How much does a uni student need per month?

[CarPar]

DS went off to uni this year in Liverpool.
He lives in halls which we top up his loan (minimum loan) to pay for. As its halls, all bills are included, we pay his phone bill. University is walking distance.

His girlfriend is at another northern university which is about an hour away by train.

How much money is reasonable to give him per month for food and basics and a bit of a social life?

At the moment he gets £500 per month. He also gets clothes bought for him when he needs them. Gets some shopping bought for him when he is home or we are there (though to be fair he normally says he is fine). He travels to see his girlfriend most weekends. He's had additional money for treats.

We landed on this sum as my friend's son said that's what he spent but I'm starting to think it's too much and we are doing him a disservice by not making him work. What do you give your kids? Is this a standard sum?

Mine gets the minimum loan plus £600pcm from us, but that has to cover the cost of her halls (including bills), food, travel, socialising etc. Our £600 per month effectively covers the hall costs, so she has her student loan and PT job to cover everything else. (Job is well paid but limited hours as she is doing a very demanding course). She is in a relatively cheap part of the country, which probably helps, but she seems to manage OK overall.

We also cover her phone costs and some ad hoc travel costs and other random stuff as and when. She has been responsible for buying all her clothes/shoes/toiletries etc from her allowance since she was around 13 so she is used to budgeting for herself. I have told her that we can give her more if she finds that she is struggling, but she says she is managing OK so far.

DD has minimum loan; £750per month from us and also her phone and contact lenses paid for by us. After (expensive) rent at halls, it's about £85 a week. Has a job in the holidays and odd weekends at home to top up for luxuries. .

Mine gets minimum Student Loan. We give him £500pm which covers his rent, so he lives off his SL to pay his bills.

We also pay for his phone, he buys clothes and pays gym membership.

He works PT as a bar man, so this gives him a little extra cash, which he saves up.

When he goes back after holidays, we normally do a food shop with him, or sometimes I will have a couple of bags of food/toiletries to send him back with. He doesn't expect this, but I like doing it, and buying a few nice bits that he wouldn't usually treat himself to (chocolate etc)

My DD was in halls (Liverpool) for first year. She got the minimum loan and used her savings from her Saturday job for spending. I paid her halls.

Second year she got a job and paid her own rent and got the minimum loan. It was a struggle for her.

Third year she gets minimum loan again, still has the job and I pay her rent.

I pay her phone contract and the occasional food shop (when taking her back at start of term).

Hopefully she'll graduate with a good class of degree this summer and start working in the autumn, where she'll have to pay her own rent!

My DD gets £5000 a year from the government split across the terms by the government. I pay her phone and she uses my streaming accounts. She lives off the government grant and I pay her rent.

I give mine £100 per week to live on. Sometimes a bit extra. Rent is covered by student loan.

Ours got the minimum loan, but we paid all their rent, phone, travel expenses. So the loan was fine for food and going out costs

Thank you all. It's so tricky. On the surface the £500 doesn't look too unreasonable but I think the top ups and no responsibility for anything is where we are going wrong.

Maybe we should pay his rent and leave him to manage on his loan. He'd have less money and have to budget over a longer period which might do him a bit of good.

At the moment he is procrastinating over getting a job (he studies history so only has 3-4 days of lectures each week) and goes to his girlfriend each week, taking her out for dinner and buying her gifts.

I have to admit I am struggling as we never see him anymore and the only reason he calls is if he needs money, food or a lift. Teenagers are hard work.

If he can afford to take his gf out for dinner and buy her gifts every week £500 is far too much. Half it and tell him to find a job.

Yep, same here ☝

We are fully funding our son, paying his fees and accommodation so he doesn't have to take loans. He gets £500/month to cover food, travel, social life plus I still pay his mobile bill (under a tenner/month). Other than buying him a couple of text books, he has not asked for anything since September. And he wouldn't get it if he did. We have said to him that he is already getting way more than most do and to live within his means or get a job.

We give our dc (2nd year, in private accommodation, all bills included in rent) £300 per month for food, socialising, trips etc. I have paid for the occasional extra thing when he asks.

I pay rent and they live off minimum loan plus a bit extra from me. They have £120 a week spending money.

Think about total amount needed and work from there.

My DS is at Durham in fully catered halls. They cost about £9.75k. We worked on the basis of having an extra £80 per week in term time. So that was £800 per term or additional £2400 per year.

In total he has about £12.25k.
He spends little on food as gets 3 meals a day in college provided. Much social life is based around colleges with cheap bars etc and he’s not a huge spender. So actually, first term, even with Feeshers and JCR fees and society memberships, he had a couple of hundred left at end of term.

He doesn’t work in term times but will have a summer job.

Wirk out the costs of accom and food and whatever is reasonable for socialising. Work back from that. DC will have whatever loan they get. You can then decide if to pay everything else needed or to pay some and they cover some through job. Better to work backwards than randomly picking a number to give.

Having minimum loan for everything beyond housing costs - gives a hefty amount per week - more than needed aid think and might mean some have closer to £14 or £15k. If the student loan were adjusted for inflation it would be just over £12k, so could be useful figure to start from.

Id expect students to need to do some buffering and not to be able to spend on everything with zero thought.

We pay for DDs acommodation (catered) and she has her Minimum Maint loan for everything else and she has some money her Grandma gave her and some savings .
We pay for her phone and she also has a credit card which is an additional card on DH's account which she uses to pay for travel home or anything else she needs. Its paid in full every month and we get cashback.
She is very trustworthy and doesn't use it without asking first

We pay accommodation and phone. They live off their (minimum) loan and have a part time job. We pay for their car but they pay for petrol. When we visit we take them to do a shop. Budgeting and living a little frugally is good for young people.