Reasonable monthly living and fun money for a London student?

[Carsexitthroughthecarpark]

Hi all,

I am trying to work out living costs for DD going to Uni in London. She is in catered halls in zone 1 and we have worked out travelcard cost to uni already.

I am currently at:
£25 a week for food (lunches and dinner on Sat/Sun). She doesn't really eat takeaways and is health conscious and good at cooking.
£10 a week for laundry
£10 a month for toiletries - we will start her off with massive multipacks, this will be makeup costs

Where I am getting stuck is fun money. She might be able to do a hospitality shift at the weekend and is looking at tutoring online too. But otherwise is in college for full days, plus practice at night, so won't be able to earn much.

She doesn't drink at all, but does go to concerts, shows, recitals and plays. She likes the odd fancy smoothie or coffee too.

Is £100 a month too much or too little?

Thanks in advance.

Travel card ?

Yep that's worked out already.

Too little. Double it. While £25 a week would cover a cheap dinner/brunch out and one cinema/gig trip, she may want to do pricier things occasionally - theatre, buy clothes, save for a holiday, have a day trip to Brighton etc.

Hi, so double the food cost? But the £100 for fun would be enough for other stuff?
Or do you mean £100 in total for food and fun?

so budget is currently

£25 a week food
plus
£100 a month fun

Food budget is fine. £25 a week for fun is pretty tight - that’s what I’d suggest doubling.

Thanks, that's the part I was really unsure of.
So reckoning on £550 a month roughly.

Won't she have to get something for lunch each day? Coffees, drinks etc

DS is going to London in self catering halls. I’ll be giving him £150 a week and he’ll need to get a job if he needs more 😁. That will cover food laundry socialising and travel. I’ll pay for his phone on top of that

Mine was at music college so earning was tricky. We gave £350 pcm to cover laundry, shopping, travel and fun. We paid the halls rent and £350 was plenty. Still gets that now as a masters student living at home. We also pay phone gym. She teaches one morning a week to make her "travel" fund viable.

ETA when self catering, like @MaryBennetsGlasses it was £600pcm

Dd has just finished her 2nd year at KCL.
we give her roughly £100 for food shopping /travel/ life and pay her phone bill and rent for her shared flat.
she gets the lowest student loan but as it’s London her loan in higher than other universities.
Works in the holidays too and is fine on that money.

Too low I would say, especially in London. I gave both mine £100pw for food/spending. I paid the rent upfront. They did not take any maintenance loan though.

Thanks all.

So sounds like £100 a week might be needed, plus we are paying catered halls, travelcard, phone and travel home.

@Londonmummy66 she is performing arts, so has 30hrs a week in college. We wouldn't expect her to do more than one hospitality shift on a Saturday, plus tutoring if she can get it around college. And obviously she has a job now and will work at xmas etc.

She will need time for practice and rehearsals etc.

Thanks so much all.

I’d up it too- I give £120 a week and that’s in Durham, so is expensive, but not London prices and zero travel as it’s all walkable. If you can give more, I would. I pay phone, travel home and extra at the start of the year for clubs etc. I did £100 a week when she was in catered college, £120 when not.

Double it. Both mine attended uni in London. It’s so expensive.

Will they not be working?

You may be able to get away with less than £100pw as you are paying for catered halls assuming she actually takes those paid for meals. Or do you just mean she can use the restaurant but has to pay for it? My figure was for self-catering with the rent paid.

Wow @Bibbetybobbitymy DDs at Durham and she budgets about £35/week! Which she covers from the money earned over the summer (including two return trips home and a weekend visiting mates at another uni). I pay her phone only.
I don’t see why everyone thinks London is so expensive. I live there. Eating out, theatre are but students aren’t doing that surely? Transport is the main factor but I think you took account if that? I mean how much ‘fun’ do you anticipate her having? Surely most nights will be in the library. Going out sure but within a reasonable budget.
@HewasH2Ostudents should not be indulging in £4 coffees!
Edited because I realise her loan only just covers her accommodation.

i don’t think she will need £100 a week
i I bet she could spend it though
most kids will have far less

My daughter spent more than £10 a week on laundry in halls in Bristol. Had to use the washnet app. She did lights, coloured and bedding/towels every week or so - wash and dry as no where to dry laundry

Ex drama school mum here.

my daughter did an unfunded course and she did have to work. She did 6 shifts a week as theatre FOH but dropped down to 4/5 after it became too much.

we paid her rent and she lived off what she earnt. She cycled to avoid tube fayres and took packed lunches in but having to go straight from class to work meant she had to buy food out most days. she did get the tube home late at night.

her bills in the shared house were approx £50 per month. Her mobile phone was £15 per month and food costs were probably about £50 per week. Travel was about £18 per week.

fun money was generally about £10-20 per week. A drink after work on a Sunday and maybe a trip to Wetherspoons in the week. She didn’t really go to watch west end theatre, only student shows every so often with tickets between £5-10.

@mondaytosunday I do expect that she'll want to go to shows on occasion, however I've brought her up to be used to the cheap seats and we've rarely spent over £30 a seat in the West End - I'm very good at the 11am ticket rush for new shows, so she will be very happy with the odd cheap show. She's also signed up for the National Theatre £5 under 25 tix, Barbican and others. She is planning to find as many free events as she can.

I've got her signed up for the food apps, plus my Vodafone app has deals sometimes for free snacks or drinks.

@ElizaSchuyler what a wonderful username!
Thanks thats all v helpful. She will need her travelcard, she doesn't cycle and I imagine she'll be knackered by the end of the day. She will be living in zone 1 and travelling to zone 2/3 border.

I do think she will end up buying lunch, she's not bothered about meat so that makes things cheaper.

@studentmumagain it's fully catered (except lunches and weekend dinners) as part of the fee. I've made it clear that she has to eat in halls if she can. And that she must make the effort to at least put her breakfast in a container and take it with her! She's been boarding at 6th form so this will feel very normal for her. But I emphasised that the food has been paid for already!

@backformoreofthesame she's a saver not a spender so I'm confident that she wouldn't blow what we give her!

Mine lived in Zone 3 near to where she studied but travelled to zone 1 daily for work.

she sort of had to cut her cloth according to her means but it was hard as lots of people on her course were from a more affluent background than she was.

So the laundry is too high. They will only do a load as necessary. 10 days or so.

@Denim4ever she has a lot of workout clothes she'll need to wash regularly as it's performing arts.

@ElizaSchuyler has your DD finished now? Did she love her time on the course?