Son/daughter going to uni in September 2012. What do we need to buy?

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  • spadoosh
    spadoosh Posts: 8,732
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    I love how deluded some parents are on here.

    Key points.

    Your child will be drunk a lot (especially in the first two weeks)
    Your child will spend money on alcohol
    Your child will say they bought a book that costs £60 (when they actualy borrowed it from the library)


    I never got any money off my parents whilst at uni, i worked part time earning £100 a week (sat & sun) and recieved my loan, i went out 4 times a week at least and had a car to run traveling 240 miles every weekend to work. I went with no savings and came out with a little overdraft. Getting hammered everynight can be done very easily.
  • Anubis_2
    Anubis_2 Posts: 4,077 Forumite
    edited 10 April 2012 at 2:15PM
    spadoosh wrote: »
    I love how deluded some parents are on here.

    Key points.

    Your child will be drunk a lot (especially in the first two weeks)
    Your child will spend money on alcohol
    Your child will say they bought a book that costs £60 (when they actualy borrowed it from the library)


    I never got any money off my parents whilst at uni, i worked part time earning £100 a week (sat & sun) and recieved my loan, i went out 4 times a week at least and had a car to run traveling 240 miles every weekend to work. I went with no savings and came out with a little overdraft. Getting hammered everynight can be done very easily.

    We visited him and went with him to buy the books - I assure you they were purchased, having brought four children up I am not that niaeve! The books he needed were not available long term at the library so had to be bought, his teacher specified it.

    Yes at Freshers week they all get drunk, but eing in self catering quarters they each got supermarket stuff - much cheaper. My son didn't need to buy any as he went in with a couple of boxes.

    I would be interested to know if you were self catering or not?

    I know from my sons bank statements he has little money and has not squandered any.

    Just to add my son has NO overdraft. He doesn't have a student bank account, just a normal one. I told him, he is aware of what is available but he refused to get a bank account with student overdraft limits.
    How people treat you becomes their karma; how you react becomes yours.
  • AnnBar
    AnnBar Posts: 75 Forumite
    Hello not sure if this is in the right place so if necessary could someone put it right:o
    I am the mother of a child going to Uni in September 2012 and aside from all the issues with finance I know that I am going to have to get him a lot of other things like pots and pans etc. I thought we could start a thread advising each other of any bargains. Also any parents of currents students could advise of things they bought that either turned out to be really useful or a waste of time.
    To get the ball rolling. I went into B*S yesterday and they had an 80% off sale in the home section. I bought a two seasons duvet reduced from £55 to £16. Then I asked about a discount card I had which they didn't know how to work, so they asked if I was a student to which I said no but I am buying this for a student so they knocked another 20% off making it £13.20:D The quality looked O.K. and I thought this would be doubly useful as it covers all eventualities..hot/cold room and a spare duvet if friends come to visit. The uni he is hoping to go to has a shared kitchen and they advised not to buy lots of pots and pans as everyone brings them and for awhile they have 8 of everything, so my MIL is giving us a set of spare pans, so we won't have to fork out for them initially and we can suppliment them at a later date if need be.
    I am hoping by starting early on my purchases to get some bargains in the sales. Anyone else got any thoughts:money:

    I am watching this thread with interest as my son is going away to uni in September. I have started picking up some bits and bobs for him - mainly bed linen and kitchen stuff - when I see a bargain! I like the idea of the first aid kit that someone mentioned, I hadn't thought of that.

    Hopefully we can get this thread back on track to what the original poster was saying and not a debate on whether or not it is right for parents to help out their children - that is personal to each families choices and circumstances!
  • poet123
    poet123 Posts: 24,099 Forumite
    spadoosh wrote: »
    I love how deluded some parents are on here.

    Key points.

    Your child will be drunk a lot (especially in the first two weeks)
    Your child will spend money on alcohol
    Your child will say they bought a book that costs £60 (when they actualy borrowed it from the library)


    I never got any money off my parents whilst at uni, i worked part time earning £100 a week (sat & sun) and recieved my loan, i went out 4 times a week at least and had a car to run traveling 240 miles every weekend to work. I went with no savings and came out with a little overdraft. Getting hammered everynight can be done very easily.

    Do you really think parents don't know that? Or in some cases didn't even do it themselves. Every generation thinks they invented sex and drinking you know!!
  • Caroline_a
    Caroline_a Posts: 4,071 Forumite
    poet123 wrote: »
    To be honest I don't think that catered halls teaches them that much in the way of budgeting either. Much like living at home in fact where meals magically appear and don't need to be shopped for or cooked or budgeted for.

    Actually I totally disagree. Catered halls are a sort of halfway house where the student can concentrate on learning how to live away from home without the added pain of having to cook, etc. My daughter is a high-level athlete and felt it was worth the additional money to be able to use the time taken in cooking/cleaning up afterwards and shopping for her training time. There was plenty of time for that in consecutive years when she knew her way around the town and was familiar with the uni too.

    Additionally most unis won't allow any additional heating/cooking devices in their student houses, due to PAT testing and H & S. If you get them a TV they will need a licence too... but most students apart from the very lonely ones rarely watch tv.

    Spadoosh seems to know what she/he is talking about!
  • devildog
    devildog Posts: 1,222 Forumite
    Caroline_a wrote: »
    Actually I totally disagree. Catered halls are a sort of halfway house where the student can concentrate on learning how to live away from home without the added pain of having to cook, etc. My daughter is a high-level athlete and felt it was worth the additional money to be able to use the time taken in cooking/cleaning up afterwards and shopping for her training time. There was plenty of time for that in consecutive years when she knew her way around the town and was familiar with the uni too.

    Additionally most unis won't allow any additional heating/cooking devices in their student houses, due to PAT testing and H & S. If you get them a TV they will need a licence too... but most students apart from the very lonely ones rarely watch tv.

    Spadoosh seems to know what she/he is talking about!

    You may feel that it was worth the extra money to go catered but I have lost count of the number of times that I have heard of 'catered' students who stop going for the meals provided and cater for themselves due to the quality of the food provided-hardly money saving. As for the cleaning up afterwards, needless to say for many it simply doesn't happen and as for shopping they shop on line and get it delivered(for the majority it doesn't cost any more than getting a bus to the local supermarket)

    As for parent's being deluded, dream on. Believe it or not we were young once :) I totally expect them to get plastered during the first few weeks and to spend money on alcohol thereafter. I haven't had them say they bought books for x amount either. In fact I was told that the money I subbed them each month was too much and I could reduce it. If you show them respect they will treat you likewise(that has been my experience anyway)!!
  • wendall
    wendall Posts: 288 Forumite
    edited 11 April 2012 at 7:44AM
    My son started uni last Sept and the most used item in the first few weeks was the first aid box i had packed it with resolve (well the asda equivalent), proplus, paracetamol, also throat lozenges, cold and flu tablets (he got the freshers flu). He took a couple of boxes of beer for the first weeks which was a good idea for the parties that went on. The usual bedding, lamp, bin, printer, file for paperwork, pendrive, bath mat (he has an en-suite and the floor is tiled). The one thing i regret is the tv license i made sure he had one and said we would pay for it, but he has said this week that he never watches tv, he uses the tv for his xbox and watches stuff on iplayer.
    Jan lunch to work days 0/20
  • poet123
    poet123 Posts: 24,099 Forumite
    wendall wrote: »
    My son started uni last Sept and the most used item in the first few weeks was the first aid box i had packed it with resolve (well the asda equivalent), proplus, paracetamol, also throat lozenges, cold and flu tablets (he got the threshers flu). He took a couple of boxes of beer for the first weeks which was a good idea for the parties that went on. The usual bedding, lamp, bin, printer, file for paperwork, pendrive, bath mat (he has an en-suite and the floor is tiled). The one thing i regret is the tv license i made sure he had one and said we would pay for it, but he has said this week that he never watches tv, he uses the tv for his xbox and watches stuff on iplayer.

    He probably did, but I think you meant Freshers flu, very apt though:rotfl:
  • bouncydog1
    bouncydog1 Posts: 2,696
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    Forgot to suggest an additional supermarket single duvet to use as a mattress topper under the fitted sheet, as lots of the mattresses are very thin! Also useful for keeping warm in the winter because there is a limit to the central heating being on!
  • setmefree2
    setmefree2 Posts: 9,072
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    edited 11 April 2012 at 7:16AM
    Anubis wrote: »
    Hmmm....I am not sure how your daughters Finances have worked, but my son certainly could not blow his loan on rubbish!

    Our son's maintenance loan won't even cover the cheapest halls in his firm choice - and that's selecting the self-catered option. There's a vast difference between the basic maintenance grant of £3,500k and the full maintenance loan plus the full maintnance grant.



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    A lot of posters assume all students are equal - they are not.
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