Weekly budget advice needed

j-josie

Hi, my dd is hoping to go to uni this autumn. She will have a repayable maintenance loan of about £4000 and will need about £3100 of that to pay for accommodation fees. She will be getting practically no maintenance grant.

What I am wondering is, how much does a student need to live on per week to provide food (halls non catered), books, clothes, travelling home etc. Are there any students or parents out there who could give us some pointers as to how to draw up a reasonable budget?

I know I need to help support her financially but am unsure as to how much is needed.. Many thanks for any advice

melancholly

she has the whole summer to work and build up a buffer of money to take with her. then there are part time/holiday jobs as well. some students think they need £100 a week, while others get by on £20. i'd actively encourage you to support her in a very minimal way, so that she learns the value of money and how to budget. i'd also suggest that clothes are not a necessity (!) and that you shouldn't be covering those costs anyway! she will also be able to get a large interest free overdraft with a student account.

i'm not saying don't help her, but you don't need to be her main/only source of financial support. i think sending her off with a lump sum to help with fresher's week and buying books might be better for her to get financial independence and learn skills for the rest of her life than sending her a montly allowance.

Debt_Robot

j-josie,

Transport: Where does your daughter live? I think the National Rail Young Persons card is a dream come true. Some of the savings you can make are incredible on that card, especially if her uni is far away from yours.
National Express' funfares are also good when booked in advance (I have travelled from Bristol to London return for less than a fiver).

Food: I think this is one that varies and is hard to give an estimate. However, I would say £30 a week for food is plenty, especially if she can buy in bulk for the week. That is the budget I am giving myself at the moment.

Clothes: I agree with melancholly on this one. They are a luxury. If things get really tight, there is always Primark and Matalan. Perhaps she could buy clothes with wages she earns of she got a p/t job?

Books: One word: Library! Loads of books can be photocopied. There is Oxfam for second hand books. I would argue not more than £60, depending on what her degree is.

jdeez88

Hi, I'm in my 2nd year at uni now, and i know what its like to have to budget.
I've got a part time job at Asda, and am on a seasonal workers scheme, which allows me to come back and work in the uni holidays - I know Sainsburys does a similar scheme as well - perfect for students, so get hold of an application form.
I find the money I earn in holidays (~£500-£700) covers my social life and any non-essential purchases (clothes, dvds, games etc.). My parents have said they won't pay for my social life, which is fair enough, but will pay for my textbooks (medical textbooks can be rather expensive!). I also get £100/month from my Nan to cover food costs for the month.
Overall on average, I try and budget £70/week on going out, food, travel etc.
Hope this gives you some idea of costs!

j-josie

Thanks for your replies. She has a part time job at the mo but all monies at present are going on a trip to foreign parts and i'd like her to have that experience. When she gets back she will start to put money away for uni.
She will be quite far away from home so has opened a NatWest account to get the free rail card.
Tbh, I don't think she expects much re clothes - she has been brought up on charity shop & sales bargains - I wouldn't give her an allowance for that - I'd just make sure she had a good winter coat etc by buying it for her myself.
She does intend to get a part time job at uni but that may take a while and she doesn't want weekend work. She has certain health issues which mean she may want/need to come home more often than students normally do (tho of course she may love being away so much I never see her from one term to the other!)
I had thought of a fortnightly allowance simply because I didn't feel she should be any worse off than a student who received a maintenance loan and a maintenance grant - it's not her fault her parents are deemed to earn too much for her to have a decent sized maintenance grant (but believe me, there is no spare cash in our accounts!) . Therefore I guess do feel a responsibility to support her - do you see what I mean? And fortnightly to start with, going on to a monthly payment once she's got used to budgeting..
She's my eldest so i'm new to all this. I just want to do the right thing by her, without being either too harsh or too soft:o

Titch89

Does your daughter have a NUS card? it gives quite a few discounts.

A lot of how much she needs per week will depend on her. Some people may go out 4/5 nights a week and some may only go out once or whatever.

j-josie

I think the supermarket contract sounds a really good idea as it will combine work at home and work at uni. I will sell that to her as a very good plan of action..now all I need to worry about is will she actually remember to eat! She says she intends to get me to freeze loads of one portion home cooked meals ( and I expect I would still cook for 4 so she has a point there..) When she comes home she will take a big batch away with her - depends on whether she gets the uni which had big freezers in the halls, which I was really impressed with..

jackk_2

Hi there, it might be better if she had a weekly budget for the first couple of months. If she has a few budgeting issues to start with, it's always far more managable to be skint for 6 days, rather than 13 lol.

Jackie x

j-josie

I had originally thought about weekly, then thought that might be just too "controlling". So the fortnight seemed a reasonable compromise:o (Keep saying to myself: I must remember she is a young adult now. She needs to have some freedom to make some mistakes then learn from it.) She's a good kid and as long as she knows there's no problem so big that can't be shared with her mum & dad, I'm happy to release her into the big, bad world...

Surfbabe

DS has just finished 1st yr at Swansea. He has a Railcard and can get home to nth Essex in less than 5 hours foraround £13 !!!!! he gets no grants but has a full student loan which covers his accommodation. He managed to get in the OTC (university equivalent to TA) so is paid for that and we transfer £30 a week for living expenses. Anything else he needs he pays for for OTc money and savings.

j-josie

Thanks for that Surfbabe. It seems to me that £30 pw seems an average sort of figure so I will go with that. That's pretty much what I had guessed at but it's been good to get others' opinions on the subject.
Many thanks to all