How much for driving lessons & university??

[Mistyblossom]

My only DD has just turned 16.

I have been a single mum for most of her life. But means I have been late to the party financially to be able to save for such things.

How much do I need to save for driving lessons, car, insurance etc?

And how much for university, a helpful monthly payment, how much are people giving their uni children a month etc?

I am now in a financial position to be able to save a reasonable amount towards these things but want first had advice about it how much this all costs etc

Thank you!

My DD pays £80 for a 2 hrs driving lesson and my eldest has about £200 per month for uni

Thank you!

I am 24 and my mother never paid for these things. You don’t need to and it’s probably too late now anyway if she’s 16. I haven’t been to uni I admit but I had kids young and will do when they’re all in school. That’s what student loans are for don’t waste your money

I didn’t get help with uni as my parents couldn’t afford to help out financially, bar the odd Ryanair flight back home (not from the UK). I got £6000 a year towards maintenance in the form of a scholarship - I believe this is similar to the loan amount? - and had to work for the rest.

I also didn’t get any help towards my driving lessons or a car, so I was 26 by the time I started to learn.

I believe the “done” thing is to top up the loan to its max amount - can you run the calculators to see how much she would get?

We are hoping to mostly teach DS to drive but 10 lessons will be c £400. Already have a car for him. Car insurance I’m expecting to be about £3000 per year which we’ll probably pay monthly.

We currently save £300 a month for uni (DS similar age) he will only get minimum loans due to income so I am preparing for c £8000 a year in accommodation costs, so trying to save for as much as I can in advance with a view of paying £300 a month continually to keep that fund topped up. He will likely need a job if he wants more than minimum loans to sustain him outside of accommodation costs. We’re not actually sure if he’ll be going to uni yet, but due to our income we need to prepare.

It depends what OP’s income is, the loan amount offered is tapered depending on income, the minimum loan isn’t enough on its own.

Driving lessons have been £40 per hour, once a week for 4 months plus insurance on our car for DC to practice which was around £70 per month.

Uni is later this year. He’ll take the minimum maintenance loan (on top of the loan for fees) which is about £7k as he’ll go to London. Accommodation is expensive so I’ve budgeted £1000 per month for halls, and from his loan he’ll contribute an amount towards towards accommodation and have about £100-£120 per week to live on. He’s expecting to get a job too. I’ll continue to pay his phone contract for the duration.

We’re assuming £1000 per month to cover accommodation costs and food, everything else will need to come from student loan, and a part time job, if he gets one.
Driving lessons, we paid for 10 for him as part of his 17th birthday present and he bought a few himself. Now he can drive but he uses my car as not worth paying ££££’s for a car which he won’t use much as hopefully he’ll be in St Andrews and car isn’t really required.

DC gets £145 per week from us for food etc.

I don’t want to derail but at what age does this stop being applicable? Say someone’s in their late twenties and hasn’t lived with their mum since 16?

Ds gets minimum loan of just under £5000 a year, his accommodation (uni halls, self catering) costs just under £9000 a year. We top up the accommodation and then give him £160 a month to live on. I buy extra tins and dried food every week and he takes these back with him each holiday/reading week, so he’s only buying meat, eggs, milk and bread. He spends £10-15 a week on food shopping and £5 a week on laundry. He’s not a big drinker or one for partying though. We pay his phone and he had £2000 in savings when he went in September and plans to work during the summer to build it back up for next year. He’s not learning to drive yet as he didn’t see the point before uni so I can’t answer that part of your question.

We reckon DS’s living costs at university are about £11k pa. He’s pretty frugal.

driving lessons were about £35 an hour a few years ago but he needed a lot - now if this “1 lesson for each year of your life” formula.

@Jugjug older than 25 or can prove they have been living independently of parents for 2 years.

@Mistyblossom I reckon it cost £1k for DS to learn to drive - 20 lessons at £35/hr, provisional licence and learner insurance. Insurance the first year he passed in a group 1 car was £1200. We are topping him up at university to maximum loan which works out at £100 a week to live on after his rent is paid, self catering in basic halls at a medium cost university. It’s worth factoring accommodation cost into your decisions about where to apply as in some cities the full 10k would only cover accommodation. If you look at the student finance calculator you can see what maintenance loan would be available, the assumption is parents (or students by working) pay the difference.

This varies a lot depending on the child, where you are, where they go to uni, and what kind of programme they're in.

Where I am, driving lessons are £350+ for 10 hour blocks.

I saved up about 5k for each child - DS1 went the cadetship route and DD1 went the apprenticeship route, so neither have needed it yet.

I don’t want to derail but at what age does this stop being applicable? Say someone’s in their late twenties and hasn’t lived with their mum since 16?

25 is when all students become classed as independent.

Students under 25 can also be classed as independent if care leavers, estranged from parents for 2+ years, are a parent themselves, and/or are in a marriage or civil partnership. I was classified as an independent student at 21 because of a couple of those.

This is the type of thing I was thinking because I it’s unlikely DD will get much from the student finance due to household income.

I don’t think I could teach DD to drive 🤣 plus would not want her using my car (not that it’s amazing but currently doesn’t have any scratches or dents lol)

do you know the cut off for help with accommodation costs?? Because DD is set on a uni which is about 200 miles away so she will have to live there.

I have told DD she will need a job too, but want to make sure she doesn’t starve in the process 😬

DD has a child trust fund which at the moment is about 2.5k so I have said she will need to use some of this for car related business but I’m hoping she will be driving before she is 18 when she can withdraw it as we live very rurally so I’ll still be doing school runs until she is nearly 19 otherwise 😩

Household income about £65-70k so probably enough to not allow her to claim a lot but equally not millions to hopefully exclude her?

https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator You can work out the maintenance loan entitlement here. Assume you are in England as approach does vary a lot between the various home nations. No income threshold in Wales for example, income impacts just the grant:loan split there.

My kids worked part time from 14/15 so this might be a bit different if yours doesn’t.

17th Birthday double driving lesson.(£78) (They buy the licence) I pay for learners insurance on family car. (80 for 6 months) They then drive at EVERY opportunity with me sitting next to them. They study theory and I pay for test and practical £24 + £62. Any pre test lessons they pay for.

I didn’t pay anything for any of mine at Uni. They had max maintenance loan and worked as after school nanny/Lidl/Bar 3 evenings a week with the exception of the academically heavy final year when I sent £200 per month from October to May.

Nice I plan to go in a few years (moved out at 16 and had my first child at 16 and now have 3) would hate for my mothers income to affect it when it hasn’t been relevant in almost a decade

This is great thank you. She has been trying to get a job since she turned 16 (so only a couple of months) but nothing yet, she is aware she needs one though and I have said she will have to put some of her wages away for the cost of driving etc

Student loans don’t cover the full cost of accommodation but then you wouldn’t know that if you didn’t go so are hardly the one to advise

Please do the sums using the gov calculator shared up thread. You will be EXPECTED to fund the shortfall between loan given and max loan, which might( depending on uni) cover her accommodation. Or not
check the uni website for accom costs- they vary wildly. The student room is a good up to date resource.
I’ve known youngsters offer tutoring to help younger students( at a v reasonable rate) which she could consider.

Ds had 20 hours of driving lessons (including the lesson before his test and test time) costing £700 in total. His insurance for the first year was £890.

He’s not in university yet, but where you live will make a bit of difference to how much support your dd will get from the state. Wales is more generous than England. I don’t know about Scotland and NI