How am I going to be able to fund 2 DDs through university?

[NigellaTheUndomesticGoddess]

Just realised this is going to be expected in 6 years from now!
How do i do it? do i start saving into some sort of account? if so which one?
and DD1 has decided she wants to be a doctor which means 7 years studying!!!!!
what on earth do i do?

um. actually i went to university at 25. worked my socks off the whole way through. have a 'meaningful' yet not well paid career. but fall in to the band of not poor enough to get it cheap yet no rich enough to accept it will be easy.

xenia depends maybe if you play housey with some of these obscenely rich men you could buy the damn uni, or a small countries perhaps.

It's morally and politically unacceptable for women to live off male earnings. They should earn their own incomes to be able to support their own children at university.

It's morally and politically acceptable for families to decide how they will utilise their family resources to ensure that their own children have the best possible world and opportunities .. if that involves one partner working outside home and the other taking care of the children without using external, paid-for childcare then that is totally acceptable ...

We are paying into DD's CTF and will encourage her alot to use this for uni when the time comes if she wants to go, we won't be able to afford it otherwise.

Of course it is optional to help fund children through university/HE. I would like to help to make their lives a bit easier. Just because they are officially adults won't mean I will stop wanting this. I'm not sure what 'living off male earnings' has to do with this?
And my DDs came along a bit late for CTF but late enough that their fees will need to be paid for.
Out of interest, for those of you who have been through this, is there an average amount you think it has cost you?

DS is 5 and I opened a savings account from birth to help save for Uni should he choose to go. If he doesnt, then he can use it towards a house deposit, business start up etc or I may spend it on handbags

I want to give him the best start in life, yes he may be an adult at 18 but that doesnt mean we cant still assist him should we choose. I would expect him to work for spending money but hope that he wont have to take the loans etc.

Its expensive enough to live nowadays without thousands of pounds of debt at such a young age.

I wouldnt pay for a wedding or such like but see assisting with education costs as giving him the best start to his own independent life.

ditto sleepycat

I didn't go to univerisity as my parents didn't have a pot to piss in and I didn't get a grant

therefore couldn't afford to go

there is the side issue that I wasn't interested and was raving about partying the length and breadth of Britain at the time anyhooo BUT I can play the impoverished hard done to kept in my place oik and get my violin out if need be, just say the word

my children will not be getting a bean, I will be spending any spare money on a cruise or a penthouse in Manhattan or whatever, they can get a job imo

Oh and I should have said that I did one of those courses which were 9-5 every day so it is perfectly possible to work when doing those sort of courses too....

BTW, has it always been the thing to move far away from home to go to University in this country? Where I grew up people tended to go to their local university - and if you didn't get your first choice of course there, you did something else there or went to the local non-university. The only people I came across who moved to the other end of the country were those who were determined to do medicine, say and didn't get a place at the local university but got in somewhere else - or people who wanted to do a specific course that wasn't offered locally.

I'm putting my family allowance into a trust fund and adding to it. BUT I would also say you can only pay what you can afford, some degrees just don't cut the mustard and people end up doing degrees as a gap filler as they don't really know what they want to do. I would put owness on my dd, they need to show willing. I got very little indeed and had to work 5 days a week when I was at uni.

By the time my children are at Uni, I fully expect to be supporting my parents.

I worked through UNI - admittedly it was before fees - ended up with 6k in loans.

I have friends who have uni debts up to 30k but they seem to have spent a lot of time partying and buying clothes which we would never have done!

They should work in the holidays and get loans. I did (but cheaper in those days) - my brother wasn't so lucky - did 4 years in London and graduated with massive debts. But he has paid them off gradually and has a good job to help him do so.

My SIL/BIL are supporting their older boy through uni - youngest still at school but will be the same. Older one is 20 and has never worked a day in his life. Relies on folks for everything even though they are not wealthy. holidays he comes home, watches telly and plays computer games.

I don't think they are doing him any favours!

Isn't that what student loans are for? An interest free loan that you don't have to start paying back til you're earning a decent wage? Can't see the problem, myself.

I do think that Xenia has a very good point about living at home

the idea that to be a student you have to move as far as you possibly can away from home is a bit outdated and extravagant imo

I know that you are supposed to be learning and standing on your own feet blahdi blahdi but I don't think that me or dh learned anything about 'life' from living in student accommodation

if they want the qualification then they can stay at home and I can feed them; I live in a university town with a good choice of vocational unis/ teacher training within easy reach of the train station

if they want to spend 3 years vomiting on traffic cones then they can fund that themselves

oh absolutely riven

but they don't need to pay rents to mad old witches with long printed lists of furnished items

and you don't have to buy them blardy Tesco Basics pan sets and their own cereal bowls

riven
in fairness Xenia is a bit sketchy on issues re disability. Apparently my best option was to get DH to resign and we could live happily of state benefits .
I love Xenia but i am a bit concerned that she isn't really here anymore. Her computer just cuts and pastes....