Uni budget - can students really live on £40 a week!

[scattysue]

My friend recommended I join a Facebook group called What I want to know about university. I have done and it has really made me think because so many posters on there say their kids live on £35-£50 a week at uni (excluding rent and utilities). This strikes me as VERY low - my eldest DS budgets £60 on a Sainsbury’s shop each week (including alcohol for pres and lots of meat protein) and then, as I want him to socialise and have fun too, I fund two nights out a week (£25 each time) plus gym (£8 a week), laundry (£9 a week - 2 loads of washing and drying as he does so much sport) and then £13 for miscellaneous . So I give him £140 a week. That struck me as fair but now I am wondering if I am too generous! What do u think? DS does work 20 hours a week in hols but he uses that money to fund his car/clothes/holidays - not uni. He gets minimum maintenance loan, pays it to us and we pay rent and, as I say, give him £140 a week during uni terms. Am I out of touch? Or is this uni Facebook group I joined overly frugal and unrealistic?

I was shocked at how expensive it is to do your laundry. I think if you're paying for expensive accommodation that really should be thrown in for free, like it is in some of the independently run halls - Student Castle & Fusion Student etc

Sure do. My DD is at uni now. She’s budgeted £50/week to pay for all food, personal items, two return train trips home, all society fees etc. Her laundry is done in the house she rents so no extra cost there. I did do her first shop to buy things like salt, pepper, cooking oil a few cleaning products, but otherwise she will live within her budget. She has more from her summer job, but wants to save as much as she can. They learn to comparison shop and live frugally.

You have to consider what's included though, eg transport costs, laundry. It's not just food and socialising.

I don't get the bit where he gives his maintenance loan money back to you?

£140 a week is a fortune for one person after bills. I wouldn’t spend that a week. I agree £40 is too low.

dd has £94 a week appears to be managing. That’s after rent which includes bills and laundry and gym. She has no transport costs. So £94 for food, socialising, new clothes, hairdressers. She has coeliac disease so her food costs more.

Everyone should at least be making up the loan to the maximum level if their YA are getting less than the maximum loan

To be fair, my son does that too. A few reasons. His maintenance loan is pair in three lump sums but not equal lump sums. Term 1 where he needs more he gets less loan and term 3 when he has no rent he gets more.

His rent is payable monthly but only between Oct - April.

So he asked if he could that to help him budget. He pays us his loan, we pay his rent so effectively give him a sub during the first term and we pay him a weekly amount to live off.

Whilst I agree with this there are some circumstances that is doesn't take into account such as having more than one child to support at the same time or a parent having been low income for many years but perhaps having a salary increase just as a child is starting university. Plus the thresholds have not increased with the cost of living.

Additional non essential spending I wouldn't include in a "can you live off it" assessment though. Generally they'll get a part time job to cover that, lots of places like shops offer eg two 4 or 6 hour shifts in evenings where they could earn plenty to cover nights out etc if they drink.

The title of this thread is "can students really live off £40 a week." Not "can students live off £40 a week from their parents and whatever they can make from a part time job". So £40 is all the money available.

I agree they could live off rice and lentils and never leave their room and that would be possible for £40 a week. But it would also be utterly miserable, and if they were going to do that they would have been better off doing an OU course which would be cheaper.

I think I had around 150 a week in 2010. I don’t think you could eat and go out much for less than 100 a week

My daughter gets about £55 pw. She walks to lectures, is careful with her shopping and even drinks instant coffee that she used to hate. She lives with a friend who occasionally buys them treats and they share food costs where buying in bulk saves them money but she’s happy having a pack of noodles and soy sauce for lunch. She is not a big one for going out, I reckon she went clubbing once or twice last year. AFAIK, she doesn’t drink masses either.
She came home with money over the summer.
A couple of times, she’s needed things that I order on Amazon and get delivered to her.
She doesn’t need the gym as she does plenty of walking and it’s up and down hill so she gets some proper steps in!
Laundry is only a couple of quid a week.
We have an open dialogue about whether the money I give her is enough and she knows to say something if she was struggling to stay afloat. I’m aware that we give her less than expected, as on minimum maintenance loan, but I know she doesn’t want to be a burden and she was overjoyed when I told her how much I was going to give her. Living in one of the cheaper cities in England has really helped make it go further. We would definitely be paying more if she was in London.

£40 per week for everything excluding rent and utilities would be utterly miserable and not healthy. Enough to keep you alive, but eating poor food, not having a social life, not able to join clubs or go to the gym, not being able to do laundry frequently enough, no decent credit on phone, struggle to pay prescription charges, no dentistry or optical checks etc. I'd not put my child in that position, unless I was literally living that way myself without a penny to give them.

After rent and utilities, ours get £100/w Sept-June inclusive, plus we pay phone contract, medical/dental/optical costs, gym membership, car insurance (on our cars, which mostly stay at home), and we send them off with a big starter shop, plus send them treats from time to time. This seems about right. They've not got money to waste, but equally they can afford good fresh food without scrabbling around. I don't want them living off of cheap noodles and value baked beans!

My kid has catering built into her accommodation costs, so anything she gets beyond that is for w'end food, lunches, laundry and other expenses.

hmmm I suspect £40 per week - assuming not catered - would be doable but more surviving than thriving.

Last of mine finished last year, though for two years we had two at uni - opposite sides of the country too. We were probably nearer to you @scattysue insofar as we paid accommodation and left DC with the minimum loan. With that divided over term time is probably not far off your weekly figure. Certainly a comfortable amount, generous or not it worked for us.

We give £50 a week towards food, socialising, course costs ( in Scotland so free buses). DC pays for anything above that from summer job savings. So many friends just blew all their summer job money and are having to be more frugal now! We pay a very modest phone ( £5 a month on Lebara SIM only!) and did a decent shop at start but only so much space so not massive. Definitely agree with pp saying it should be enough they are not starving but they should be funding the extras.

Since when did gym membership become an essential thing, it’s a luxury that most of us can’t afford (although believe an annual membership at DD’s uni is only £35).

I forgot I pay for DDs phone contract but it’s only £10 pm. I absolutely did not want issues with running out of credit.

and when I said she’s happy eating noodles for lunch, I meant it. Even when she was home over summer, she had it for lunch quite regularly and has done for years. I am not allowed to buy expensive ones, she doesn’t like them. 😂

She didn’t have to move out of her flat over summer and did return for one week because she missed an exam due to illness and had to take it with the retakes. I did a Tesco shop for her then but she had loads in the cupboard and freezer. She certainly has not starved and cooks from scratch to save money.

Unless she has ARFID or similar, she really should be discouraged from eating cheap noodles and soy sauce as a meal. It's UPF junk, too high in salt and with zero nutritional benefit. Regular consumption is not good for long term health outcomes.

@Comefromaway Students doing sport at uni often use the uni gym! It’s not free. It’s not a swish complex with a pool and spa treatments! It’s not a luxury if you are on a team and it’s your hobby. Most hobbies cost money.

Anyone on a limited diet as a student isn’t living well.

Right. But most parents don't want their kids eating instant noodles and soy sauce for lunch (absolutely up to you and your DD if you're happy with that), and therefore need to provide a much larger budget, so they can afford to eat fresh, healthy nutritious food. Surely you understand that?

Most parents want their Uni children to eat 3 healthy nutritious meals per day, plus have a social life, plus take part in sports and go to the gym, be able to afford prescriptions etc, and that costs money. More than £40/50 per week.

My view was I wanted my DC to be able to join in with uni activities ….but that some budgeting and choices should also be required. I didn’t want to fund (or think it was a good learning experience) a situation where they never had to consider their spending or make choices.

My DC who is currently 2nd year in private accom has £80 per week to cover food, utilities (which they allocate £12 to) and socialising. They are currently spending £20-£30 a week on food. They were set up with a shop of all the basics at the start of term. Eating well at the moment on that.

Last year, in fully catered accom they had £50 per week and at the end of the year had over £500 left to fund a couple of cheap holidays.

I would want the student experience to include going to the supermarket (or online) and having to look at prices and make some choices - deciding they can’t have both X and Y in one week, but have to choose and find a cheaper option to replace the other. That means I want them to have enough to buy fruit and veg and protein….but not to fund a diet of steak, salmon and prawns for every meal without considering price.

I want them to be able to go out with friends and book a train ticket to visit a friend at another uni, but not to be able to uber everyday around the city where everything is walking distance, or eat takeaway 3 times a week.

My DC checks their bank balance, has a sense of how much they plan to spend in the supermarket and if they’ve had an expensive week last week and need a cheaper one this week. They don’t expect to ask for more money as they know they’ve had their term’s and more will come in January. I’d say they are fully participating in uni life - goes out several times a week, goes to the Ball 🎱 r formal dinners, can replace an item of clothing .

I don’t expect what they’ve got to fund a whole new wardrobe of clothes (they have plenty. Some students seem to buy clothes and shoes on a weekly basis and have a Vinted or other shopping habit.

The system is set up to give kids from higher income families less, so that the family subs the rest. If they aren't doing that they need to speak to their parents.