How much if student living at home

[chatchatchatty]

DD is going to stay at home so no accommodation fees.
How much do people think she needs for food and spending (we will cover mobile, contact lenses etc and bills)
Is it worth taking full loan amount and putting it into a savings account then paying it back when she finishes?
Im thinking about £100 a week

by spending do you mean travel?

That seems alot. Mine has less than that a week and lives at uni. Unless travel costs are high I would be encouraging mine to get a part time job to cover their expenses so no loan required

I'm not sure that taking the maintenance loan then paying it back is a good idea. Although the tuition fee loans and maintenance loans are applied for separately once they are taken they become one 'pot' of student loan debt so paying off the maintenance loan part of it after graduation will not reduce the amount that your DD repays from her salary each month. It will still be 9% irrespective of the outstanding balance of her total student loan.

I got £100 a week from my parents at uni to cover all food textbooks and petrol and socializing and clothes (they paid accom). That was 20 years ago though! So she may need more, or not if you provide meals at home,

We give each DC £130 a week but they live away at Uni. £100 a week when she is living at home is a lot unless she has expensive commuting costs. I think in this situation I'd be telling her to take the maintenance loan and then she can make the decision for herself as to what is sensible to spend/save.

How much is travel? Will she need to factor in some overnight stays eg if she goes to an event.
What clubs and societies do they intend to join. Gym? Are there commuter facilities like kettle and microwave or will they need to buy food and drink.
They need enough so they aren’t tempted not to go in as it’s not worth spending money for an hour’s lecture.

If mine were living at home I wouldn’t give them anything! They can get a job for that. I give Dd £75 a week for food & other stuff like books, taxis on nights out etc so she can get home safely but everything else she needs she has a job for (2 shifts a week in Starbucks)
if she’s at home what does she need the money for, assuming you’re feeding her regardless? At 18 plus they should be paying for their own clothes, nights out etc imo

What kind of course? A course that involves lots of placements will need petrol and access to a car where as a campus uni in walking distance will mean her travel costs will be part of going out.

Does she currently have a part-time job? Is that for fun and/or personal expenses?

This is a really important point. She might as well take everything she can, loan wise, then spend it or save it.

This is a bizarre approach and conflates the fact that the percentage of salary repaid as a monthly payment is the same no matter what the debt, with the overall amount to be paid off. Yes you will pay 9% of salary for as long as your payments last but clearly they will last a heck of a lot longer if you've taken double the amount of loan.

commuting to uni ? we are in london, so for our son staying at home it's already £9.10 a day!

My youngest staying at home, not taking maintenance loan. Has a PT job earning around £400 per month. We pay mobile phone, provide food and car. Feels like a win win situation compared to sibling who took minimum maintenance loan and we still needed to find £9k per year for rent!

Why would you fund books and taxis when not living at home, but not if they're living at home?

thanks for the replies.
travel will be bus pass £52 a month.
I wasnt going to give her any money, I meant is £100 enough to live on if she is buying her own food, travel and everything else really.
I worked out that if she had full loan minus basic halls this would be roughly what she would have left.
She obviously applied for full loan even though she doesn’t need it so if I can give her an idea of sticking to say £100 a week she can just borrow less next year. She could either buy her own food or give some to me to cover food.
All of this is obviously just advice, its her money!
I think £100 is plenty but just seeing what others have done, it’s totally different not being in halls like i was

She may also work if possible, I worked over summers to pay my overdrafts off each year

Very true, she has applied for full loan this year but hopefully she will keep about 4K and borrow a very low amount next year

We also currently cover phone and contact lenses and prescriptions. So £100 would be for travel, food, toiletries etc basically everything else