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!

I was a single mum with a dd going to uni. I couldn’t afford any of those things. She went to uni and supported herself.

Dd gets the minimum loan. Her rent is just over 1k a month which we pay. She uses her loan which is about 5k to live off. She struggles on that and I give her a further £30 a week. I appreciate most rent won’t cost that.

I spent 2k on driving lesons and £800 on car insurance with black box. DC's rent is £9k a year at uni (will be £10k next year). Minimum loan is about 5k. We pay rent, DC uses loan for living costs, which is more than enough. Recommend uni's in cheaper towns.....

If your household income is 65 70k, it will be minimum loan or pretty close, so more like 5k for maintenance.

op’s this person’s posts are absolute bollocks. I hope you’re not taking them on board.

Are you basing your assessment on university costs in one friend? What are you so focused on the cost of drinking? If it’s something you don’t plan to do that’s fine - mature students often have a very different university experience.

what are you planning to study at university? Does your loc asl university offer the course you want and will you meet the entrance criteria?

The cocaine🤣🤣. All very odd: lets hop this person does go to university and broadens her horizons

haha i was hoping they actually don’t go to university as a lot of independent study skills are needed.

For me it’s the lack of understanding that your local uni may not accept you, may require grades too high, or may not offer the course you are looking for. But noooo everyone should just stay local🤣

The sad part is this poster is a parent and will be giving advice to her children at some point. If they want to go to university, this person won’t understand the local university won’t necessarily be the right one. She will be also be convinced they will spend all their money on cocaine.

yes as a mature student with dependents she will be able to access some financial assistance so her finances won’t be the same as most 18 year olds. But most 18 year olds will rely on their parents for some level of support.

@Jugjug the university dd goes to is ranked 5th best in the world for her subject. Above Harvard. I think possibly above Cambridge.

Our local university offers the same course and it’s ranked something like 70th in the country. Right at the bottom of the league tables. It would be a bigger waste of money for her to stay local as in this sector the university you go to matters a lot for job prospects.

I appreciate not everyone will be as privileged as her to be able to choose but it’s certainly something which should be considered.

For university they will get a loan based on your household income - if this is higher your will either need to subsidise her or she needs savings of around £5-6k a year just to make up the shortfall between the loan and the cost. Driving lessons whilst nice are not essential unless you are rural so prioritise savings then decide what is most important to use them on based on their pathway at 18 (not everyone goes to university) and how much loan they get

Driving lessons, decent first car, insurance and incidentals £3-5k

Uni - off the top of my head I think minimum loan is £4k pa. You can expect to pay between £8-£12k for halls ( particularly if city/RG uni). I'd allow £150 on top per month for food and travel costs (assuming your DD will get a part time job for personal expenses such as clothes and going out)

£2-300 if you want to set her up with new stuff for when she moves (eg mattress topper, bedding, kitchen equipment etc)

2nd and 3rd year uni accommodation you're looking at the same rent plus bills on top and potentially increased travel expenses especially if first year accommodation is on campus.

Having said that, a lot of these costs can be mitigated depending on choices and how your DD is about work and handling money.

Check out the WIWIKAU group (What I Wish I Knew About University) on Facebook - loads of helpful info on there.

With respect, the OP might not be aspiring for her dd to make similar life choices to those that you have made, so she may want to adapt a different strategy from the one that your mum adopted.

OP, we paid around £40 an hour for driving lessons and we give dd £600 per month to top up (minimum) student t loan. DD also has a PT job to supplement.

It’s 4k PA if you live at home, 5K away, 7K (London).

Ah!

Mercifully my DD has been entitled to full loans (and even then I've been working a second job while she's been at uni, despite the fact she also works her arse off and is great with money!).

In a nutshell I'd just say save as much as you can!

I think if they go to Uni etc post 25 then parental income is not automatically taken into account ….. Think as a ‘mature student’, there are loans/grants/bursaries available depending on circumstances- but no obligation on parents at that point.

So DS has minimum loan. He lives away at uni. We pay for accommodation (10k, he chose swanky) and then he lives off his loan and job money.
We paid for driving lesson. He drives my car (deliberately not fast). 1st year insurance was £1.2k but he was a named driver rather than the main one.
Lessons vary where you live and how long they are. But you also have to pay for the license, the theory test and practical test. On the day of the test you might need to hire the examiners car and have a pre test lesson and that costs £££ too. Get them to do their theory as soon as they are 17. You then have a 6 month wait for the practical test, so will be paying for lessons whilst you wait. I would do driving ASAP otherwise exams, uni, jobs get in the way and those I know who left it later never seemed to ever get around to it.

And no one is talking about the elephant in the room… post university rental and the fact that these property rental companies in university towns have a monopoly over rental properties in areas your son or daughter want to live and they expect parents to still act as guarantors because of course the young person hasn’t enough wage slips and history of earnings to provide the insurance.

Rude. I’m merely saying there’s a fair few uni students who drink and party a lot. The op has said she’s a single parent and has struggled financially for years it would be a shame to feel obligated to send hundreds to your child every month just for it to be wasted.

I didn’t know 71% of parents send money to their children at uni and in all honesty I’m not sure i believe it one minute we are being told it’s a cost of living crisis and millions of people can’t afford to buy their children coats the next minute we’re told 71% send their uni children money often to the tune of over a grand a month.

15% of parents apparently can’t afford to but their children a coat when they sell them in charity shops for £5 but at the same time 71% are sending hundreds of pounds to their children at uni. I do not blindly believe statistics like this

You are trying to give ridiculous advice on subject you clearly know nothing about.

I originally said my mother didn’t give me any money for uni or driving lessons and neither did the parents of the majority of my friends.
Bar one person I know whose parents paid for a few driving lessons. It’s not uncommon to let them do their own thing

And everyone’s circumstances are different, including income, location, subject choice, accommodation options etc. For many, students do need extra financial support.

It’s also perfectly acceptable that op wants to support her DD and that is what she has asked for help with. Not ‘nah don’t give her anything, she will spend on coke and she can just go to nearest uni and live at home’.

Driving lessons will vary depending on how quickly they pick it up. DS only cost 12 lessons in total and I refused to teach him in my car as the insurance was so high plus I’m not an instructor. We block booked 6 and then another 6 so got a discount. He then did a degree apprenticeship so it cost us nothing. They are really competitive though plus limited vocational subjects. He graduated last year so it’s all very recent.

What she could consider is a gap year to work full time, DS also did this and worked a night shift as a freight handler in an airport. He was earning £16ph 4 years ago and if he did overtime it was £19.

With buying a car they only need it if they need it for work. He passed at 17 but had his car as an 18th birthday gift. After he passed his test I let him borrow my car.

I worked in higher education for many years as did DH, both retired. There is cost versus outcome which is heavily influenced by subject. He worked in a STEM subject, mine was social science. His students had a much better employability rate than mine.

What subject is she contemplating? also look at the dept standing not just the University. There are various rankings.

@Jugjugim sorry your parents couldn’t help at all. My DH and I earn over the threshold so my daughter gets minimum loan amount therefore we are expected to help. She also can’t work as she’s already on a professional programme and it’s much more intensive. I personally did not want her to live at home as she had agoraphobia at school and I believe she needed to get out into the world, which she has. Different people have different circumstances and different motivations for supporting their children. You are young, maybe that is something you have yet to learn.

Not all children go to university (about a third of 18 year olds) but all children require a winter coat.

The population of parents who need to buy winter coats is not identical to the population of parents who have children at university. And unfortunately socio-economic background is a primary determinant of university access.

I would rather rely on statistics than assume the entire population is the same as a handful of my friends.

If you want to go to university do encourage you to do some research into this. It is a fascinating and depressing subject. Yes you need to understand statistics and interpret them correctly - but they are much more liable than anecdotal evidence and often challenge how we see the world from our own biased platforms