paying rent.

I give mine £75 per week and she works for the rest (probably spends £150 per week if you add in the clothes). I suspect when she's off the books of mum and dad she'll be more frugal)

£150-200 is a lot outside of London. Why not start low and reassess at Christmas. If she's been working and has savings she could use those to fund more expensive nights out.

The first term is usually the most expensive.

The maintenance loan is £10227. However that assumes rent and bills etc. anyway it seems from what I've been reading that it's low and hadn't kept pace with the cost of living. I mean her halls are £7400 pa....

£100 a week is far closer to what most will have and that would still be more than a lot of students. We pay accommodation and mobile phone (so same as you), then DC get the minimum loan to live off across the whole year. Both work for extra cash.

Minimum maintenance loan.

It's just under £5000* in England, living away from home, outside London.
That plus her rent takes you roughly up to the level that a "cost of living incremented" maintenance loan would be.

*I looked it up £4767

We paid our sons accommodation that was about £8k. Then we gave him £150 per week to live on and he worked in the holidays.

Thank you @redskydarknight !

I'd in fact just done a quick spreadsheet- £675 in Sept for freshers and to giver her a buffer, £400 a month Oct- June, £100 per month July, Aug and Sept (when we expect her to work) is £4575.

I might go up to £500 a month....

My dd is getting the full loan, the accommodation is 8,000 per year, and that's about normal where she is going. We are in no position to help much but are going to buy her main food through online shops all term. I am genuinely worried to be honest. She'll try to get a job when there and has a guaranteed job when she comes home each holiday but for people like us, it is so very hard. We did the same for ds 5 years ago but his accommodation was no where near as expensive.

It must be lovely to be able to pay accommodation and other costs for them. it's a real concern that poorer kids will be priced out.

Actually she's not getting the maximum - she's getting 9,500!

@LameyJoliver

My niece has just graduated- she had the full amount and no other financial support as parents not able to. She worked in a coffee shop and over holidays and managed ok. It is difficult with the range of wealth and backgrounds.

DD will have around £500 per month and knowing her she will save at least half of that, its made up of money she inherited when my Mum died and the minimum loan. If she gets a job it will be more and then she will probably just save more.
Catered Halls and phone paid for by us

The cost of rent makes a massive difference to affordability. Everything else is a lifestyle choice as prices for food and bills don't vary much from city to city.

For fairness, they live off the minimum loan and earnings, and I pay their rent so it's a level playing field. Rent shouldn't be a factor in uni choice but sadly it is for many.

I'm shocked by £200 a week. Dd3 gets £50 a week and is managing on that.

Ours had £70 a week - more than enough for one / and the other got a job

Liverpool is far cheaper than London - £100 per week is plenty if she's good at budgeting and food shopping frugally. She'll need more in future years to cover bills probably so I'd start with £100 per week and you do a 6 weekly pantry online shop for her, reassess at Christmas

How much would you give a week for living in London in the halls, have to buy all your own food, clothes/books/etc., travel and going out?

All bills covered in halls, phone paid for.

Two of my young relatives are at Liverpool. They get £75 a week each from mum and dad and work a bit during the week. Plus they work all summer long on and off to save up for Uni.

If you're paying for accomodation then £100 per week seems a reasonable place to start. You can always go up if it really does prove to be too little.

Pretty stunned by the accomodation costs at Liverpool given it's a cheap city, as far as I can see the cheapest room is £160 per week. DD (heading off to Aberywystwyth) is £118 per week and that wasn't even the cheapest on offer.

I have 2 one in Nottingham self catered hall last year had £500 pcm and didn't work (or need to) in term time - she works quite a bit nannying in the holidays though.

One in London - in first year in self catered halls also on £500 pcm and earned about £100 a week on top. Now lives at home - we give £350 pcm and she earns about the same again.

We pay/paid the rent and phone bills and gym memberships for both.