How much do you give your child at uni?

[Martyjake]

My son is hopefully starting university in Wales in September. His maintenance loan will just cover the cost of his accommodation and we were thinking of giving him £100 a week for everything else. Is that too much/ too little? He doesn’t have a part time job so all the money he will get is from us.

For the university this clearly relates to £100 is plenty for fun/non-food.

We top up the difference between basic loan, and cost of accommodation, then give her £45 a week.

Obviously, socialising and any holidays or treats she wants, she earns the money herself through her PT jobs. Which also give her experience of working with the public, managing her time, etc.

Ds is in Bristol and his rent is eye watering 😳
We have to top this up by about £300 a month and then I give him £70 a week to live on. He has a part time job and very kind/generous grandparents, so he does ok!
I also pay for his phone and contact lenses 😊

*Our £45 a week is mid Sept - end of June, not 52 weeks a year

We pay her accommodation (£6000) and she lives in min loan which is £91 a week year round. We pay phone too, train fares home, contact lenses. She’s got several thousand left so it’s been more than enough.

We pay accommodation (which is scarily high) and she lives off the minimum maintenance loan (which is a bit less than £100 a week - the loan in Wales is more).

DD intended to get a part time job, but she's found jobs are in short supply and they are keener to take the students who will work all year round (which DD couldn't do as there is a gap in her accommodation, and also didn't want to do) and work more flexibly (DD has friends missing lectures etc to do their jobs). So don't assume that a job during term time is necessarily easy to find.

£70 a week - and cover missing accommodation costs Anything more, DD can get a job.

We give £500pm which covers his rent. He gets minimum loan, £100 pm off his grandparents and he also has a part time job. This all has to cover his bills (roughly £50pm), food, gym membership, nights out etc

He does ok with all of that, has never asked for more money. Occasionally I’ll give him a bag of shopping to go back with at the end of the holidays, nothing fancy - pasta, sauces, stock cubes etc

This is true, it’s taken DS 2 years to get a job at Uni and I suspect it was mainly due to him being turned down due to being a Uni student. It was only when he actually got an interview that he explained that he’d be ok to stay on during the holidays (Uni is 45 mins away) that they took him on. It’s quite a lot to ask places to take someone on who may be off during the busy periods ie Christmas, summer etc

Same

Like others we pay accommodation and DS lives off his maintenance loan. Due to me retiring and ill health, the year of assessment he was awarded a full maintenance loan so has been living the life. He does have a casual job to top up and will be working all summer to build up funds because next year he will be on minimum loan.
His best mate has bought a house for them to live in for the next two years. DS works for his friends dad in construction so will be paid all summer labouring while they refurb the property. I’m hoping that they get a taste for it and go into the property business together in the future. There are 5 of them that work as a team one of whom is a qualified carpenter. The rest are students but from families who all have their own businesses. They are a bright bunch who wanted the uni experience but are realistic enough to know that a degree won’t guarantee a future. Experience in the real world alongside the student world is giving them a head start.

His best mate worked for his dad during his gap year rather than travelling so he could build up a deposit to buy his house. DS has already been offered a job with the firm if his degree doesn’t lead to a job in his area of interest. His degree will give him transferable skills.

I’ve known so many youngsters disillusioned by uni, expecting to walk straight into a highly paid job. But having no life skills. Work experience is so important to employers, having been one myself, many spend 3-4 yrs in academia without ever working a 9-5 day. Encouraging them to finance at least a small part of their education is bonus to future employers.

We are in a position that means DS doesn’t need to self fund but DS likes the high life so is willing to work to supplement his time at uni.

I'm budgeting £10,000 for accommodation and £15,000 for the rest.

We budget £1000 a month for each child at Uni. That covers rent (£800) and leaves them with £200 a month. They work in the holidays and only take the loan for tuition fees.

The Welsh loan system gives £12000 in total. That is ample for accommodation, food, travel and partying at a Welsh University.

For a Welsh Uni that would be excessive, what would they be buying for that?

Wow! Bet they have a great life with that much to live off.

We’re planning on giving DD £80 per week and she will use the loan to pay for accommodation.

We pay for accommodation, gym membership and phone. My very generous relatives pay £80 per week for food, clothes, going out, travel etc. My kid also works in a bar at £13 ph so this can substantially add up if he's doing a 6 hour shift, sometimes 2 shifts or 3 if it's freshers week. He's basically got more expendable income than me but he saves a lot.

£10,000 for accommodation and £15,000 for the rest - this includes the tuition so they won't have that much in spare funds

That is quite excessive for Wales.

Like you, our DCs maintenance loan covers rent & utility bills. We give £100 per week, it started at £80 18 months ago, but with the increase in groceries and bus costs (bus to campus and back is now £25 pw!) we had to re assess.

What we give covers food, travel, sporting and social costs. DC has a job in the holidays so does have savings to dip into, but what we give covers the basics.

Our didn’t need anything apart from a stethoscope.

We started off paying £1000 a month for accommodation and living expenses. Have increased it recently to £1250.

Fees and accommodation are covered and we give £500 a month, pay for phone and pay for her car.
She also has a part time job she does one 12 hour shift a week and earns between £150 and £200 per shift.

For one year??

the poster clarified that this also included tuition fees, which brings the "other" down to the level that most people on this thread have suggested.