How much for university?

[silverfridge21]

I'm wondering how much you'd ideally want put aside for a university fund? One dc

Appreciate the answer is probably ££ but wanting to get a realistic feel re living costs

And then some contribution towards maybe not taking the full loan- or take the loan but could be used towards a house deposit?

Not sure what financial planning I should be doing!

Charmed, how is that teaching them about money? It sounds like you're handing out pocket money.

No it’s definitely not like pocket money. Each DC gets £160 per fortnight and budgets for their food, socialising and anything they need. They are at uni in an expensive area so I feel £80 per week for food and social activities is fair. I buy them clothes 2 to 3 times a year and they pay a third towards it. One DC has a term time job and the other has an online business which he mainly does in the school holidays. Both are very good with money, always looking out for discount codes, never had an overdraft and always thinking of ways to save money.

The £10 per week in the uni holidays is given as a lump sum at the beginning of the holidays and then they get no more money. One son used the money for a festival ticket the other saved it and used it for social activities throughout the summer. I’m very proud of how they are with money. Very sensible and very appreciative.

I just cover my DDs accommodation. I split it with my XH. It's £5k a year (split between us). She has a minimum student loan. So £15k for 3 years.

We're just starting to think about this. We have twins

@user1487194234 because you're setting them up to struggle? My first job (2017) after my masters degree paid me £17k per year. That's a 6k drop from what you're paying them. The only reason I got that job was because they were impressed I worked 20 hrs a week while At uni.

It's crazy what you're giving them and they'll end up with no idea how to cope.

Sorry a £1k drop I misread a PP. but, after tax they'd be on £2.5k less. And it was a damn good job with a good company.

I give ds £1000 a term. He also gets money from his father but I have no idea how much. His rent is £900.

@LemonPrism Not necessarily. We are generous in our support and don’t expect student children to take part-time work in term time either. Far from setting them up to fail in life, we hope we are supporting them to succeed. We realise we are fortunate to be able to do so but a first from RG is far, far more likely to see them on graduate programmes which lead to better employment options.
One did medicine so no ability to take on extra work. Some of her peers really struggled financially through university. I don’t think any of the more affluent parents (which were majority) ever visited without hampers or paying for a meal out for the many rather than the few. (It meant cheaper venues but more fed students).
Our youngest hasn’t had to work in term time except year abroad. She did an internship in London rather than shifts at Waitrose in the holidays. They offered her a job starting on £34k plus bonus on graduating. She’s holding it but thinks she might reject it for either fast an offer from one of the big four offering only 32k but with potentially better career options.
We’d be slightly concerned if any of ours were looking at jobs paying less than £30k to start. Our son was on a starting salary of £27 but he was only 18 and didn’t have a degree at the time. He’s 24 now and paid £53k (including extra payments) this year, doing a job he loves.

Ours cope just fine financially, by the way. It’s not rocket science to manage money. Its usually just self control and consequential thinking.

@CherryPavlova just out of genuine interest, what job pays £27k at 18?

@Africa2go. Armed forces officer in specialist field.

Did you give your son 18k a year while he was at Sandhurst cherry?

It's perfectly possible not to work at all and live happily as a student on half that

No, he didn’t get much from us as he was earning well and spending very little for a year. We paid for nice hotel break when he had his first weekend away, his family weekend meal and hotel, a holiday for him at Easter, his commissioning sword, everything he needed to take with him (ironing board etc). We also paid travel in the second phase and a Gieves and Hawkes cap rather than an issue one.
We’ve helped since, of course.

Our student daughter doesn’t get that amount but we will pay off debt if she gets a 2:1 or first.

I think 18k pa for a student is what we were talking about tbh Cherry.

Bloody hell, £53k at age 24 (!!)
DS is looking at Sandhurst. He'll be chuffed to bits about the £27k.
Even though I have one also looking at medicine, I don't think I relate to CherryP at all, though.

I'll never make £53k either (2019 ££). So we don't actually have anything in common.

Are Junior doctors in 2019 still starting on £27k?

iljkk He’s done six years service, has gained specialist qualifications and is on good basic now with benefits like help to buy but the really high salary this year is from deployment related additional payments for substandard accommodation, being away from base, qualification allowance etc.
Our daughter started on about £31k for F1 but that was about five years ago. When she qualifies as a GP next year she’ll be starting on about £63k but she’ll add to that with locum work at a hospice.

18k for a student feels quite generous if it doesn’t include tuition fees and accommodation.

My kids have their loans
and then I send them what I spent on them when they lived at home
nobody is out of pocket
all are comfortable
all good

How do you work out what you spent on them at home though?

Where do you live, OP? England?
In Wales the government seeks to supply each student with the equivalent of the living wage. So they are all able to apply for £9k. The lower the household income, the higher the grant. DD only qualifies for the minimum, but still gets £1k grant that she will not have to repay.

I'd like to be able to cover her maintenance or her fees, but it just isn't possible. Luckily, the loan system means any contribution we make (and we do make some) is entirely optional. So we are saving instead for being able to help out later down the line if needed.

ssd
It took about half a term but was then astonishingly clear

• less water, less heat, less food, less loo roll, less petrol, less bus fare

so around £75 a week per kid plus the difference in house rent between the kid at Uni in the south than that in the north (£300 per month)

We pay accommodation of about £1600 a term, and they live on the £1300 min loan they get and I pay for phone, and get them a big shop in when they start term or we see them. They work on the hols to earn a bit extra.