Weekly cost of student at Uni 2025/26

[harrogatemumofone]

So we will be paying the (8K- Manchester) accommodation whilst DD lives on the minimum finance (probably no job at Uni due to full on course). In your experience is that enough? We would fund trains home and big expenditure like coats, trainers, jeans etc. I'm purely thinking about food + socialising costs? Term ends mid June.

She's struggling to get a job post-A levels despite trying, so expecting no personal top up money in her bank account

GPs won't be contributing. Very small CTF (all our contributions - 18th in July) that we are hoping she doesn't need to use.

Does anyone photocopy or print anything these days?

We funded all basic clothing including winter coats, waterproof shoes plus kitting out room, kitchen etc. Also a basics food cupboard, pasta, microwave rice, pasta sauce, pesto, condiments, mayo, mustard, herbs and spices.

Laundry is roughly £3.80 for a wash, tumble dryer can be free in some places or £1.90 for a load. Ds does 2 lots of washing a week, bedding and towels in one machine, clothes in the other. All of it fits into one tumble dryer and is dry in that one £1.90 time. His detergent is free as it is in the washing machine. With our other child we gave them laundry pods each term.

Food, Ds cooks from scratch and eats meat, chicken and fish, spends about £38 in Tesco every week.

His entire loan pays toward his accommodation, also £8k, we pay the rest as the loan doesn't cover it. The only money he has is the £100 a week to live on for the food, laundry and whatever else he wants. He has to live on that budget. If he wants more he can get a job. He doesn't spend money on train travel coming home during term because it takes too long. We only pay him whilst at uni because when he is home we are covering his food and he has money budgeted to do hobbies (rock climbing) or going out. All his mates are also at uni so them meeting up isn't an expensive day out.

Ds has no course materials costs.

Following! Funding their full fees so no loan and not sure if the course will be a bit too full on for a job as well! Interested in what others are paying for living costs.

It really does depend on the university. Ds went to Warwick and lived in Coventry in years two and three so accommodation was pretty reasonable. Dd is at Bath where uni accommodation is considerably more expensive.
Both dcs had annual sport passes which were good value. Dd spends £50 per week on food.

@harrogatemumofone this is exactly what we’re doing for Dd and I hope it will be enough (also Manchester).

she will have the minimum amount of loan to live off. We are paying rent (bills included), laundry included, gym included.

She will be walking distance of uni so no transport costs. Her food costs may be a bit higher than for most as she has coeliac disease (£4 a loaf of bread!). But will see how she manages. She’s also likely to have costs related to needing to buy art type materials for her course. No idea how much that will be.

i will do her a big food shop at the start of each term, will kit her out with kitchen stuff, bedding, etc. Might need to buy her a good waterproof coat for Manchester 😁

To be honest, the more they are given, the more most will spend.

Factor in that the start of Freshers is expensive - maybe a charge for all the activities, JCR membership fee, joining clubs and societies fees. After that it will be less per week. I’d think £80-100 to include food for term time allows a good standard of living with a bit of budgeting.

It depends if you want to fund them being able eat multiple takeaways per week and a social life where they never have to consider if they can afford something, or the option to socialise whilst budgeting. For example, Spoons pubs are popular with students as they can have a few drinks pretty cheaply. Most parents funding uni or part funding would hope the kids would pick Spoons and not bars where a glass of wine is £9. They’d hope that their kid would look at prices in the supermarket when choosing and enjoy themselves with a mix of cheaper nights in and nights out.

Many students do seem to buy a lot of clothes online and on Vinted. Some do spend hundreds per year on this. Seems fine if they have a job in term time or holidays. But I wouldn’t want to be funding a massive enthusiasm for buying clothes. Yes of course they need a coat, new bits and bobs and might get some stuff for Christmas etc. But most go with a wardrobe of clothes and I wouldn’t want to be funding a continual flow of parcels from Amazon or other websites.

We gave money termly. This allowed for more expensive and cheaper weeks.