If I had £1100 in 1978 . . .

[ScotsLassDownSouth]

what would I have now? Reason for asking is that DS1 will be going to University next September - he is currently on his gap year (working in a bar).

DH and I are discussing how we can support him at Uni and I found my old student grant letter from my first year at Uni in 1978 (yes, I am that old . . .) - and the full grant then was £1100 per annum. Now it's astonishing but, together with a bit of bar work and working during the holidays, I graduated with no debt, not even a small overdraft and I would like DS to have the same opportunity. We are fortunate in that we can afford to subsidise his studies.

So what would £1100 be worth "in today's money?" Any financial whizzes out there?

In 2007, £1,100.00 from 1971 is worth

£11,206.65 using the retail price index.
£19,967.66 using average earnings.

from the measuring worth website

can you use mars bars to work it out. they have gone up with inflation so how many mars bars could you have bought i 1978 for 1100 and then multiply that by how much a standard mars bar now costs

DUR, 1978. I thought that was a lot!

Here you go...

In 2007, £1,100.00 from 1978 is worth

£4,547.63 using the retail price index.
£7,354.96 using average earnings.

2007 is the latest year the site lets you put in, btw.

That's really interesting - so, to give a student starting out the same income as a full grant in 1971, they'd have £11,000 a year - sounds eminently feasible to me!
however I did it using 1978 as the initial year, and you only get £4,500 using RPI - I think that really wouldn't be enough.

In 1988, my parents gave me £300 a month to live on as a student - I have to say I didn't quite manage to graduate debt free, but I also didn't have time to work to top it up (no long holidays on my course). This works out at about £7,000 in todays money, or about £500 per month. I think that would be difficult today. However, in those days, rent was much less, and the standard of housing was also lower - we had no central heating or washing machine in our student house.

I think the main reason student life is more expensive these days is due to the increased standard of living and expectations.

£500/month is tight, but not totally impossible. I had a postgrad grant (full grant) in the early 2000s, and got about £600, and that was with extra for London. Managed with no extra work - tight though, and hard when all your friends are working already so able to spend much more than you.

That measuring Worth site suggests GDP per capita as a measure of affordability.

In 1978 this was $5,727.69 (here).

In 2007 this is estimated at $45,575(here).

If you increase your £1100 by the same proportion, you end up with £8752.66.

I knew I could rely on Mumsnet! Thanks for all your replies. We would like to contribute about £600 per calendar month (£7200 per annum)so it doesn't look as if we're far out.

Agree with elliott about increased expectations - most of my student life was spent in a draughty Edinburgh tenement flat with no heating, bar a two bar electric fire in the living room/kitchen! DS's friends who have not taken a gap year come home with tales of ensuite bathrooms in their halls of residence . . .

Thinking about this again, £500-600 should really be about enough, shouldn't it? FOr one person with time to budget and cook? though I am a bit out of touch with rents in student houses these days, and that will be the biggest chunk...we were total cheapskates and only paid about £14 per week in rent(!) and ate a lot of lentils!
However I don't see many students using the laundrette these days or making do without heating!
I ran a car on my £300 a month (just in my final year as we had placements up to 60 miles away) but we had no TV or computers, or mobile phones. Quite a lot of students had incoming calls only on their phone line (I wonder if that is even possible these days!)

I'm interested now (i.e. avoiding work!) - current postgraduate studentships are nearly £13,000 - which doesn't seem too awful (certainly comparable to the level 'in my day')
However the full loan (outside London) is only £5,000 for undergraduates now, and the full grant a palty £2,900. Plus of course the tuition fees which is a real killer.

We were lucky weren't we - and I thought I was hard done by when they phased out benefits in the summer after my first year!

I guess its useful to know what I've got to aim for in terms of (hopefully) supporting the ds's through university...its actually comparable to paying for full time nursery fees.

elliott, we certainly were lucky. When I didn't manage to get work during the holidays I "signed on" and got unemployment benefit/"the dole" - whatever it was in those days.

I feel very lucky that we can afford to subsidise DS - I know that many parents just can't afford to.

I 'managed' on about £400pcm in a shared student house, rent about £173 plus shared bills of telephone, electric/gas tv/video/washing machine rental plus individual bills of mobile/food/clothes plus of course, my study expenses which fortunately were quite light once you'd bought the text books. I worked every vacation though but it did get quite tight towards the end of the academic year. I only got a grant for the first year and after that it was loans all the way. Looking back we had quite a comfy lifestyle (for students) though.

One girl in my house used to get assessed to see how much student loan she wes entitled to and her parents then paid her this amount themselves to save her borrowing it. They then topped it up occasionally throughout the year.

but when, simplysally, when??

Sorry - this was 1999/2000.

scotslass - me and my brothers were at uni between 1978 and 1992. Although our parents were well off enough not to qualify for any help, my brothers still got a 'minimum grant' and for the year they were both at uni, the younger one got a full grant.

Actually even I got a full grant in my final year, as I had reached the ripe old age of 25 and was considered 'independent' of my parents! Can't remember how much it was though.

When I was at university the local supermarkets had a price war, particularly on baked beans. For several terms you could get baked beans for 5p or 6p a tin, and so we all ate a lot of beans (may not have been the most pleasant people to be around as a result, mind you).

I was a student between 83 and 85 and I still got Housing Benefit in teh summer holidays. Think I could sign on as well?? I too left with no debt and never ever worked (paid or non-paid!)

Tinker, 1985/6 was the last year you could claim housing benefit and sign on in the summer - it was my first year at uni.

Good grief, students of the past were even more spoilt than I realised.

Signing on?

Enough money to live on?

Grants?

The (full) maintenance loan I receive is worth about £4,500 per year.

My rent (cheap, for the area) is £340 per calendar month, which, by my calculations is about £4,100 per year.

Which leaves me less than £10 per week to live on, including paying all my bills. Obviously, this is impossible.

The system now assumes a large parental contribution, which is totally unfair to those (like me) whose parents can't/won't contribute. I have absolutely no choice but to work many hours, which I have no doubt impacts negatively on the amount of work I am able to put into my uni work.

Rant over.

Well, I wouldn't say we were spoilt, but we were lucky, obviously.
And it was pretty much all means tested so basically I did rely on a large parental contribution, so not much change there (though there was a lot more help then for those with parents on low incomes). The real difference was no tuition fees. And no access to student loans, just overdrafts.
But yes, it was a much more feasible system financially. But then again, it was also more exclusive (in that far fewer places were available).

I also, and neither did any of my friends/housemates, expect to live like people who earned money. Our house was disgusting. Landlord painted teh bathroom each year (cheap bright blue paint) and by the end of year it was almost totally covered in mildew again. Bathroom was directly off teh equally vile kitchen as well. No central heating.

ditto tinker. In the one house we had that had central heating, we never put it on. We had mice and slugs in the kitchen. We even had a leaking toilet cistern...
Those were the days eh...

Have only skimmed so apologies If I'm repeating, but in the glory glory days we could get housing benefit and sign on in the holidays too.