University budget 2026

[Bk101]

I'd be really grateful to hear from parents of current students what you think a reasonable monthly student budget is excluding accommodation outside London. My daughter is off to cardiff on a very full time course so no opportunity to work part time. All the online sites indicate somewhere around mid £500s a month is reasonable however she's worked out a budget of double that and when I check her assumptions, they are mostly reasonable, I get it down to about £800. Some real life experience appreciated as I don't want her to struggle but equally don't want to be funding a massively extravagant life style.

Last year my son had £250 a week. However his halls were catered mon-fri and included in the rent (which is student loan just about covered - we are in Wales)
The £250 was for food on the weekends, laundry, any socialising and any other bits and bobs he needed. He does not drink or really go 'out out'.
We also paid for phone bill, he used our family streaming accounts and we paid for trains home.
He managed ok, I think only once he asked for a bit more money.

DD is off to Uni this year - yes 2 at once!!! She will not be catered so will need a bit more money, plus she is a social butterfly and also a girl which means things like her toiletries etc cost more. Have not worked it out yet but she will probably get £250 a month from us but she will then have money from her loan as halls as much cheaper the DS - will be about £2k a term for her to spend - about £150 a week so she will have about £850 a month which will be more than enough
Food - even at £50 a week thats £200
Buses etc (Wales have a bus pass that gives them £1 bus fares so no more than £100 a month)
Laundry - 2-3 of loads a week - £60
Toiletries and cleaning stuff etc - £100 a month

That leaves her £400 a month for social stuff and clothes etc. She currently has a weekend job so may also if she can get a small part time job when she goes

In my experience uni halls run with a 38 week contract. That's what I'm basing my 38 weeks on.

@MyOtherProfile but there is no teaching, terms are listed as the teaching time not the full 38 or 40 weeks of the tenancy.

My child was at a university where there are catered halls. No food is provided to undergrads over the holidays only term time.

They also had accommodation buildings with shorter tenancies and they have to move all their stuff out over the Easter holidays. This is not a choice, you are allocated the accommodation and your rent is cheaper because you are not allowed to stay. The university rent these rooms out to the general public.

One of mine was also in catered for. The catering continued for the full 38 weeks so he stayed til the bitter end to get the most out of hanging out with his new mates. I guess some students don't go to uni just for the teaching!

DD has just finished at a city that is probably a shade more expensive than Cardiff but not much. We gave her £600 a month and paid accommodation and bills and that was enough. She competes at a national level in her sport so food and nutrition was an issue for her too. On top of the allowance we paid her phone and her gym membership here (uni gave her a decent discount on the annual uni gym due to her sport). Dh would pick her up and drop her off at the start and end of term and buy her a food and essentials stock up whilst there but she paid her own rail fares for coming back at other times. She is a social butterfly and also often went to comps and other activities at weekends and managed fine on that. (She does seem to have an unofficial sideline in buying clothes for next to nothing in charity shops wearing them a few times and selling on at a profit online though...)

Cardiff, like loads of other universities, have a cost of living calculator online. Excluding rent £500pm should be fine.

www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/student-life/cost-of-living/living-costs-calculator

£800 sounds very high.
Mine lives on min loan just under £5000 and I pay rent. I also kitted her out and bought her food shop. If I go up occasionally I buy her a food shop.
So around £100 a week year round.
Laundry is expensive if it’s circuit laundry.

DC1 is going into her second year. Accommodation is comparitively cheap, but she can't work during term-time. We agreed to make up the difference between the minimum loan and the maximum loan. She's managed absolutely fine so far, and has plenty of fun money so isn't missing out on opportunities and experiences.

The one other expense of hers that we pay is that she's coming on holiday with us, and we've covered all of those costs for the privilege of her company .

We said at the outset that we would be prepared to consider increasing IF she presented us with a detailed budget showing why things weren't working, but if you give them more from the outset they are highly unlikely to be handing you back any change. So why not start at the lower of your figures?