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?

I think you’d struggle to find anywhere with cheaper Uni halls than Aber @HPFA 😀 or in the case of Pferm better equipped for the price.

but to @lifeuniverseeverything ‘s question. I’m with those PPs saying give the equivalent of the minimum maintenance loan for outside London.

a) it’s more than enough to ensure she won’t go hungry, and

b) it’s an accepted number and a bit more difficult for either your DD or DH to make a reasoned argument against (no guarantee you won’t get unreasonable argument of course), and

c) Liverpool is quite popular given its location for students from Wales all of whom, irrespective of household income, will be entitled to just over £12,000 in maintenance support - household income only impacts the split between grant and loan. The accommodation cost plus minimum maintenance loan pretty much equals the figure for any student from Wales.

@boys3

She was tempted by Fferm but has opted for PMJ. I've told her I won't forget she's saved me £2000 by doing so!

I really wonder why uni accommodation costs vary so much - I can understand that expensive cities like London and Bath have higher costs but Hull, for instance, is ridiculous, if she'd gone there it would have been cheaper to rent a proper one bed flat in the city than a single room in a hall. Yet Essex, despite being in the South East, had some really cheap options.

Our daughter is off to York which seems inordinately expensive.

DC is going to Durham and fully catered halls - so v little food to buy.

Will be having £800 per term beyond the accommodation and catering costs. That’s £80 per week for 10 weeks of term.

They have worked over the summer and with that and their 6th form job work, start with a good buffer of about £3k.

They will not work term time, but will do some holiday work.

If they want tos lend more than £80 per week, they can dip into their savings.

Will be giving the term of money upfront so budgeting for more and less expensive weeks will be possible.

Will add that the catered halls in Durham are just under £10k for the year. So anyone purely relying on the full maintained loan would struggle. I worked out that by having £80 per week term time only for further living, £12.25-££12.5 would be needed.

The maintenance loan in Wales (which has kept pace with inflation) is £12150. I think if you're going to use the maintenance loan as a guide for how much to give your young people, then that's a better value to use (all this is assuming you can afford to do so, of course).

So that's pretty much in line with what WombatChocolate (using her as an example, just because it's the most recent post!) is giving her DC.

My DS is off to Reading next month. He has £16k loan per year (tuition plus maintenance). He has chosen catered halls (3 meals per day) and I will pay the short fall in his accommodation costs - approx £2k. I will buy any toiletries and some snacks to take when he goes.

I've told him everything else is up to him! He wants beer, gym and other stuff then he'll need a job! He has been working this summer so has about £2k saved (I think/hope). I don't pay his mobile bills. I'll bail him out if an emergency but won't be giving him regular amounts as I don't have the means to do that.

My son is at Durham and he has been managing on £30 for food. I have been subbing his halls rent to the tune of £700 per term as his maintenance loan ( £4767 ish) doesn't cover it.
Finances are relative. If your dd is used to having money to burn and you can afford it, then keep her in the manner which you have accustomed her to. Otherwise, £100 per week is plenty.