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.

Yes, the irony is that those with loans have often got more money and more ‘fun’ money that those whose parents have fully funded it. So those kids who are spending the most are also those who have the most to pay back.

When parents fully funded, they often give in the region of £12-13k for maintenance. They don’t give £15-20k, which is what lots having the min loan plus parents paying accom have….but of course they are still debt.

Actually we fully fund. Our figures are carefully worked out so DC can pay rent, bills, buy food in term time and can certainly join in what’s available - goes to formal dinners, balls, clubs, activities, out with friends, to visit mates in other unis etc. Doesn’t work in term time. But they do it all on £12.25k equivalent to full maintenance loan properly increased for inflation.

They can afford to replace clothes, buy shoes etc and have had enough for hols the last 2 yrs. But I don’t need to fund weekly Vinted and Amazon deliveries or zero budgeting from them….which is essentially what the student loan is often funding when parents fully pay for accom but still let them take the full maintenance loan - if that loan exceeds the £3-3.5k they prob need to live beyond rent.

We have just been doing budgets as DD starts in Sept, trying to make sure all bases are covered.
We shall pay accomodation as maintence loan would not cover this.
Maintenance loan will give her about £130 per week (over 39 weeks). She has also been fortunate to have been transfered at work and given a 4 hr per week contract, this will cover shopping.
I dont anticiapte on topping up, will do her first shop. Anything extra she will need to use her savings.

Lots of people saying £50 per week but of course we also pay for phone contract, trips home, multiple food shops, big ticket items. DS already pays for his phone and some clothes, but will be paying everything from October.
Of course he doesn't have to take the full (minimum) loan, that will be up to him.

Yes the live on min loan, parent pay accommodation does need thinking about if it’s very expensive accommodation. Yr1 my dd chose cheapest halls none en-suite so min loan and accommodation was more or less max English loan. She also gets a £1000 a year academic scholarship.

My DD has £100 a week from us and we pay her rent of £5000 a year she also takes minimum maintenance loan and works so has roughly £200 a week plus money from working after rent and is a rower. She rows about 5 hours a day every day so calorie consumption is very high, maybe 3 times what someone inactive would eat and she's thin. I don't know how much she spends on what but I would imagine her food budget maybe 3 times an non active. Then there's about 5 weeks of rowing camps and travelling to regattas in UK and abroad. She does earn maybe £10k a year. I think that gets saved in secret ISAs but not sure as she does a lot of socialising as well but she normally crashes balls and goes to places like McDonalds, formals which are cheap and rarely drinks. She has always spent a lot more than I would have done but she works a lot as well. A lot of the people she rows with are from very wealthy families though she could spend before she knew them but has worked since 16.

Yes, I think it's always very unclear on these threads what the money covers so does make it hard to compare. So many parents pay for all the initial items up front and then pay for gym membership, cost of phone, transport home, big shops etc. So of course their children can manage day to day with less than those who fund all those things themselves. And then some parents fund everything in holidays and others don't.

I personally don't see why you wouldn't just give your child more money up front and let them budget properly rather than giving them less money and then paying for loads of things on top, to the point the money they have only has to cover food and socialising.

The poster who claimed her DC lived on £35 a week hasn't been back to clarify how, for example.

I onviously said earlier that dd lives off a full loan with no help from us (other than her grandparents pay her car insurance as a Christmas present each year and we helped her with the initial costs of bedding/kitchen stuff etc (her previous rental included a lot of stuff) and I went shopping with her the very first week and spent about £40.

My son has just finished. He is younger and still a dependent. He got minimum loan which was less than his accommodation cost. We topped that up then made up the minimum to maximum. In his first year that gave him £68 per week to lie off. In later years when his accommodation was cheaper it gave him £75 per week to live off. That covered everything except an initial shop of approx £30 value plus we bought him start up equipment.

Both of them pay their own phone, netflix etc subscriptions (as I don't have one) and all travel.

Yes parents paying for phone, contact lenses, gym, laundry, train home on top makes a big difference plus how often come home.
Some halls inc laundry and gym others are paying £10 a week circuit laundry and £200 a year gym membership.
How often come home is a factor too. My dd had hall friends an hour away who used to get free bus home and get washing done free, have Sunday roast and come back with groceries for week ahead. Very different scenario to yp not going home all semester.

We’re paying £10k accommodation costs and giving him £200 per month for food. He will use loan for everything else. He has worked over the summer but won’t be able to take a part time job as course is full time, he will work hopefully at Xmas and again next summer.

Seeing everyone's budgets has been useful! There is clearly quite a range.

We're using the maintenance loan (minimum amount) to pay for accommodation and we will top this up. It's catered mon to Fri. There will be a monthly allowance of £300 plus an extra Freshers week £150 for extra socials, text books etc. we will also cover the one off annual gym membership.

No allowance in holidays - he will have to get a job.