University: weekly money needed as 'extra' in 1st year (catered accomm)

[GLVF]

Eldest went off to uni for first time yesterday. We briefly discussed what we'll give her as an allowance to live off for extras, but I'm wondering if this may need revising.

She's in catered accommodation fairly close to campus. So, the main costs I foresee are:
• 5x sandwich-type lunch (Mon–Fri lunches are her only uncatered meals)/occasional snack or coffee out (we did pack her off with snacks)
• evening drinking/clubs (but she's not a huge drinker)
• possible bus travel (unlikely, as fairly central to uni/shops)
• very occasional extras, like haircut/cinema.

We plan to help her separately with printing/laundry/books costs, so I'm really focusing on main weekly expenses throughout term-time. What kind of ballpark are we thinking in the modern world to help her start to budget without leaving her hungry/deprived?! Are there many things I haven't thought of?

Our thinking was – very simplistically – £5 x 5 for sandwich + snack/coffee during day, and £15 x 3 for nights out, which equates to £70/wk. It should leave a little extra, potentially, if she's careful, as she rarely drinks more than 2-3 drinks, and has plenty of snacks for the time being.

Of course this will depend on family circumstances and location of uni, but a rough idea from those in the know would be helpful. She's been earning a little (waitressing) throughout sixth form and is usually fairly careful with money.

Thanks!

I know it’s not the point of the thread, but I’m shocked it’ll cost £40 a month for one student’s laundry! In already extortionate halls. In my (grotty, definitely not en-suite and catered) halls 20 years ago, we had free washers and dryers in each block of flats. Just had to supply own detergent and fab con.

Nothing wrong with teaching! I retrained (after children and in my late 30s) to teach and it was the hardest time and I no longer teach, but I’d never knock someone who wanted to teach. We need dedicated teachers more than ever and, for those who love it, it’s a hugely rewarding (if pretty thankless and badly remunerated) life in so many ways.

Well that's great if you have a perfectly good uni down the road.

And it still costs money for a student to live at home, plus cost of commuting if they are travelling, plus costs linked to university course. That's even if they never do anything other than study. And, if commuting to a university the time that they could be spending earning money is spent in commuting instead.

When my parents went to university they got fully funded generous grants. My mother lived in London and didn't do any paid work. All with "free money". So of course their parents didn't financialy support them.

Completely different to young people today who will likely all have part time jobs to supplement what their parents can give them and will be paying loans back for 40 years.

Goodness yes, imagine having a child who goes to uni and ends up as a teacher. Perish the thought.

@Abbylikeswine the point is it’s the government that expects parents to contribute. Not the DC. That is literally how the absurd scheme was designed.

i’m not knocking teaching at all

ive been teaching myself 25 years hence my comment
When I went to uni I came out 5k debt so the pay off was worth it

But no way would I encourage dc to go uni with the costs(debt) it entails to end up teaching!

Its a crap profession money wise and sadly so many degrees don’t lead to much other than teaching

Well let's just tell all those who could do a degree and end up teaching to go work in the pub instead. Not quite the same pension but the rest is all good.

And when we have an even bigger teacher shortage maybe we can just send the kids to the pub too.

This explains how students loans are worked out based on parental income because parents are expected to top up to the full amount:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loan-parental-contribution-tool/guide/

DD gets the minimum loan due to our income.
We are topping up to the full maintenance loan amount.
She is fortunately living in a city where the rent isn’t too high.

Loan is £4767 per year which just covers her rent.

We’re giving her £600 a month for everything else and will see how she gets on.
She’s going to look for a job too but she would struggle to earn enough to live on, as well as study. I want her to be able to concentrate on her studies, that’s what she is there for. She worked in the summer holidays so has some savings, and will do so next summer. I think that is a better way of doing it.

My dad gave me a bit of money when I was at Uni and I really appreciated it. I got a Saturday job as well but my course was 9-5 so I was limited how many hours I could work. I have always expected that when the DCs go to Uni that we will have to contribute, we will have to make savings elsewhere.

They have far less chance of buying a house, god knows what age they’ll be retiring, the climate crisis, and god knows what else to come for them.

Parents are told by the government that it is expected that they will top up the loan. Myself and other posters have said this but you don’t seem to understand. You said it yourself however that many students do work, so what’s the problem?

Uni should not go back to being reserved for the rich while others don’t get a look in.

And how sad is your attitude towards young people for someone who is supposedly a teacher? I hope you’re not teaching an age group where you’d be expected to support with uni applications when you clearly don’t understand the system at all.

Sorry OP some of us have gone completely off topic (myself included). As you can tell it is a divisive issue and there is no one set way that parents support their children while at uni. It all depends on individual circumstances- what parents are able and willing to give, while students circumstances differ as well, some work, some commute to uni, some take a gap year etc.

OP, I'd keep it simple and non-controlling. Give her the amount of the maximum student loan. Then she can budget for herself like an adult without needing to justify any spending. If you want to (and can afford to) I'd be tempted to add £100 per month in term time for treats, or send (for example) a care package of toiletries and goodies when you feel like it.

Yes, same here – I don't remember ever paying for doing the washing. But now it's all done with huge machines in a basement, all controlled by an app (!) that you reserve 10 mins beforehand. Not yet sure how much these are to run a cycle, but I'm going to suggest the quickest wash for most things and air drying! Times have changed.

DD can only get the minimum loan becuase of OUR income, which is completely unfair. If I was to ask any loan company SHE was borrowing from about her finances they wouldn't tell me but still what she can borrow is based on OUR information. Plus its based on last year and many peoples SE earnings fluctuate and outgoings are not considered either.
So the fact that she can only borrow the minimum is our "fault" so I feel it is up to us to help remedy that and give her what she would have been able to borrow if we earned very little and fortunately we are in a position to do that.
DD does want to look for a job at Uni but due to some MH conditions she is limited in what she can do

OP I think some of the posts here have gone off at a tangent and what lots of people don't seem to understand by saying "just give the equivalent of the full loan" is that catered halls will (in my experience) cost the whole of the full student loan or very close to that - if we'd have topped DD up to the full loan last year, once she'd paid her hall fees, she'd have had £400 for the whole year to live on (and yes, I know its catered but it wasn't ensuite, just a normal room).

DD would have had around -£6000 spare after paying for her catered halls

Wow! Where is she at university? I didn't think halls came that cheaply anywhere these days.

Yes this baffles me too, looking at between 120-200 a week for halls, but only £4000 a year so there will be absolutely nothing left from this to live off!

Minus - £6000. Sorry for the confusion
She gets around £4k in loans and her halls are £10K
So she is £6k short before she spends money on anything at all
So we will have to pay £6k for her to break even

@Hoppinggreen from your first post (£25 loaded card for lunches) that sounds like Nottingham? You then say she would have had £6000 left after paying for her catered halls - so if the full loan was about £9978 for last year, you're saying her catered halls were £4k for the year? No way can that be right, sorry.

Ahh that makes more sense!!

Yes, thats my point above - the catered halls generally cost the same as the full loan so topping them up to the equivalent of a full loan leaves them with nothing!

Ah ok, Thanks for the clarification :) That makes more sense.

My DD's hall fees are also (much) more than her maintenance loan.

We worked out she'd need to work somewhere between 20-25 hours a week to have a basic standard of living, without any parental support. I don't think that's realistic on top of a degree course. And she'd need to work even more to do any socialising or buy anything frivolous ever.

As a parent who can afford to do so, I'm not prepared to sit back and watch my DC struggle. If we couldn't afford it we would be recommending the "take a gap year and save" option. DD has had a part time job through sixth form and worked through the summer; she is not work shy.

I think.she should hAve a holiday job to pay for most of thr things you list. What has she been doing all summer?

It is unrealistic to have a term time job for many students on weekday evenings and even weekends can be tricky when they are not there so much of the year.

Cambridge do not allow term time jobs.