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?

You pay for him to go in two nights out a week?! You mean out on the piss? So you pay for alcohol from the supermarket, and on nights out as well?

I mean, it’s up to you, but it sounds like a lot to me. When I was at uni my parents gave me £0. I got a Saturday job and had to pay for everything, including food, out of that. Accommodation was covered by the student loan. I find it astonishing what parents give to their adult offspring these days.

We're a working family with children and I have less than £140 each a week of disposable income after bills, mortgage and savings.

I guess if you can afford it that's great but if my child said that needed £50 for 2 nights out a week I'd be telling them to get a job.

My DS would starve to death on £40 a week. He’s sporty and very tall.Unfortunately his flat is right in the middle of the student takeaway area and I doubt he has cooked a meal yet. They live opposite the local pizza takeaway and can literally shout their order from their window. However two of his housemates haven’t been blessed with the constitution of a slimline dustbin so are much more careful what they eat. DS has a naturally athletic build. Doesn’t have to work out or eat a faffy diet to maintain his body shape. They currently have a friend from home couch surfing who is a chef so he has been cooking for them in exchange for lodging.
I have limited his budget this year. His social group are all from fairly wealthy backgrounds and although we all try and stick to a budget, inevitably they live a pretty easy student lifestyle.
DS’s attendance last year was poor, in all fairness the first year was levelling up, but because of the subjects DS did at A level it was very repetitive for him. He sailed through his modules with zero effort. So I’m a little worried he is going to try and repeat this . I have started deducting money from the top up funds every time he misses a timetabled lecture or seminar. I get to spend the money on myself. He gets to starve later on in the term. I’m a pretty relaxed parent but that’s down to strict boundaries when he was little. No threat is idle and he knows that. Also since he can’t keep his car at uni ( parking is really complicated by parking permits) I am considering selling his car. And if he doesn’t start to put some effort in it will happen. I’d like to updated my kitchen and the money from selling the car will cover it. Sometimes they need a reality hit. We can always buy a little run around for when he’s home. He does have a casual job so it is necessary. We live rurally so public transport is non existent and taxis extortionate.

Student takeaways?! What happened to making a pasta bake on Sunday and eating it until Wednesday? None of us ate takeaways at Uni, we found the cheapest and easiest meals to make and stretched them out as far as they'd go. Hardly any meat, a bit of minced beef if we were feeling flush, eggs, value cheese and beans for protein, tons of pasta, rice and bread and anything that was lurking in the yellow sticker section. A frozen pizza was an occasional treat.

If they are regularly eating takeway pizza then they are getting way too much money.

I know we're lucky in that we can afford it, but my plan is to pay for the accommodation and then she can take out the loan to live on. Then it's 'her' money and she can set her own budget. If she wants to live frugally and save she can. If she wants to spend she'll need a job (she has one now and loves having the cash coming in).

DH thinks she'll live on pasta and beans and have a massive pot of cash at the end, but that'll be her choice!

(She's in yr 13 so not left home yet. Also hoping she stays up north where its cheaper accommodation)

Mine managed on £50- £55 a week. They worked/ did paid internships all cheap holidays to pay for going out/ treats/ clothes. I paid for phone and 1 big shop when I dropped them off every year. They batch cooked and froze meals . They graduated in the summer just gone and had enough saved from holiday jobs to just about afford to go travelling (again-on a budget!) and to pay upcoming rent / deposit for postgrad accommodation until funds come in. Never used overdraft . Also - they only came home at end of terms . We visited them halfway through each term in first and second year
No Car or gym - these would have had to be paid for by them and their funds wouldn’t have stretched

We give £100 a week for 40 weeks a year. We also pay for big shops every few months plus phone. That seems to be okay. Our DC works in the hols for extras and holidays.

It does vary hugely by child and circumstances of accommodation.

DS is 6’5” and found catered portions in first year wholly inadequate and had to buy takeaways as no cooking facilities not even a toaster allowed. 2nd and 3rd year was much better in a flat.

DD trained for her Uni sport 30 hours a week last year. She wouldn’t have been able to manage on £40 per week for food. Admittedly a fairly extreme example. She did do bulk cooking. And fruit and veg are quite expensive even if you buy those in season.

20 years ago I used to live on £50 a week at university and from that covered absolutely everything apart from rent and fees.

My assumption is that that would need to pretty much double these days so around 100 quid a week would seem about right.

I don’t know what he does on nights out but as an adult you don’t get two nights out a week spending 25 quid a go plus all these extras. So he might be heading for a bit of a bump down to earth when he gets a job and has less disposable income.

Mine is on around $40 a week but has no travel costs and I've paid his student gym for the year. He does a lot of sport doesn't drink much and will never buy clothes.

How much is minimum loan when split across the weeks? I just asked because what my parents did was give me the loan and expect me to live on it during term time. And they separately paid for my fees and rent.

Annual minimum loan is just under £5K (in England). Weekly amount depends on your course length and whether you expect it to cover the summer as well!

Lots of parents (those who are financially able to do so obviously) pay rent and let their children live off the loan.

@scattysueyour son has double what we have a week and we are a family of 4 🤣

ETA - just to say that's not a brag that's just our budget for food. But I'd say £140 disposable income a week for 1 person must be at the high end in any situation.

If you give them £160 a week of course it will all get spent, especially as freshers!

A lot of students do their food shopping at Lidl and Aldi, not Sainsbury's, and spend around a tenner on nights out (that's why they have pres before going out, so it's cheaper.

@Comefromaway I think it is easy to assume all extra costs are the same everywhere and therefore don’t understand why some budgets need to be higher. Paying around £400 for sport/gym isn’t unusual and at £40 a week, clearly not affordable. Sport costs quite a lot nearly everywhere.

I don’t begrudge students a take away. How does a parent know a dc has missed a lecture though? Surely they don’t and dc could easily cover that up. Many students love a good night out and many have parties to keep costs down. Most want a bit of both and many sports teams enjoy a boozy night too. So many MN students are unfailingly serious home cooks. I think my DDs had a good time at university and we happily funded that. No harm done and responsible adults at the other end.

DD is doing her food shopping (carefully in M&S) for £40pw. £15pw in the pub. She’s on a campus uni so no regular transport costs.

I used to get £150/month in the early 90s and didn’t have much spare cash left. I just checked & lowest maintenance loan is £4915 which would be just over £140/week if parents pay the rent. So that sounds like you’re giving the right amount.

I’m planning to give dd £100 a week self catering, def no more than that and that will cover train home etc as well and holidays (no funding from me during holiday periods). This is what I estimate I can cut from our food budget to contribute to her uni costs - I’ll be living on £250pm for food but I’m veggie so cheaper.

Maintenance loan will be about £8k I think so will cover rent - she can choose a hall up to this amount.

I currently have a system with dd where she has one of my bank cards in her phone wallet and she uses this for her college lunch. I will also keep this going at uni so she’s never going to be desperate for anything as she has that back up.

@Countrylife2002 Why not choose a cheaper hall and boost weekly money?

It’s all about what matters to the dc tho isn’t it - she def wants self catered at least. £100 seems plenty

We have dd more than that for catered. We expected her to buy other things for herself and not all meals were catered for.

It looks like the general agreement here is that about £100 is right. DD isn’t very spendy so we can keep it under review. She’s also aware that for a couple of her top choices she will definitely have to work

A family member did it with £50 a week on food/toiletries/socialising and clothes with a very very occasional top up but that was 3 years ago before the COL crisis.

I give DD £85 per week.
She get minimum maintenance loan which doesn't even cover rent.
When our eldest went to uni 6 ish years ago the advice was to top them up to the maximum maintenance loan which is probably roughly what you are doing or perhaps slightly over? (assuming you give him money only in term time.
I'm being meaner than that but DD doesn't socialise a lot and Ive just paid her train fare home so she can visit for the weekend for a birthday as she didn't have enough money to cover it. Trains are expensive.
I also offer to pay joining fees for societies so she can join and go out. But she chooses cheap societies ie feminism and crochet not skiing and rock climbing.
I think £40 a week would be really hard, it's not just for groceries but for toiletries, trains/buses, uni supplies, socialising etc.
For eldest we paid for accommodation and she kept her (minimum) student maintenance loan and lived off that so that's another way to do it.