How much money does a student need to live on?

Inneedofadviceplease

Thanks for your replies everyone. I've checked the accommodation costs and discovered that it could cost up to £6200 pa in catered halls, so obviously £6000 isn't too much!!! Also found some living costs on the student union website that will help.

I think I'll try and come to a final figure using everyone's input that includes mid range accommodation and a bit extra for books/socialising etc, but she'll definitely need to find a job if she wants to go clubbing every week!

It is time for her to understand the value of money, and despite being relatively well off there's no way we can afford to give her £6000 every year for accommodation so she can spend the remaining £3500 loan! How on earth do other parents do this?!

If the maximum loan plus grant doesn't even cover university accommodaton though, something is wrong with the system.

msmyth18

£50 Per week should be enough... let her pay for accomadation

kazmeister

Inneedofadviceplease wrote: »

If the maximum loan plus grant doesn't even cover university accommodaton though, something is wrong with the system.

Morning, I hope your daughter got her place confirmed, my son has his confirmed this morning and I agree with your statement above. I cannot afford to support my son through uni and his maintenance loan is about £700 short of his fees for the halls and thats without buying a book or putting food in his mouth clothes on his back etc, so yes he would have to get the job that I have been nagging him about for the last 2 years!

However luckily for him my ex husband has offered to pay his accomm fees leaving him with his maintenance loan as spending money. How he will learn that life is about hard work I will never know, and good luck to him in getting a job when he finishes, because as I can see any future employer will wonder why he has never had a job up until 21.

Anyway back to your point if he cant manage on the maintenance loan he will now have as spending money he will need a kick up the jacksy!

Good luck.

Surfbabe

Have one son just graduated and a daughter going into second year. Both of them had student loan but no grants. The loan covered their rent and nothing else - they have both had an allowance from us of between £35 and £45 a week which had to cover everything else - food, bills, books, phone, transport etc etc. Both had small part time jobs in the holidays to earn some extra cash. DS managed fine but has an OD of £1K - DD has alos managed her first year and stayed in credit but with a £200 OD.

Really depends where the University is as cost can vary enormously round the country and even in the same city the accommodation for 1st year students can vary from £75pw up to £120 pw (Nottingham). Second year accommodation doesn't seem to have quite the same range!

Good luck to her anyway!

JessikaSuddarth

It really depends on the your living style and what facilities you want but it can vary from £100pw up to £150 pw

crazy_saver22

my parents pay my accomodation and fees...
i then live on my loan which is 1,125 (or around that) a term (13 weeks)...that needs to be used for mobile phone bill, bills (now that i'm out of halls), swimming pool membership, food and everything else...so basically everything but my rent!!
over the past year i've spent a max of £30 on food...i refuse to eat readymeals, instant noodles etc...(i'm a diet and health student for 1!!) so i think i probs spend more than some others...but most of the time it's closer to £25 a week....

KaliMa

Hey,
I was at University from 2002-2005 and didn't get the full loan entitlement because of my parent's combined wage. I was told that they should have supplemented me £750 a year or something like that, but because of their financial position re: debts etc, they weren't able to.

I paid for my rent out of my loan, as did many other students I knew, when the installment came in I would take out the amount needed for rent for the months the installment was to cover and put it in a separate account and then budget the rest of the money for what I needed in that time. I then worked 2 or 3 waitressing/bar shifts a week for extra spending money for food, clothes, nights out, gigs etc. When my parents visited me they'd get in a big supermarket shop for me but that was it.

This taught me so much about budgeting and dealing with money. So many students I knew got drawn in by the credit card offers and racked up thousands of debt that they're still paying off. And quite a few others had their accomodation paid for by their parents and just spent their loan money on luxuries that I couldn't afford, which frustrated me - especially as they didn't need to get a job and so had more free time!

Anyway, I guess my message is that providing some help is welcomed (especially in the current financial situation), not enough and they might succumb to credit cards but too much and they'll never learn to be good with money. I had an awesome University experience and having to work didn't ruin that (working in a bar is almost like a University right of passage these days anyway).
Hope that helps

bassitt74

the problem with working for a bit of extra cash is that if you have a tutor who dishes out a lot of work and expects it done and handed in on time, then this can eat into time needed for working.

as for the extra cash you want to give, she may get caught up trying to keep up with her fellow students for the first 6 weeks while she tries to make new friends, some of which won't have such a caring parent who wants them to spend wisely (those students will burn through their student loans at warp speed!).

often spare money will go on booze and/or nights out while she gets established. best to send supermarket gift cards with say £20 on them each week so she knows that no matter what her costs are (books/ nights out/ research trips), she will always be able to eat. this alone will give both of you piece of mind.

InaPickle

I'm no longer sure whether or not my advice would be relevant as it is a while since I graduated, but I would seriously advise checking that she gets the best student account with the biggest/longest 0% overdraft, and talking her through the implications of her using it, and that she will have to pay it back eventually, which takes longer than most people realise.

Ultimately, most of it depends on how good she is at budgeting and location etc.

Best of luck, Inneedofadviceplease & DD!

Jack88_2

Wow! I wish I had that much support from my parents!!

2007/2008 Studying Diagnostic Radiography in Lancaster;
Was given a student loan of £2200, didn't even cover cost of my uni halls, had to take out £1,500 interest free overdraft so I could eat! - had no financial support from parents, had to leave university as I couldn't afford to continue my studies. Studying a demanding degree requiring lots of revision and most of my spare time spent on placement in hospital x-ray dept meant I couldn't get a job.

(I'm not complaining, I'd just like to aid people in how important financial support from parents is - if it is available)

After a year to plan how to get some debt off and deciding what to do with my life, this September i'm going into my second year of a Biomedical science degree in Cardiff. I budgeted my student loan to provide me with £60 per week, I live with my parents (fortunately rent free!!) and have to get up at 5.30am to make a 2 hour commute (from South wales valleys) to arrive on time for a 9am lecture (mainly due to the times trains run etc). (It'll all be worth it when im earning the big money!!!!!)

From my £60, £40 goes on trains and buses, leaving me with £20 to go out on the weekend, socialise, buy study materials etc. I am looking for a part time job, but there's just hardly any prospects in my area. In an ideal world I'd love a part time lab assistance job on the weekend to aid my studies!!

Anyway, this isn't me having a moan haha, I just wanted to share my story to help other students/parents worried about finance!!

Cheers,
Jack.