How much money does a student need to live on?

Carnaby_lamb

Your DD is lucky to have parents that can help.
Unfortunately students accom is overpriced by unis as they have the monopoly. So get them to get the cheapest if they want to live on the loan and grant. Last year, mine were at the cheaper end but were still 4200, so loan didnt even cover it.
I did get full 6k loan and grant but after accom the rest got me by at a nice standard of living, so long as i budgeted.
Only thing my mum paid for was train home at hols, as she knew i couldnt afford to come home otherwise.
Id suggest about 50 a week after halls, but vary it depending on whether it's catered, area, course and the jobs front.

Also check for the uni scholarship schemes, any decent uni has one, but it does vary. For me it went from 500 to 5k depending on where I chose.

Which uni is it btw?

amanda85

Inneedofadviceplease wrote: »

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.

I graduated a couple of years ago, and had no financial support from parents - just the full student loan of £3500ish, and my £1500 overdraft which I used fully. It is almost impossible to live off only a student loan! I didn't work term time, only during holidays but any extra money made a huge difference!!

In the winter term I would have about £200-£300 after rent for three months of food, bills etc. I chose digs that were cheap and cheerful, learnt to sew to save on clothing bills, went grocery shopping late at night when food is dramatically reduced and my friends and I concentrated on free entertainment such as card games or going to the beach.

While catered halls can make life a lot easier for a new student, some universities jack the prices up way too much - it's worth double checking the price difference between catered and uncatered to ensure that your daughter will be getting value for money. As for books, depending on the subject being studied, charity bookshops can be a goldmine, and buying second hand textbooks from other students through websites or the university can result in huge savings.

Titch88

I've been a student for 3 years and now going into my 4th year.

The maintenance loan I receive won't even cover my rent completely due to household income, and I haven't been living anywhere luxurious either. So I've had to raise money to cover the remainder of my rent and the bills too.

I've had part-time jobs the whole time I've been at university to cover my general living costs, however my parents have helped out by ordering me weekly food deliveries from Asda which is usually between £30-£40 of food.
This is better than a financial allowance as it guarantees that your child will be eating well rather than spending all the money you give them on booze and nights out. (Which is usually most nights of the week, especially in first year!)

I do plan my meals for each evening too so I have a set list of neccessary food items for really great but not too expensive meals.

Albeit, someone mentioned students being able to live off £1 a day with cheap supermarket goods...yes its possible but not if you want to spend most of your time with a bad stomach and painful digestive system!!:( I tried it in first year and it didn't do much for my health. Hence why my parents will spend more on me eating properly and getting the vitamins I need to study hard, work hard and play just the same when I want to.

luxor4t

We have two recent graduates (2006 & 2010) & one with a year to go. As you can see, for 2 years we've been supporting 2 students! Neither of them qualified for a grant, just the loan.

In each case we had to contribute as the loan did not cover anything more than accommodation - hall with 2 meals a day for first son (graduated 2006), ensuite room in purpose built flat for DD (graduated 2010) and shared flat for current student, near London.

We gave DS1 £200 per month during term time (in retrospect, we were too generous). DD & DS2 we paid £300 a month each as food, travel etc had to be met. DS2 saves from this toward his 12 month rent. We had to find £7,200 last year.

We see this as an investment in their future - our children's education is our luxury. DH & I have to live carefully, but don't smoke, rarely drink & holiday once a year which is paid for by my extra hours at work.

Entity_2

Hi,
Im a mature student and I have my fees paid by the NHS. I get a student loan of roughly £3300 a year and a bursary of roughly £3800 to live in London. I split it 12 monthly due to supporting myself as an independent student and thats about £550 all together a month for accommodation and living expenses. Split into 9 months if they come home during the summer is about £780 a month. Hope this helps!

traceyleigh

My daughter is going to uni this month for the first time. She is in receipt of full grant and loan and will get an extra £100 from me to help her out. We have worked out that after her rent is paid, which includes all electricity, gas, broadband she will have £83 per week to live on. Not a fortune but certainly more than a lot of people have after their bills are all paid.
In order to teach her the price of things I told her to go onto 'my supermarket' and put in her shopping as if ordering it to buy. This certainly taught her how expensive things are and she will certainly be buying 'smart price' food. Hope this helps it isn't easy.

mrcrazy04

I'm just about to start my 4th and final year. My housemate gets £200 from his parents which allows him to run his motorbike and he's barely used his overdraft. My parents are unable to afford to give me regular money, so the only time I do get money from them is in an emergency.
I do manage to live quite well, however have used my overdraft and do ad-hoc web design work. My student loan/grant is typically around £1500 per term.
My living costs are roughly as follows:
Rent (2 person house share): £250 per month
Food (excluding going out): £120 per month
Bus Fare (I live 3 miles from the university): £28 per month (paid termly)
Contents Insurance: £14 per month (I pay half the bills, my housemate pays the other half)
Telephone Line: £15 per month
Mobile Phone: £25 per month
Utilities: £40 per month (pre-pay meter, I pay £40 my housemate pays £40)

So that's roughly £500 per month. My housemate pays the broadband bill and we have a sky subscription (we worked out how much the bills would be each month and took responsibility for paying entire bills which came to about half the total).

Auryvf

Hi, I'm a student about to go into my third year.

I get barely any money off my parents - they buy my first load of food shopping every term and thats it.

Instead, luckily, I get the full student loan and grant which comes to ~£6k plus an extra £1k bursary from the university per year. I use this to pay for rent, bills, food and everything else.

As a science student, my course is almost 9 till 5 Monday to Friday with at least 2 bits of coursework per week so I have never had time for part time work and I admittedly have never worked during holidays either.

Even so, that £7k per year I've been getting has been more than enough and I currently have around £2500 in the bank saved up from whats been left over from the loan and everything from the past two years.

So really £6k per year is easily enough and if your daughter has time to work part time she won't even need that much.

Note
First year rent in halls (including bills) = £81 pw
Second year rent in a shared house in Brighton = £90 pw + £30 pm bills
Next years rent in a shared house in Brighton will be = £72 pw + £10 pm bills

mrcrazy04

In my previous post I forgot to include the cost of travelling between home and university for holidays.
The cost of that is typically £75 each term (one journey to uni and one journey home) with my railcard.
The £75 gets me advance first class tickets so I get tea, coffee, water and snacks as well as free wifi so I can do coursework on the train. I could do it for less if I bought standard class advance tickets, however I think the benefits outweight the cost especially as it's a 6 hour journey!

Kimberley

My daughter is planning on starting University next year and if the Uni is in London she will still be living with me so could someone give me a hint of what i should charge her for rent considering that I will lose my Child benefit, child maintenance and Child tax credits for her. Also will the loan she takes out cover her for her rent to me or does the loans not cover rent or expenses etc for those living with their parents?