Thread 48- Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer before Year 2 Uni

[Oblomov23]

Summer ending. Year 2 for many at Uni about to start.

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and advice to be had.
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@Alsoplayspiccolo we use/used marmalade for both of ours. But in their own cars. They send a black box, it sticks to the windscreen. Ds had to link his phone to it first, so if he's in the car it links to his phone. Then we added our phones. It doesn't seem to monitor our driving like ds's. But I've not tried speeding to find out. There are no curfews, so driving at night is fine. But not sure I would want one in my car all the time. We've been fine with marmalade until recently, ds1 was with them one year, ds2 for almost 3 years. They have started sending Ds warnings for breaking and cornering too sharply. He's been told if he does it again he gets a fine. We viewed the last 2 incidents, one says breaking too sharply decreasing the speed by 15mph in 5 seconds. I don't think that is breaking hard, this was in a 30mph. The other one was driving at 15mph on a big roundabout. Again, that isn't that fast. So dh phoned them and they dropped both warnings. But said if he gets 2 on a journey again he will be fined. So far he's been ok. He finishes work Friday. So won't drive the car much more. Insurance runs out November. I had a lower quote without the black box when I looked on confused website.

I have insured Ds on my car for the drive to Brighton. He's not driven a fast car, an automatic car or on a motorway. So I'm nervous. I've added him for 2 days, so will take him for a drive the day before, if I get time. I am working a lot of the day. It was only £5.60 to add him for 48 hours.

@Piggywaspushed that's good dh made it.

Well we have DD for about another day and a half. Friday off work for both of us, hopefully things won’t be too manic as it’s not the weekend. Her friends have assured her it wasn’t busy moving in (different private hall to last year) but they moved in last weekend and today, and it’s freshers next week, so not surprising.

Apparently Radio 1 are visiting during freshers and she’s quite baffled by it. Her take to my dad: You listen to Radio 4 don’t you? Well there’s a Radio 1 and they’re visiting next week …

Young people today 😂

Omg, mum's of girls - how much stuff do they take to uni 🤦 DS never took this much stuff. The car is full and we haven't even got to trainers and coats yet. Or toiletries. It's going to be a long and uncomfortable 5 hour drive to Wales tomorrow 😭

😂 mummyinbeds sounds about right

DD is surprised how much stuff she has packed given most of her uni-specific stuff is in storage. I'm afraid to go look in her room.

I'm not sure which one of mine is the more unusual in that they both took more or less the same amount. So either DS takes too much or DD takes too little 🤣 Don't get me wrong - both had plenty!!
DD probably had an extra blanket (feels the cold), and make -up (but probably same amount of toiletries). She certainly had more soft toys!! She also takes a craft bag for knitting/crochet/embroidery which she does to relax. DS has more trainers (which are much bigger than DDs shoes). So it all balances out .

DS took less than last year, things like the clothes airer and the DSA printer never got used. Both mine are fairly minimal with clothes etc, DD only posesses one pair of trainers, walking boots one pair smart shoes and some crocs. DS has one pair of trainers, one of astros, sliders, walking boots and wellies.

DS has had a wobbly start back, he is in an odd limbo with being in halls and therefore having been on campus this week during Freshers Week, the uni made it clear that Freshers Week activities were only for Freshers so most second years have not come back yet so he’s been a bit bored. A friend of his from home has started after a gap year he’s been able to go to the Fresher’s events but is anxious so DS is looking after him a bit. DS really threw himself into all the Freshers stuff last year and feels a bit lacking in social confidence suddenly, I think it will help when term starts properly next week. His social confidence at home has grown massively this summer so I hope that will help. I just hope that by staying in halls he won’t have isolated himself from those in houses. There will be other 2nd/3rd years in halls but possibly they will be the very quiet ones. Having said that, its not as if everyone else is going to be in one big house together or will suddenly only socialise with their own house.

Hope next week is better for your ds @EversoDetermined . It's a transition anyway isn't it, going back after a long break.

We took dd last night and managed to fit everything into our Sandero. And I think she's pretty high maintenance! She has loads of clothes and make up/toiletries, but we packed everything in Ikea bags rather than suitcases to make space.

She sent me a video at 4.30am of her room, decked out with lights, and everything unpacked! Good job lectures don't start til the week after next!

How much are all your students living on per week? We did a shop for dd and it cost £55 but I'm not sure if that's a typical shop as we bought various things like spices, pasta and rice which will last a while.

DS has £70 pw after rent and bills but he's hoping to get a job to supplement that.

We are on the way to Nottingham, been stationary on the M5 for at least half an hour, seems like there's a bad accident ahead 🙁

Last year DS was getting £100 pw but this year we have reduced it so that he gets £85pw (in total) after paying rent, bills and annual bus ticket. He now lives opposite Lidl and his housemate works there and can get discount so we figure that is enough, combined with his transport already having being paid for. We also pay for his phone directly. He gets minimum loan though (which he gives to us and we transfer him rent, bills and weekly money) and this means we are having to pay about £1,000 extra in the year (than last year) to make this happen even at the lower level of £85. He thinks it'll be fine though. He has taken a few hundred from his savings to have as a buffer for the initial higher expenditure.

DS clearly fleeced us though as his initial grocery shop with us was £78 and that was in Lidl 😂

Both mine just have their minimum loan. We pay accommodation, phones and netflix/Spotify. We also pay for glasses/contacts as both need high prescriptions. DDs drop off grocery shop was £100! But she does need GF stuff which is expensive.
@EversoDetermined hope your DS settles soon. DDs uni is really clear that Fresher's events are open to all. All her flat this year are returners and she has done several things with some of them.

Dd has just reminded me that we also went to B&M Bargains - some of the stuff we bought from there was soft furnishings, but probably at least £10 was for food and snacks!

We can't afford to let her keep her (almost minimum) loan for food so it goes on rent. But I've realised if we did, she'd have nearly £100 a week including in the holidays!

We top up DDs loan to the max amount. So after rent is paid she will have approx £95 per week she is at Uni (31 weeks).
We still pay her mobile, Spotify and any match fees, memberships and any Balls, But I do expect her to save some from her weekly amount to use outside the 31 weeks alongside
Any wages or savings. we no longer pay for holidays with friends/bf, nights out etc during holidays.

I feel like I got off lightly, I gave DS a 'new home' shopping list which included things like foil and clingfilm and pantry basics along with veggies and meat and he told me it came to £41 at Lidl. 😀

I am confused about money though, we paid £1200 for rent in advance but I'm still paying him the £65 a week and he now gets his loan paid straight to him. I think we may be getting robbed on that front.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn Yes sounds like he needs to pay you back the £1200 :-) although he may not be able to straight away as their loan arrives on Monday (Nottingham) and then if lime my DD next payment for rent is due October. DD had to pay £1700 in July and due again in middle of October, but the loan wont cover both, makes it harder to budget when 3 student loan amounts but 4 rent payments due. As long as DD remembers what she has as a weekly budget it should be ok and she should br able to put back the first £1700 although will need it again next year.

DD also shopped at Lidl yesterday which pleasantly surprised me.

We effectively top up to the max loan by paying the rent. It’s in termly amounts. That reminds me, I couldn’t get it to transfer out of the bank it’s in (it is a former child savings account that matured into a standard one with me as trustee) because I forgot the password and had to borrow it off myself, I need to sort that out. He then gets the loan and has to budget the rest from that. We paid all his home expenses over the summer as he was volunteering and not in paid work but he paid for all trips and nights out etc. We still pay for his phone. Although he does owe me £250 for replacement retainers after losing them on holiday……

@Heifer yes he had to pay beginning of August hence us coughing up for it, he pays again in mid Oct. I'm going to keep it the same for now and see how it goes, I think it might take him a while to get into the whole budgeting thing that he didn't need to do last year.

@EversoDetermined how much is the rent you pay? I'm pretty sure that DS's is £135/week 'including bills' which is £6750 for the 50 week contract.

I've just checked with him, apparently they've put the bills money up so he pays £120 / week rent and £120 / month bills! 😯

It was about £6500 for the year to end of May @JustHereWithMyPopcorn , that’s in halls so bills all included, self-catered, large en-suite room.

What do 2nd and 3rd yr students do about online shopping? It was easy when they could get it delivered to the halls postoffice! Can they still do that when not living in campus?

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn is that a bills package? DS1 is living in a 2 bed flat in Manchester with no gas and their total budget is £20 internet and £100 electricity. £120 each in a house share sounds really high, if 4 of them that would be £6,000 a year.