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 had a chat with her about Aldi yesterday and she says she’s going to investigate that. There’s an Aldi and a Sainsbury’s in walking distance and she’s been going to Sainsbury’s. She has a nectar card. I do get that Aldi won’t have as much choice for a coeliac (but it does sell gf stuff in some branches now). And she could certainly get fruit/veg, cheese, butter, etc there.

After rent which includes all utilities, my DD has about £100 a week for food, petrol and socialising. We pay her car insurance, uni club subs and costs, phone, prescriptions, contact lenses. She works at home in the holidays for extras like clothes and to have a bit of buffer for extra socialising at Christmas etc.

As a coeliac her food bill is always going to be higher (dd has that issue to a lesser extent as she is dairy intolerant) . But you then have to cut down in other areas.

That’s pretty much what it was like for me as a student
I certainly didn’t want that for my DC

There’s a balance though? This 22 yr old has accommodation, laundry, bills, gym all paid for. £94 for food and socialising, there’s no reason to be unable to afford biscuits unless you are overspending elsewhere like 6 week holidays to Canada and £50 costumes. I think it’s really off to be making mum feel guilty she can’t pay more.

Yes I don’t want her being penalised for something she can’t help. I imagine not being able to nip into greggs for a £1.20 sausage roll when on campus makes a big difference.

Not being able to do that should help. My daughter would see a £1.20 sausage roll on campus as a luxury. Although the on campus cafes do always have a pretty decent rage of GF options at her uni. She meal preps and takes all her food with her apart from her one coffee treat per week.

Not saying she shouldn't be able to have food out, but she can't have food out AND go out for a meal AND go out for drinks (and buy expensive costumes!)

Isn’t that just down to planning though, mine eats at flat or takes food in her bag.
Gluten free bread is always reduced near me. Things like splitting and freezing things may not have dawned on her.
Instagram and Tik tok often have student cooking ideas if she searches coeliac student I bet there are some.

Why? We all had fun and we learned about the value of money.

For us, it was temporary, but it also gave us an understanding of what it's like not to have money, something which many middle class students have never experienced. It's healthy to learn that all the things you've taken for granted your whole life- a well-stocked fridge, lifts here there and everywhere, a warm house, clean clothes- aren't free and that not everyone has easy access to them. And that those people aren't able to go back to all those things for 13 weeks of the year when they need a break from it, or a safety net at the bank of mum and dad when they get really stuck.

Having empathy with people who have less than you, and also motivation to make the most of the opportunities you are lucky enough to have, is important.

As is knowing how to cope when things go wrong. If you don't know you can survive off not much money then you can easily end up trapped in a relationship or a job that doesn't make you happy.

Many of these threads indicate that parents are giving their children more money per week than most working adults have as disposable income...it's setting them up to fail when they leave Uni.

I don't want my kids to live in poverty. But equally I want them to learn the value of money, of budgeting and to be able to adjust their lifestyles according to their means as you never know what will happen in the future.

I bought her a coeliac cooking on a budget book so hopefully she’s using that. I don’t think she’s intentionally making me feel guilty at all. She said yesterday she felt bad and doesn’t want me to,worry as she knows we’re paying a lot. Hopefully she’s using is learning from this.

These accounts come up on instagram might be good for tips

She probably just needs some guidance and you do need to point out that it is not normal when a student to spend £50 on random costumes unless you are working every holiday etc to pay for it.

Just looked, JSA is £72.90 for 18 - 24 year old. I don't know what that's supposed to cover though. My kid spends only about £25 per week on food. This isn't skimping though, she's veggie, doesn't drink, and likes cheap food like porridge.

My DS is currently at uni.
Yr 1 we gave £50 a week. Rent, bills, phone all paid as well (in halls). He got a job halfway through yr 1, in uni town. Campus uni but even when not living in halls it’s all walkable so transport costs are optional.
Yr 2 same amount covered but give £20 a week. He tops up with earnings. Same in yr 3 but he’s also paying his bills (electric and WiFi,, rest is in rent).
If he had more he’d spend more. But he’s fine and has money for everything he needs and most of what he wants. He eats as well as, and goes out significantly more, than I do!

I give DS £110 per week. All his food is included in his rent for halls which we also top up as the loan doesn't cover this. We also buy tea, coffee, washing liquid, toothpaste etc when he come back. I still pay for his phone. He buys all his clothes and anything else he needs. He still thinks he has it harder than most as all his friends are rich Southerners!

It is meant to cover everything except rent, so that is bills (at that age it assumes 1 room in a shared house), phone, food, travel, everything.

£110 per week and all his food and phone is covered? Wow, just wow. My son has £80 per week and has to pay for his own phone, toiletries, food, travel and laundry!

Wow, so he has £110 a week to spend on clothes and fun?

Average graduate salary in the first year is £28k, take home £23.4, average rent £13k a year, utilities £1.8k, plus £50 a week on food totalling £2.6k, council tax will vary but let's say with the single person discount around £1k a year so that leaves £5k, or £96 a week, £20 of which will be for his phone, so he's going to leave Uni completely unprepared for coping with the cost of living.

Part of me thinks it would be hard to watch SD and DD struggle to balance the budget at Uni and wonder how my parents didn't help out a bit more...but also I'm extremely grateful that when I got my first full time job I was used to living off a lot less and really felt like I was living a great life and like a real grown up, going to restaurants and buying my own bedsheets.

I hear what you are saying but its not what I want for my DC ant that’s my call

That’s fine if you can afford it & can sustain that lifestyle for him.

but Cameforavacatuon is struggling to afford everything as many of us do.

DD also gets £140 a week - this is for food , going out , laundry etc . I think she spends about £45 a week on food (with delivery) . Phone we pay for separately. I’m sure it’s probably more than enough.

Not just at Uni but for many years afterwards if they have never learned to budget. How many years are these parents willing to subsidise a lifestyle that would otherwise be out of their children's means?

No

I had £45 a week when i was at university in 2001. Not sure what my ds has per week. He has the maximum loan and he is on PIP. He also has a job in the holidays.