How much money does a student need to live on?

Inneedofadviceplease

Would really appreciate some help please working out how much parental contribution we need to make to our daughter's living costs at university. I'm talking about just living costs, not tuition fees, trying to work out how much to supplement the maintenance loan by (doesn't qualify for the maintenance grant). Living away from home, not in London.

When I was a student there was a maximum grant figure (which was supposed to represent the cost of being a student if you had no parental support). My parents contributed the difference between the grant I received and the maximum grant - so in total I received the maximum grant figure as income each year. I can't see a similar figure anymore though unfortunately which is what I was looking for really.

I tried adding together the maximum maintenance grant (2906) and maintenance loan (4950) less the bit they take back if you qualify for maximum grant (1792) making a total of £6064 pa to live on. Does this sound right - seems high to me? Is part of this money aimed at tuition fees not just maintenance?

If this figure sounds reasonable, it would leave us needing to pay £2500 pa (after deducting the maintenance loan (3564)).

I've heard a lot of parents pay the accomodation costs and expect their kids to pay the rest, but I feel my daughter needs to understand that if she picks the ensuite luxury accomodation something else has to be cut back on, so I don't really want to take that route!

Any thoughts, from parents or students, gratefully received - thanks.

Lokolo

I get accomondation paid for, plus £200 a month spending money. This is more than enough. I still took out a loan and now have amassed quite a bit of savings.

Does her loan cover her accomondation? Depending where she is at, it might or it might not. I think this is what you should base it on.

Personally if her loan covers her accomondation I would give her £100-200 a month. Which is more than enough. If you want her to get a part time job and summer job I would give her a little less.

However, saying all this, no matter how much you give her, she still might spend it all on booze, get overdrafts and spend all that, and still get into debt. It depends on the person.

MrsManda

None of the figures you mentioned have anything to do with tuition fees, the loan for that is separate.
Students generally can live on their loans supplemented by PT work if they want more home comforts. The cost of accommodation/living expenses change depending on where you are student, not just whether it's London or not.
Get your daughter to have a look on her university's website as it should have a guide to how much things cost in that area and a rough figure of how much you'll need per week.
E.g. UCL suggests £220 per week for a 37 week year for all living costs whereas Salford suggests £179 per week.

9217niall

Firstly, welcome to MSE!
I know it might be irrelevant but I'll say it anyway, some students have been living off of a pound a day at university. There are threads on "the student room" but I can't find it right now.
For example there are cheap foods like pasta at Sainsbury's Basics level, a jar of curry sauce is 9p now. Some supermarkets do noodles for 9p too so you don't have to spend the earth. I'm sure someone will be along soon to help you out better than I can.
Getting a job is a good idea also, but make sure she gets the work/uni/social balance right.

scottishblondie

The way I read it you you want her to learn a bit about the value of money and not give her too much money - probably a good plant! As you say, if she wants the "luxury" accomodation she should be aware that it costs more.

I'd suggest you take the price of the accommodation that you would feel comfortable with her living in, then add onto that what you feel an appropriate amount for her to live on during term time would be. I'd say £100-£200 a month is sufficient, although if her course is one that requires her to buy expensive textbooks you should probably factor that in too. Then you can tell her that's how much she's getting, so she should choose wisely how she wants to spend it.

Just for reference, when I started uni in 2003 my parents were going to give me (as far as I remember) £200 a month during term time, nothing over the holidays. I was going to live at home, so that was to cover travel expenses, clothes etc and fun.

kayels2

I got a loan under the previous system when it was just one loan & that was £5000ish a year, so £6000 would be about right.

Some people are lucky to have a lot paid for by their parents and if you can afford to can see why parents do that. But to be honest some of the people I know who's parents did that have come out of the otherside of uni with no idea about money or budgeting, they think their parents are always going to bail them out.

I'm sure that all depends on the people, but personally I would say top up her money to the £6000 & let her learn to budget. Perhaps keep a little bit spare to one side (without your daughter knowing) and if she gets in real trouble & can't get a job then you can help her out?

ThinkingOfLinking

Well, I'm receiving no financial help from family and as it stands (til they reassess me on income) am only getting the minimum loan which doesn't cover my accommodation. I'll be working, and at the moment that income is £69 a week, but looking to get more hours once I know my timetable in September. I need to buy software, books and stationary for my course as essentials, and of course pay for the internet, my mobile, clothes, food, toiletries, travel and non-prescription medication (I'll be getting a HC2 certificate to exempt me from paying NHS costs due to low income).

lucylollipop

It kinda depends on where she's going to be living, and what's included - for example, if she's a first year, and going straight into halls, this will probably include all of her bills and internet usage. The only things she'll need to pay for on top of that will her mobile, food shopping, uni supplies, TV licence (check with the uni's accomodation services about that!), and some cash for socialising. £200 a month should be more than enough to do all of that, and probably leave her a little left over too.

When I did my BA, I was lucky enough to qualify as an independant student, and got the full loan and grant amount. To leave me enough to live on and run my car, my parents used to buy me my TV licence (I got great Christmas presents ), and also paid my phone bill - mainly because it was them that wanted me to go onto a contract phone, no excuse not to call then! I was probably spending £20-25 a week on food shopping, and maybe £10 on going out, so was easily getting by on £150 a month. Guess it all depends on your daughter!

A job is a good idea, but I wouldn't recommend relying on it too much - some courses just don't leave enough time for a job as well (I was expected to be at uni M-F 9-5, and 2 evenings a week, as well as having course work that we were expected to do in our own time), and depending on the size of the city/town/campus there may not be enough jobs locally anyway.

minerva_windsong

Probably depends on the area, the course (will she need any specialist equipment?) and what her maintenance loan will cover. When I was at uni in York my maintenance loan paid for my accomodation and then I got £70 a week (rising to £100 when I moved into a shared house as I had to cover bills) from my parents to pay for food, travel to my internship, going out and any other bits and bobs I needed/wanted. But obviously that could vary wildly depending on circumstances.

Re: getting a job, if she wants to then fine (although equally you shouldn't feel like you have to pay her way - I know I was very lucky that my parents took the view that my degree was my job, and not everyone's parents are able to afford to support their children through uni), and if not also fine, but I agree that the uni expect your degree to be your full-time job and that some unis won't let you work in term, or at least actively discourage it. Even on the arts courses, where there was relatively little teaching time, we were still expected to 'work' a 40-hour week doing things like reading for seminars, researching and writing essays, preparing presentations etc.

If she does want to work though I'd go through the uni jobs service first and try to get work on campus before looking elsewhere as they are normally better about flexible workloads, but the flip side of that is they are the really popular jobs and there is serious competition for them.

Indie_Kid

kayels2 wrote: »

Some people are lucky to have a lot paid for by their parents and if you can afford to can see why parents do that. But to be honest some of the people I know who's parents did that have come out of the otherside of uni with no idea about money or budgeting, they think their parents are always going to bail them out.

I lived with a few people wo were like this. They would spend £100 on a night out and whinge they didn't have enough money for food.

(I'll be getting a HC2 certificate to exempt me from paying NHS costs due to low income).

Which you'll probably only get if you're on he non-income assessed loan.

pollys

My neice will be starting her 2nd year this september, she has lived in halls this year. As (hopefully) our DD will be going to uni in September I have asked her how much she lives on each week. She says that £45-£50 is about right but the first few weeks she spent loads more than this then reality set in. This is for food, nights out, toiletries, laundry etc. Her parents do send her to uni with a big food parcel though of all the basics rice, pasta, cereals, beans, spaghetti, soup etc.

Pollys x